On dependent clauses in Latin I: Tension between the semantics of the conjunction and the syntactic function of the dependent clause he dependent clause
Abstract
The article contends that it is hardly defendable to identify the syntactic function of a dependent clause according to the semantics of its conjunction (as is the practice of the Latin handbooks currently used at the universities in the Czech Republic). For instance, the dum-clauses are generally taken for temporal (adverbial) clauses according to the temporal value of the lexeme dum; with the verb exspecto, however, these clauses function as a direct object and are not temporal (adverbial).
Similarly, the prototypically conditional si-clauses and prototypically temporal cum-clauses can function as the subject or object of a sentence. Moreover, a dependent clause should be taken not as a syntactic function (subject, object, adverbial) at all, but rather as a construction which can itself have a syntactic function in a sentence, but can also be only a component of a syntactic function (e.g. quam + dependent clause) or can be a part of the so-called nonsententials, i. e. structures, that lack the traditional sentence functions as object, subject, etc. at all (e.g.
Quid + dependent clause?).
