Tenses in Vergil's Aeneid: Narrative Style and Structure 9004383247, 9789004383241
In Tenses in Vergil's Aeneid, Suzanne Adema presents a framework to analyze the role of tenses in Latin narrative t
659 48 1MB
English Pages 306 [316] Year 2019
Polecaj historie
Table of contents :
Contents
Preface
Tables
Chapter 1. Introduction
1. Tense in the Aeneid
2. Approach and Outline of This Book
Chapter 2. Latin Tenses in Narrative Texts
1. Temporal Relation between Narrator and State of Affairs
2. Narrative Temporal Progression
3. Text Structure and Discourse Modes
3.1. Narrative Mode
3.2. Description Mode
3.3. Report Mode
3.4. Information Mode
3.5. Conclusion on Discourse Modes
4. The Sequence as a Unit, Methods of Analysis
5. Conclusions
Chapter 3. Praesens
1. Semantic Value of the Present Tense
2. Pseudo-simultaneous Narrative
3. Description Mode
3.1. Pseudo-simultaneous Description
3.2. Ambiguous Descriptions
4. Report Mode
4.1. Report from a Base in the Time of Narration
4.2. Report from a Base in Reference Time
5. Information Mode
5.1. Information from a Base in the Time of Narration
5.2. Information Presented from a Base in Reference Time
5.3. The Present Tense in Similes
6. Conclusion
Chapter 4. Perfectum
1. Semantic Value of the Perfect Tense
2. Narrative Mode
2.1. Retrospective Narrative
2.2. Pseudo-simultaneous Narrative
3. (Pseudo-)simultaneous Description
4. Report Mode
4.1. Report from a Base in the Time of Narration
4.2. Report from a Base in Reference Time
5. Information Mode
5.1. Information from a Base in the Time of Narration
5.2. Information from a Base in Reference Time
5.3. The Perfect Tense in Similes
6. Conclusion
7. A Perfect Tense for Perfect Beings?
Chapter 5. Imperfectum
1. Semantic Value of the Imperfect Tense
2. Narrative Mode
2.1. Retrospective Narrative
2.2. Pseudo-simultaneous Narrative
3. Description Mode
3.1. Retrospective Description
3.2. Pseudo-simultaneous Description
4. Information Mode
4.1. Information from a Base in the Time of Narration
4.2. Information from a Base in Reference Time
4.3. The Imperfect Tense in Similes
5. The Imperfect Subjunctive for Counterfactuals
6. Conclusion
Chapter 6. Plusquamperfectum
1. Semantic Value of the Pluperfect Tense
2. Narrative Mode
2.1. Retrospective Narrative
2.2. Pseudo-simultaneous Narrative
3. Description Mode
4. Information Mode
5. The Pluperfect Subjunctive
6. Conclusion
Chapter 7. Future Tenses
1. Base in Time of Narration: Narratorial Announcements and Hopes
2. Base in Time of a Character’s Narration: Great Expectations and Prophecies
3. Base in Reference Time: Displaced Immediacy
4. Conclusion
Chapter 8. Historical Infinitive
1. Semantic Value of the Historical Infinitive
1.1. The Use of the Historical Infinitive in the Aeneid
2. Retrospective Narrative
3. Pseudo-simultaneous Narrative
4. Pseudo-simultaneous Description
5. Conclusion
Chapter 9. Tenses in the Narrative Style and Structure of the Aeneid
1. Narrative Mode
1.1. Pseudo-simultaneous Narrative
1.2. Retrospective Narrative
2. Description Mode
2.1. (Pseudo-)simultaneous Description
2.2. Retrospective Description
3. Report Mode
3.1. Report Mode from a Base in the Time of Narration
3.2. Report Mode from a Base in Reference Time
4. Information Mode
4.1. Information from a Base in the Time of Narration
4.2. Information from a Base in Reference Time
5. Displaced Immediacy in the Aeneid
6. Latin Tenses as a Feature of Narrative Style and Structure
Bibliography
Index Rerum
Index Locorum
Citation preview
Tenses in Vergil’s Aeneid
Amsterdam Studies in Classical Philology Series Editors Irene J.F. de Jong Caroline H.M. Kroon
Editorial Board Rutger J. Allan Mark A.J. Heerink
volume 31
The titles published in this series are listed at brill.com/ascp
Tenses in Vergil’s Aeneid Narrative Style and Structure
By
Suzanne M. Adema
LEIDEN | BOSTON
The Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Adema, Suzanne Maria, 1978- author. Title: Tenses in Vergil's Aeneid : narrative style and structure / by Suzanne M. Adema. Description: Leiden ; Boston : Brill, 2019. | Series: Amsterdam studies in classical philology ; volume 31 | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: LCCN 2018047723 (print) | LCCN 2018052251 (ebook) | ISBN 9789004383258 (E-book) | ISBN 9789004383241 (hardback : alk. paper) Subjects: LCSH: Virgil. Aeneis. | Latin language–Tense. Classification: LCC PA6931 (ebook) | LCC PA6931 .A34 2019 (print) | DDC 873/.01–dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018047723
Typeface for the Latin, Greek, and Cyrillic scripts: “Brill”. See and download: brill.com/brill‑typeface. ISSN 1380-6068 ISBN 978-90-04-38324-1 (hardback) ISBN 978-90-04-38325-8 (e-book) Copyright 2019 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands. Koninklijke Brill NV incorporates the imprints Brill, Brill Hes & De Graaf, Brill Nijhoff, Brill Rodopi, Brill Sense, Hotei Publishing, mentis Verlag, Verlag Ferdinand Schöningh and Wilhelm Fink Verlag. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission from the publisher. Authorization to photocopy items for internal or personal use is granted by Koninklijke Brill NV provided that the appropriate fees are paid directly to The Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Suite 910, Danvers, MA 01923, USA. Fees are subject to change. This book is printed on acid-free paper and produced in a sustainable manner.
Contents Preface ix List of Tables x 1 Introduction 1 1 Tense in the Aeneid 2 2 Approach and Outline of This Book
6
2 Latin Tenses in Narrative Texts 8 1 Temporal Relation between Narrator and State of Affairs 2 Narrative Temporal Progression 17 3 Text Structure and Discourse Modes 22 3.1 Narrative Mode 24 3.2 Description Mode 27 3.3 Report Mode 28 3.4 Information Mode 31 3.5 Conclusion on Discourse Modes 34 4 The Sequence as a Unit, Methods of Analysis 35 5 Conclusions 41
9
3 Praesens 43 1 Semantic Value of the Present Tense 46 2 Pseudo-simultaneous Narrative 54 3 Description Mode 65 3.1 Pseudo-simultaneous Description 65 3.2 Ambiguous Descriptions 69 4 Report Mode 73 4.1 Report from a Base in the Time of Narration 74 4.2 Report from a Base in Reference Time 75 5 Information Mode 78 5.1 Information from a Base in the Time of Narration 79 5.2 Information Presented from a Base in Reference Time 82 5.3 The Present Tense in Similes 83 6 Conclusion 85
vi
contents
4 Perfectum 87 1 Semantic Value of the Perfect Tense 89 2 Narrative Mode 92 2.1 Retrospective Narrative 92 2.2 Pseudo-simultaneous Narrative 96 3 (Pseudo-)simultaneous Description 102 4 Report Mode 105 4.1 Report from a Base in the Time of Narration 106 4.2 Report from a Base in Reference Time 113 5 Information Mode 115 5.1 Information from a Base in the Time of Narration 116 5.2 Information from a Base in Reference Time 118 5.3 The Perfect Tense in Similes 120 6 Conclusion 122 7 A Perfect Tense for Perfect Beings? 125 5 Imperfectum 133 1 Semantic Value of the Imperfect Tense 137 2 Narrative Mode 144 2.1 Retrospective Narrative 145 2.2 Pseudo-simultaneous narrative 154 3 Description Mode 159 3.1 Retrospective Description 160 3.2 Pseudo-simultaneous Description 164 4 Information Mode 165 4.1 Information from a Base in the Time of Narration 4.2 Information from a Base in Reference Time 171 4.3 The Imperfect Tense in Similes 173 5 The Imperfect Subjunctive for Counterfactuals 174 6 Conclusion 175 6 Plusquamperfectum 180 1 Semantic Value of the Pluperfect Tense 181 2 Narrative Mode 182 2.1 Retrospective Narrative 183 2.2 Pseudo-simultaneous Narrative 185 3 Description Mode 192 4 Information Mode 193 5 The Pluperfect Subjunctive 197 6 Conclusion 200
166
contents
7 Future Tenses 202 1 Base in Time of Narration: Narratorial Announcements and Hopes 203 2 Base in Time of a Character’s Narration: Great Expectations and Prophecies 205 3 Base in Reference Time: Displaced Immediacy 208 4 Conclusion 211 8 Historical Infinitive 214 1 Semantic Value of the Historical Infinitive 214 1.1 The Use of the Historical Infinitive in the Aeneid 216 2 Retrospective Narrative 217 3 Pseudo-simultaneous Narrative 222 4 Pseudo-simultaneous Description 230 5 Conclusion 232 9 Tenses in the Narrative Style and Structure of the Aeneid 234 1 Narrative Mode 239 1.1 Pseudo-simultaneous Narrative 239 1.2 Retrospective Narrative 247 2 Description Mode 256 2.1 (Pseudo-)simultaneous Description 257 2.2 Retrospective Description 262 3 Report Mode 266 3.1 Report Mode from a Base in the Time of Narration 266 3.2 Report Mode from a Base in Reference Time 275 4 Information Mode 277 4.1 Information from a Base in the Time of Narration 277 4.2 Information from a Base in Reference Time 281 5 Displaced Immediacy in the Aeneid 282 6 Latin Tenses as a Feature of Narrative Style and Structure 284 Bibliography 285 Index Rerum 296 Index Locorum 300
vii
Preface This book is a much revised version of my doctoral dissertation ‘Discourse Modes and Bases: A Study of the Use of Tenses in Vergil’s Aeneid’, defended at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam at the ninth of September 2008. I wrote my dissertation under the supervision of Caroline Kroon and Harm-Jan van Dam, and I thank them for their support during and after the project. When I was writing my dissertation, I profited much from meetings with Egbert Bakker and Carlotta Smith during a research visit to the University of Texas in Austin. I am grateful for the helpful questions and comments of the members of the defence committee, Rutger Allan, Stephen Harrison, Irene de Jong, Harm Pinkster, Wilbert Spooren. In addition, I would like to thank Albert Rijksbaron for an in depth discussion of the theory and methodology of this book. When a project takes a bit longer, the list of people who have helped in one way or another grows. I cannot enumerate all people on this project’s list here, but I am grateful to everyone on it. By far the best additions to my list are Jasper and Pjotr. I thank them, Matthijs Brouwer and the rest of my family for making daily life special.
Tables 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30
The semantic values of Latin tenses, taken from Pinkster (2015) 10 The semantic values of Latin tenses, using the concept base 12 Types of states of affairs in narrative 20 Narrative states of affairs and Latin tenses 26 Overview of the analysis of Aeneid 1.437–465 40 Discourse modes and interpretations of the present tense in the Aeneid 45 Tenses in subordinate clauses introduced by postquam or (temporal) ut/ubi 50 Present tense forms in pseudo-simultaneous narrative 60 Interpretations of the present tense in the Aeneid 86 Discourse modes and interpretations of the perfect tense in the Aeneid 89 Interpretations of the perfect tense in the Aeneid 123 Tense use in case of divine subjects 126 States of affairs with divine subjects in discourse modes 127 Perfect tense forms with divine subjects in discourse modes 128 Discourse modes and interpretations of the imperfect tense in the Aeneid 136 Telicity and boundedness of imperfect predicate frames forms 140 Imperfect tense and types of states of affairs in retrospective narrative 145 Imperfect tense and the advancement of reference time in retrospective narrative 146 Imperfect tense in pseudo-simultaneous narrative 157 Interpretations of the imperfect tense in the Aeneid 176 Interpretations of the pluperfect tense in the Aeneid 201 Interpretations of the future tense in the Aeneid, distinguished by narrator 212 Interpretations of the future tense in the Aeneid 213 Boundaries of historical infinitives in the Aeneid 217 Indications of the start of the state of affairs vs. discourse mode 218 Infinitives in pseudo-simultaneous narrative 228 Interpretations of the historical infinitive in the Aeneid 233 Tenses and discourse modes 235 Narrative states of affairs and Latin tenses in Vergil’s Aeneid 240 Tense usage in information in the Aeneid 278
chapter 1
Introduction “I will begin”, says Aeneas in response to Dido when she asks him to tell of Troy. And so he does: without delay Aeneas takes us to a different time and place. In this time and place the Greeks are building a horse. (1) quamquam animus meminisse horret luctuque refugit, incipiam. fracti bello fatisque repulsi ductores Danaum tot iam labentibus annis instar montis equum diuina Palladis arte aedificant, sectaque intexunt abiete costas; uotum pro reditu simulant; ea fama uagatur. 2.12–17
Though my mind shudders to remember and has recoiled in pain, I will begin. Broken in war and thwarted by the fates, the Danaan (Greek) chiefs, now that so many years were gliding by, build by Pallas’ divine art a horse of mountainous bulk, and interweave its ribs with planks of fir. They pretend it is an offering for their safe return; this rumour spreads.1 The first finite verb form of Aeneas’ story is the present tense form aedificant: the Greeks indeed are building a horse. How do we know that Aeneas refers to the past, with this present tense form? That is, why do we not interpret aedificant as taking place in the same time in which Aeneas speaks and shudders, the present tense form horret? In other words, how do we decide, almost automatically, that horret is a ‘real’ present tense form, but that aedificant has to be a praesens historicum? My answer would be that, although Aeneas begins his story “without wasting time over preliminaries” (Austin 1964 ad loc.), he does give sufficient cues to indicate a transition from the real hic et nunc of Dido’s dinner party to the artificial hic et nunc of the eve of the sack of Troy. We recognize these cues and interpret aedificant accordingly.
1 All translations (sometimes slightly altered) are taken from: Fairclough, H. (1999). The Latin texts are based on Mynors (1969).
© koninklijke brill nv, leiden, 2019 | doi:10.1163/9789004383258_0
2
chapter 1
First, Aeneas says incipiam, thereby indicating the beginning of his story. His public will interpret his next sentence as the first sentence of a story, since Aeneas has, by means of this incipiam, transformed himself from Dido’s conversational partner into a story teller. Aeneas proceeds with several participle clauses ( fracti, repulsis, labentibus) to sketch the time in which his story takes place, somewhere at the end of the Trojan war. The subject and object of the clause, ductores Danaum and equum, unequivocally indicate that Aeneas is not talking about his real communicative situation, because no Greeks are present at Dido’s dinner party, let alone a massive horse under construction. The present tense form aedificant, then, can only be interpreted as contemporaneous with the newly evoked, artificial, communicative situation. The communicative situation has changed from the ‘now’ in which Aeneas shudders as he remembers the horrors of war, to the ‘now’ of that war itself. After aedificant, Aeneas continues his story with subsequent states of affairs. The Greeks first interweave the ribs of the horse with planks of fir (intexunt) and, next, pretend that it is an offering (simulant), after which the rumour goes abroad (uagatur). We can, to put it briefly, analyze the tense forms in this excerpt on several levels of the text. On the broadest level, we distinguish two types of sequences based on the tense usage, a non-narrative sequence with actual present tense forms (quamquam to incipiam) and a narrative sequence with historical presents ( fracti to uagatur). On the level of the sequence, we see that the narrative sequence describes several moments in time and, thus, creates the idea of temporal progression. Verb forms play an important role in this temporal progression. On the sentence or clause level, we can conclude when these actions and events took place and whether they refer to the present, past or future. On each of these three levels, tense usage contributes to the narrative style and structure of the Aeneid. In this excerpt, this results in the impression that Aeneas promptly starts his account of the sack of Troy, while he also makes sure that his audience knows that he does so. The aim of this book is to analyze how tense usage creates these types of effects. One of the main contributions of tense to the narrative style of the Aeneid is the creation of a sophisticated manipulation of the pace and order of the story.
1
Tense in the Aeneid
Tense usage as a means of manipulating the pace of the story is in some cases observed in commentaries. These observations concern, for instance, the role
introduction
3
of the perfect tense within sequences of historical presents. The perfect tense form incubuere in example (2) is an illustration of this. (2) … ac uenti, uelut agmine facto, qua data porta, ruunt et terras turbine perflant. incubuere mari, totumque a sedibus imis una Eurusque Notusque ruunt creberque procellis Africus, et uastos uoluunt ad litora fluctus. 1.82–85
When lo! The winds, as if in armed array rush forth where passage is given, and blow in storm blasts across the world. They have swooped down upon the sea, and from its lowest depths upheave it all—East and South winds together, and the Southwester, thick with tempest—and shoreward roll vast billows. Conington and Nettleship (1963: ad loc.) observe that the transition to the perfect tense creates an instantaneous effect. They mention Georgica 1.330 as a parallel, but do not explain how the instantaneous effect is brought about here and in the Georgica (cf. also Quinn 1968: 91, Austin 1971: ad loc.). Another example is the role of the pluperfect in descriptions and ekphrasis, illustrated by raptauerat in example (3). The lines are part of the ekphrasis of Dido’s temple murals. (3) ter circum Iliacos raptauerat Hectora muros, exanimumque auro corpus uendebat Achilles. 1.483–485
Thrice had Achilles dragged Hector round the walls of Troy and was selling the lifeless body for gold. Both Conington and Nettleship and Austin observe that the pluperfect in raptauerat is, in the words of Austin (1971: ad loc.) “Vergil’s device for explaining that the picture showed the body after its ghastly treatment by Achilles; the viewer sees the action of the verb in imagination only”. Commentaries on the Aeneid do not seem to discuss the use of tense methodically, but only include remarks on particular, mostly uncommon, interpretations of tense forms. The interest of commentators for unusual interpretations of tenses is understandable, but it also means that the remarks on tense usage are confined to the level of individual instances and references to compa-
4
chapter 1
rable lines. Observations on tense usage in commentaries rarely seem to relate the particular interpretation of a tense form to the role of the tense within the Latin tense system (as it is presented in e.g. Pinkster 2015: 379–481). Thus, commentaries do not systematically cover the use of tense as part of the narrative style of the Aeneid. The importance of tense in the narrative style of the Aeneid has been suggested in monographs and articles on Vergil’s use of tense. Heinze (1915: 374), for instance, focuses on the historical present, observing that it is one of the means of the narrator to involve his readers in the narrative. Heinze (1915: 374) states that it is not just a clever replacement (bequemer Ersatz) of the past tenses. According to him, the historical present is meant to paint the events as present.2 Heinze illustrates this with the use of the historical present in dubitative questions (e.g. quid agat in 12.486) and apostrophe (e.g. in 10.507). Quinn (1968: 77ff.), too, observes a presentational manner of a narrator who “projects himself into the past (or his fiction), relating the events as if they were actually taking place as he writes—or rather as he speaks”. He distinguishes this presentational manner, or role, from that of the “chronicler of past events who contents himself with putting on record what occurred (in fact or fiction) along with his own comment on the events he records”. He attributes the first style to Vergil’s Aeneid, connecting this to Vergil’s use of the present tense.3 He emphasizes, however, that the narrator is, at the same time, the ideal, omniscient narrator of epic, who even as the story seems to unfold before his eyes, knows its outcome and the future of its characters. In addition to this overall sketch of the role of the present tense in Vergil’s narrative style, Quinn (1963, 1968) makes many observations on tense usage as a means to influencing the pace of the story. In the case of the perfect tense, he discerns perfect tense forms that seem to resemble genuine perfects (e.g. conticuere in 2.253), so-called instantaneous perfects (e.g. 12.310) and perfect tense forms that seem to “create a parenthesis on a different emotional level. The narrator’s voice drops […] from a level of excited description to tell us quickly and tersely the effects of the blow” [in 10.783–786, the blow of Aeneas’ spear piercing Mezentius, SA]. Von Albrecht (1970, 1999) focuses on tense usage as one of the aspects of the narrator’s narrative technique (Erzähltechnik). The main virtues of his arti-
2 In German: “Es soll uns wirklich die Ereignisse als gegenwärtige malen.” 3 Quinn (1968: 78) notes that by the time of Vergil the present tense had become a stylistic mannerism, no longer connected to the ‘projection into the past’, but that Vergil lent the old technique a new stringency and effectiveness.
introduction
5
cle are that Von Albrecht explicitly combines linguistics with literary studies (Sprach- und Literaturwissenschaft) and that he wants to analyze tense forms in their textual environment. Von Albrecht concludes that the narrator of the Aeneid gives relief and structure (Relief- und Tiefenwirkungen) to his work by means of tense usage. He does not mean a temporal relief by this, but distinguishes several, more abstract levels. These levels are, for example, a psychological level (seelische Ebene) for which the perfect tense is used and a visible level (äußere Folge) that is described by means of present tense forms. He argues that the narrator uses the perfect tense as a means to emphasize what is important to him, as it is used for crucial psychological turning points and actions of the gods. In her book Patterns of Time in Vergil (1978), Mack discusses the use of tenses in the Aeneid from the perspective of the handling of the concept ‘time’, and describes the role of tenses in the presentation. Her main conclusion on tense usage focuses on the extensive use of the present tense and the effect this narrative tense has when the hic et nunc of the story is contrasted with that of Augustan Rome (Mack 1978: 54). Mack (1978: 51–54) uses the walk of Aeneas and Euander on the site of later Rome (8.306ff.) to illustrate the role of the present tense in this contrast: The experience of “time” has been incorporated in a landscape. It is in its potential for this sort of effect that Vergil’s choice of the present for the chief narrative tense in the Aeneid reveals its brilliance. In no other way could he have maneuvered fictional present and historical present into so suggestive a design. Were the Aeneid written essentially in past tense, with occasional historical presents for vividness, the confrontation of these presents would be impossible. Thus, Mack (1978) relates the use of tense to thematic or even ideological aspects of the text. Also relevant in the discussion about the ideological function of the present tense in the Aeneid is Rossi (2004: 125–149). She relates the historical present to techniques of enargeia, a pretended immediacy.4 She argues that “Virgilian enargeia attempts to forge a continuum, even an identity, between the past retold and the present perceived”. Rossi focuses on battle narratives, more
4 Rossi uses the definition of enargeia that was proposed by Bakker (1997a). Cf. also Allan, De Jong, De Jonge (2017) for the relation between enargeia and the modern narrative concept of immersion.
