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Subjunctive as Sign of Grammatical Subordination. In indirect questions and in subordinate clauses cited in indirect statement the subjunctive mood serves as a marker of grammmatical subordination. For the purposes, a preterite (‘past tense’) form of the indicative will be represented in these contexts by a subjective derived from the perfect stem; a present indicative will be represented by a present-stem subjunctive; and future tenses will be represented by ‘periphrastic future’ subjunctives. The latter are formed from future participles plus the appropriate subjunctive of the verb sum. By this principle, in converting the indicative into a subjunctive, the precision of tense becomes lost, since the subjunctive can only represent verbal aspect. In primary sequence, the perfect subjunctive may represent imperfect, perfect or pluperfect indicative, for example. (The use of adverbs will often clarify an ambiguity.) In this system, the present-stem subjunctive represents action that is contemporaneous with that of the principal verb; a perfect-stem subjunctive represents action that is anterior to that of the principal verb; and ‘future’ subjunctives show action that is subsequent to that of the main verb.
Latin verbs have two subjunctives formed from the present stem, and two formed from the perfect stem – one to be used in primary sequence, and the other to be used in secondary sequence. The schema has the following structure:
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ORIGINAL QUESTION SUBORDINATEDPRIMARY: quid facit? rogās quid faciat. ‘What is he doing?’ ‘You ask what he is doing.’ (present indicative) (present subjunctive) quid faciēbat? rogās quid fēcerit. ‘What was he doing?’ ‘You ask what he did/was doing.’ (imperfect indicative) (perfect subjunctive)
quid umquam fēcit? rogās quid umquam fēcerit. ‘What has he ever done?’ ‘You ask what he has ever done.’ (present perfect indicative) (perfect subjunctive)
quid faciet? rogās quid factūrus sit. ‘What will he do?’ ‘You ask what will he do.’ (present perfect indicative) (‘future’ subjunctive)
quid fēcerit? hodiē incertum est quid crās factūrus fuerit.‘What will he have done?’ ‘Today it is uncertain what he would have done tomorrow.’ (future perfect indicative) (‘future perfect’ subjunctive)
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SECONDARY: quid facit? rogābās quid faceret. ‘What is he doing?’ ‘You ask what he is doing.’ (present indicative) (imperfect subjunctive) quid faciēbat? rogāvistī quid fēcisset. ‘What was he doing?’ ‘You ask what he had done.’ (imperfect indicative) (‘pluperfect’ subjunctive)
quid umquam fēcit? rogās quid umquam fēcisset. ‘What has he ever done?’ ‘You ask what he has ever done.’ (present perfect indicative) (‘pluperfect’ subjunctive)
quid faciet? rogās quid factūrus esset. ‘What will he do?’ ‘You ask what will he do.’ (future indicative) (secondary ‘future’ subjunctive)
quid fēcerit? tum incertum erat quid postrīdiē factūrus fuisset. ‘What will he have done?’ ‘It was uncertain then whathe would actually do onthe morrow.’ (future perfect indicative) (secondary ‘future perfect’ subjunctive)
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