Indirect Question noun clauses
have three features:
An indirect command is the second-hand telling of a direct question. For example, "Why did he go to town?" is a direct question that would be expressed with an interrogative + an indicative verb in Latin. An indirect version of this would be, "Tommy asked why he went to town." The indirect version would be expressed with the interrogative "cur" + the subjunctive. The indirect question then acts as the direct object of the verb of asking (i.e. as a syntactic equivalent for the word "question"). Here are some examples (with the indirect question clause underlined): rogat quid faciant, "he asks what they are doing" Quintus senem rogavit num parentes suos vidisset, "Quintus asked the old man whether he had seen his parents." scio quid sit amor, "I know what love is." interrogavi ipsos an essent Christiani, "I asked them whether they were Christians." The tense of the subjunctive used in an indirect question clause is determined by the tense of the verb in the main clause and the time of the action of the verb in the indirect question relative to the time of the verb of asking. The following table summarizes the tense of the subjunctive in purpose clauses:
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Last Updated March 18, 2003 Questions, comments and corrections should be sent to Brian K. Harvey, Kent State University |