6
chapter 1
specifically on collective fight descriptions, stating that the use of the historical present tense creates a temporal coincidence between the events narrated and the narrative account itself. The Roman reader of the Aeneid becomes witness to a past that collapses into its own present and that therefore establishes itself as a key to interpreting the reality of the “now.” How should I read—or better, how should I watch? This becomes a vital and rather dramatic question posed to Vergil’s Roman readers as they bear witness to and are called to pass judgement on the war of Latium unfolding before their very eyes. Rossi 2004: 148–149
Rossi seems to interpret the temporal coincidence created by the historical present in the light of the civic war that the Roman readership of Vergil had only recently experienced. Taking a linguistic approach, Pinkster (1999) does not draw such ideological conclusions. He observes that the extensive use of the historical present has consequences for the interpretation of the other tenses (Pinkster mentions the perfect and the future tense). Thus, he argues that in the Aeneid the past time of the story may become a “now”, albeit a purely linguistic “now”. In this book, this idea has been elaborated by means of the cognitive linguistic concept of base, the temporal vantage point a speaker or writer uses.
2
Approach and Outline of This Book
This book is intended for both linguists interested in Latin or tense usage in narrative texts and for scholars interested in Vergil’s narrative style and structure. As did e.g. Quinn (1963, 1968) and Mack (1978) I will pay ample attention to the role of tenses in the narrative pace of the Aeneid. I will do so by means of a combination of concepts from cognitive linguistics, text and discourse linguistics and narratology. As was illustrated in the first example, Latin tenses can be analyzed on three levels. The first level is the sentence level, the second is the level of the text as a whole and, in narrative text types, the level of a sequence of sentences is a third relevant level for tense usage. The second chapter of this book introduces concepts to analyze and describe the interpretations of tenses in the Aeneid on each of these levels. On the sentence level, Latin tenses present information to an addressee about the temporal relation between the state of affairs and the
introduction
7
speaker.5 On the level of the text as a whole, the text type may vary, alternating between narrative, description and information, for instance. Latin tenses present information about these text types. I will use the term discourse modes to refer to these text types. Within the specific context of narrative discourse modes, Latin tenses inform the addressee about the progression of narrative time. The Aeneid is known for its extensive use of the historical present. On the sentence level, this yields specific interpretations of not only the present tense, but also of the other tenses. The alternation of text types of the Aeneid and its sophisticated manipulation of the progression of narrative time together contribute to a specific narrative style. This narrative style suggests immediacy and involves the reader, while at the same time both narrator and reader know what the outcomes of the story will be. This combination of proximity in presentation and distance due to hindsight knowledge creates an effect of displaced immediacy (cf. Chafe 1994: 208). After the introduction and further explanation of these concepts in chapter 2, the next chapters then each discuss a Latin tense, starting with their semantic value. Subsequently, I discuss the interaction between semantic value and several discourse modes. Special attention is given to the role of each tense with respect to the progression of narrative time in the Aeneid. Von Albrecht (1970) observes that the perfect tense is preferred to denote actions of the gods. This observation has inspired me to add a section to the chapter on the perfect tense in which I discuss perfect tense forms with ‘divine subjects’. I will relate this use of the perfect tense to several techniques that have to do with the time management of the Aeneid. A chapter on the narrative use of the Latin infinitive follows those on the separate tenses. The final chapter discusses the tense usage in the Aeneid within each discourse mode in combination with a brief discussion of the functions of these discourse modes in the Aeneid. 5 The term state of affairs is used in this book to refer to the element represented by a verb form and its complements (“the thing that happens”, Dik (1997: 51)).
chapter 2
Latin Tenses in Narrative Texts Tenses function in at least three ways in Latin narrative texts. They provide information on when a state of affairs takes place, they provide information on the progression of narrative time within the specific environment of narrative text types and they provide information on the text type in which the state of affairs occurs. Tense is not the only way in which each of these three types of information is conveyed in Latin texts. Moreover, it is hardly ever the only cue the text presents for these three types of information. Usually, a sentence or excerpt of a text contains other linguistic markers, such as adverbs, that indicate when the story takes place, how time progresses within the story world or what the text type of an excerpt is. The context and general world knowledge of the reader, too, tend to provide these types of information. But although a tense form often is not the only cue, a tense form is available to provide these types of information in virtually every sentence of a narrative text. Therefore, an analysis of tense usage is a good starting point to gain insight into temporal progression and text types and, thus, into the narrative style and structure of a Latin text.1 In this chapter I present concepts to analyze the functions of Latin tenses in providing each of these types of information. On the level of the sentence, I present concepts to describe the temporal relation between a state of affairs and the speaker or narrator. The historical interpretation of the present tense is connected to the cognitive linguistic concept of base, which may be situated in, for instance, the time of narration and in the time in which the story takes place (reference time). These concepts for the sentence level are presented in the first section of this chapter. The second section concerns the analysis of narrative progression. This analysis involves concepts such as the advancement of reference time, boundedness and several types of narrative states of affairs (e.g. events and situations). The third section presents concepts to analyze the role of tenses in the text types of the Aeneid. In her book Modes of Discourse (2003), Carlota Smith provides a set of discourse modes to analyze the different text types in written (English)
1 Cf. Torrego (2010) on the use of the passive voice in the Aeneid. Apart from a cohesive and contrastive use of the passive voice, she discerns a group of passive verb forms in the Aeneid that configure a certain way of presenting a whole scene.
© koninklijke brill nv, leiden, 2019 | doi:10.1163/9789004383258_0
latin tenses in narrative texts
9
texts. A set of four of these discourse modes, narrative, description, report and information, is used in this book. The fourth section of this chapter is an analysis of an excerpt of the Aeneid (1.437–465). The concepts presented in this chapter are applied in a close reading focused on tense usage. This close reading illustrates the method of analysis I have applied to all tense forms of the Aeneid.
1
Temporal Relation between Narrator and State of Affairs
On the sentence level, Latin tenses provide information about when a state of affairs takes place. I adopt the terminology of The Oxford Latin Syntax (Pinkster 2015) to describe the semantic value of the Latin tenses on the sentence level.2 The concepts time of speaking, orientation moment, anteriority, simultaneity and posteriority are the most relevant for the purposes of this book.3 The time of speaking is the moment in which a speaker utters a sentence, and the state of affairs in this sentence may be simultaneous, anterior or posterior to this moment of speaking. In Latin, this is expressed by means of praesens, perfectum and futurum. These tenses express simultaneity, anteriority and posteriority with respect to an orientation moment in the present, i.e. the time of speaking. A speaker may also express the relation between a state of affairs and an orientation moment in the past or future. The Latin tense system has finite tense forms to express three of these relations.4 Simultaneity to a past orientation moment is expressed by means of the imperfectum, and anteriority to a past orientation moment is expressed by means of the plusquamperfectum. Lastly, the futurum exactum expresses an anterior relation to an orientation moment in the future of the time of speaking.
2 Relevant insights and observations from other grammars, such as Kühner-Stegmann (1912), Leumann-Hofmann-Szantyr (1972), Touratier (1994), are incorporated in the chapters on the separate tenses. For a general description of the Latin tense system in relation to the concepts of actionality and aspect, see e.g. Haverling (2010). Pinkster (2015) does not give prominence to the concept of aspect in his description of the Latin tense system. An example of a publication that does argue for the need of the concept aspect to explain Latin tense usage is Oldsjö (2001). 3 These concepts are taken from the work of Pinkster (1983, 1990: 215–243, 2015: 379–481), in which they are introduced more elaborately. Pinkster (2015) makes use of the term reference point instead of orientation moment, a term he used in earlier work (Pinkster 1983, 1990). 4 The three remaining relations, posteriority to a past, present or future orientation moment, may be expressed in Latin by means of periphrastic expressions (Pinkster 2015: 384).
10 table 1
chapter 2 The semantic values of Latin tenses, taken from Pinkster (2015)
Praesens
“In using a present (indicative) tense form, a speaker or writer presents a state of affairs as simultaneous with the time of speaking.” (Pinkster 2015: 395) Perfectum “When using the perfect indicative tense, the speaker asserts that an event has taken place before the moment he is uttering the assertion.” (Pinkster 2015: 442) Imperfectum “The imperfect indicative tense is used to assert that a state of affairs was taking place at some moment in the past and had not yet finished or come to an end.” (Pinkster 2015: 410) Plusquam“When using a pluperfect indicative tense, the speaker asserts perfectum that the state of affairs referred to has taken place before another past event.” (Pinkster 2015: 455) Futurum “The future indicative tense […] is used by the speaker to assert his prediction that an event will be taking place at some moment in the future.” (Pinkster 2015: 423) Futurum “by using the future perfect indicative tense, the speaker Exactum asserts his prediction that an event will have taken place before some reference point in the future.” (Pinkster 2015: 462)
An overview of these semantic values is presented in table 1; they will be discussed in more detail in the separate chapters of this book. This table presents an overview of the semantic values, but yet does not allow for an important interpretation of, for instance, the present tense in the Aeneid, viz. the praesens historicum. I make use of a concept from cognitive linguistics to describe the phenomenon of the historic present and similar interpretations of other tenses. This concept is the base (Fauconnier 1985, Cutrer 1994, Langacker 2001). The base is the vantage point or deictic center of a speaker. In everyday language, this base generally coincides with what the speaker refers to as ‘now’, it is, in short, the hic et nunc of a speaker.5 A speaker is ‘anchored’ in a base from which he may refer to his current situation, but also to past or future situations. In texts like recipes or biographical time lines the base may shift to an alternative hic et nunc, such as the separate steps in the preparation of a dish or several
5 As Cutrer (1994: 383) puts it: “In the canonical case […] the BASE space is speaker reality”.
latin tenses in narrative texts
11
key moments in a person’s life.6 For the purposes of this book, I therefore replace ‘time of speaking’ (Pinkster 2015: 395–477) or ‘communicative situation’ (Pinkster 1999: 709) in Pinkster’s descriptions of the semantic values with ‘base’. For a narrator, the communicative situation is the time in which he tells his story, viz. the time of narration. In example (1), the narrator refers to the time of narration (nunc), as well as to his past ( fuerit, appulit) and his (immediate) future (expediam, reuocabo, dicam). (1) Nunc age, qui reges, Erato, quae tempora, rerum quis Latio antiquo fuerit status, aduena classem cum primum Ausoniis exercitus appulit oris, expediam, et primae reuocabo exordia pugnae. tu uatem, tu, diua, mone. dicam horrida bella, dicam acies actosque animis in funera reges, Tyrrhenamque manum totamque sub arma coactam Hesperiam. maior rerum mihi nascitur ordo, maius opus moueo. 7.37–45
Awake now, Erato! Who were the kings, what were the times, what the state of affairs in ancient Latium, when first that foreign army landed on Ausonia’s shore—this will I unfold; and the prelude of the opening strife will I recall. And you, goddess, prompt your bard! I will tell of grim wars, will tell of battle array, and princes in their valour rushing upon death—of Tyrhenian bands, and all Hesperia mustered in arms. Greater is the story that opens before me; greater is the task that I attempt. In addition to the time of narration as a base, a narrator has an extra, artificial ‘now’ or base available. This is the time about which he narrates or, more specifically, the reference time.7 This use of reference time as a base has already been illustrated in the first example of this book. It is here repeated as example (2).
6 Cf. the time line on, for example, Elvis’ official website. “1935: Shortly before dawn, Gladys Presley gives birth to twin sons. The first, Jessie Garon, is stillborn. The second, Elvis Arron, is born healthy and would be Gladys and Vernon’s only child” (https://www.graceland.com/elvis/ biography/elvisearlychildhood.aspx). 7 I use the term reference time in a strict sense, viz. to refer to the particular moment of the story under discussion.
12
chapter 2
table 2
The semantic values of Latin tenses, using the concept base
Praesens The state of affairs is simultaneous to the base. Perfectum The state of affairs is anterior to the base. Imperfectum The state of affairs is simultaneous to a moment in the past of the base. PlusquamThe state of affairs has taken place before a moment in the perfectum past of the base. Futurum The state of affairs is posterior to the base. Futurum The state of affairs will take place before an orientation Exactum moment that is posterior to the base.
(2) quamquam animus meminisse horret luctuque refugit, incipiam. fracti bello fatisque repulsi ductores Danaum tot iam labentibus annis instar montis equum diuina Palladis arte aedificant, sectaque intexunt abiete costas; uotum pro reditu simulant; ea fama uagatur. 2.12–17
Though my mind shudders to remember and has recoiled in pain, I will begin. Broken in war and thwarted by the fates, the Danaan (Greek) chiefs, now that so many years were gliding by, build by Pallas’ divine art a horse of mountainous bulk, and interweave its ribs with planks of fir. They pretend it is an offering for their safe return; this rumour spreads. The narrator Aeneas uses the time of narration as a base in his first sentences, after which he switches to using reference time as his base. The reference time is indicated by means of several introductory participles (repulsi, labentibus) and aedificant is simultaneous to this reference time, i.e. simultaneous to the base of the speaker. If we replace ‘time of speaking’ with the concept ‘base’ in the descriptions of the semantic values of Latin tenses, we have the means to discuss specific interpretations of not only present tenses such as aedificant, but also interpretations of perfect, imperfect and future tense forms (cf. Pinkster 1999). The availability of (at least) two bases in narrative texts is observed in the field of narratology, too. In this field, concepts have been introduced to describe the temporal relations between the narrator and his story and these temporal relations are partly the result of the use of two bases. Narratologists observe
latin tenses in narrative texts
13
that there are at least four types of temporal relations between the act of narration and the narrated events itself (e.g. Genette 1980, 1988; De Jong & Nünlist 2007: 2, 521). One of these relations is a retrospective (or subsequent, ulterior or posterior) relation. The narrator narrates in retrospect, and the story has happened in the past of the base. The act of narration follows the states of affairs. The opposite of a retrospective relation is a prospective (or prior) relation. The act of narration in this case precedes the states of affairs. The narrator presents states of affairs in the future of the base. Thirdly, a simultaneous relation is described in which the act of narration and the states of affairs coincide: the story takes place in the base of the narrator and unfolds before his eyes. Genuinely simultaneous narrative is extremely rare in Latin narrative texts and also prospective narrative is not very frequent.8 What is more frequent is its variant, pseudo-simultaneous narrative in which the narrator uses reference time as a base, as in example (2) in which the story is narrated by means of historical presents. The use of this artificial ‘now’ results in a pseudo-simultaneous relation between the narrator and the states of affairs in his story. The narrator acts as if the story is unfolding as he speaks, yet he does not necessarily hide the fact that his story is a story about the past. The narrator uses the reference time as his base, but also has the time of narration available as a base. Another illustration of the pseudo-simultaneous relationship is found in example (3). A truce called earlier by Italians and Trojans is severely threatened and eventually broken. The first eight lines of the example are presented pseudo-simultaneously, as the adverb nunc (242) makes explicit.9 We enter the scene after a speech by Juturna, the sister of Aeneas’ main antagonist Turnus. (3) Talibus incensa est iuuenum sententia dictis iam magis atque magis, serpitque per agmina murmur: ipsi Laurentes mutati ipsique Latini. qui sibi iam requiem pugnae rebusque salutem sperabant, nunc arma uolunt foedusque precantur
8 An example of simultaneous narrative in Latin literature is the speech of Cassandra in Seneca’s Agamemnon in which she gives a live account of the murder of Agamemnon (Sen. Ag. 875–909). Simultaneous narrative is becoming more frequent in modern literature, cf. Cohn (1999) or Damsteegt (2005). 9 See Risselada (1996) for this use of nunc. Other deictic adverbs are geared to the artificial base as well. Examples are procul (e.g. 2.42), ibi (e.g. 6.333), modo (e.g. 11.141) and nuper (e.g. 6.338).
14
chapter 2
infectum et Turni sortem miserantur iniquam. his aliud maius Iuturna adiungit et alto dat signum caelo, quo non praesentius ullum turbauit mentes Italas monstroque fefellit. 12.238–246
With such words the warrior’s [Turnus] resolve is kindled yet more and more, and a murmur creeps from rank to rank. Even the Laurentines, even the Latins are changed; and they who but lately hoped for rest from the fray, and safety for their fortunes, now long for arms, pray that the covenant be undone, and pity Turnus’ unjust fate. To these Juturna adds another and mightier impulse, and in high heaven shows a sign, than which none was more potent to confound Italian minds and cheat them with its miracle. The present tense forms serpit, uolunt, precantur, miserantur, adiungit and dat indicate what is going on. The time of narration seems to coincide with the moment at which the states of affairs take place, suggesting a simultaneous relationship between narrator and states of affairs. The adverb nunc and the specific interpretation of the past tenses incensa est, mutati and sperabant in this sequence even enhance this suggestion of a simultaneous relationship.10 However, we know that these events are, in fact, positioned in the past of the narrator, ever since we have read the first lines of the Aeneid. Apart from that, it is by no means the aim of the narrator to pretend that this relation is genuinely simultaneous, as becomes clear in the last two lines of this sample, in which he refers to the later reception by the Italian people of Iuturna’s sign. As far as the temporal relations between narrator and states of affairs are concerned, we may conclude that, in lines 238–245 of this sequence, the relation is not genuinely simultaneous, but merely pseudo-simultaneous. That is, the events are simultaneous to an artificial base. The narrator uses this artificial base in addition to a base in the time of narration. By using reference time as an extra, artificial base, a narrator can create the literary effect of evidentia (Greek term: enargeia), as he presents his story pre-
10
The imperfect tense form sperabant and the perfect tense forms incensa est and mutati take reference time as a base as well. The imperfect tense form sperabant refers to a state of affairs that is contemporaneous with an orientation moment in the past of reference time. Likewise, the perfect tense forms incensa est and mutati indicate anteriority to the reference. That is, Turnus had already been kindled in reference time, and the Latins had already been changed.
latin tenses in narrative texts
15
tending to be an eyewitness. In literary studies and handbooks (e.g. Lausberg 1990: 401, cf. also Rossi 2004: 131), the effect of evidentia is mainly connected to the use of the present tense, but I would rather connect it to the use of reference time as an artificial base.11 The reason for this is that it is not just the present tense that creates the effect, but other tenses are used from this artificial base as well, as the example illustrated.12 In a story in which the pseudo-simultaneous relation is used, the narrator has two ‘present times’ and freely switches between them. Such a switch can be found in the last two lines of example (3), in which the perfect tense forms turbauit and fefellit represent a retrospective relation between the time of narration and these specific states of affairs, the narrator presents them as taking place in the past by using a past tense. The base adopted in these lines is the time of narration. The possibility of such switches between two bases is where a pseudo-simultaneous relationship differs from a genuine simultaneous relationship or a permanent retrospective relationship. In the latter cases, the narrator has only one base, the time of narration. The concomitant availability of two bases results in an extraordinary mix of ‘immediate’ presentation and hindsight knowledge in some episodes of the Aeneid (Quinn 1968: 91, Pinkster 1990: 225, Kroon 2002).13 An example is found at the end of book 1, where the narrator narrates by means of (historical) present tense forms, but at the same time uses infelix Phoenissa to refer to Dido, thereby referring to her later misfortune.14 Thus, he presents the events as ‘immediate’, as happening ‘now’, while displaying his knowledge about the outcome of Dido’s story. (4) praecipue infelix, pesti deuota futurae, expleri mentem nequit ardescitque tuendo Phoenissa, et pariter puero donisque mouetur. 1.712–714
11 12
13 14
Quintilian does not restrict himself to the present tense, as he talks of tralatio temporum (9.2.41) when discussing the figure of metastasis. Another important factor is the narrative pace (rhythm in narratological terminology) of a sequence. Allan, De Jong and De Jonge (2017) discuss narratological and linguistic characteristics of enargeia and the modern concept of immersion, using a Homeric corpus. Pinkster (1990: 225) and Kroon (2002) describe the use of the Latin present tense by means of the metaphor of (the pretense of) an eyewitness-report. See also 1.718–719, 1.749, 4.68, 4.169. Only once, the narrator uses the base in the time of narration to refer to Dido’s fate (4.169–170, the encounter in the cave), thereby marking that particular moment in time (ille dies) as most significant in the build-up to Dido’s death.
