Doubly periphrastic future (please help!)

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nostos
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Doubly periphrastic future (please help!)

Post by nostos »

In indirect statement, how do you create a passive periphrastic yet to come?

For instance:

sentiunt arcem militibus defendendam futuram esse (???)

It seems strange to have 2 participles one after the other performing the same function: the construction becomes doubly periphrastic and I'm assuming it's wrong, it just doesn't accord with my sense of the way Latin does things.

But how else could you say (it's a stupid example but hey) 'they feel that the citadel will have to (must needs!) be defended by the soldiers'? Or do you just not say it, just rephrasing some how?

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Lucus Eques
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Post by Lucus Eques »

Just as an aside, since you brought it up, in Middle English (as well as our modern variety) "needs" is an adverb, meaning "necessarily."

You chose a difficult phrase for a translation! I'd say, Sentiunt arcem a militibus defensam iri debituram esse, but somehow that feels just as awkward. Using the gerundive, this is my train of thought:

arx defendendam est
puto arcem defendendam esse
puto arcem defendendam fore

meaning that your original translation, logically, seems to be all right (though I'd definitely opt for "fore" to limit the number of verb-forms). I really haven't come across such a phrase yet in my studies, so I can't tell for certain.


By the way, I've been meaning to compliment your SPQR avatar; very nice. Where is it from?
L. Amādeus Rāniērius · Λ. Θεόφιλος Ῥᾱνιήριος 🦂

SCORPIO·MARTIANVS

nostos
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Post by nostos »

Thank you, Luce, for both the compliment and the explanation.

The avatar comes from http://remacle.org/bloodwolf/historiens ... s/Spqr.jpg (a French site); I just did a google search and found quite a few of them which I saved on my computer. This I thought was the most elegant. I also really like the way SPQR sounds, at least in how modernity has reconstructed it.

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