Coniugatio periphrastica

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In Latin grammar, the conjugatio periphrastica (abbreviated cp ; German: circumscribing conjugation ) traditionally denotes a compound verb form made up of the past participle active and a form of esse (to be). Sometimes the syntagm from gerundive and esse is called cp passiva in contrast to cp activa with future participle.

Syntactic and semantic functions

In the subjunctive clause, the cp (with future participle) has the same meaning as a simple future tense and is therefore used as a substitute for a missing subjunctive future tense in cases of posterity: Incertum est, quam longa cuiusque nostrum vita futura sit. - “It is uncertain how long the life of each of us will last.” The inf. Perf. Of the cp (amaturus fuisse) also functions in a similarly suppletive manner as an infinitive in the unreal set of conditions: Videmur enim quieturi fuisse, nisi essemus lacessiti. - "Because we would obviously have remained calm if we hadn't been irritated." In the main clause, this periphrase has no suppletive function to synthetic future tense forms, but rather modal functions: want / think / be / should + inf. It can therefore be used in almost all Tense forms occur: amaturus sum / eram / fui / fueram / ero. If the cp were a mere tense phrase of the future, as is sometimes mistakenly assumed, the past tense would actually be incompatible with the future meaning and the futuric form, which is often used, would be marked twice, therefore uneconomical and tautological.

To the conceptual history

The term 'conjugatio periphrastica' cannot be traced back to the ancient grammarians, not even to the grammars of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance and probably only appeared in the 17th century. At first he seems to denote all four forms of verbal phrases with esse . This meaning is shown by the “Lat. Grammar "by L. Ramshorn from 1824, which juxtaposes" 1) scrībēns sum, 2) amātūrus sum, 3) amātus sum, 4) amandus sum. "The system seems captivating, but is unequal at the price of relativizing the The more frequent suppletive perfect passive, and it gives too much weight to the rarer periphrase of the scrībēns sum type , which even appears first for reasons of the paradigm order. An even more comprehensive term of conjugatio periphrastica can be found in the third edition of the “Lat. Grammar ”by Fr. Stolz and JH Schmalz. In addition to the four esse -periphrases, paragraph 183 contains another distinction to the perfect participle: (13) “a. Forms of esse ”and“ b. Forms of habere ( tenere ) ”. Here, the term is quite consistently to all occurring in Latin Verbalperiphrasen including the habeo - and teneo applied type. But not only in the later editions of this grammar manual, but also elsewhere, this functional term for Latin morphosyntax has not prevailed over its restricted and more formal meaning.

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