16
chapter 2
Above all, the unhappy Phoenician, doomed to impending ruin, cannot satiate her soul, but takes fire as she gazes, thrilled alike by the boy and by the gifts. The term displaced immediacy (Chafe 1994: 195ff.) describes the possibility in written fiction to combine features of language which are ‘immediate’ (referring to the immediate time and place of a speaker), with features of language which are displaced (referring to other times and places than that of the speaker, e.g. the past or future). Immediate deictic adverbs such as ‘now’ and ‘today’ are for instance combined with displaced (past) tense forms in English literature.15 In these terms, the narrator of the Aeneid combines the deixis of immediacy (both adverbs and tense) with the knowledge of displacement, hence creating an effect of displaced immediacy.16 In example (4), as elsewhere, the effect of displaced immediacy creates dramatic irony. The term pseudo-simultaneous takes this displaced immediacy into consideration, and makes clear that the use of reference time as an alternative base is a presentational game of which both narrator and reader are aware (Bakker 1997a: 78).17 Summarizing this section, we could say that tenses in the Aeneid inform the narratee on when to position a state of affairs in time. This may be, briefly put, in the future, present, past or in a past that has been turned into an artificial present.
15 16
17
See Chafe (1994: 250) for examples. I simplify Chafe’s distinction between immediacy and displacement for clarity’s sake. Please note that the present tense does not occur in Chafe’s examples of displaced immediacy. As far as deixis is concerned, his displaced immediacy combines proximate (i.e. immediate) spatiotemporal adverbs (here, now, today) with past (displaced) tenses (Chafe 1994: 236). He states that “this use of the past tense to establish displaced immediacy is more effective than an extended use of the historical present, above all because displaced immediacy creates the duality that is essential to art.” (Chafe 1994: 236) Although in the Aeneid such duality is not created by means of combining proximal adverbs with past tense forms, its occurrence is certainly shown in the combination of immediate deixis and displaced knowledge. Other terms are, for instance, immediate or mimetic, terms used by Bakker (1997a), Kroon (2002), Allan (2009). Cf. Rossi (2004: 135) who speaks of pseudo-immediacy. In the Living Handbook of Narratology, Margolin uses the term concurrent narration in his discussion of ‘Simultaneity in Narrative’. In earlier publications (e.g. Adema 2008, 2009), I have called this presentational mode the ‘directing mode’.
latin tenses in narrative texts
2
17
Narrative Temporal Progression
An important characteristic of a story is the progression of narrative time. As we read a story, we are, explicitly or implicitly, supplied with information about the order of the states of affairs. This information can be given by means of temporal adverbials or adverbial clauses indicating temporal progression, for instance. Another important indication of the progression of narrative time is tense usage. When Latin tense usage is discussed, the maxim perfecto procedit, imperfecto insistit narratio is often quoted (e.g. Pinkster 1990: 237). This maxim is indeed one of the conclusions that can be drawn when we investigate the use of the perfect and imperfect in specific contexts. However, Vergil is known for his extensive use of the historical present in the Aeneid. An analysis of the role of the present tense with respect to narrative progression calls for a terminology that is separate from tense usage.18 A more general terminology also contributes to the discussion of the Latin perfect and imperfect. Therefore, I present here several concepts and a set of narrative states of affairs.19 Important pairs of terms are that of bounded and unbounded states of affairs (Depraetere 1995) and events (bounded) and situations (unbounded). Depraetere (1995) discusses the difference between telicity and boundedness.20 Whereas telicity is concerned with an intended or inherent endpoint of a state of affairs, boundedness is concerned with the temporal boundaries that are provided in the actual utterance, in our case a sentence in a narrative text. I use the term event for bounded states of affairs. The example below contains three events: entered, shut and switched off. It is the first part of an example from Hinrichs (1986: 68).
18
19
20
The idea that the present may be used for both “perfectlike” and “imperfectlike” states of affairs is expressed by e.g. Kravar (1969), Pinkster (1983: 315, 1998a, 1998b, 2015: 324), Schwartz (2002: 18). I will elaborate this idea in chapter 3. A more traditional opinion is that the historical present may only ‘replace’ perfect tense forms (Dressler 1970, Quinn 1968: 93). Koller (1951) also proposes this, but observes that in Vergil also verbs of state and durative verbs (Zustands- und Dauerverben) occur as historical presents. KühnerStegmann do not seem to state explicitly that the present cannot replace an imperfect tense, but they only mention the alternation of perfect and present, leaving the imperfect tense out of their discussion of the historical present (1912: 114.2ff.). I do not mean to give a typology of states of affairs as given by Vendler (1967). This set of narrative states of affairs is meant as an extension of the dichotomy between bounded and unbounded states of affairs (Depraetere 1995). See also Dahl (2013).
18
chapter 2
Jameson entered the room, shut the door carefully and switched off the light. The three events have clear temporal boundaries. In addition, they each indicate progression from one time to another.21 The event of entering is assumed to have taken place before the event of shutting the door, which precedes switching off the light. That is, each event takes place in one particular moment in the time of this story. I refer to these particular moments by means of the term reference time (Kamp & Rohrer 1983).22 Linguistic analyses of the temporal advancement of, for instance, English narratives show that, in general, events indicate temporal advancement of the reference time.23 A state of affairs is unbounded when temporal boundaries are not provided in the utterance or text (Depraetere 1995). I refer to this type of state of affairs with the term situation. An example of a situation is the state of affairs was shining brightly in an adaptation of the example above: Jameson entered the room, shut the door carefully and switched off the light. The sun was shining brightly through the windows. The state of affairs the sun was shining brightly is assumed to have been valid before the events of Jameson entering, shutting the door and switching off the light, which means that it does not advance reference time. In general, situations do not advance reference time (Hinrichs 1986: 68, Depraetere 1995). Since situations are unbounded, they have no clear starting point themselves, and will usually be interpreted as taking place within a previously introduced reference time, as was shining in the example also illustrates. A specific type of situation in a narrative sequence is a frame. A frame is a situation that introduces a new reference time, but only does so to provide a background, a frame, for another state of affairs. That is, the narrator does not first present an event and then a situation contemporaneous with it, but describes the situation first:
21 22
23
The semantics of these verbs also play a role in the advancement of reference time in this example, of course: one cannot shut a door while entering. See also Partee (1983) and Hinrichs (1986). Kamp & Rohrer derive the term from Reichenbach’s theory (Reichenbach, 1947). I use the term reference time in a strict sense. Reichenbach (1947) uses it to refer to past, present or future orientation moments. See Hinrichs (1986), Partee (1983), Dry (1983), Almeida (1995), Depraetere (1995), Parsons (2002), (Smith 2003), Dahl (2013). Oldsjö (2001: 457–488) applies these concepts to Latin (Caesar).
latin tenses in narrative texts
19
The sun was shining brightly through the windows, when Jameson entered the room, shut the door carefully and switched off the light. Another specific type of situation is a situation that occurs in combination with adverbs such as and then or suddenly. These adverbs indicate the starting point of the situation. In such cases, we should label the states of affairs as a starting situation. Incompatibility with a previous state of affairs also leads to an interpretation of a situation as a starting situation. An example is it was pitch dark in the example below. This is the full quotation of the example in Hinrichs (1986: 68). Jameson entered the room, shut the door carefully and switched off the light. It was pitch-dark around him because the Venetian blinds were closed. The situation it was pitch dark around him is in this example interpreted in another way than the situation the sun was shining brightly in the example above. The situation of darkness is the result of the event of switching off the light and therefore a reader will assume progression of reference time on the basis of world knowledge (Boogaart 1999: 104). As such, the state of affairs is not completely unbounded: it has a clear starting point. Starting situations generally advance reference time. Another adaptation of the example illustrates two further types of states of affairs, that we need in analyses of the progression of narrative time in the Aeneid. Jameson had shut the door carefully, before he switched on the light. It had been pitch-dark around him because the Venetian blinds were closed. This sequence of four clauses presents just one reference time, viz. the time in which Jameson switches on the light. The entrance of Jameson is now presented in its anteriority to switching on the light. The state of affairs of had shut the door is an event anterior to reference time. By the same token, the darkness in the room is also interpreted as anterior to this reference time. The starting point of this darkness is not expressed, however, and therefore we should not classify it as an event anterior to reference time (it is not completely bounded). We interpret this state of affairs as a situation that has come to an end, it is a situation anterior to reference time (i.e. bounded at its end, but no explicit starting point).
20
chapter 2
table 3
Types of states of affairs in narrative
Type of state of affairs
Advancement of reference time
Event Event anterior to reference time Situation Frame
An event advances reference time. An event anterior to reference time generally does not advance reference time. A situation generally does not advance reference time. A frame introduces a new reference time and functions as the background for a subsequently presented event. Start of a situation The start of a situation generally advances reference time. Situation anterior A situation anterior to reference time generally does not to reference time advance reference time.
The English examples are meant to show that narrative progression is brought about by a rather rich variety in types of states of affairs. Table 3 gives an overview of the most important (i.e. most frequent) types of states of affairs in stories, combined with their influence on the advancement of reference time.24 A Latin example of most of these types of states of affairs can be found in example (5), in which Aeneas receives an omen. (5) hic duo rite mero libans carchesia Baccho fundit humi, duo lacte nouo, duo sanguine sacro, purpureosque iacit flores ac talia fatur: ‘salue, sancte parens, iterum; saluete, recepti nequiquam cineres animaeque umbraeque paternae. non licuit finis Italos fataliaque arua nec tecum Ausonium, quicumque est, quaerere Thybrim.’ dixerat haec, adytis cum lubricus anguis ab imis septem ingens gyros, septena uolumina traxit amplexus placide tumulum lapsusque per aras, caeruleae cui terga notae maculosus et auro
24
For the exceptional cases in which events do not advance reference time see chapter 4, for the exceptional cases in which situations advance reference time, see chapter 5.
latin tenses in narrative texts
21
squamam incendebat fulgor, ceu nubibus arcus mille iacit uarios aduerso sole colores. obstipuit uisu Aeneas. 5.77–90
Here in due libation he pours on the ground two goblets of unmixed wine, two of fresh milk, two of the blood of victims. He showers bright blossoms and thus he cries: “Hail, holy father, once again; hail, ashes, rescued though in vain, and you, soul and shade of my sire! Not with you was I suffered to seek the destined bounds and fields of Italy, nor Ausonian Tiber, whatever that name imports.” So had he spoken, when from the foot of the shrine a slippery serpent trailed seven huge coils, fold upon seven times, peacefully circling the mound and gliding among the altars; his back chequered with the blue spots, and his scales ablaze with the sheen of dappled gold, as in the clouds the rainbow darts a thousand shifting tints athwart the sun. Aeneas was awestruck at the sight. The states of affairs fundit, iacit en fatur are three consecutive events on the timeline, taking place in reference time. The speech by Aeneas is concluded by means of dixerat, an event that is by now, at the end of the speech anterior to reference time. Then, a snake draws seven circles around the altar, the event traxit. The next state of affairs is the sparkling of the back of the snake, an unbounded state of affairs, as the sparkling is not given any temporal boundaries in the text. Incendebat is a situation in reference time, and for a moment the progression of time is suspended. It reaches a complete standstill (a narratological pause) in the next line, which is a simile. Reference time then advances again with the next event: Aeneas’ reaction to the snake, obstipuit. The excerpt contains a set of retrospectively presented states of affairs (dixerat—obstipuit) and a set of pseudo-simultaneously presented states of affairs ( fundit—fatur). The excerpt shows that the types of events and situations are useful to analyze narrative progression both in a retrospective and in a pseudo-simultaneous sequence. That is, the concepts are relevant tools for both the distinction between perfect and imperfect (traxit versus incendebat) and for a description of the role of present tense forms ( fundit, iacit, fatur). Narrative progression is one of the key characteristics of narrative text types. The Aeneid is a narrative text, but an analysis of the narrative progression is not relevant for every state of affairs within this text. The excerpt above, for instance, illustrates that narrative progression is not relevant in direct speech
22
chapter 2
nor in a simile. This is due to the fact that the Aeneid does not only contain sequences that are narrative in a strict sense. Narrative sequences are alternated with other types of sequences. Tenses tend to provide information on the type of a sequence. This information is the often observed text structuring function of tenses. In this book, I use a set of discourse modes to discuss text structure or, more specifically, the alternation of different text types within a larger text. The set of discourse modes consists of the narrative mode, the description mode, the report mode and the information mode. Each discourse mode is characterized by specific types of states of affairs and the coherence relation between the states of affairs. Tenses play an important role in indicating these types of states of affairs. In addition, tense usage is an important device within the Latin tense system to make coherence relations explicit.
3
Text Structure and Discourse Modes
The correlation between tense usage and text structure is, of course, generally acknowledged, and a distinction between the foreground and the background of a narrative text based on tense usage has often been suggested.25 Kroon (1998) points out that observations on the foreground and background of Latin texts are often circular: an excerpt of a narrative is defined as foregrounded when a perfect tense is used, for instance. Kroon proposes to combine the use of tense with other parameters, for instance the use of particles (Kroon 1998) or a more specifically defined structure of narrative (Kroon & Rose 1996, Kroon 2000). Using the Geneva discourse model (Roulet 1989, 1991), Kroon (2000) argues that (Latin) texts are heterogeneous creations. These heterogeneous creations may have a global text function (e.g. narrating, substantiating) and a global textual form (e.g. narrative or exposition), but they, at the same time, consist of sequences with their own, more local, text function and form.26 A useful categorization of the forms in which these sequences occur in (narrative) texts is found in the work of the linguist Carlota Smith (Smith 2003). Her discourse modes together form a set of local text types, based on coherence 25 26
E.g. Weinrich (1964), Hopper (1979), Dry (1983), Partee (1984), Couper-Kuhlen (1989), on Latin see e.g. Elsner (1973), Pinkster (1983, 1990), Bolkestein (1987). In Kroon (2002), she speaks of modes. Other Latinists who seem to distinguish different text types or types of environments to discuss the structuring function of tenses are Oldsjö (2001: 401–454), Schwartz (2002).
latin tenses in narrative texts
23
relations and the linguistic features of those relations.27 Smith presents examples using various types of English texts. As I hope to show in the course of this book, the set of discourse modes (e.g. narrative mode, information mode, description mode) is also an illuminating way to unveil the relations between the semantic value of Latin tenses and their functions as linguistic cues of text structure. The set of discourse modes in this book consists of narrative, description, report and information.28 These modes are characterized by specific types of states of affairs and the way in which these clauses cohere. These two parameters to distinguish between discourse modes are based on Smith (2003). She uses one slightly different parameter. In addition to the types of states of affairs (‘Situation types’ in her terminology), she uses the progression of the text (e.g. temporally, spatially, metaphorically). Smith’s parameter of text progression is made somewhat less abstract in my definitions by replacing them by a parameter concerning the coherence relation. The coherence relation is the relation between the state of affairs and the previous state of affairs. The coherence relation between a state of affairs and the previous one, can be a temporal or spatial relation with the preceding state of affairs, for instance. A state of affairs may also not be presented in its relation to the preceding state of affairs. It can be presented in its direct relation to the time of narration or in relation to just one element of the preceding state of affairs. These four types of coherence relation are each related to a specific discourse mode, as becomes clear from the definitions of each discourse mode below. Narrative mode: States of affairs are presented with respect to their temporal and/or causal relation. The narrator more or less chronologically discusses the reference times that together constitute the time line of his story. States of affairs in narrative are events, situations and specific narrative variations on events and situations.
27 28
Instead of coherence relations, Smith (2003) speaks of types of progression through the text. Smith (2003) also distinguishes the mode argument. The discourse mode argument is not used in the Aeneid and is, therefore, left out of consideration in this study (but see, e.g. Van Gils (2009) on discourse modes in Cicero’s forensic speeches).
24
chapter 2
Description mode: States of affairs are presented with respect to their spatial relation. States of affairs in description are situations. Report mode: States of affairs are presented in relation to the base (e.g. the time of speaking or writing), any relation between states of affairs is disregarded. The distinction between events, situations and other narrative types of states of affairs is irrelevant in this mode. States of affairs are merely anterior, contemporaneous or posterior to the base. Information mode: States of affairs denote a characteristic of a person or object and they are presented with respect to their temporal relation to this element (e.g. contemporaneous). In this section, I have introduced four discourse modes. The next sections elaborate on the discourse modes, and discuss the most common combinations of the modes and types of temporal relations used in the Aeneid. 3.1 Narrative Mode The narrative mode is used in those parts of a story in which the narrator indeed narrates. States of affairs are presented with respect to their temporal and/or causal relation, in such a way that they form a (more or less) chronological account.29 Several types of states of affairs, such as events, situations and frames, together evoke the idea of temporal progression along the reference times of the story’s time line. Temporal progression can also be made explicit by means of other linguistic cues like temporal adverbials or adverbial clauses. Such adverbials and adverbial clauses are, therefore, an important linguistic characteristic of this dis-
29
This definition is an adapted version of the definition Smith (2003: 27) uses: “Narrative presents a sequence of events and states that have the same participants and/ or a causal or other consequential relation”. She bases this definition on Labov & Waletzky (1966) and Moens (1987). In most literature, definitions of the narrative mode are, as in the case of Labov & Waletzki, Moens and Smith, tantamount to the phrase “a chronological sequence of states of affairs”.
latin tenses in narrative texts
25
course mode (in Latin e.g. tum, deinde or postquam-clauses). An example of the narrative mode was presented in the previous section on narrative temporal progression, and is here repeated as example (6). (6) hic duo rite mero libans carchesia Baccho fundit humi, duo lacte nouo, duo sanguine sacro, purpureosque iacit flores ac talia fatur: ‘salue, sancte parens, iterum; saluete, recepti nequiquam cineres animaeque umbraeque paternae. non licuit finis Italos fataliaque arua nec tecum Ausonium, quicumque est, quaerere Thybrim.’ dixerat haec, adytis cum lubricus anguis ab imis septem ingens gyros, septena uolumina traxit amplexus placide tumulum lapsusque per aras, caeruleae cui terga notae maculosus et auro squamam incendebat fulgor, ceu nubibus arcus mille iacit uarios aduerso sole colores. obstipuit uisu Aeneas. 5.77–90
Here in due libation he pours on the ground two goblets of unmixed wine, two of fresh milk, two of the blood of victims. He showers bright blossoms and thus he cries: “Hail, holy father, once again; hail, ashes, rescued though in vain, and you, soul and shade of my sire! Not with you was I suffered to seek the destined bounds and fields of Italy, nor Ausonian Tiber, whatever that name imports.” So had he spoken, when from the foot of the shrine a slippery serpent trailed seven huge coils, fold upon seven times, peacefully circling the mound and gliding among the altars; his back chequered with the blue spots, and his scales ablaze with the sheen of dappled gold, as in the clouds the rainbow darts a thousand shifting tints athwart the sun. Aeneas was awestruck at the sight. In this excerpt, a switch in the use of tenses occurs. Present tense forms denote the events before the speech, whereas the events and situations after the speech are presented in past tense forms. These two parts of the example differ from each other with respect to the temporal relation the narrator has assumed towards his story, viz. a pseudo-simultaneous relation (before the speech) and a retrospective relation (after the speech). In general, the temporal relation between the narrator and a narrated sequence can be retrospective, prospective, simultaneous or pseudo-simulta-
26
chapter 2
table 4
Narrative states of affairs and Latin tenses
Type of state of affairs
Retrospective narrative
Pseudo-simultaneous narrative
Event in reference time Event anterior to reference time Situation in reference time Frame Start of a situation in reference time Situation anterior to reference time Situation partly anterior to reference time
Perfect Pluperfect
Present Perfect, pluperfect
Imperfect
Present, perfect, historical infinitive Imperfect Present, imperfect Historical infinitive Present, historical infinitive Pluperfect
Imperfect
–
Imperfect
neous (see above), leading to four presentational varieties of the narrative mode. These varieties (strongly) differ in frequency. The most frequent varieties in the Aeneid are pseudo-simultaneous and retrospective narrative.30 In the retrospective narrative mode, the narration follows the narrated events, meaning that reference time lies in the past of the narrator. This, of course, is indicated by means of past tenses. In the case of Latin these past tenses are the perfect, imperfect and pluperfect. In pseudo-simultaneous narrative, the narrator pretends to narrate as the story unfolds. His main tool in doing so is the historical present, although the other tenses each fulfil specific roles as well. The use of Latin tenses in these two varieties of the narrative mode is summarized in table 4, and will be explained in the next chapters.
