Verbal Nouns; Ways of Expressing Purpose in Latin

Verbal Nouns in Latin

Verbal Nouns: Gerunds, Supines, Infinitives. Latin has three forms of verb noun – that is a noun which names an action – whereas English has two (the infinitive and the gerund). [The gerund is the form in -ing, as in the phrase “a fear of flying” or “She likes swimming”; the infinitive in English may or may not have ‘to’: “To see is to believe”; as opposed to the complements of the modal verbs (‘will’, ‘may’, ‘should’, etc.), which are properly infinitives.] Note that all of these Latin verbal nouns are neuter and singular.

In Latin the infinitive serves as the verbal noun in the nominative and (sometimes, as the object infinitive) in the accusative cases. The gerund is used in the all cases except the nominative. The supine is used in the accusative (after verbs denoting motion) and in the ablative. The ablative of the supine is restricted to use as an ablative of specification modifying adjectives, and is generally reserved for the supine of verbs denoting physical perception: mīrābile dictū, “a wonderful thing to say”; horribile vīsū, “a horrifying thing to see”.

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The Gerund and the Gerundive. Note that adjectives in -ndus, -a, -um may be one of four things:

(a) Simple descriptive adjectives, such as rotundus, secundus, etc.

(b) Future passive participles: capiendus, “about to be captured”

(c) The future passive participle used in the passive periphrastic construction expressing obligation:

(d) The gerundive:

Of these (b) and (c) are essentially the same thing, since the future passive participle is used in the passive perphrastic construction; the gerundive (d), however, is the adjective of the gerund and is quite distinct from the future passive particple. We have no equivalent in English; it is generally to be translated as a gerund.

Verbal Nouns in English

English Verbal Nouns: Gerunds and Infinitives. In English, verbal nouns are of two sorts, gerunds and infinitives.

The Gerund. The gerund is a verbal noun formed from the present stem of the verb by adding the suffix -ing: “to fly” > “flying”, “to sing” > “singing”, “to be” > “being”. The gerund names the action of the verb, and as a noun it may stand as the subject of a sentence, the direct object of the verb or the object of a preposition. Subject: “Seeing is believing”; direct object: “I like eating ice cream”; object of a preposition: “These boxes are ready for shipping”. As a verbal noun, the gerund can take all the same modifiers as its verb: direct object – “It was very nice meeting you”; adverb – “She was tired because of staying up all night”; prepositional phrases – “She was afraid of thinking about it”. In prescriptive grammar, the pronominal form to be used with the gerund is the possessive: “She was upset by his leaving” rather than “… by him leaving”. The latter construction is known as the fused participle.

The Infinitive. The infinitive is a verbal noun, naming the action of the verb. Idiom determines whether the gerund or the infinitive is the appropriate verbal noun to be used in any given context. Sometimes they may be used interchangeably: “Seeing is believing” = “To see is to believe”. The infinitive in English has two forms, the simple infinitive, without “to”, and the inflected infinitive, with “to”: “I am able to see”; “I can see”. As a verbal form, the infinitive has voice and aspect: active – “to see”; passive – “to be seen”; simple aspect: “to see”; perfect aspect – “to have seen”; perfect progressive aspect: “to have been seeing”. Note that the infinitive takes the same constructions as its verb: “They offered to help us” (+ direct object); “She wants you to speak more slowly” (+ adverb), etc.

Adjectival Use of the Infinitive. The infinitive may be attached to a noun to serve as an adjectival phrase: “a man to watch”, “something to believe in”.

Complementary Infinitive. The infinitive may be used as an adverbial to complement verbs and adjectives. Both simple and inflected forms are used, according to established usage: “able to see”, “can see”, “must see”, “will see”, “ought to see”, etc.

Infinitive Expressing Purpose. The infinitive may modify a verb or verb phrase to express purpose, tendency or inclination: “They ran to catch the ball”; “We are doing this to help you”, etc. (Note that this is an adverbial function.)

Infinitive Expressing Result. The infinitive, often introduced by “as” or “so as”, may imply the natural result of an action or situation: “He ran so slowly as to be overtaken by his pursuers”; “There were too many of them to repulse”. (Note that this is an adverbial function.)

Object Infinitive. In addition to serving as the subject of sentences, the infinitive may be used as the direct object of certain transitive verbs. Examples: “They want to come with us”; “I would like to help you”, etc.

Ways of Expressing Purpose in Latin

Note that purpose may be expressed in a number of ways:

(a) A final adverbial clause in ut or nē:

(b) A gerund with prepositions, generally after verbs implying motion:

(c) A gerundive phrase with verbs implying motion:

(d) A supine without a preposition after verbs of motion:

(e) A final relative clause after verbs of motion:

(f) A future active participle after verbs of motion:

(h) A gerund with causā or grātiā:

(i) A gerundive phrase with causā or grātiā: