Grammar

PARTÉS ÓRÁTIÓNIS

Grammatical analysis, based on the study of morphology (the form of words), syntax
(their function) and semantics (their meaning), allows us to classify all the words in a
language into several categories known as parts of speech. English has nine parts of
speech: verb, noun (also called substantive, or more properly substantive noun),
adjective (more properly adjective noun), pronoun, article, adverb, preposition,
conjunction and interjection. Latin has only eight, as there is no article.

From the point of view of morphology, the parts of speech are divided into variable and
invariable, because some of them can undergo different formal changes and others
remain always unchanged.

Déclínábilés, declinables (variable)

articulus, article.

1. (nómen) substantívum, (substantive) noun.

2. (nómen) adjectívum, adjective (noun).

3. prónómen, pronoun.

4. verbum, verb.

Indéclínábilés, indeclinables (invariable)

5. adverbium, adverb.

6. præpositió, preposition.

7. conjúnctió, conjunction.

8. interjectió, interjection.

The verb is formally the most complex part of speech as it is subject to the most
changes, but it is also the easiest to identify for the very same reason. Regarding their
meaning, verbs serve to indicate action, state or condition, and they are easy to tell apart
because they change their form in order to express, among other things, the present or
past time of the action, state or condition referred to. A word like go, for instance, is a
verb and it can take the form went to refer to the past, or appear in other forms like goes
or going or gone. In their more neutral form, verbs in English are preceded by the word
to, as in to go, which also makes them easy to identify. This neutral form is called the
infinitive. Most verbs follow regular patterns, like to play, which can change into plays,
played and playing only, or to love, that changes into loves, loved and loving; whereas
others are more irregular, like to be, which changes into am or is or are, was or been
and being. Latin verbs can adopt many more forms than their English counterparts.
The noun, also called substantive, is the second most important part of speech.
Regarding meaning, a noun serves to name the things or ideas that perform or undergo
the actions, states or conditions referred to by verbs, and they are easy to identify in
English because they change their form according to whether one or more than one is
meant. A word like child, for instance, is a noun and it takes the form children to
indicate many of them. Most nouns just take an s to express this, like table and tables;
but there are some irregular ones, as child above, or foot that becomes feet. Nouns can
take an article, a part of speech which doesn’t exist in Latin, and which is only one of
three words: the and a / an.

In English, the same word can often serve as a verb or as a noun, depending on context,
and so we have a book, but also to book, or a man, but also to man; as a noun we can
have a book or two books, as a verb I book or he books or I booked or I’m booking or
it’s booked, we can have a man or two men, or I man, he mans, I manned, I’m manning,
it’s manned. In Latin, verbs and nouns are easier to tell apart, but nouns can change in
many more ways than in English too.

Syntax: Nouns and verbs are put together to form the simplest of sentences. The normal
function of a noun is thus to be the subject of the verb, which in English normally
comes before the verb, whereas the verb is said to function as predicate. So with a noun
like cats and a verb like eat, we can form the sentence cats eat, where the noun cats is
said to perform the function of subject of the sentence, and eat is the predicate. A noun
can also perform the function of object of a sentence. The object will normally follow
the verb in English, as in cats eat mice, where the noun mice is the object of the
sentence. Of course we can attach articles to these nouns in English (not in Latin) or
change the form of the noun and the verb to bild up more varied sentences like cats eat
mice or the cat eats a mouse, or the cat ate the mice, or the cat will eat mice.

A third part of speech we can now introduce is the pronoun. A pronoun is a word that
can substitute a noun that has been mentioned before or is otherwise understood in the
context and it would be cumbersome to repeat again. As in cats eat mice, they love
them, where they has been used not to repeat cats, and them not to repeat mice; or cats
eat mice, mine love them, where mine again refers to cats. There are many types of
pronouns, both in English and Latin, the most important ones are personal pronouns (I,
me; he, him; she, her; it; we, us; you; they, them), possessive pronouns (mine, his, hers,
its, ours, yours, theirs) and demonstrative pronouns (this, these; that, those), among
many others.

Syntax: Pronouns are substitutes for nouns, so they can perform the same functions as
nouns in the sentence, mainly subject or object. In they love them, the pronoun they is
the subject and them is the object.

The adjective is a fourth part of speech. It is changeable in Latin, but unchangeable in

English. Adjectives express mainly qualities and are used to complement nouns, so as to
make our simplest model sentences above that bit richer in meaning, as when we say
clever cats love fat mice, where clever and fat are adjectives.

Syntax: Adjectives perform two main functions in sentences, for they can be attributive,
if they complement the noun directly, as in clever cats love fat mice, but also
predicative, if they do so through a verb, as in cats are clever or mice look fat. We now
learn therefore that a verb can be followed not only by an object (e.gr.: mice in cats
watch mice), as seen above, but also by a predicative complement (e.gr. nice in cats
look nice). It will be important to distinguish these two cases because the grammatical
form of the predicative complement is quite different in Latin from that of a proper
object.

The adverb is an unchangeable word that expresses manner (e.gr.: quickly in come
quickly), place (e.gr.: here in come here) or time (e.gr.: now in come now). Most
adverbs of manner in English are formed by attaching the ending –ly to an adjective.

Syntax: Adverbs normally express the manner, place or time of the action, state or
condition conveyed by the verb, whence their name (e.gr.: quickly in cats eat quickly),
but an adverb can also complement an adjective (e.gr.: very in the tower is very high) or
another adverb (e.gr.: very in the room was very quickly painted).

We have now seen the main components of a model sentence. It has a verb as its
nucleus, which usually has a noun as a subject and can also take a noun as an object, or
it can take a predicative adjective. The noun, whether subject or object, can further be
complemented by articles (not in Latin) and attributive adjectives, and if necessary
substituted by pronouns. The verb in turn can be further complemented by adverbs.
Adverbs can also complement adjectives or other adverbs. This is an example of all of
these resources put together in a sentence:

They set an extremely dangerous tiger free very carelessly here yesterday.

(pronoun+verb+article+adverb+adjective+noun+adjective+adverb+adverb+adverb+adv
erb)

Although all these combinations should allow us a great number of possibilities of

expression, they are still in fact quite simple, and certainly not enough for the complex
human mind.

The first thing we can do to expand these resources is to make words function in ways
they were not originally meant to:

So, for instance, we can make a verb work as a noun, and instead of I like the sea, where
the object of the verb to like is the noun sea, as expected, we can say I like swimming or
I like to swim, where the object of the verb to like is another verb, to swim! We can also
use a verb as an adjective, as in I saw a smiling girl, where a form of the verb to smile is
serving as an adjective (instead of say I saw a happy girl), or as an adverb, as in I went
running, where the verb to run is serving as an adverb of manner (instead of say I went
quickly).

We can have a noun serving as an adjective, as in I have a philosophy class, where the
noun philosophy is used as an attributive adjective to qualify another noun! We can also
have a noun serving as a predicative adjective, as in He is a model (instead of say He is
exemplary).

We can have an adjective serving as a noun, as in The rich drink champagne, where the
adjective rich is used as a noun and functions as subject of the sentence.
Sometimes these swaps of function cannot be readily made, and we need the aid of
another class of words, an unchangeable part of speech called prepositions. Their only
function is to allow us to use nouns as adverbs, so that they can complement verbs not
as subjects of objects, but expressing manner, place or time, as an adverb would do. For
instance, when an adverb of place like there is not enough in a sentence like He reads
there, we can express the circumstance of place with a noun like park or train or school,
etc. thanks to prepositions like in or on or at, etc. as in He reads in the park or He reads
on the train or He reads at school.

Another class of words that allow us to enlarge our expressive resources are
conjunctions, also unchangeable. These are of two types. Some of them allow us to join
parts together and are called coordinative, as in I like bread and cheese, where and
joins two nouns functioning as objects of to like, or in I like bread and you like cheese,
where and joins two full sentences. Other conjunctions are called subordinative and
allow us to make full sentences perform the functions described above for single words
(i.e. subject, object, etc.), as the word that in He believes that cats have many lives,
where cats have many lives is a full sentence, but also the object of the verb to believe
(as the noun story in He believes a story).

Finally there are some special pronouns and adverbs, called relative pronouns and
relative adverbs that also behave as subordinative conjunctions. A relative pronoun is a
pronoun inasmuch as it stands in for a noun, as when we replace the noun book in the
sentence the book is on the table and say what is on the table; but the pronoun what can
also act as a subordinative conjuntion since it allows us to use that sentence within
another to perform the functions described above for single words (i.e. subject, object,
etc.), as in I want what is on the table, where what is on the table is a full clause, but
also the object of the verb to want (as the noun book in I want the book). Similarly, a
relative adverb is an adverb inasmuch as it expresses the manner, place, or time of the
verb, even if it does so as an unknown, as the word when in when the train arrives, but
it also acts as a subordinative conjunction since it allows us to use that sentence within
another to perform the functions described above for single words (i.e. subject, object,
etc.), as in I know when the train arrives, where when the train arrives is a full clause,
but also the object of the verb to know (as the noun time in I know the time).

ACCIDENTIA VERBÓRUM ET CONCORDANTIA

The parts of speech we have identified above as variable change according to some
categories in what is known as accidence. The accidence of words changes depending
on the accidence of the other words they are syntactically connected to within the
sentence in what is known as concord.

Genus (n.), gender.

1. masculínum, masculine.

2. féminínum, feminine.

3. neutrum, neuter.
Numerus, number.

1. singuláris, singular.

2. plúrális, plural.

Cásus (-ús), case.

1. nóminátívus, nominative.

2. vocátívus, vocative.

3. accúsátívus, accusative.

4. genetívus, genitive.

5. datívus, dative.

6. ablátívus, ablative.

(locátívus, locative).

Gradus (-ús) comparátiónis, degree of comparison.

1. positívus, positive.

2. comparátívus, comparative.

3. superlátívus, superlative.

Persóna, person.

1. príma, first.

2. secunda, second.

3. tertia, third.

Tempus (-oris n.), tense.

1. infectum, present.

1.1. præsens, present.

1.2. præteritum imperfectum, imperfect.

1.3. futúrum imperfectum, future.

 2. perfectum, perfect.

2.1. præteritum perfectum, simple past & present perfect.

2.2. præteritum plúsquamperfectum, pluperfect.

2.3. futúrum perfectum, future perfect.

Modus, mood.

1. indicátívus, indicative.

2. subjúnctívus seu conjúnctívus, subjunctive.

3. imperátívus, imperative.

Genus (n.), voice.

1. transitívum (4 participia), transitive

1.1. áctívum, active - legó, scríbó

1.2. passívum, passive - legor, scríbor

1.3. commúne, (common) - adúlor, críminor

2. intransitívum (2 participia áct.), instransitive

2.1. neutrum, (neuter) - sedeó, curró / véneó, vápuló

2.2. dépónéns, deponent - luctor, convívor

3. impersónále, impersonal - tædet, pudet / legitur, scríbitur

Quálitás

1. fíníta

2. infíníta

2.1. infínítívum, infinitive.

2.2. gerundium & gerundívum, gerund & gerundive

2.3. participium, participle.

2.4. supínum, supine.

Any doubts about accidence and concord that students may have will be dealt with as
required during the course.