30
In the Aeneid, genuinely simultaneous narrative, in which the act of narration coincides with the narrated material, does not occur, except (perhaps) for the line nunc me fluctus habet uersantque in litore uenti (6.362) at the end of Palinurus’ short story. There is at least one prospective narrative in the Aeneid: the prophecy of Jupiter in book 1 (1.257– 296).
latin tenses in narrative texts
27
3.2 Description Mode A sequence in the description mode consists of states of affairs that are presented with respect to their spatial relation. This means that we find adverbs and adverbial clauses indicating locations and spatial relationships between states of affairs, such as ante, contra, ex ordine, nec procul hinc and proxima (cf. Ravenna 1985: 184). The words indicating positions and spatial relations are italicized in example (7), a description of the location where Turnus will set up an ambush for Aeneas. (7) Est curuo anfractu ualles, accommoda fraudi armorumque dolis, quam densis frondibus atrum urget utrimque latus, tenuis quo semita ducit angustaeque ferunt fauces aditusque maligni. hanc super in speculis summoque in uertice montis planities ignota iacet tutique receptus, seu dextra laeuaque uelis occurrere pugnae siue instare iugis et grandia uoluere saxa. 11.522–529
There is a valley with sweeping curve, fit site for the stratagems and deceits of war, hemmed in on either side by a wall black with dense foliage. To it a narrow path leads, with straitened gorge and awkward approach. Above it, amid the watch towers of the mountain top, lies a hidden plain and a safe shelter, whether one plans to charge from right or left, or take stand upon the ridge and roll down enormous boulders. In a description, the temporal relation between states of affairs is secondary to their spatial relation. Typically, all states of affairs in a description are (more or less) contemporaneous with each other, meaning that a description generally consists of situations (unbounded states of affairs). This means that the discourse mode consists solely of tense forms that leave room for an unbounded interpretation of the state of affairs. In Latin, situations are most commonly expressed by means of the present tense and the imperfect tense.31 The two tenses express the temporal relation between the narrator and the described object, which is either simultaneous, pseudo-simultaneous or retrospective. In the Aeneid, I have found simultane-
31
See sections 4.3 and 6.3 on the limited occurrence of the perfect tense and the pluperfect tense in (pseudo-)simultaneous and retrospective descriptions respectively.
28
chapter 2
ous descriptions (present tenses), pseudo-simultaneous descriptions (historical presents) and retrospective descriptions (imperfect tenses). The next chapters will show that the description mode is not confined to features of a location or object, as the narrator may also ‘tell’ his story through description.32 3.3 Report Mode In the report mode, states of affairs are presented with respect to their individual relation to the base, any relation between states of affairs is disregarded. The very first lines of the Aeneid are presented in the report mode: (8) Arma uirumque cano, Troiae qui primus ab oris Italiam, fato profugus, Lauiniaque uenit litora, multum ille et terris iactatus et alto ui superum saeuae memorem Iunonis ob iram; multa quoque et bello passus, dum conderet urbem, inferretque deos Latio, genus unde Latinum, Albanique patres, atque altae moenia Romae. Musa, mihi causas memora, quo numine laeso, quidue dolens, regina deum tot uoluere casus insignem pietate uirum, tot adire labores impulerit. Tantaene animis caelestibus irae? 1.1–11
Arms and the man I sing, who first from the coasts of Troy, exiled by fate, came to Italy and Lavine shores; much buffeted on sea and land by violence from above, through cruel Juno’s unforgiving wrath, and much enduring in war also, till he should build a city and bring his gods to Latium; whence came the Latin race, the lords of Alba, and the lofty walls of Rome. Tell me, O Muse, the cause; wherein thwarted in will or wherefore angered, did the Queen of heaven drive a man, of goodness so wondrous, to traverse so many perils, to face so many toils. Can heavenly spirits cherish resentment so dire?
32
Koopman (2014) addresses this point. His book also contains a thorough discussion of the scholarship on description and ekphrasis in Greek narratives from several viewpoints, among which the text linguistic approach taken in this study.
latin tenses in narrative texts
29
The narrator gives an overview of the subject of his epic work, arma uirumque, and elaborates on this subject in the first seven lines. In these lines the states of affairs are presented in relation to the time of narration, and the narrator moves back and forth from the remote past (Aeneas’ travels, the existence of an ancient city, Juno’s wrath), the slightly less remote past (genus Latinum, Albani patres, moenia Romae) and his present in which he sings about all these things using the present tense form cano. Reported states of affairs are presented with respect to their individual temporal relation to the base. This means that, within one reported sequence, the temporal relation between narrator and the state of affairs may change from simultaneous (cano in example (8)) to retrospective (uenit in example (8)) to prospective (expediam in example (8) above) within one sequence. What is fixed within a reported sequence, however, is the base, which is positioned either in the time of narration or in the time of the story in the Aeneid. In the very first lines, the base is positioned in the time of narration. When the report mode is used from a base in the time of the story (reference time) the state of affairs is related to this reference time, without taking its relation to other states of affairs in the story into consideration. Two present tense forms in example (9), deicis and fundis, and the two concluding perfect tense forms of the example, may serve to illustrate this. The first two lines of this sample are reported, whereas the middle part is narrated. The last two lines are reported again. (9) Quem telo primum, quem postremum, aspera uirgo, deicis? aut quot humi morientia corpora fundis? Eunaeum Clytio primum patre, cuius apertum aduersi longa transuerberat abiete pectus. … tum Lirim Pagasumque super … … his addit Amastrum Hippotaden, sequiturque incumbens eminus hasta Tereaque Harpalycumque et Demophoonta Chromimque; quotque emissa manu contorsit spicula uirgo, tot Phrygii cecidere uiri. 11.664–677
Fierce maiden, whom first, whom last do you strike down with your weapon? How many bodies do you lay low on the earth? First Euneus, son
30
chapter 2
of Clytius, whose unguarded breast, as he faces her, she pierces through with her long pine-shaft. … Then she fells Liris, and Pagasus over him … … To these she adds Amastrus, son of Hippotas; and, bending to the task, she follows Tereus from far with her spear, and Harpalycus, and Demophoon, and Chromis; and as many weapons as she sent spinning from her hand, so many Phrygians fell. The present tense forms deicis and fundis are not presented in relation to each other or in relation to the other present tense forms in this sample: fundis does not follow deicis and these states of affairs do not precede transuerberat. These lines are report and in this case they function to summarize the events to come. These events are narrated by means of the present tense forms transuerberat, addit, sequitur, and are presented in relation to each other in a rather obvious way (primum, tum, his addit, sequitur). The perfect tense forms contorsit and cecidere are reported again, as they are not presented in a temporal relation to each other or to, for instance, sequitur. Instead, contorsit and cecidere, as well as deicis and fundis, are each presented with respect to their individual relation to the base. The result of this reported introduction and conclusion is a neat unit functioning as a first illustration of Camilla’s efficiency in killing enemies. The base is positioned in reference time in this sample: the states of affairs of deicis and fundis are contemporaneous with reference time and, by the time the narrator concludes the answer to his own questions, the states of affairs of contorsit and cecidere are anterior to reference time. Strictly speaking, the temporal relation between the narrator and deicis and fundis is pseudosimultaneous, whereas the temporal relation between the narrator and contorsit and cecidere is ‘pseudo-retrospective’. However, in the further course of this book I will not use this distinction within the report mode and will refer to such states of affairs as reported from a base in reference time.33 Both report from a base in the time of narration and report from a base in reference time are not very frequent in the Aeneid.34
33
34
Although, strictly speaking, the temporal relations between narrator and each individual state of affairs can be pseudo-simultaneous, pseudo-retrospective and pseudo-prior, such divisions would be rather finical and would, therefore, not contribute to the apprehensibility of this study. The report mode may be found more frequently in genres such as letters or diaries. Cf. the start of letter V. 16 by Pliny the younger: tristissimus haec tibi scribo Fundani nostri
latin tenses in narrative texts
31
3.4 Information Mode States of affairs in the information mode are presented in relation to an element in the (preceding) text and denote a characteristic of this element. The states of affairs of uenerat and ferebat in example (9), for instance, are presented in the information mode, because they are presented in relation to Coroebus, the person they characterize. If Coroebus had not been part of the previous sentence, these states of affairs would have been meaningless. The informative relation between these clauses and the preceding text is made clear by the adverbial clauses illis diebus and forte. (10) addunt se socios Rhipeus et maximus armis Epytus, oblati per lunam, Hypanisque Dymasque et lateri adglomerant nostro, iuuenisque Coroebus Mygdonides—illis ad Troiam forte diebus uenerat insano Cassandrae incensus amore et gener auxilium Priamo Phrygibusque ferebat, infelix qui non sponsae praecepta furentis audierit! 2.339–346
Then, falling in with me in the moonlight, comrades join me, and there gather to our side Rhipeus and Epytus, mighty in arms, Hypanis and Dymas, with young Coroebus, son of Mygdon. In those days, as it chanced, he had come to Troy, fired with mad love for Cassandra, and as a son was bringing aid to Priam and the Phrygians—luckless one, not to have heeded the warning of his inspired bride … The pluperfect and the imperfect express the temporal relation between these states of affairs and Coroebus (rather than that between these states of affairs and adglomerant). Venerat has happened in Coroebus’ past and explains why he is in Troy at this point of the story, gerebat indicates his ‘job’ and is contemporaneous with his existence, or at least with his stay in Troy. Coroebus existed in the past of the narrator, Aeneas in this case, hence the past tense forms. A state of affairs in the information mode is, in short, connected to the previous state of affairs (or preceding text) by means of the element it characterizes. If the element was not part of the text, the informational state of affairs would
filia minore defuncta (‘I am writing to you in great distress: our friend Fundanus has lost his younger daughter.’ Translation: Radice 1969 (Loeb)).
32
chapter 2
have to be left out as well. A state of affairs in the information mode expresses the temporal relation between the state of affairs and the element. That is, the element functions as an orientation moment (or time span) with which a state of affairs is contemporaneous or to which it is anterior.35 Please note that the information mode is, as are all modes, a matter of presentation rather than function. Of course, the verb forms uenerat and ferebat function to inform the reader about Cassandra’s husband, but the reason that they are classified as information is because they are presented as information. That is to say they are presented in relation to the existence of Coroebus. This can be made more clear, if we look at the subjunctive perfect tense form audierit in the last line of this example. This state of affairs is not presented in the information mode, although one might argue that it has an informational function in the text (informing us about Coroebus’ relation with Cassandra). However, the perfect tense form audierit does not present the state of affairs with respect to its temporal (contemporaneous) relation with the existence of Coroebus. Instead, it is presented as anterior to the time of narration. This means that Aeneas uses the report mode to present this state of affairs. Apart from the fact that a perfect tense is used (and not an imperfect tense), the subjunctive mood also indicates that Aeneas presents this state of affairs from his own point of view. When an element exists in the base of the narrator, that is, when the element is contemporaneous with this base, the tense used is the present tense, as in example (11) in which we hear about a location that is even now known as the Punta di Miseno. (11) at pius Aeneas ingenti mole sepulcrum imponit suaque arma uiro remumque tubamque monte sub aërio, qui nunc Misenus ab illo dicitur aeternumque tenet per saecula nomen. 6.232–235
But loyal Aeneas heaps over him a massive tomb, with the soldier’s own arms, his oar and trumpet, beneath a lofty hill, which now from him is called Misenus, and keeps from age to age an ever living name. Again, the states of affairs dicitur and tenet are not presented in their (temporal or spatial) relation with the preceding state of affairs (imponit). Rather, 35
Very rarely, the state of affairs will take place in the future of the element. In that case, it would be posterior to the element it characterizes.
latin tenses in narrative texts
33
these states of affairs are connected to the rest of the text through the element monte aërio, as the relative pronoun qui makes explicit. This lofty hill where Aeneas buries Misenus still exists in the time of narration (the base in the relative clause), and the states of affairs of dicitur and tenet are contemporaneous with it. The present tense expresses the temporal relation between states of affairs and element, and, indirectly, that between element and time of narration. Like the report mode, the information mode is used in the Aeneid from both a base in the time of narration (the examples above) and a base in reference time. The latter use is illustrated by the following example, which is part of the catalogue of Etruscan peoples in book 7. Within this catalogue the narrator gives elaborate information about the participating peoples: in what country they dwell (colunt), for instance, from what river they drink (bibunt), or who has sent them to war (misit). (12) una ingens Amiterna cohors priscique Quirites, Ereti manus omnis oliuiferaeque Mutuscae; qui Nomentum urbem, qui Rosea rura Uelini, qui Tetricae horrentis rupes montemque Seuerum Casperiamque colunt Forulosque et flumen Himellae, qui Tiberim Fabarimque bibunt, quos frigida misit Nursia, et Ortinae classes populique Latini, 7.710–716
With him came Amiternum’s vast cohort, and the ancient Quirites, the whole band of Eretum and olive-bearing Mutusca; those who dwell in Nomentum’s city and the Rosean country by Velinus, on Tetrica’s rugged crags and Mount Severus, in Casperia and Foruli, and by Himella’s stream; those who drink of Tiber and Fabaris, those whom cold Nursia sent, the Ortine squadrons, the Latin peoples, … The states of affairs of colunt and bibunt are contemporaneous with the existence of all those peoples and, likewise, the state of affairs presented by misit has happened in the past of Nursia’s people. The base in this example is positioned in reference time, and in reference time these peoples, the elements, exist, hence the use of the present and perfect tense. Most information in the Aeneid is presented from a base in the time of narration.
34
chapter 2
3.5 Conclusion on Discourse Modes The set of the discourse modes narrative, description, report and information provides a means to analyze different components of a text. As well as this, the approach leaves room for the idea that what is ‘foreground’ in one text or even genre, may be ‘background’ in another (Smith 2003). ‘Narrative’ as a text linguistic mode is indeed central in a story such as the Aeneid, but in a geographical work such as Tacitus’ Germania the narrative mode seems less important. In an expository work the description or information mode will be dominant. However, the most important advantage of discourse modes is that they are characterized by linguistic cues other than tense as well, whereas the foreground-background dichotomy has often been presented as equal to the distinction between the perfect and imperfect tense.36 A discourse mode or, rather, a sequence in a specific discourse mode can be seen as a building block with which a narrator can construct his story. In recent years, the discourse modes have been combined by several Dutch classicists (e.g. Allan 2009) with another framework, the prototypical narrative structure proposed by Labov (1972; cf. Fleischmann 1990; Toolan 1998). As Allan (2009) and Kroon (fthc.) illustrate, the prototypical narrative structure provides an analytical tool to discuss the way in which the building blocks of discourse modes are combined with the presentation of a short story in Greek or Latin. It describes how a story may start with a summary of its content (abstract), followed by a descriptive or informational phase about the setting or characters (orientation), after which the narration proper sets off (complication) possibly resulting in a climax (peak). The climax will generally be followed by a specific part of the narration proper in which the story is wrapped up (resolution) and the final part of the story often forms a bridge between the world and time evoked in the story and the world and time of the narrator (coda). This book focuses on tense usage. Although some references to specific parts of the narrative structure will be made, a systematic investigation of the prototypical narrative structure is not necessary for my purposes and, moreover, seems not to be as fruitful for the Aeneid as it is for other texts. The narrative structure mainly seems rewarding as an analytical tool for Latin texts that have a predominantly episodic structure, such as Livy’s Ab Urbe Condita or Ovid’s Metamorphoses, or for specific, well defined episodes embedded in longer story lines.37
36 37
An exception is Kroon (1998). She introduces particles as an additional parameter and investigates the correlation between these particles and tense usage. Cf. Kroon (fthc.) on the episode of the Pisonian conspiracy in Tacitus.
latin tenses in narrative texts
4
35
The Sequence as a Unit, Methods of Analysis
In the sections above, I discussed the characteristics of discourse modes. A narrator uses several discourse modes to build up his story, switching regularly between modes as his story progresses. A chain of states of affairs that is presented in the same discourse mode and from the same temporal position is referred to in this book by means of the term sequence. A new sequence starts when there is a change in the temporal relation between the narrator and the states of affairs or when the discourse mode changes. A change in discourse mode occurs when there is a change in how a state of affairs is connected to the preceding state of affairs. I will illustrate this by means of the analysis of a somewhat longer excerpt taken from the first book of the Aeneid. The excerpt starts when Aeneas has just arrived at the building site of Dido’s city and exclaims how happy the people of Carthage are. In the excerpt, Dido’s temple is introduced into the narrative, and the narrator tells about Aeneas’ reactions to the depictions on its wall. An overview of the analysis is given in table 5 below. The first sequence of the excerpt is presented as pseudo-simultaneous narrative, with an embedded direct speech. (13) ‘o fortunati, quorum iam moenia surgunt!’ Aeneas ait, et fastigia suspicit urbis. Infert se saeptus nebula, mirabile dictu, per medios, miscetque uiris, neque cernitur ulli. 1.437–440
“Happy they whose walls already rise!” cries Aeneas, lifting his eyes towards the city roofs. Veiled in a cloud, he enters—wondrous to tell— through their midst, and mingles with the people, seen by none! The sequence following Aeneas’ exclamation starts with Aeneas ait and ends with cernitur ulli. The present tense forms in this sequence denote events and situations that take place in reference time and follow each other in time. The next state of affairs, Lucus in urbe fuit media, marks the start of a new sequence, in another discourse mode. (14) Lucus in urbe fuit media, laetissimus umbra, quo primum iactati undis et turbine Poeni effodere loco signum, quod regia Iuno
36
chapter 2
monstrarat, caput acris equi; sic nam fore bello egregiam et facilem uictu per saecula gentem. 1.441–445
Amid the city was a grove, luxuriant in shade, the spot where first the Phoenicians, tossed by waves and whirlwind, dug up the token which queenly Juno had pointed out, a head of the spirited horse; for thus was the race to be famous in war and rich in substance through the ages. There is no temporal relation (expressed) between the state of affairs fuit and that of cernitur, meaning that the pseudo-simultaneously narrated sequence has ended and that a new sequence has started. The start of a new sequence and the change of discourse mode are also indicated, in my opinion, by the word order of this clause in which the new element lucus has been given a prominent place and explicitly marks a change in (grammatical) subject. The discourse mode of this new sequence can be decided by analyzing the next state of affairs and its relation (if any) to the previous and following states of affairs. The state of affairs under analysis is the perfect tense form fuit. The perfect tense here expresses that the narrator introduces a lucus into the story from his own point in time. Also the next state of affairs, the perfect tense form effodere, is presented in its individual anterior relation to the time of narration, without expressing any temporal (or spatial) relation with fuit. This means that fuit and effodere form a reported sequence, presented from a base in the time of narration.38 The pluperfect tense form monstrarat in the relative clause sequence presents the state of affairs in relation to signum. That is, the state of affairs is connected to the rest of the text because it characterizes the element signum, the antedecent of the relative quod. The relative clause is, therefore, a short excursion to the information mode.39 The spatial adverb hic at the start of verse 446 makes clear the relation between the reported sequence of fuit and effodere and this new sequence, of which condebat is the first state of affairs. It indicates that condebat is spatially connected to the preceding sequence (as well as, as it will turn out, surgebant and stridebat) and, therefore, the discourse mode of this sequence is description. 38
39
This relative clause is not presented in the information mode. In that case, the pluperfect tense would have been used, rather than the perfect tense form effodere. The relative clause is in this excerpt not presented in its anterior relation to lucus (information), but in its anterior relation to the moment of narration (report). Relative clauses are often short excursions to another discourse mode.
latin tenses in narrative texts
37
(15) hic templum Iunoni ingens Sidonia Dido condebat, donis opulentum et numine diuae, aerea cui gradibus surgebant limina, nexaeque aere trabes, foribus cardo stridebat aënis. 1.446–449
Here Sidonian Dido was founding to Juno a mighty temple, rich in gifts and the presence of the goddess. Brazen was its threshold uprising on steps; bronze plates were its lintel beams, on doors of bronze creaked the hinges. The adverb hic at the start of the new sequence functions, as it does on other occasions, as a “pivot” between two sequences in different discourse modes, in this case the report mode and the description mode. It is here used to indicate that the narrator is still discussing the same grove, but rather than reporting about its existence, he locates a temple in this grove and describes it. The states of affairs of condebat, surgebant and stridebat are all presented as situations and, as they all describe different parts of the temple, they are spatially connected. The imperfect tense forms express a retrospective temporal relation between the narrator and this sequence. To summarize, the sequence is presented in the retrospective description mode. The pronoun hoc (hoc in luco) at the start of the next verse, then, seems to announce the start of another new sequence (cf. Bolkestein 2000: 121 f., Kroon 2011). This is confirmed by the perfect tense form leniit which does not present a (spatially connected) situation and thus marks that this is a new, nondescriptive sequence. Further analysis of this state of affairs and the next (ausus [est]) shows that this is a reported sequence. (16) hoc primum in luco noua res oblata timorem leniit, hic primum Aeneas sperare salutem ausus, et adflictis melius confidere rebus. 1.450–452
In this grove first did a strange sight appear to him and allay his fears; here first did Aeneas dare to hope for safety and put surer trust in his shattered fortunes. The states of affairs of leniit and ausus are not presented in a temporal relation to each other. That is, they do not ‘narrate’ two consecutive events. Instead, the states of affairs are presented in their individual relation to the time of nar-
38
chapter 2
ration, as is further emphasized by the repetition of the adverb primum. The sequence is inserted to evaluate this moment explicitly from the perspective of the time of narration as the first moment in time at which Aeneas could hope for safety. At the same time, it gives rise to an expectation that the following sequence will explain what caused Aeneas to have hope. The start of the next sequence is then marked by the particle namque fulfilling the expectation that an explanatory elaboration will follow. Analysis of this sequence shows that it is presented as pseudo-simultaneous narrative.40 (17) namque sub ingenti lustrat dum singula templo, reginam opperiens, dum, quae fortuna sit urbi, artificumque manus inter se operumque laborem miratur, uidet Iliacas ex ordine pugnas, bellaque iam fama totum uolgata per orbem, Atridas, Priamumque, et saeuum ambobus Achillem. constitit, et lacrimans, ‘Quis iam locus’ inquit ‘Achate, quae regio in terris nostri non plena laboris? en Priamus! Sunt hic etiam sua praemia laudi; sunt lacrimae rerum et mentem mortalia tangunt. solue metus; feret haec aliquam tibi fama salutem.’ sic ait, atque animum pictura pascit inani, multa gemens, largoque umectat flumine uoltum. 1.453–465
For while beneath the mighty temple, awaiting the queen, he scans each object, while he marvels at the city’s fortune, the handicraft of the several artists and the work of their toil, he sees in due order the battles of Ilium, the warfare now known by fame throughout the world, the sons of Atreus, and Priam, and Achilles, fierce in his wrath against both. He stopped and weeping cried: “Is there any place, Achates, any land on earth not full of our sorrow? See, there is Priam! Here, too, virtue finds its due reward; here, too, are tears for misfortune and human sorrows pierce the heart. Dispel your fears; this fame will bring you some salvation.” So he speaks, and feasts his soul on the unsubstantial portraiture, sighing oft, and his face wet with a flood of tears. First, the narrator inserts two dum-clauses to specify the reference time to which he returns in this narrative sequence, after several sequences in other 40
See Kroon (1995: 148 f.) on the use of nam(que) at the start of a narrative sequence.
