I was in Latin class today and it was pointed out that VIDEOR takes a nominative complement in a similar way to SUM - I am - ESSE to be..
I am wondering if there is a list anywhere of the Latin verbs that take a nominative complement.
I’m grateful for any pointers here - I knew there were a few Greek Verbs like that, but didnt realise it extended into Latin.
I don’t understand the question.
when To Be is used, the noun which would be seen as following the verb in english word order remains in the Nominative Case.
My Greek teacher informed me of a short list of extra verbs where the “noun after the verb” also remains in the nominative complement.
Today, with a deponent verb I asked my Latin teacher why both “sides” of the sentence in the text were in the nominative. She said a few latin verbs are like that and act a bit like ESSE in that regard “to seem to be” for instance with Videor … and now I’m doubting everything I just wrote.
Think the book has introduced us to the passive unannounced, as this seems not to be listed as a deponent verb in the back of the book.. teacher was telling us that video videor was the only verb in latin that has an active and deponent form…
now I think I’ve got myself thoroughly confused…
phoebe, maybe this will help:
Predicate Nominative (predicate noun): The nominative case used in the predicate of copular verbs: ‘ego sum bonus’: ‘I am good’.
(1) BEFORE/AFTER THE COPULA:
• ‘in librō meō erunt omnia facta hominum’ (Juvenal, Ch. W16): ‘in my book will be all the facts of men’. In this case, ‘omnia’ is the adjective modifying ‘facta’, and in English both noun and ajective come after the copula.
• ‘est turba poētārum in hāc urbe’ (Juvenal, Ch. W16): ‘A crowd of poets is in this city’. In this case, ‘turba’ is the noun modifying the noun ‘poētārum’, and in English both noun and adjective come before the copula.
◦ However, the Latin has the copula before the nouns. Remember, word order in the original does not matter.
(5) PASSIVE, NON (EXPRESSED) ‘ESSE’ COPULAS:
‘Other verbs which take a predicate noun or adjective are the so-called copulative verbs signifying to become, to be made [‘factus sum’ etc.], to be named [‘appellātur’ etc.], to appear [‘videor’ etc.], and the like’ (A&G p. 163 §283 par.3). In other words, all are passive verbs with an implied ‘esse’; in some the ‘esse’ would be of extreme redundance [‘factus est esse’]:
• ‘Lāocoōn, sacerdōs Neptūnī fortūna factus [esse]’: ‘Laocoon, having been made [to be] priest of Neptune by fortune’ (p. W168 ‘Death of Laocoon’ sentence 2). The subject of ‘factus’ is ‘Lāocoōn’, and ‘sacerdōs’ is a predicate nominative. Also, this can be seen as ‘Lāocoōn, sacerdōs Neptūnī, fortunā factus’: ‘Laocoon, the priest of Neptune [appositive ‘priest’ with ‘Laocoon’], made [the subject of ‘made’ is ‘priest’] by fortune’
• ‘omnia genera servitūtis nōbīs videntur [esse] aspera’: ‘All forms of slavery appear [to be] harsh to us’. Here ‘vidērī’ is a copula (G&L p. 145 §§205-206, especially 206); it is used as ‘appear’ or ‘seem’, and ‘aspera’ is appositive with ‘genera’. It is not a direct object, but a predicate nominative, as with ‘sum’.
• ‘dux, ad senātum missus, imperium accēpit et imperātor [esse] factus est’: ‘The leader, having been sent to the senate, accepted power and was made [to be] imperor’ (p. W167 P&R 8 ).
forgive the inaneness assumed in the reader; this was primarily intended for myself.
fio, fieri is another obvious example of a copulative verb. Besides that and sum, esse, I believe the rest are just passives (fieri could fit into that category as well).
I think the answer is simply that Latin does not have a strict word order, but shows the relationship between nouns and adjectives by case, rather than relative position.
Many thanks for this nostos and benissimus!
I hate it when I cant get a straight answer from the books at my disposal - and web browsing was proving elusively irritating.
Thanks again!