infinitive.html

The Infinitive

I. General

The infinitive is a noun form of a verb.

II. History

Originally, it was meant to be either a dative or locative case-wise. A substantive clause with a subject accusative, for example iubeo te valere, literally means "I bid you for being well," valere being a dative of purpose. That is why the infinitive has dual citizenship as both noun, like a gerund or a participle, or as verb, like a subjunctive.

III. Uses

Syntactically, the infinitive has five main catagories:

noun infinitives
complementary infinitives
infinitive clauses
the historical infinitive (rare)
exclamatory infinitive (rare) (Jenney et al., 435).

Iíll start with the rare latter two. Anyone who has read the Aeneid will remember that the imperfect indicative is often written as an infinitive; exclamabant becomes exclamare. This is the historical infinitive. An indirect statement, with an infinitive and subject accusative, can stand alone if the tone be one of exclamation; in English, we would add "to think thatÖ!", as in: "to think that I should write a paper on Yom Kippur!"

As a noun the infinitive is incredibly straight forward (e.g., donare bonum est, "it is good to give"), except for two usages. The infinitive can really only be used as an accusative when in apposition to a regular direct object. A&G gives a good example: quam multaÖfacimus cause amicorum, precari ab dignoÖ "How many things we do for our friends, ask favors from an unworthy personÖ" Also, the infinitive almost always accompanies an impersonal verb (the licet, oportet, necesse est crowd) as the predicate nominative of the subject, "it." "It is necessary to eat."

A complentary infinitive aids the main verb in transmitting its meaning. For example, it would not suffice to say "they dare" alone, one must say "they dare to be stupid," etc. Although in Latin the infinitive cannot convey purpose as it can in English, a complementary infinitive can nevertheless be switched with a subjunctive ut clause. This interchangeablility occurs in verbs of willingness, necessity, command, admonition, and others in this vein. This is extended in poetry for artistic effect, like with Horaceís line furit te reperire "he rages to find you."

Infinitive clauses are a type of substantive clause. There are two types of infinitive clauses: those in which the infinitive is interchangeable with the subjunctive, and indirect statements.

A&G states that verbs like iubeo, and veto, and participles like paratus and suetus always take the infinitive with subject accusative. Words like volo, habeo, cupio, and do can take either the infinitive or the subjunctive, and fall into the first category. However, it is important to note that none of the aforementioned verbs are involved in indirect discourse. A&G also lists verbs of allowing, determining, resolving, etc. in this category.
Verbs of saying, thinking, and perceiving command indirect discourse (Jenney et al. 436). Infinitives in indirect discourse are much more concrete as verbs than they are in the dative form I first mentioned. It is easy to see that indirect discourse is really an elevated, later form of "I bid you for being well." Indirect discourse extends to verbs of promising, hoping, expecting, etc. It is evident that the future and perfect forms of the infinitive arose from the need to make clear temporal distinctions within indirect discourse.

IV. Further Thoughts

The infinitive is a noun form of a verb that slowly turned back into a verb: the earliest form of the infinitive was as a subject or predicate nominative. Next, it served as the complementing connection between a noun and a verb ("I bid you for being well"), and evolved from there, until it became a verb with its own clauses. For this reason, it is hard to deem the infinitive a mood, although most would. A mood, at least as Websterís defines it, is the way in which a verb governs a sentence; subjunctives, indicatives, and imperatives make the sentence hypothetical, actual, or overridingly urgent, respectively (coincidentally, Websterís only lists these three as moods). That which is in its basest form a noun cannot really control the type of action of the sentence, however great its agility at modifying the main verb. We would never really think of designating a mood for gerunds or participles. It is only by chance that we treat the infinitive as a veridical verb.

Sources:
Jenney, Charles Jr., Rogers V. Scudder, and David D. Coffin. Third Year Latin (Newton, MA. Allyn and Bacon Inc. 1963)