latin tenses in narrative texts
39
discourse modes. That is, the dum-clauses, together with namque, function to mark the continuation of the main thread of this small excerpt, viz. Aeneas’ admiration of Carthage and its new temple in particular. The situations in the dum-clauses (lustrat and miratur) function as a setting for the consecutive events in which Aeneas sees (uidet) several items on the walls of the temple: the battles of Ilium, the warfare, the sons of Atreus, Priam and, lastly, Achilles. The next state of affairs, the perfect tense form constitit, indicates that this state of affairs has ‘already’ taken place in reference time, as it is presented in its anteriority to inquit, the next event. The event of Aeneas’ short speech is expressed twice (inquit and ait), and the narrated sequence ends with two situations (pascit and umectat). The table below presents the states of affairs of this excerpt again, summarizing my analysis of the types of states of affairs, their relation with the preceding state of affairs, the discourse mode and the temporal relation between narrator and state of affairs. The analysis of the separate finite clauses in this excerpt shows that we can divide the excerpt into five sequences (one of which is briefly interrupted). The main thread of the story, Aeneas’ arrival at Dido’s city and temple, is (mostly) presented as pseudo-simultaneous narrative, while a combination of report and description is used to introduce a new location into the story. Another reported sequence seems to mark the importance of certain events for the story as a whole. I will come back to this in chapter 9, in which I will discuss the functions of the discourse modes in the presentation of the Aeneid, using this excerpt again as a first illustration. The analysis of this episode is included in this chapter to explain the concept of the sequence and to demonstrate the alternation of discourse modes in a longer excerpt. More importantly, the analysis is also meant to illustrate my methods in researching and analyzing the use of tense in Vergil’s Aeneid. An analysis such as the above was made of all finite tense forms and historical infinitives outside direct and indirect speech in the Aeneid.41 I approached the text on the level of finite clauses (main and subordinate), using the meaning of the verb, adverbial clauses and knowledge of the story as a whole to determine how a tense form should be interpreted. That is, I analyzed what type of state of affairs was denoted (e.g. event, situation) and how it was related to the preceding states of affairs. Thus, decisions were made on the boundaries of sequences and on the discourse modes of these sequences.
41
On the linguistic forms and narratological functions of speeches and thoughts in the Aeneid (book 11 and 12), see Adema (2017).
40
chapter 2
table 5
Overview of the analysis of Aeneid 1.437–465
State of affairs
Temporal rela- Type of SoA tion narrator— SoA
Coherence relation
Disc. mode
Aeneas ait fastigia suspicit infert se per medios miscetque uiris neque cernitur ulli
Pseudo-sim. Pseudo-sim. Pseudo-sim. Pseudo-sim. Pseudo-sim.
Event Event Event Event Situation
– Temporal Temporal Temporal Temporal
Narrative
lucus in urbe fuit quo Poeni effodere caput acris equi
Retrospective Retrospective
Anterior to base Anterior to base
To time of N To time of N
Report
quod Iuno monstrarat,
Retrospective
In past of element
To element
Information
hic templum Dido condebat cui surgebant limina, cardo stridebat.
Retrospective Retrospective Retrospective
Situation Situation Situation
Spatial Spatial Spatial
Description
hoc primum timorem leniit, hic primum Aeneas sperare salute ausus, et confidere.
Retrospective Retrospective
Anterior to base Anterior to base
To time of N To time of N
Report
namque lustrat dum singula, dum, … artificumque manus inter se operumque laborem miratur uidet Iliacas ex ordine pugnas, bellaque, Atridas, Priamumque, et Achillem. constitit, ‘Quis iam locus’ inquit’
Pseudo-sim. Pseudo-sim.
Situation ituation
– Temporal
Narrative
Pseudo-sim.
Event(s)
Temporal
Pseudo-sim. Pseudo-sim.
Anterior event Event
Temporal Temporal
sic ait, animum pictura pascit umectat uoltum.
Pseudo-sim. Pseudo-sim. Pseudo-sim.
Event Situation Situation
– Temporal Temporal
Narrative
Then, the temporal relation between the narrator and the sequence could, in general, be easily recognized. The numbers in this study are based on this analysis and indicate how often a certain interpretation of a tense occurs in the Aeneid.42 I hope that the ensu-
42
Although I did, of course, make use of database software to store and analyze my data, my
latin tenses in narrative texts
41
ing chapters will further explain my methods of analysis in such a way that my decisions on the interpretations of tense forms are identifiable. The numbers give a first insight into the way the narrator of the Aeneid has brought about a sophisticated manipulation of narrative progression at the level of the sequence as well as on the level of the text as a whole. Although in some cases the analysis of a state of affairs or a sequence may depend on my particular interpretation of the passage, this interpretation was, of course, always checked in several commentaries and translations. Above all, in most cases a self-evident interpretation of a verb form emerges when one combines the semantic value of the verb, adverbial clauses and knowledge of the story as a whole. In a few cases, the use of tense might be the only factor from which we can derive the discourse mode and in even less cases, the discourse mode cannot be unequivocally determined. In most cases, however, the discourse mode can be recognized independently from the tenses used. It is in the latter cases that we can learn something about the interaction between tense and context, and the role of tense usage in the structure and presentation of a narrative text.
5
Conclusions
In this chapter I have introduced a framework based on narratological, linguistic and text linguistic concepts that I will use in the rest of this book to present the various interpretations of each tense, as occurring in Vergil’s Aeneid. The framework contains concepts to describe the meaning of tense forms on the sentence level (their semantic value). These are the time of speaking, orientation moments, anteriority, simultaneity and posteriority as presented in the work of Pinkster (1983, 1990, 2015). In addition, I make use of the concepts of the bases of a speaker, four narratological temporal relations (retrospective, posterior, simultaneous and pseudo-simultaneous) and displaced immediacy. Secondly, the framework contains concepts to analyze narrative temporal progression. Thirdly, I make use of a set of four discourse modes, viz. narrative, description, report and information. The framework will be helpful in unraveling the interaction between the semantic value of a Latin tense form and the context in which it occurs. The approach is not an approach that would fall under the heading of digital humanities. Valuable research on Latin tenses and text structure is done by means of digital corpora (see for instance Longrée and Mellet 2017), but for the purposes of my research digital methods did not (yet) suffice and the analysis by a Latin linguist was necessary.
42
chapter 2
next chapters are each dedicated to a specific tense and the interpretations of these tenses as occurring in the Aeneid (including the historical infinitive). Furthermore, the framework is specifically useful to show the interrelation between interpretations of different tenses (e.g. the praesens historicum and the perfectum pro plusquamperfecto), while also providing insight into the role of tenses in the structure and presentation of the Aeneid. I will come back to these last two possibilities of the framework more specifically in chapter 9, which discusses the outcomes of my research on the level of the sequence and gives an introductory account of the use of discourse modes in Vergil’s Aeneid.
chapter 3
Praesens The present tense is the tense that one could call the most versatile tense form within the Latin tense system. The examples below illustrate the uses of the Latin present tense that are most commonly observed in grammars and literature.1 According to these, the present tense is used in Latin to denote states of affairs that coincide with the moment of utterance (example (1)), states of affairs that take place in the speaker’s present in a somewhat wider sense (example (2)) and states of affairs that are valid at all times, i.e. universal truths (example (3)). The present tense is observed to be used for past states of affairs that are part of stories (example (4)).2 Also, grammars commonly give examples of present tense forms indicating states of affairs that will take place in the future (example (5)). (1) ecce autem gemini a Tenedo tranquilla per alta (horresco referens) immensis orbibus angues incumbunt pelago pariterque ad litora tendunt; 2.203–205
And lo! From Tenedos, over the peaceful depths—I shudder as I speak— a pair of serpents with endless coils are breasting the sea and side by side making for the shore. (2) saxum antiquum ingens, … uix illum lecti bis sex ceruice subirent, qualia nunc hominum producit corpora tellus; 12.897–900
An ancient stone …, twice six chosen men could scarce lift it on their shoulders, men of such frames as earth now produces. 1 These interpretations of the present tense can be found in grammars such as Kühner-Stegmann, 1912: II.1 114–122; Leumann-Hofmann-Szantyr 1972: 305; Pinkster 1990: 224; Mellet et al. 1994: 21. See also e.g. Pinkster 1998a, 1999, Viti 2010. 2 The use of the present tense for past states of affairs is referred to in the literature by means of the term praesens historicum, historical present or narrative present. I will refer to this phenomenon as the historical present by which I mean to refer to the use of the present tense to denote a state of affairs taking place in the reference time of a story.
© koninklijke brill nv, leiden, 2019 | doi:10.1163/9789004383258_0
44
chapter 3
(3) improbe Amor, quid non mortalia pectora cogis! 4.412
O relentless Love, to what do you not drive the hearts of men. (4) extemplo Aeneae soluuntur frigore membra; 1.92
Straightaway Aeneas’ limbs weaken with chilling dread; (5) mox illos sua fata manent maiore sub hoste. 10.438
Each has his own fate awaiting him soon beneath a greater foe. As the examples illustrate, the present tense is used in all these ways in Vergil’s Aeneid. Moreover, the list of possible interpretations of present tense forms in the Aeneid is even longer. This chapter discusses all these interpretations of the present tense in relation to the type of context in which they occur. I aim to show that the present tense has just one semantic value and that it is the type of context that brings about a specific interpretation of the verb form. In narrative contexts, the meaning of the verb plays a role in the progression of the narrative. As explained in chapter 2, the different types of context occurring within (narrative) texts are in this book analyzed by means of several discourse modes. This chapter discusses the interpretations of present tense forms according to the discourse modes to which they are related. This means that the chapter has a section on pseudo-simultaneous narrative (2), simultaneous and pseudosimultaneous description (3), report from a base in the time of narration or reference time (4) and information from a base in the time of narration or reference time (5).3 The most important interpretations of the present tense in these discourse modes are summed up in table 6.
3 The retrospective narrative mode is not discussed in this chapter because the present tense does not occur in this mode, present tense forms in dum-clauses excepted (16 instances). In other Latin narrative texts than the Aeneid, the present tense is also used in sequences that are presented as retrospective narratives. In Livy, for instance, isolated present tense forms occur within a retrospective sequence (Adema 2009). The present tense attracts the attention of the reader in these sentences because it is the only present tense form in an environment of past tenses. This creates the foregrounding effect which has long been recognized in the case of
45
praesens table 6
3.2
Discourse modes and interpretations of the present tense in the Aeneid
Pseudo-simultaneous narrative
3.3.1 3.3.2 3.4.1 3.4.2 3.5.1 3.5.2 3.5.3
Event, situation, frame or starting situation in reference time, temporally related to other state(s) of affairs (historical present and annalistic present) Pseudo-simultaneous Situation in time of narration, spatially related to description other state(s) of affairs (historical present) Ambiguous description Situation in time of narration and/or in reference time, spatially related to other state(s) of affairs Report from a base in State of affairs contemporaneous with time of narratime of narration tion (actual present) Report from a base in State of affairs contemporaneous with reference reference time time (historical present) Information from a base Characteristic of element existing in time of narrain time of narration tion (actual, generalizing or universal present) Information from a base Characteristic of element existing in reference time in reference time (historical present) Similes, specific type of Characteristic of element existing in time of narrainformation tion (generalizing present)
Before discussing the interpretations above and explaining how they result from the interaction between context, meaning of the verb and semantic value of the present tense, I need to discuss the semantic value of the present tense. I will do so in the next section, arguing that the present tense has just one semantic value, viz. expressing contemporaneity to the base of the speaker (narrator). Contrary to the opinion of some scholars, I do not see the present tense as an unmarked tense form and a ‘temporal wild card’ (translation of French “joker temporel”). The next section is intended to show that the present tense, despite the many roles it may fulfil, cannot be used for simply any type of state of affairs. Focusing on its use as a historical (or narrative) tense, I argue that all present tense forms are contemporaneous with ‘now’, whatever ‘now’ the narrator has chosen.
these isolated present tense forms (e.g. Chausserie-Laprée (1969: 372f.), Fleischman (1991b); Adam (1998)). Cf. also Sicking and Stork (1997) for a similar view on the historical present in ancient Greek. Note that in some studies the term historical present is restricted to isolated occurrences of a present tense form referring to the past, whereas the term narrative present refers to sequences of present tense forms (e.g. Fludernik 2003).
46
chapter 3
The present tense is, by far, the most frequent tense in the Aeneid. My analysis of the tenses in the Aeneid includes 5794 indicative tense forms and (historical) infinitives, and 3559 of these tense forms are presents (61 %).
1
Semantic Value of the Present Tense
According to Pinkster (1990: 224, 2015:395), the present tense denotes a state of affairs that is contemporaneous with the moment of speaking or, more precisely, to the speaker’s communicative situation (Pinkster 1999: 709). I adopt his view in this study, making one further specification: the Latin present tense denotes that a state of affairs is contemporaneous with the base of the speaker (cf. Fauconnier 1985, Cutrer 1994). In several languages, present tense forms often do not refer to the ‘actual hic et nunc’ of the speaker. We find such present tense forms in recipes, stage directions, synopses et cetera (Langacker 2001: 269). The function of the present tense is the same in all these environments: the speaker indicates that the state of affairs expressed by the present tense takes place in what he has chosen to be his base (Pinkster 1983, 1990; Cutrer 1994; Langacker 2001). This base may vary, according to the context. In recipes, for instance, the base can be seen as the point in time at which the addressee is supposed to prepare the food.4 A different view of the (Latin) present tense is based on a division of tense forms into morphologically marked and unmarked tense forms (e.g. Serbat 1976, Mellet et al. 1994, Touratier 1994). In this view, the present tense has no semantic temporal value, since it is not morphologically marked for tense: the present tense does not have a morpheme to mark its temporal meaning like the imperfect tense, for instance, has in the -ba-morpheme. Mellet et al. (1994: 43) argue that the present tense is a non-temporal form which does not in itself refer to past, present or future and which may, therefore, be used to refer to all three. They propose that the morphological unmarkedness of the present tense parallels a temporal unmarkedness, concluding that the present tense is a ‘temporal wild card’ ( joker temporal). A strong argument against Mellet’s position is given by Pinkster (1998a), who shows that the historical present may not replace all perfect and imperfect tense forms in a narrative. Pinkster’s view is corroborated if we look at the use of the present tense in the Aeneid. What the interpretations of the present tense forms in the Aeneid
4 Or, even, the time at which the addressee imagines to prepare the food (Langacker 2001: 269).
47
praesens
all have in common is that the states of affairs are contemporaneous with the base, whether this base is positioned in the time of narration or in reference time. In this section, I focus on the use of tenses in pseudo-simultaneous narrative, further substantiating Pinkster’s view that the present tense denotes contemporaneity with the base. In pseudo-simultaneous narrative, the base is reference time. This means that the present tense should only denote states of affairs in pseudo-simultaneous narrative that are contemporaneous with reference time. The examples in this section are meant to demonstrate that if a state of affairs is not contemporaneous with reference time in pseudo-simultaneous narrative, the narrator of the Aeneid indeed does not use the present tense. First, I discuss several types of states of affairs that are, by definition, finished in reference time (examples (6) to (8)). The narrator of the Aeneid does not tend to use the present tense for these states of affairs, but prefers the perfect tense. Then, I present an analysis of a narrative sequence in which the present tense is alternated with the perfect and imperfect tense (example (10)). The contrast in the use between the perfect and present tense of the verb audire in pseudo-simultaneously narrated sequences provides an argument for the idea that the present tense is not a temporal wildcard. The present tense form audit is used only when the event of hearing is contemporaneous with reference time, while the perfect tense form audiit is used to express that a character had already heard something in reference time. Example (6) illustrates the use of the perfect tense of audire and example (7) the use of its present tense. In example (6), we find the perfect tense of audire when a sound (clamor) has already been made and narrated after Dido’s suicide. First the narrator tells how the wails and screams evoked by Dido’s death spread throughout the city, and then he switches to Anna. (6) … it clamor ad alta atria: concussam bacchatur Fama per urbem. lamentis gemituque et femineo ululatu tecta fremunt, resonat magnis plangoribus aether, non aliter quam si immissis ruat hostibus omnis Karthago aut antiqua Tyros, flammaeque furentes culmina perque hominum uoluantur perque deorum. audiit exanimis trepidoque exterrita cursu unguibus ora soror foedans et pectora pugnis per medios ruit, ac morientem nomine clamat: 4.665–674
48
chapter 3
A scream rises to the lofty roof; Rumour riots through the stricken city. The palace rings with lamentation, with sobbing and women’s shrieks, and heaven echoes with loud wails—as though all Carthage or ancient Tyre were falling before the inrushing foe, and fierce flames were rolling on over the roofs of men, over the roofs of gods. Swooning, her sister heard, and in dismay rushes through the throng, tearing her face with her nails, and beating her breast with her fists, as she calls on the dying woman by name. The perfect tense form audiit and the present tense forms ruit (-que) and clamat (ac) occur in the same sentence and describe the same reference time: Anna has at this point in time already heard the sounds and is rushing to Dido’s bedroom.5 As is the case with this perfect tense form, all perfect tense forms of audire in pseudo-simultaneous sequences occur when a sound or speech has already been uttered, mentioned or implied in the text.6 They express a change of perspective, renarrating a sound from the viewpoint of a hearer. This is a very interesting difference with present tense forms of the verb audire. Present tense forms of audire do not occur after the presentation of a sound, but are used only when the sound has not yet been mentioned, as is illustrated in example (7).7 Nisus is wandering in a forest and hears sounds that are only now introduced into the story (in contrast to the clamor of example (6)). (7) … rursus perplexum iter omne reuoluens fallacis siluae simul et uestigia retro obseruata legit dumisque silentibus errat. audit equos, audit strepitus et signa sequentum; 9.391–394
At the same time he scans and retraces his footsteps, and wanders in the silent thickets. He hears the horses, hears the shouts and signals of pursuit. 5 The observation of Kühner-Stegmann (cf. also Mack 1978: 48) that a perfect tense form often indicates the cause for a following state of affairs in the present tense holds, of course, for this example as well: it is because Anna hears the screams that she runs towards the castle. This relation of cause and effect is a specific interpretation of the relation of anteriority. 6 The other examples of the perfect tense of audire in pseudo-simultaneous narrative are found in 7.516, 10.424, 10.464, 11.911, 12.449. 7 The other examples of the present tense of audire in pseudo-simultaneous narrative are found in 2.706, 3.40, 3.556, 8.312.
49
praesens
We might say that present tense forms of audire govern objects that introduce a sound into the story, whereas in the case of perfect tense forms the sound has been mentioned earlier. This difference in the use between the perfect and the present tense of the verb audire supports the idea that the present tense can only indicate that a state of affairs is contemporaneous with reference time in pseudo-simultaneous narrative. The idea is also supported by other states of affairs that are, by their nature, finished in reference time. These are, for instance, the states of affairs that indicate the end of direct speech (e.g. dixerat, dixit, haec ubi dicta, example (8)) or states of affairs that occur in clauses with postquam. In these types of clauses, tenses other than the present are preferred, as the next examples illustrate. At the end of direct speech, the perfect tense is preferred to the present tense to indicate that the speech is finished, even when other states of affairs in its environment are presented by present tense forms (Adema 2005).8 In these cases the perfect tense (e.g. dixit) indeed indicates that the speech has come to an end. The state of affairs of speaking is no longer contemporaneous with reference time, but (now) anterior to it (see chapter 3). After the perfect tense form that concludes the direct speech, the story often continues with present tense forms, as is illustrated by the sequence of dixit and eripit in the example below. (8) Tum uero Aeneas subitis exterritus umbris corripit e somno corpus sociosque fatigat praecipitis: “uigilate, uiri, … sidera caelo dextra feras.” dixit uaginaque eripit ensem fulmineum strictoque ferit retinacula ferro. idem omnis simul ardor habet, rapiuntque ruuntque; litora deseruere, latet sub classibus aequor, adnixi torquent spumas et caerula uerrunt. 4.571–583
8 Only nine of the 333 speeches in the Aeneid are concluded with a verbum dicendi in the present tense. In six of these nine instances, the use of the present tense may be explained by the fact that the narrator pretends that more was said than he actually quotes (cf. Laird 1999: 89). These present tense forms occur in 1.630; 1.208; 1.410; 6.98; 8.79; 9.232. See Adema (2005) for a more elaborate discussion and an explanation of the three other present tense forms concluding direct speech (5.869–6.2; 10.907; 11.718).
