Chapter 456Allen and Greenough's Latin GrammarDickinson CollegeChristopher Francese
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Verbs which imply
another action of the same subject
to complete their meaning take the Infinitive without a subject accusative.
Such are verbs denoting
to be able,
dare
,
undertake
,
remember
,
forget
,
be accustomed, begin
,
continue
,
cease
,
hesitate
,
learn
,
know how
,
fear
, and the like:—
hōc queō
dīcere(Cat. M. 32)
,
this I can say.
mittō
quaerere(Rosc. Am. 53)
,
I omit to ask.
vereor
laudāre
praesentem
(N. D. 1.58)
,
I fear to praise a man to his face.
ōrō ut mātūrēs
venīre(Att. 4.1)
,
I beg you will make haste to come.oblīvīscī
nōn possum quae volō
;
(
Fin. 2.104
),
I cannot forget that which I wish.
dēsine id mē
docēre(Tusc. 2.29)
,
cease to teach me that.dīcere
solēbat
,
he used to say.audeō dīcere
,
I venture to say.loquī posse
coepī
,
I began to be able to speak.
The peculiarity of the Complementary Infinitive construction is that no Subject Accusative is in general admissible or conceivable. But some infinitives usually regarded as
objects
can hardly be distinguished from this construction when they have no subject expressed. Thus
volō dīcere
and
volō mē dīcere
mean the same
thing
,
I wish to speak
, but the latter is object-infinitive, while the former is not apparently different in origin and construction from
queō dīcere
(complementary infinitive), and again
volō eum dīcere
,
I wish him to speak
, is essentially different from either (cf. §
563
.
b
).