Dear friends,
it' s been a lot of time since my last contribution to our lovely fellowship...
At first I would like to apologize to all of you for my very long text, and I hope that I do not violate any of forum's rules.
My request, as I feel, will be of interest perhaps of a minority of fellows, quite experienced in Latin Language or perhaps even Latin teachers . But I ask the opinion of anyone able to help me on this:
Having studied Linguistics and teaching Latin for over 10 years, I have come to the conclusion that in indirect discourse, all past tenses of the indicative are represented by the perfent infinitive. The above statement can also be found (among other sources) in the following Latin Grammar works:
1. E. C. Woodcock, "A New Latin Syntax", page 20, § 30.
“The rule for converting these into O.O (=Oratio Obliqua) is as follows:
[...]
scripsi, scribebam, scripseram epistulam -> Dicit, dixit, dicet se epistulam scripsisse.
[...]
And page 21, § 31
“I will be observed from the scheme given in the previous section that the perfect infinitive has to represent all the four kinds of past tense of the finite verb. Latin has no special infinitive form to express continuous action in the past, like the English ‘to have been writing’, and until late times, when quod-clauses became serious rivals of the accusative and infinitive construction in O.O, there was nothing better than dicit se scripsisse to represent ‘he says that he was writing’. But scripsisse tells us only that the writing took place before the time of speaking; it does not, like ‘was writing’ express clearly the idea of incomplete or progressive action in the past.”
2. Allen-Greenough, "New Latin Grammar", § 534: http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/tex ... section=12
Tenses of the Infinitive in Indirect Discourse
584. [...]
cadēbam, I was falling; cecidī, I fell, have fallen; cecideram, I had fallen.
dīcit sē cecidisse, he says he was falling, fell, has fallen, had fallen.
dīxit sē cecidisse, he said he fell, had fallen.
[...]
a. All varieties of past time are usually expressed in Indirect Discourse by the Perfect Infinitive, which may stand for the Imperfect, the Perfect, or the Pluperfect Indicative of the Direct.
Note.--Continued or repeated action in past time is sometimes expressed by the Present Infinitive, which in such cases stands for the Imperfect Indicative of the Direct Discourse and is often called the Imperfect Infinitive.
This is the regular construction after meminī when referring to a matter of actual experience or observation: as,tē meminī haec dīcere, I remember your saying this (that you said this). [Direct: dīxistī or dīcēbās .]”
3. Gildersleeve-Lodge, "Latin Grammar" page 333, § 530
“After verbs of saying, showing, believing, perceiving and the like,
[...]
The perfect infinitive expresses prior action
[...]
Remark. — The action which is completed with regard to the leading verb may be in itself a continued action. So in English: ‘I have been studying, I had been studying’. Hence, the Imperfect Indicative (I was studying) is represented in this dependent form by the Perfect Infinitive, because it is prior to the leading verb.
[...]
Prior Action.
Present Tense: Dicit te errasse = He says, that you have gone wrong, that you went wrong, that you
have been going wrong,
Historical Tense: Dicebat te errasse = He was saying, that you had gone wrong, that you went wrong, that you had been {that people had been going wrong.”
[...]
To be continued...
Sometimes I can unerstand using google's translation programm.
. Right now I'm totally into exams, but I hope I'll find a moment to scan it.