50
chapter 3
table 7
Tense Present Perfect Imperfect Pluperfect
Tenses in subordinate clauses introduced by postquam or (temporal) ut/ubi
Postquam
Ut
Ubi
4 22
3 60 1 2
1 35
Then indeed Aeneas, scared by the sudden vision, tears himself from sleep and bestirs his comrades. “Make haste, my men, … in the sky vouchsafe kindly stars!” He spoke, and from its sheath snatches his flashing sword and strikes the hawser with the drawn blade. The same zeal catches all at once; with hurry and scurry they have quitted the shore; the sea is hidden under their fleets; lustily they churn the foam and sweep the blue waters. From the point of view of reference time, the state of affairs dicere is finished when the last word ( feras) is uttered. It can, therefore, only be presented as anterior to the reference time which follows upon the reference time of the speech. This anteriority is expressed by means of the perfect tense.9 States of affairs that occur in combination with conjunctions such as postquam are, like states of affairs expressing the end of a speech, anterior to reference time. Therefore, one expects the use of the perfect tense and not that of the present tense in such clauses. As table 7 shows, the perfect tense is indeed the tense that is used most often in postquam-, and (temporal) ut/ubi-clauses. At the same time, the table shows that I have also found several present tense forms in these clauses, however.10 These present tense forms denote states of affairs which might seem anterior to reference time, but are, in fact, contempo-
9
10
This ‘conclusive’ use of the perfect is comparable to the use of the participle perfect and the pluperfect at the end of speeches. Pinkster (1999: 707) mentions that the perfect may be equivalent to a pluperfect when the narrative is presented by means of the present tense. Please note that the perfect deseruere in example (8) is used in a way similar to the use of dixit. During the reference time following the reference time of ruunt the men had already left the coast. The present tense is combined with postquam in 3.38, 3.518 and 12.861; with (temporal) ubi in 11.703 and with (temporal) ut in 12.2, 12.218 and 12.595.
51
praesens
raneous with reference time. A temporal conjunction such as postquam seems to emphasize that the start of the state of affairs is anterior to reference time, whereas the state of affairs itself continues in reference time, as in example (9).11 Palinurus gives the sign that it is safe to sail out, postquam uidet. (9) haud segnis strato surgit Palinurus et omnis explorat uentos atque auribus aëra captat; sidera cuncta notat tacito labentia caelo, Arcturum pluuiasque Hyadas geminosque Triones, armatumque auro circumspicit Oriona. postquam cuncta uidet caelo constare sereno, dat clarum e puppi signum; nos castra mouemus temptamusque uiam et uelorum pandimus alas. 3.513–520
Palinurus springs, alert, from his couch, tries all the winds, and with eager ear catches the breeze; he marks all the stars gliding in the silent sky, Arcturus, the rainy Hyades, and the twin Bears, and he scans Orion, girt with golden armour. When he sees that all is calm in a cloudless sky, he gives a loud signal from the stern; we break up camp, venture on our way, and spread the wings of our sails. In my opinion, postquam uidet here denotes that the instantaneous event of ‘first catching sight’ is anterior to reference time, hence postquam, whereas the activity which follows, i.e. seeing, is contemporaneous with reference time, hence the present tense.12 Summing up, the present tense indeed seems to denote contemporaneity with reference time in pseudo-simultaneous narrative. If the narrator wishes to express states of affairs that are not contemporaneous with reference time, he uses other tenses. This can be substantiated further by analyzing a short narrative sequence from the first book of the Aeneid, displaying an alterna-
11
12
The use of the adverb iamdudum in combination with the present tense yields a similar interpretation: the combination with the present tense emphasizes both that the state of affairs was going on before reference time and that it is still going on in reference time. This adverb is combined with a present tense form in 4.362 and 11.837. It is more often combined with a participle (e.g. 5.513) or adjective (saucia in 4.1), or an imperfect tense form (e.g. 1.581). Cf. Vendler (1967: 113 ff.) on this ambiguity of the concept seeing. With one exception (3.38) the other cases are verbs of seeing as well.
52
chapter 3
tion between present tense, perfect tense and imperfect tense. The perfect and imperfect tense, are used when the narrator tells about states of affairs that do not take place in reference time.13 (10) Aeneas scopulum interea conscendit, et omnem prospectum late pelago petit, Anthea si quem iactatum uento uideat Phrygiasque biremis, aut Capyn aut celsis in puppibus arma Caici. nauem in conspectu nullam, tris litore ceruos prospicit errantis; hos tota armenta sequuntur a tergo, et longum per uallis pascitur agmen. constitit hic, arcumque manu celerisque sagittas corripuit, fidus quae tela gerebat Achates; ductoresque ipsos primum, capita alta ferentis cornibus arboreis, sternit, tum uulgus, … 1.180–190
Meanwhile Aeneas climbs a peak and he takes a searching view all round, far over the sea, if he may but see aught of a storm-tossed Antheus and his Phrygian galleys, or of Capys or the arms of Caïcus on the high stern. There is no ship in sight; he descries three stags straying on the shore; whole herds follow behind these and in long line graze down the valley. Thereon he stopped and seized in his hand his bow and swift arrows, the arms borne by faithful Achates; and first he lays low the leaders themselves, their heads held high with branching antlers, then routs the herd and all the common sort, … The sequence starts when Aeneas climbs a mountain on the coast of Carthage. The verb forms conscendit, petit and prospicit are three events that each take place in their own reference time: Aeneas climbs a mountain, takes a searching view and discerns three stags.14 The present tense forms sequuntur and pascitur denote situations taking place in the reference time of prospicit. All in all,
13
14
This narrative sequence will be analyzed more thoroughly below, where I will explain how the interpretations of a particular present tense form as an event, situation or starting situation is brought about. Conscendit can be a perfect tense form or a present tense form, we simply cannot tell. I have interpreted it as a present tense form here, analogous to petit. Interea occurs more often with a present tense form in the Aeneid than with a perfect tense form (on 28 as opposed to 7 occassions).
praesens
53
the present tense forms in this sequence are, each in their own way, contemporaneous with reference time and, thus, with the base. In the next line, the sequence of present tense forms is interrupted by two perfect tense forms and one imperfect tense form. Our interpretation of these past tenses is influenced by the preceding use of the present tense forms (Pinkster 1999, Mack 1978: 38). The states of affairs of constitit and corripuit should be read as events anterior to (a new) reference time. The states of affairs imply that the narrator has shifted to a new reference time, in which Aeneas has already come to a halt and has seized his weapons. Present tense forms would not have evoked the same interpretation and the narrator has used perfect tense forms to express that these states of affairs are not contemporaneous with reference time. The state of affairs of Achates gerebat is also not contemporaneous with reference time, as we can easily derive from world knowledge. Since Aeneas has already taken his weapons, Achates can no longer carry them. A present tense form would have been in contradiction with this (story) world knowledge, while the imperfect tense indeed expresses that this situation took place before reference time. The last state of affairs of the quoted sequence is sternit. This event in the present tense is contemporaneous with the reference time to which constitit, corripuit and gerebat are anterior. The narrative sequence illustrates that the present tense is not used for every type of state of affairs in a narrative sequence. It is used for states of affairs (events, situations etc.) taking place in reference time, but not for events and situations that took place in the past of reference time. In this section, I have demonstrated that when the present tense is chosen as the basic narrative tense, there is a restriction in its use. In pseudo-simultaneous narrative, the present tense is used to describe only those states of affairs that are indeed contemporaneous with reference time.15 The present tense is not used when a state of affairs is not contemporaneous with reference time. This means that the present tense is used in line with its semantic value, and that it is not a ‘temporal wild card’ that can be used for any type of state of affairs on the time line of the story. The remaining sections of this chapter discuss
15
That is, reference time functions as the base. The use of reference time as a base is also reflected in the use of the present subjunctive in indirect speech. In the Aeneid, the historical present almost always governs subordinate clauses with present or perfect subjunctives rather than imperfect or pluperfect subjunctives respectively (cf. Kühner-Stegmann 1912: II.2 176). The base in reference time is used as a vantage point for the other tenses in the Aeneid as well, as the following chapters will show (cf. Ricoeur 1985: 88–93; 1988: 260).
54
chapter 3
how the semantic value of the present tense interacts with verb meaning and discourse mode, bringing about a particular interpretation of a present tense form.
2
Pseudo-simultaneous Narrative
A Latin present tense form may refer to a state of affairs in the past of the speaker and this interpretation of the present tense, traditionally labelled as the praesens historicum, should be given to most present tense forms in the Aeneid (direct speech excluded). In total, 2984 indicative present tense forms in the Aeneid should be assigned a historical interpretation, out of 3559 indicative present tense forms. As explained in the previous chapter, the historically used present tense expresses a pseudo-simultaneous relation between the state of affairs and the time of narration. That is, the narrator communicates that the state of affairs is taking place in an artificial ‘now’, the current reference time of his story. The subject of this section are the historical presents that are part of narrated sequences (including annalistic presents), i.e. the pseudo-simultaneous narrative mode. This covers the majority of historical presents in the Aeneid (93%, 2777 instances), but the next sections will show that the historical interpretation should also be given to present tense forms occurring in other modes. In narrative modes, states of affairs are presented with respect to their temporal and/or causal relation, in such a way that they form a (more or less) chronological account of what happened in the subsequent reference times of a story. Narrative modes display a rather rich variety in types of states of affairs, each expressing a specific temporal relation to the reference time and, thereby, a temporal relation to each other. A narrated sequence may contain events, situations, frames, situations starting in reference time and events and situations that took place before reference time (see chapter 2). In the Aeneid, present tense forms denote four of these types of states of affairs, to wit events, situations, frames and starting situations.16 The interpretation of a present tense form as either an event, situation, frame or starting situation is brought about by the meaning of the verb and 16
Pinkster (1983: 315) states that such differences as exist between perfect and imperfect are neutralized if the historical present is used. I hope to show in this section that we may distinguish between present tense events, present tense situations and present tense starting situations, basing our analysis on both the telicity of the predicate frame and the context. See also Schwartz (2002: 18) for a discussion of this point.
55
praesens
its complements, and in some cases by the occurrence of an adverbial clause or world knowledge. This may be illustrated by means of the excerpt quoted as example (10) in the previous section. There, I classified the verb forms conscendit, prospicit, and sternit as events, sequuntur and pascitur as situations, and omnem prospectum petit as a starting situation without further explanation or arguments. The excerpt is here repeated as example (11). (11) Aeneas scopulum interea conscendit, et omnem prospectum late pelago petit, Anthea si quem iactatum uento uideat Phrygiasque biremis, aut Capyn aut celsis in puppibus arma Caici. nauem in conspectu nullam, tris litore ceruos prospicit errantis; hos tota armenta sequuntur a tergo, et longum per uallis pascitur agmen. constitit hic, arcumque manu celerisque sagittas corripuit, fidus quae tela gerebat Achates; ductoresque ipsos primum, capita alta ferentis cornibus arboreis, sternit, tum uolgus, … 1.180–190
Meanwhile Aeneas climbs a peak and he takes a searching view all round, far over the sea, if he may but see aught of a storm-tossed Antheus and his Phrygian galleys, or of Capys or the arms of Caïcus on the high stern. There is no ship in sight; he descries three stags straying on the shore; whole herds follow behind these and in a long line graze down the valley. Thereon he stopped and seized in his hand his bow and swift arrows, the arms borne by faithful Achates; and first he lays low the leaders themselves, their heads held high with branching antlers, then routs the herd and all the common sort, … The events conscendit, prospicit, and sternit in example (11) are interpreted as such because they have telic predicate frames.17 A predicate frame is telic when
17
The term predicate frame refers to the verb and its arguments (cf. Pinkster 1990: 221ff.). A telic predicate frame has a natural endpoint (a telos in Greek). Telicity may also be assigned to verbs or even verb roots (cf. Oldsjö 2001: 156), but I think it is more relevant to contrast the telicity of a predicate frame as it occurs in the text with the duration of the state of affairs with respect to reference time. Therefore, I have analyzed the telicity of each predicate frame as it occurs in the text. In this way, the possible influence of a specific tense on the type of a state of affairs becomes clear.
56
chapter 3
it has an inherent endpoint, which in the case of Aeneas scopulum conscendit, for instance, is the reaching of the summit.18 The predicate frame of tris ceruos prospicit is also telic, not so much because it has a clear endpoint, but rather because it is instantaneous. It only takes one moment to catch sight of stags.19 The combination of the present tense and a telic predicate frame has a seemingly paradoxical effect in a narrative sequence.20 The present tense denotes that the state of affairs is taking place in reference time, the base, whereas the telicity of the predicate frame evokes the interpretation of an event, a bounded state of affairs. But, how can a state of affairs be both bounded and be taking place ‘now’? I would say that the narrative environment suggests that one state of affairs will be followed by another state of affairs and, thus, evokes the expectation that this state of affairs will be accomplished very soon (i.e. in this reference time) and come to an end.21 Therefore, it is interpreted as an event. In the Aeneid, the combination of a present tense form and a telic predicate frame always seems to denote a felicitous state of affairs in pseudosimultaneous narratives.22 That is, when the present tense is used, the next clause never indicates that the state of affairs did not come to an end.23 The 18
19 20
21
22
23
In terms of Vendler (1967), this predicate frame denotes an accomplishment in that it has a natural endpoint and takes some time. For a discussion of the terms Aktionsart, lexical aspect and grammatical aspect see Boogaart (2004). Cf. also Pinkster (1983: 280ff.; 1990: 21 ff.) and Dik (1997: 105 ff.). In terms of Vendler (1967), this predicate frame denotes an achievement, a momentary change of one state into another. This effect seems to occur in both pseudo-simultaneous narrative and in genuinely simultaneous narrative. It is irrelevant to distinguish between bounded and unbounded states of affairs in the case of other present tense forms. In report, for instance, a state of affairs occurring ‘now’ is unbounded with respect to this ‘now’, whether its end point is clear or not. This is a (very subtle) difference between pseudo-simultaneous narrative and retrospective narrative. In retrospective narrative, the perfect tense denotes events, indicating that the events took place in the past and are therefore bounded. A present tense form of a telic verb only implies boundedness, an implication due to the combination of a telic predicate frame and the narrative character of the sequence. See Pinkster (2015: 410) and Kühner-Stegmann (1912: 2.1.121), however, for examples of the so-called praesens de conatu. These examples occur in non-narrative contexts or concern the use of the present tense in a dum-clause. This might be the basis for the often expressed idea that the historical present cannot replace the imperfect tense (Quinn 1968: 93; Palmer 1977: 306). Kühner-Stegmann do not seem to state explicitly that the present cannot replace an imperfect tense, but they only mention the alternation of perfect and present, leaving the imperfect tense out of their discussion of the historical present (114.2 ff.). Pinkster (1990: 240ff.) states that the “historic present predominantly occurs in predications where a perfect would also have been possible”, but emphasizes that this is not always the case (cf. also Pinkster 1983: 310). As
57
praesens
narrator has means other than the present tense to express states of affairs that fail to reach their natural endpoint (viz. the historical infinitive). The interpretation of a present tense clause as an event is not always due to a telic predicate frame, but it can also be evoked by means of an adverbial clause that indicates the duration of the state of affairs.24 The adverbial clause then pushes the state of affairs into a bounded time slot, as it were. A present tense form of the verb silere, for instance, would normally not indicate an event, but silet in the example below occurs in combination with bis senos dies. The explicit time slot bis senos dies brings about the interpretation that silet and also recusat are events in this narrative sequence. (12) hic Ithacus uatem magno Calchanta tumultu protrahit in medios; quae sint ea numina diuum flagitat. et mihi iam multi crudele canebant artificis scelus, et taciti uentura uidebant. bis quinos silet ille dies tectusque recusat prodere uoce sua quemquam aut opponere morti. uix tandem, magnis Ithaci clamoribus actus, composito rumpit uocem et me destinat arae. 2.122–129
On this the Ithacan with loud clamour drags the seer Calchas into their midst and demands what this is that the gods will. And now many predicated that I was the target of the schemer’s cruel crime and silently saw what was to come. Twice five days is the seer silent in his tent, refusing to denounce any by his lips or to consign to death. Reluctantly, at last, forced by the Ithacan’s loud cries, even as agreed he breaks into utterance and dooms me to the altar. When analyzed as explained above, 1468 present tense forms denote events in the Aeneid. This is 41% of all indicative present tense forms outside direct speech (N = 3559), and 53% of all present tense forms in pseudo-simultaneously narrated sequences (N = 2776). The interpretation as an event on
24
the examples below will show, a present tense form may, in fact, denote a situation and, therefore, can indeed replace the imperfect tense, albeit in just one of its roles in narrative sequences (cf. chapter 5). Likewise, a telic predicate frame does not necessarily lead to an interpretation as an event. As will be explained below a telic predicate frame denotes a situation when it is combined with a negation, for instance.
58
chapter 3
the timeline of the story is, put briefly, the most common interpretation of a present tense form in the Aeneid. Another substantial amount of the present tense forms in pseudo-simultaneous narrative (and outside it) is made up by situations, to wit 36 % (1016 forms). A present tense form will generally be interpreted as a situation when the predicate frame is atelic, such as the predicate frames of hos tota armenta sequuntur and longum pascitur agmen in example (11) above.25 These predicate frames do not have an inherent end point, as they do not themselves indicate an inevitable point in time in which these deer will stop following their leaders or stop grazing. The situational interpretation may also be evoked in case of a telic predicate frame, for instance when it is combined with a negation (cf. Pinkster 1990: 216).26 A predicate frame may denote an instantaneous change from one state to another and, thus, may be telic, but if this change does not occur, the state of affairs is interpreted as a situation (e.g. nec tantos … furores concipit, 4.502; nec iam amplius ulla occurrit tellus, 5.9). A specific type of situation is a frame. A frame functions to locate the next event in time and place and, thus, provides a background for this event. Frames are rarely presented in the present tense. Only 2 % of the present tense forms in pseudo-simultaneous narrative denote a frame (54 instances), a more usual tense for frames is the imperfect tense. Most of the present tense frames are subordinate clauses with conjunctions such as ubi or dum, like concitat in the example below. First it is described how Turnus exhorts the Rutulians to defend Italy. This is then summarized in the dum-clause to indicate the change from Turnus and his Rutulians to what Allecto is doing in the meantime: the dumclause provides the temporal frame for concitat. (13) haec ubi dicta dedit diuosque in uota uocauit, certatim sese Rutuli exhortantur in arma. hunc decus egregium formae mouet atque iuuentae, hunc ataui reges, hunc claris dextera factis. 25
26
In terms of Vendler (1967), the predicate frames of sequuntur and pascitur denote activities. Activities are, like states, atelic, but in contrast to states activities have a certain dynamism and movement to them. Both activity and state predicate frames lead to a situational interpretation when combined with the present tense in a narrative sequence. The same holds for semelfactives, a category introduced by Smith (2003: 29ff.). These are predicate frames that consist of multiple accomplishments or achievements, such as coughing and scratching (Latin examples are refulgere and tonare). A telic predicate frame also evokes a situational interpretation when it denotes an iterative state of affairs (e.g. fundit, instaurat, consulit in 4.60–63).
59
praesens
Dum Turnus Rutulos animis audacibus implet, Allecto in Teucros Stygiis se concitat alis, arte noua, speculata locum, quo litore pulcher insidiis cursuque feras agitabat Iulus. 7.471–478
When thus he spoke, and called the gods to hear his vows, the Rutuli vie in exhorting one another to arms. One is moved by the peerless beauty of his form and youth, one by his royal ancestry, another by the glorious deeds of his hands. While Turnus fills the Rutuli with daring courage, Allecto on Stygian wing speeds toward the Trojans, with new wiles spying out the place, where, on the shore, fair Iulus was hunting wild beasts with nets and steeds. A dum-clause usually recapitulates the reference time of the preceding sentence and makes explicit that the present tense in the following main clause denotes a state of affairs that is simultaneous to the reference time of the preceding sentence, therewith providing a smooth connection between two or more states of affairs.27 Slightly more present tense forms in the pseudo-simultaneously narrated sequences of the Aeneid are starting situations, to wit 9 % (239 present tense forms). A present tense form is interpreted as a starting situation when an atelic predicate frame is combined with an implicit or explicit indication of a starting point. An example of an explicit indication would be tum uero or inde (e.g. 5.224 inde Gyan ipsamque ingenti mole Chimaeram/ consequitur).28 Returning to example (11) above, the state of affairs of et omnem/ prospectum late pelago petit, illustrates how a starting point may be indicated implicitly, by means of world knowledge (i.e. pragmatic incompatibility, Boogaart 1999: 117). The predicate frame omnem prospectum petit is atelic, it has no inherent moment at which Aeneas is finished taking in the whole view. Yet, it does not denote a state of affairs that is completely unbounded. Because it occurs after the clause Aeneas scopulum interea conscendit, the beginning of this state of affairs is clear: it is the moment immediately following on from Aeneas’ reaching of the summit of the mountain. That is, the state of affairs of petit is pragmatically incom27 28
That is, the dum- clause functions as a so-called recapitulating setting (Risselada 1997). The following adverbs may indicate the start of a situation (expressed by a present tense form) in the Aeneid: donec, ergo, extemplo, hinc, ilicet, inde, nunc, post, rursus, subito, tandem, tum uero.
60
chapter 3
table 8
Present tense forms in pseudosimultaneous narrative
Type of state of affairs Event Situation Frame Starting situation Total
Amount
%
1468 1016 54 239 2776
53 36 2 9 100
patible with that of conscendit (Boogaart 1999: 117). As already mentioned, the endpoint of petit is not clear (yet); the reader’s expectation may be that this state of affairs will soon end, perhaps when Aeneas sees one of his friends, but for ‘now’ the end of the state of affairs is not made explicit. The state of affairs of petit is bounded at its start and unbounded at its end. As such, it denotes the start of a situation. In the pseudo-simultaneously narrated sequences of the Aeneid, the present tense denotes events, situations, frames and starting situations. These interpretations are brought about by the telicity of the predicate frame, adverbial clauses or preceding and following clauses. A quantitative overview is presented in table 8. The analysis and the resulting quantitative overview (table 8) give insight into the rhythm of the narrative in the Aeneid.29 As explained in chapter 1, events generally advance time in a story, whereas situations most often create a (brief) stand-still. Table 8 shows that the narrator of the Aeneid does not only present his story by means of events in the pseudo-simultaneously narrated sequences of his text. That means that he does not constantly move from one reference time to the next. Instead, he alternates the events of his story with situations. Thus, he creates a steady narrative pace that imitates that of real life (i.e. a scenic pace, see below). This relatively slow narrative pace creates the effect of evidentia that has often been related to the use of the historical present, but should in my opinion be related to pseudo-simultaneously narrated sequences with a scenic pace.
29
The term rhythm (Bal 1985) is a narratological concept and concerns the pace of narrative texts (cf. also De Jong & Nünlist, 2007: 10 ff.).
61
praesens
Pseudo-simultaneously narrated sequences with a scenic pace are typical for the Aeneid: the narrator suggests that he gives an eye-witness report of what is going on as time ticks by in his story world.30 This narrative style, with its resemblance to the live report of, for instance, a sports game, is appropriately illustrated by example (14), in which the narrator relates the subsequent finishing of the three best contestants in a running contest. (14) emicat Euryalus et munere uictor amici prima tenet, plausuque uolat fremituque secundo. post Helymus subit et nunc tertia palma Diores. 5.337–339
Euryalus darts by and, winning by the graces of his friend, holds first place, and flies on amid favouring applause and cheers. Behind come Helymus, and now Diores, third place. In this example, the narrator achieves the effect of a natural time flow by the right mix of events and situations. The verb form emicat is an event and introduces a new reference time, whereas the situations tenet and uolat give a further exemplification of this reference time. The situations tenet and uolat evoke the idea that Euryalus not only came first, but also that there was a substantial distance between him and Helymus, since the narrator has the time to present this situation. We see Euryalus as he flies through the finish line and cannot yet stop, as is usually the case in foot races. Before Euryalus does stop running, the narrator switches to the finish of Helymus by means of the event subit.31 This advancement of reference time is emphasized by means of the adverb post. Helymus seems to be followed immediately by Diores: there is not even time for a verb form here, we have to do with nunc. By alternating between event, situation and ellipse, the narrator creates
30
31
We have to bear in mind that this is a suggestion indeed. First of all, it is the narrator who makes time tick by in pseudo-simultaneous narrative, by alternating between several types of states of affairs. Secondly, the narrator may at all times in his story use and display his knowledge on the outcome of the story, as the next section will show. See Rossi (2004: 125–149) for the relation between this presentational form, the creation of enargeia and the ideology expressed in the Aeneid. The verb subire may be interpreted, depending on the context, as an activity verb (atelic) meaning to follow or to approach (e.g. 2.725) or as an achievement verb (telic) meaning to enter or to occur (e.g. 2.562). In this example subit should be interpreted as an achievement, in the sense of to appear or to emerge in analogy with emicat. Cf. 12.408: iam puluere caelum/ stare uident: subeunt equites et spicula castris/ densa cadunt mediis.
62
chapter 3
the idea that his narrative of these events takes up the same amount of time as the events themselves. That is, time of narration and narrated time coincide.32 In narratological terms, this type of rhythm is called a scene (Bal 1985, see also De Jong & Nünlist, 2007: 10ff.). Bal (1985) distinguishes between pauses, ellipses, scenes and summaries. It is the difference between scenes and summaries that is of importance in pseudo-simultaneous narrative.33 Whereas in scenes the pace resembles that of real life, in summaries the narrated time is many times greater than the time of the narration (i.e. the narrator speeds up his narrative).34 This difference in rhythm aptly describes the difference between the historical present as it is most commonly used in Vergil’s Aeneid and another, particular usage of the historical present, a use that has been recognized in many grammars and has been labelled the praesens tabulare or annalistic present (e.g. Leumann-Hofmann-Szantyr 1972: 306, see also Pinkster 1999). I would describe the annalistic present as present tense forms occurring in pseudo-simultaneously narrated summaries. Typically, annalistic presents denote the main events in a relatively large span of time. Sequences of this type are quite frequent in historiography (e.g. in Livy, Adema 2009), but very uncommon in the Aeneid, I have found only two instances.35 One of these is the passage below, in which the narrator summarizes what Aeneas has done since we left him admiring his new armour at the end of book 8 (cf. Heinze 1915: 389). The narrator uses a subordinate story of eight lines, starting at the moment Aeneas left Euander, to represent Aeneas’ request to king Tarchon. Earlier in his story, the narrator used almost an entire book to present a simi-
32 33
34
35
Although the effect of a natural time flow may be at times very convincing, it is, of course, the narrator who makes time tick by, and it is he who decides the tempo of this ticking. Note also that what might be a scene in one work, would count as a summary in another. In Livy’s AUC for example, some passages show such a decrease in tempo compared to the rest of his text that I would classify them as a scene, while they are still summaries when compared to scenes in the Aeneid (cf. Adema 2009). In an ellipse, the narrator passes over one or several reference times of his story. A pause means that the narrator temporarily halts the progression of reference time (for a description, or a sequence in the information mode). Aeneid 10.146–158 and 9.357–363 (mittit and dat). The latter sequence is in fact part of a larger sequence in the information mode. This sequence is a notoriously difficult sequence of present tense forms (cf. Pinkster 1999: 715), on which the combination of pseudosimultaneous narrative and a summarizing rhythm seems to shed some light. In 9.357–363, the narrator uses a short sequence of present tense forms in these verses to give an account of the main events in the history of the shield of Rhamnes. He has a time line of this history available as an alternative base and uses this base to describe three moments in the history of this shield (dat, mittit and potiti).
63
praesens
lar action, presumably taking up a comparable amount of time, to wit Aeneas’ request to Euander (8.18–596). (15) Illi inter sese duri certamina belli contulerant: media Aeneas freta nocte secabat. namque ut ab Euandro castris ingressus Etruscis,36 regem adit et regi memorat nomenque genusque quidue petat quidue ipse ferat; Mezentius arma quae sibi conciliet, uiolentaque pectora Turni edocet; humanis quae sit fiducia rebus admonet immiscetque preces, haud fit mora, Tarchon iungit opes foedusque ferit; tum libera fati classem conscendit iussis gens Lydia diuum externo commissa duci. Aeneia puppis prima tenet rostro Phrygios subiuncta leones, imminet Ida super, profugis gratissima Teucris. 10.146–158
Thus they had clashed in stubborn warfare’s conflict: and Aeneas at midnight was cleaving the seas. For when he, leaving Euander, had entered the Tuscan camp, he meets the king, and to the king announces his name and his race, the aid he seeks, and the aid he himself offers; informs him of the forces Mezentius is gathering to his side, and the violence of Turnus’ spirit; then warns him, what faith may be put in things human, and with pleas mingles entreaties—without delay Tarchon joins forces and strikes a treaty; then, freed from Fate, the Lydian people embark under heaven’s ordinance, entrusting themselves to a foreign leader. Aeneas’ ship takes the lead with Phrygian lions beneath her beak; above them towers Ida, sight most welcome to Trojan exiles. Almost every state of affairs in this short subordinate story entails a large advancement of reference time. No time is taken to linger in reference time by means of situations providing a setting for these events. Events from the past are summed up in an almost businesslike manner. Adam (1998: 146) provides a similar observation about Livy’s AUC 1.30.1–2 and AUC 1.3.6–11: “The most obvious characteristic of the present tense forms
36
The comma after Etruscis is not printed in Mynors (1969) and Conte (2009). I have printed it, because I think that the verb of the ut-clause is ingressus [sc. est]. See Adema (2014).
64
chapter 3
in these passages is that for the most part they simply name a series of events. Further […], the events which they name extend across a large span of time in a short space of text, and they are linked only by a common theme in each case, not by the tight cause-and-effect sequentiality which marks a true narrative.” I would not go as far as Adam and state that this sequence is no ‘true narrative’, but I do agree with him that they differ strongly from narrative sequences with a scenic rhythm. The most important difference with scenes seems to be the (almost) exclusive use of events. In scenes, events are alternated with situations, thus creating a leisurely pace. Above that, the presentation of the actions in example (15) is quite succinct, the actions could have been fragmented into much smaller steps. The state of affairs regem adit, for instance, comprises a whole complex of events and situations that could have been represented with much more detail, as becomes clear when we look at Aeneas’ arrival at Euander in book 8. There, the first approach of the Trojans and Pallas’ reaction to is related in fourteen lines (8.101–114). Another difference is found in the representation of character speech. A scene often contains direct speech, but in this summary the speeches of Aeneas are merely mentioned (e.g. immiscet preces) or represented indirectly (regi memorat …), and Tarchon’s speeches are only implicitly indicated (iungit opes). The present tense, however, has the same value in this summary as in scenic narrative. It denotes that the state of affairs is contemporaneous with reference time. When a state of affairs is not contemporaneous with reference time, another tense is used, such as the perfect tense form ingressus [est] in the utclause. This perfect tense form, together with the conjunction ut, indicates that the state of affairs is anterior to the first reference time of this sequence, thereby indicating the starting point of this subordinate story. In short, the annalistic present and the praesens historicum are two interpretations of the present tense in the Latin language. Both denote states of affairs that are contemporaneous with reference time, and are evoked in pseudosimultaneous narrative sequences with either a scenic (praesens historicum) or a summarizing (praesens tabulare) rhythm. I hope to have shown in this section that the narrator of the Aeneid prefers the scenic rhythm and creates this rhythm by alternating between present tense forms denoting events and situations and, to a lesser extent, frames and starting situations. The next chapters will show that also the past tenses play a role in his typical scenic pseudosimultaneous narrative.
65
praesens
3
Description Mode
As explained in the above section, present tense forms may denote situations. When a sequence consists exclusively of situations that are presented as having spatial relation, this sequence is presented in the description mode. As I explained in chapter 1, the temporal relation between states of affairs is secondary to their spatial relation in a description. A description in the present tense indicates, due to the semantic value of the present tense, that the described object exists in the base of the narrator, whether this base is positioned in the time of narration or reference time. In this section I will discuss present tense descriptions that clearly take a base in reference time (section 3.1) and descriptions that are (deliberately or not) ambiguous in this respect (section 3.2). 3.1 Pseudo-simultaneous Description The Aeneid contains 138 present tense forms denoting situations that are spatially related to other situations and that take place in reference time. These present tense forms are part of pseudo-simultaneous descriptions. An example is the description below, in which five spatially related present tense situations describe how different groups of Carthaginians are each busy with their own chores as Aeneas is watching them. (16) miratur molem Aeneas, magalia quondam, miratur portas strepitumque et strata uiarum. instant ardentes Tyrii: pars ducere muros molirique arcem et manibus subuoluere saxa, pars optare locum tecto et concludere sulco. Iura magistratusque legunt sanctumque senatum; hic portus alii effodiunt; hic alta theatris fundamenta locant alii, immanisque columnas rupibus excidunt, scaenis decora alta futuris. 1.421–429
Aeneas marvels at the massive buildings, mere huts once; marvels at the gates, the din and paved high-roads. Eagerly the Tyrians press on, some to build walls, to rear the citadel and roll up stones by hand; some to choose the site for a dwelling and enclose it with a furrow. Here some are digging harbours, here others lay the deep foundations of their theatre and hew out of the cliffs vast columns, fit adornments for the stage to be.
66
chapter 3
The states of affairs are related to each other in a spatial way: the repetition of pars, hic and alii connects these states of affairs and suggests how Aeneas’ eyes move along different parts of this view of industrious men constructing their new city. This means that the sequences starting with pars and ending with futuris is a description. The present tense forms in this description are all contemporaneous with each other (and with miratur) and they all denote situations, as they present the activities of the Carthaginians in their full course.37 Present tense forms of atelic predicate frames are interpreted as situations and those of telic predicate frames as events. Here however, we find telic predicate frames denoting situations (iura magistratusque legunt; portus effodiunt; fundamenta locant; columnas excidunt). In this example, the telicity of the predicate frames is overridden by their context: the spatial organization of this sequence evokes a contemporaneous and, thus, an unbounded interpretation of all these states of affairs. Although these situations are all contemporaneous with each other, there is, nevertheless, some sense of temporal progression in this sequence, due to the specific way in which this description is embedded in the story. The verb form miratur indicates that Aeneas is looking at these parts, and as his eyes move from one activity to another, there must be a temporal progression along with the spatial progression. The temporal progression is much more implicit and definitely of minor importance than is the spatial progression, which is why I analyze this sequence as description. I would like to emphasize here that it is the spatial organization of states of affairs that makes a description a description in my text linguistic approach, independent of the (explicit or implicit) advancement of reference time. This sequence is, in fact, an example of how the description mode can be used to tell the story and its lively features have caused Lausberg (1990: 401, see also Rossi 2004: 125–149) to mention this sequence explicitly as a sequence in which the effect of evidentia is achieved.38 In this respect, there is a similarity in form between this example and a specific type of narrated sequences, such as example (17). This example, consisting of temporally connected situations, seems to be the static pendant of the description of the busy Carthaginians.
37 38
For the use of the historical infinitives ducere, optare and concludere see chapter 8. Similar descriptions with present tense forms are the following: e.g. 2.363ff. (description of Troy at the climax of the fight between Trojans and Greeks); 10.159ff. (Aeneas together with Pallas on his ship); 10.757ff. (description of the positions of the gods with respect to the battlefield). One could argue that these are narratized descriptions, as Mosher (1991) calls it it (cf. Hamon 1993: 170, Herman, 2002: 298, 2009: 131, Adema 2013).
67
praesens
(17) non coeptae adsurgunt turres, non arma iuuentus exercet portusue aut propugnacula bello tuta parant: pendent opera interrupta minaeque murorum ingentes aequataque machina caelo. 4.86–89
No longer rise the towers begun, no longer do the youth exercise in arms, or toil at havens or bulwarks for safety in war; the works are broken off and idle—great menacing walls and cranes that touch the sky. The similarity between this example and the description of the industrious Carthaginians comes from the fact that they both exclusively consist of situations. They differ with respect to how these situations are related to each other, however. There is no spatial relation indicated (implicitly or explicitly) between the states of affairs of adsurgunt, exercet, parant and pendent. These states of affairs merely relate what is (not) going on in Carthage during the period of time in which Dido has surrendered to her infatuation, and are presented in the narrative mode. It is not a prototypical narrative sequence, of course, as there is no temporal progression whatsoever: the time of the story has come to a halt here, like the works of the Carthaginians. The two sequences about the works of the Carthaginians, examples (16) and (17), are beautiful pendants of each other, both showing a discourse mode in an atypical use. The description mode is used in an atypical way, suggesting temporal progression along with the spatial progression as Aeneas looks at the Carthaginians. The use of this mode emphasizes the amount of hustle and bustle going on. There is activity in every part of the city, wherever one may look. The static pendant of this lively description is presented in the narrative mode, a mode that is normally concerned with temporal progression, but is here used to tell that all activity has been brought to a standstill. This atypical use of the narrative mode seems to emphasize the complete stagnation of the city’s construction. Here, we find no suggestion of temporal progression as someone’s eyes move over the different parts of Carthage, as there was in the earlier description. No one is looking, as there is no activity to look at, let alone admire. In both examples the present tense is interpreted in the same way: it denotes situations in reference time. The relation between the present tense forms differs, however, as I hope to have shown. The analysis of these different types of relations (spatio-temporal and temporal) reveals a sharp contrast between the two examples discussed in this section: the energy and activity of the
68
chapter 3
Carthaginians at the moment of Aeneas’ arrival versus their (and Dido’s) idleness once he has spent some time in Carthage. Returning to the use of the present tense in pseudo-simultaneous description, I would like to single out a specific group of 34 tense forms within the total amount of 138 tense forms. These forms occur in ekphrasis, for instance the ekphrasis of Aeneas’ shield.39 In example (18), the present tense forms uomunt, aperitur and fulgent are part of a sequence that is spatially organized (cf. hinc, parte alia). (18) hinc Augustus agens Italos in proelia Caesar cum patribus populoque, penatibus et magnis dis, stans celsa in puppi, geminas cui tempora flammas laeta uomunt patriumque aperitur uertice sidus. parte alia uentis et dis Agrippa secundis arduus agmen agens, cui, belli insigne superbum, tempora nauali fulgent rostrata corona. 8.678–684
On the one side Augustus Caesar stands on the lofty stern, leading Italians to strife, with Senate and People, the Penates of the state, and all the mighty gods; his auspicious brows shoot forth a double flame, and on his head dawns his father’s star. Elsewhere, favoured by winds and gods, hightowering Agrippa leads his column; his brows gleam with his beaks of the naval crown, proud token in war. The excerpt resembles that of example (17) in that uomunt and fulgent suggest the same movement and dynamism as do the present tense forms legunt, effodiunt, locant and excidunt in example (17). The movement and dynamism of these verb forms bring about the excessive sparkling of the shield.40
39
40
I reserve the term ekphrasis for the description of art, although in earlier literature this term has also been used for descriptions of nature (e.g. Putnam 1998: 97). The term ‘description’ is in this study used in alternation with ‘description mode’: a description is, by definition, presented in the description mode. Please note that an ekphrasis usually does not only contain description, but may contain passages in e.g. the narrative or information mode. Movement on the shield—within the depiction—also occurs, but is suggested by means of historical infinitives in 8.689 (see chapter 8). Movement on the shield is the subject of a debate typical for ekphrasis, viz. the question whether a narrator might ‘forget’ that he is describing and starts narrating. Fordyce (1977) and Conington (1963), for instance,
69
praesens
Both descriptive present tense forms that indicate particular situations in reference time and descriptive present tense forms that indicate features of objects existing in reference time (such as in ekphrasis) are unambiguously part of pseudo-simultaneous descriptions. It is clear that the narrator describes the past while pretending that his temporal relation is one of contemporaneity. Therefore, the temporal relation is indeed pseudo-simultaneous. This pretense, if it is one, is much harder to recognize when the narrator describes nature, as becomes clear in the next section in which I discuss descriptions that I had to categorize as ambiguous descriptions. 3.2 Ambiguous Descriptions When Aeneas arrives at the coast of Lybia, this is where he lands his ship:41 (19) est in secessu longo locus: insula portum efficit obiectu laterum, quibus omnis ab alto frangitur inque sinus scindit sese unda reductos. hinc atque hinc uastae rupes geminique minantur in caelum scopuli, quorum sub uertice late aequora tuta silent; tum siluis scaena coruscis desuper, horrentique atrum nemus imminet umbra. fronte sub aduersa scopulis pendentibus antrum, intus aquae dulces uiuoque sedilia saxo, Nympharum domus. hic fessas non uincula nauis ulla tenent, unco non alligat ancora morsu. 1.159–169
There in a deep inlet lies a spot, where an island forms a harbour with the barrier of its sides, on which every wave from the main is broken, then parts into receding ripples. On either side loom heavenward huge cliffs and twin peaks, beneath whose crest far and wide is the stillness of sheltered water; above, too, is a background of shimmering woods with
41
defend that the narrator of the Aeneid indeed forgets his descriptive task and starts narrating. Koopman (2014: 6–17) presents an elaborate discussion on this debate in his book on description and narrative in Greek ekphrasis. In terms of De Jong (2001: 317–318), this is a ‘landing type-scene’. Such scenes often contain an embedded focaliser. Here, however, there is no indication in the text that Aeneas and his men (subject of the previous clause) are the focalisers. On the contrary, the presentative clause with which the description begins, suggests that the narrator himself presents this description.
70
chapter 3
an overhanging grove, black with gloomy shade. Under the brow of the fronting cliff is a cave of hanging rocks; within are fresh waters and seats in the living stone, a haunt for nymphs. Here no fetters imprison weary ships, no anchor holds them fast with hooked bite. The present tense forms of this sequence are connected to each other by means of spatial adverbs and adverbial clauses. First a description is given of how the waves break on the sand, then the narrator turns his and our eyes to the huge cliffs enclosing the scenery and proceeds to describe the part in the middle of these cliffs. The explicit references to the spatial relation between these states of affairs make this a prototypical example of the description mode.42 The description mode creates a moment of peace at this point in the story. This long, tranquil description of a peaceful place, similar to a haven no less, fits perfectly here, because here Aeneas will finally find some peace and rest after the turmoil of the storm.43 It is a clear example of the description mode, but otherwise this is not an example free of problems. The problem has to do with our interpretation of the present tense or, rather, with our decision concerning the base of this example and that of similar descriptions, and the implications of this decision. To sum up, 77 present tense forms occur in such descriptions of which the base cannot be unambiguously defined. In example (19), for instance, the base may be reference time, in which case this natural harbour is part of a past story world. The base may also be the time of narration, in which case this natural harbour might have existed in Vergil’s time. Schwartz (2002: 18) states that present tense forms in descriptions of locations should not be seen as historical presents, as these descriptions are part of the epic tradition. I think we should, as Kroon (2007) suggests, acknowledge the ambiguity of present tense descriptions entangled with present tense narrative.44 In the case
42
43
44
The states of affairs tenent and alligat are not spatially connected to the other states of affairs. They are presented in the information mode. Note that the change in discourse mode is indicated by means of the adverb hic. Heinze (1915: 397) observes that this descriptions serves to put the readers in the frame of mind of the shipwrecked men who reach a safe haven after a storm (cf. Austin 1971: ad loc., Anderson (1976: 59)). Kroon (2007) has studied descriptions in Ovid’s Metamorphoses. She (2007: 80) connects the ambiguity of the present tense with the contents of this epic work as a whole: “In a text in which metamorphoses play such a prominent role and in which the story world described in fact pertains to a dimension out of time, this gradual fading from specific to general/ generic, and from time-bound to timeless, does not come as a surprise and finds
71
praesens
of the Aeneid, it seems to be a means by which the narrator can make “the encroachment of fairy-tale upon reality so unobtrusive that it hardly occurs to us to challenge it”, as Quinn (1968: 83) puts it. Quinn observes this encroachment in the episode of Fama, but I would like to examine its estranging effect in the already weird and wondrous episode of the katabasis in book 6 of the Aeneid.45 In this episode, the use of the present tense results in an almost inextricable entwining of pseudo-simultaneous narrative and simultaneous description (and information). An example of this is found right at the entrance of the Underworld. Several situations in the present tense (pandit, haerent, stabulant) are presented with respect to their spatial relation (in medio, foliis sub omnibus, in foribus).46 (20) in medio ramos annosaque bracchia pandit ulmus opaca, ingens, quam sedem Somnia uulgo uana tenere ferunt, foliisque sub omnibus haerent. multaque praeterea uariarum monstra ferarum, Centauri in foribus stabulant Scyllaeque biformes et centumgeminus Briareus ac belua Lernae horrendum stridens, flammisque armata Chimaera, Gorgones Harpyiaeque et forma tricorporis umbrae. corripit hic subita trepidus formidine ferrum Aeneas strictamque aciem uenientibus offert g 6.282–291
In the midst an elm, shadowy and vast, spreads her boughs and aged arms, the home which, men say, false Dreams hold, clinging under every leaf. And many monstrous forms besides of various beasts are stalled at the doors, Centaurs and double-shaped Scyllas, and the hundredfold Briareus, and the beast of Lerna, hissing horribly, and the Chimaera armed with flame, Gorgons and Harpies, and the shape of the three-bodied shade. Here on a sudden, trembling terror, Aeneas grasps his sword, and turns the naked edge against their coming;
45 46
a suitable conveyance in the use of the present tense, which, in contrast to the imperfect, is always able to evoke and underline this ambiguity.” In Adema (2013) a more elaborate discussion of the katabasis episode is presented. The clause quam sedem Somnia uulgo/ uana tenere ferunt is presented in the information mode.
72
chapter 3
The description consists of present tense forms taking a base in the time of narration. I derive this base in the time of narration from the invocation of the gods of the Underworld a few lines earlier. The narrator addresses them as Di, quibus imperium est animarum, umbraeque silentes/ et Chaos et Phlegethon,47 thereby acknowledging (or suggesting) their existence, and that of the Underworld, in the time of narration. The narrator wants to suggest that the situations pandit, haerent and stabulant still exist in his own time: they are universally valid situations. Rather suddenly, the sequence of universally valid situations is interrupted by a specific event, corripit. The specific event is camouflaged by its tense, however: a present tense form among present tense forms. The information from which we can derive that this is, in fact, a specific action by Aeneas and not a universal state of affairs is not even given until after the verb form itself (hic, and especially the indication of its subject, Aeneas). This seems to make the state of affairs of corripit all the more sudden and Aeneas’ panic, thus, all the more real. If the narrator had presented this description in imperfect tense forms, the entrance would have been presented as part of a fictive past, as part of a fairy tale (cf. Quinn 1968: 83) and, moreover, the description would have been separated from the story. Likewise, a perfect tense form denoting the grasping event, would have separated the specific event from its universal setting. By using the present tense for all states of affairs, the specific is at one with the universal here. The intertwining of specific and universal states of affairs is even tighter in the next example. The states of affairs of monstrantur, celant, tegit and, possibly, it are related to each other in a spatial way. Together, they form a description of this part of the underworld.48 (21) nec procul hinc partem fusi monstrantur in omnem Lugentes campi; sic illos nomine dicunt. hic quos durus amor crudeli tabe peredit secreti celant calles et myrtea circum silua tegit; curae non ipsa in morte relinquunt. his Phaedram Procrinque locis maestamque Eriphylen crudelis nati monstrantem uulnera cernit, Euadnenque et Pasiphaen; his Laodamia 47 48
6.264–265. Transl.: You gods, who hold the domain of spirits! You voiceless shades! You Chaos and you Phlegethon! Sic illos nomine dicunt, quos durus amor peredit and curae non ipsa in morte relinquunt are information.
73
praesens
it comes et iuuenis quondam, nunc femina, Caeneus rursus et in ueterem fato reuoluta figuram. 6.440–449
Not far from here, outspread on every side, are shown the Mourning Fields; such is the name they bear. Here those whom stern Love has consumed with cruel wasting are hidden in walks withdrawn, embowered in a myrtle grove; even in death the pangs leave them not. In this region he sees Phaedra and Phocris, and sad Eriphyle, pointing to the wounds her cruel son had dealt, and Evadne and Pasiphaë. With them goes Laodamia, and Caeneus, once a youth, now a woman, and again turned back by fate into her form of old. The present tense form cernit interrupts the descriptive sequence and is part of the narrative mode as it denotes an event in reference time. Here, only our knowledge that Aeneas should be the subject of cernit helps us in separating cernit from the other present tense forms, and thus identifying Aeneas in this universal picture. In these examples, the present tense forms corripit and cernit make clear that these parts of the Underworld are not just universal places, they are also the places through which Aeneas is walking. Thus, whenever the text indicates spatial progression, Aeneas moves, as does the reference time. We have to assume temporal progression alongside the spatial progression. The Underworld descriptions should not be seen as static, separate components of the text in which the story comes to halt, they are an integral part of the story telling. One could even call these Underworld descriptions narratized descriptions (Adema 2013, cf. Mosher 1991). Because the narrator uses the present tense in this ingenious way, description and narrative are almost merged into one. Aeneas’s adventure is blended into its universal setting. Descriptions are a means to create evidentia. That is, by inserting a description a language user can cause an eye-witness experience in his public and the same effect can be established by means of the present tense (see e.g. Lausberg 1990: 399). In this section, I have discussed those instances in the Aeneid in which the narrator combines these two means.
4
Report Mode
States of affairs in the report mode are directly related to the base of the narrator. In the case of the present tense, this is a contemporaneous relation between
74
chapter 3
a state of affairs and the base. That is, the narrator observes these states of affairs in his own (adopted) environment. Especially in the case of the present tense, we should distinguish between reports with a base in the time of narration, and reports with a base in reference time.49 4.1 Report from a Base in the Time of Narration When the narrator has adopted a base in the time of narration, reported remarks containing present tense forms concern observations about his personal experiences, such as cano in the first line of the Aeneid, or are somewhat less immediate observations in the form of an aside such as ut fama est.50 Both uses of the present tense are infrequent: a total sum of 46 present tense forms occurs in report from a base in the time of narration.51 Utterances similar to cano are not expressed regularly by the main narrator and most often mark the start of a new part of the story, although on one occasion (9.446) the narrator uses the report mode as an explicit means to express his emotions.52 Characters who tell a story, however, seem to express their attitude towards their story more easily.53 A clear example of a narrator who expresses what he feels while telling his story is the parenthetical clause horresco referens, which interrupts Aeneas’ narrative of the death of Laocoon: (22) ecce autem gemini a Tenedo tranquilla per alta (horresco referens) immensis orbibus angues incumbunt pelago pariterque ad litora tendunt; 2.203–205
And lo! From Tenedos, over the peaceful depths—I shudder as I speak— a pair of serpents with endless coils are breasting the sea and side by side making for the shore.
49 50
51 52 53
This also holds, to a lesser extent, for the future tense. In the case of perfect tense forms, this distinction seems less relevant. On the basis of these two interpretations of the present tense one could make a further distinction between the report mode and the registering mode, as I have done in my dissertation (Adema 2008). For the purpose of this book, however, this distinction seemed too fine-grained and superfluous. This number includes four present tense forms in dum-clauses. This use of the present is found in 1.1; 6.266 (subjunctive); 7.44ff.; 9.446; 9.525; 12.503 (subjunctive). Cf. also the use of the future tense in the report mode. This use of the present by character narrators (including Aeneas) is found in 2.91, 2.134, 2.204, 2.362 (subjunctive), 2.432, 2.506 (subjunctive), 3.39 (subjunctive), 6.528, 6.575, 6.601 (subjunctive).
75
praesens
As in this example, character narrators often relate their own adventures, and it seems appropriate that such personal stories contain references to the emotions of the narrator. Whereas the narrator uses immediate observations to introduce new parts of his own story, more general remarks like fama est often announce subordinate stories, as is illustrated in the example below in which the subordinate story of Daedalus is started. (23) Daedalus, ut fama est, fugiens Minoia regna praepetibus pennis ausus se credere caelo insuetum per iter gelidas enauit ad Arctos, Chalcidicaque leuis tandem super astitit arce. 6.14–17
Daedalus, it is said, when fleeing from Minos’ realm, dared on swift wings to trust himself to the sky; on his unwonted way he floated forth towards the cold North, and at last stood lightly poised above the Chalciidian hill. These remarks are known as Alexandrian footnotes: phrases by means of which a narrator indicates that he alludes to a different story, thereby portraying himself as a kind of scholar (Hinds 1998: 2), while at the same time indicating that he does not take full responsibility for these stories that fall outside the scope of his own work (Heinze 1915: 242, Hardie 2009).54 Formulations with a similar function are, for instance, si credere dignum est (6.173) and, perhaps to a lesser extent and not containing a (present) tense form, mirabile dictum (e.g. 1.439).55 4.2 Report from a Base in Reference Time A small number of merely thirteen present tense forms in the Aeneid indicate states of affairs that are contemporaneous with reference time without being explicitly related to the other states of affairs. This means these historical presents are not part of pseudo-simultaneous narrative. Rather, they should be analyzed as instances of the report mode from a base in reference time: the narrator seems to focus on a specific reference time, without taking the rest of his story into consideration (cf. Wisse 1998: 175). The reference time is in most 54 55
Other instances are found in 3.551; 3.578; 3.694; 6.284; 7.765; 8.600; 10.189; 12.735. See, however, 10.792 in which the narrator utters a similar remark about the credibility of his own story (the death of Lausus). Even less certain is the narrator in 5.302 (quos fama obscura recondit) and in 12.320 (incertum [est]), cf. also Aeneas in 2.740.
76
chapter 3
cases explicitly indicated by means of the proximate deictic adverb hic (cf. also haec dies in 10.508). I would interpret hic in such instances as ‘at this point in my story …’. An example is found at the event of the spontaneous self-combustion of an arrow shot by Acestes.56 The present tense form obicitur is a state of affairs that takes place in reference time. In these cases, the attribute of the subject monstrum, magno augurio futurum, contains information given from hindsight.57 Magno augurio futurum is explained in the next clauses.58 (24) hic oculis subitum obicitur magnoque futurum augurio monstrum; (docuit post exitus ingens seraque terrifici cecinerunt omina uates.) namque uolans liquidis in nubibus arsit harundo signauitque uiam flammis tenuisque recessit consumpta in uentos, caelo ceu saepe refixa transcurrunt crinemque uolantia sidera ducunt. 5.522–528
At this point a sudden portent meets their eyes, destined to prove of mighty consequence, as momentous events revealed later, when in after years fear-inspiring seers declared its import. For, flying amid the misty clouds, the reed caught fire, marked its path with flames, then vanished away into thin air—as often shooting stars, unfastened from the firmament, speed across the sky, their tresses streaming in their wake. The effect of this sentence is striking. The reader cannot but hold his breath until he finally hears, after namque (cf. Kroon 1995: 148 f.), what sudden portent is meeting the eyes of the Trojans at this point in the story. The suspense is built up even more because of the reported clauses between monstrum and namque.
56
57
58
The possible meaning of this monstrum is the subject of much debate. It has been suggested that the arrow is a reference to the comet of 44 B.C.E. and the deification of Caesar, see, for instance, the discussion of the passage by Fratantuono (2007: 144). In narratological terms, such a remark concerning a time after reference time is called ‘prolepsis’ (Genette 1980, Bal 1985). The perfect tense is used for this type of remark as well. These clauses containing docuit and cecinerunt are reported from a base in the time of the narrator. This is also found in 12.244, in which case the story continues, as it does here, by means of the particle nam(que). Namque in this excerpt indicates the start of a (narrated) explanation of obicitur monstrum. Cf. also 2.680.
77
praesens
Most of this small group of present tense forms are used to give emphasis to an omen, narrated more thoroughly in the following sentences.59 One of these present tense forms, however, refers to a state of affairs that is not explained in the next scene, but much later in the story. Pallas and Lausus in this example fight in each other’s proximity, but do not meet. (25) … hinc Pallas instat et urget, hinc contra Lausus, nec multum discrepat aetas, egregii forma, sed quis Fortuna negarat in patriam reditus. ipsos concurrere passus haud tamen inter se magni regnator Olympi; mox illos sua fata manent maiore sub hoste. 10.433–438
Here Pallas presses and strains; there Lausus confronts him; the two were nearly matched in years, and peerless in beauty, but to them fortune had denied return to their homeland. But the king of great Olympus did not permit them to meet face to face; each has his own fate awaiting him soon beneath a greater foe. Mox manent refers to both the death of Lausus, inflicted by Aeneas, and that of Pallas, inflicted by Turnus. Pallas’ death is recounted in 10.489, and Lausus’ death is not recounted until 10.820. Because of the proleptic character of the clause, this present tense form might be seen as a praesens pro futuro (cf. Pinkster 1990: 225), but the meaning of manere leaves room for an interpretation of this state of affairs as contemporaneous with the current reference time, and long afterwards (cf. Harrison ad loc.). The anticipating effect of the present tense form manent enhances the tension of the story. A similar use of this specific type of report is used to enhance the pathos of the scene. On three occasions the narrator combines the evidentia-enhancing strategy of the present tense with an explicit appearance in an emotional apostrophe ((3.710, 10.508, 11.665, cf. Heinze 1915: 374).60 When Pallas is carried away from the battlefield, for instance, the narrator interrupts his pseudo-
59
60
In terms of Labov (1972) and Fleischman (1990) they function as abstracts, summaries that immediately precede stories. Cf. also Wisse (1996: 195) who would consider these present tense forms as ‘citative presents’ in chapter headings, following Stanzel (1982: 65). An apostrophe, too, is a means to enhance the evidentia of a scene. As Lausberg (1990: 402) puts it, apostrophe is ein den Erzählabstand durchbrechendes pathetisches Mittel.
78
chapter 3
simultaneous narrative (referunt) to add his own comment about this uneventful day (haec dies, eadem dies) in the report mode. (26) … at socii multo gemitu lacrimisque impositum scuto referunt Pallanta frequentes. o dolor atque decus magnum rediture parenti, haec te prima dies bello dedit, haec eadem aufert, cum tamen ingentis Rutulorum linquis aceruos! 10.505–509
But with many moans and tears his friends throng round Pallas and bear him back lying on his shield. O you who will go home as a great grief and yet great glory to your father, this day first gave you to war, this also takes you from it, the day when yet you leave behind vast piles of Rutulian deaths. Haec dies and haec eadem indicate that the narrator focuses on this day and on the states of affairs taking place on this day, without taking their relation to the other states of affairs in his story into consideration. The present tense forms aufert and linquis indicate, together with the proximal demonstrative hic, a base in reference time.61 The narrator enforces the picture of Pallas’ lifeless body lying on his shield as he comments on Pallas’ death and repatriation while using the actual moment he is taken from the battlefield as a base. The text linguistic framework of discourse modes separates these present tense forms from the bulk of ‘normal’ historical presents in pseudo-simultaneous narrative, thereby singling out these remarkable phrases in which Vergil employs his technique of displaced immediacy to a maximum effect.
5
Information Mode
Whereas the report mode consists of states of affairs that are directly related to the base of the narrator, states of affairs in the information mode are states of affairs that are linked to an element (an object or person) in the discourse. The tense of an informational state of affairs does not depend on the direct temporal relation between narrator and state of affairs (as in report), but on the temporal relation between the state of affairs, the element and the base of the narrator. 61
The perfect tense form dedit indicates that this state of affairs is anterior to the base.
79
praesens
Information about an element that exists in the base of the narrator is presented in the present tense, expressing the contemporaneous relation between element and base. In case of the Aeneid, this base can be in the time of narration and in reference time. 5.1 Information from a Base in the Time of Narration In information from a base in the time of narration, the present tense is used to indicate that the element about which the information is given exists in the time of narration or, at least, that the narrator wants to suggest that element and time of narration are contemporaneous. To sum up, the informational sequences of the Aeneid contain 171 present tense forms taking a base in the time of narration. By means of these sequences the narrator of the Aeneid includes elements from his own time into his narrative. This section will show that these elements can be realia existing in the first century B.C.E., but these elements can also be immortal beings of which the narrator wants to suggest that they are eternal and, thus, also exist in the time of narration. Furthermore, information about mortal characters of the past can be presented by means of present tense forms referring to the time of narration. In the latter cases, the state of affairs refers, for instance, to a story that is still told about this person (e.g. dicitur). In this way, the narrator of the Aeneid deploys the information mode to tell parts of his story. The Aeneid contains several remarks about elements existing in the first century B.C.E., the time of Vergil and his audience. The contemporaneity of these elements with the time of narration results in the use of the present tense in informational remarks.62 The effect of such remarks is especially striking when they occur embedded in a pseudo-simultaneously narrated sequence (cf. Williams 1983: 165). This is the case in the passage below in which the subordinate clause (between brackets) gives information about saxa.63 (27) tris Notus abreptas in saxa latentia torquet (saxa uocant Itali mediis quae in fluctibus aras dorsum immane mari summo); tris Eurus ab alto in breuia et Syrtis urget, miserabile uisu, inliditque uadis atque aggere cingit harenae. 1.108–112
62 63
E.g. in 6.235; 7.412; 12.134. Sequences in the information mode often take the form of a relative clause, usually embedded in pseudo-simultaneous narrative.
80
chapter 3
Three ships the South Wind catches and hurls on hidden rocks—rocks the Italians call the Altars, rising amidst the waves, a huge ridge topping the sea. Three the East forces from the deep into shallows and sandbanks, a piteous sight, dashes on shoals and girds with a mound of sand. The repetition of saxa nicely illustrates that states of affairs of the information mode are presented in relation to an element in the text. The element is the connecting piece between the informational sequence and the rest of the text. It is the use of the information mode in this passage that has made modern editors put brackets around this “artistically planned footnote … reflecting the Alexandrian manner”, as Austin (1971 ad loc.) calls it. Austin continues: “It is as if he [the narrator, SA] wishes to give his readers (‘Itali’) the pleasure of looking at a map with him and of identifying the place where these mythical events occurred; there is something of a historian’s manner”. In example (27), the present tense form uocant is used to present the states of affairs as contemporaneous with an element existing in the time of narration. This is also what the narrator wants to suggest by means of the present tense form serenat in example (28). The use of the present tense implies that this facial expression of Jupiter and, thus, Jupiter exist in the time of narration as well (cf. Quinn 1968: 83, on Fama). (28) olli subridens hominum sator atque deorum, uoltu, quo caelum tempestatesque serenat, oscula libauit natae, dehinc talia fatur: 1.254–256
Smiling on her with that look wherewith he clears sky and storms, the Father of men and gods gently kissed his daughter’s lips, and then spoke thus: … The state of affairs serenat is presented in a contemporaneous relation to an element in the story, the antecedent of quo, uoltu. This contemporaneity does not mean that serenat represents a continuous situation of Jupiter endlessly clearing the sky with this particular expression. Serenat is contemporaneous with uoltu, because it refers to a regularity that holds as long as uoltus exists (cf. Krifka 1995, Smith 2003: 24).64 The present tense expresses this contemporane64
The state of affairs serenat is a so-called generalizing state of affairs (Smith 2003: 24). A generalizing state of affairs expresses a pattern or regularity, rather than one specific event or a continuous situation.
81
praesens
ity between serenat and uoltus, as well as the contemporaneity between this uoltus and the time of narration. Thus, this example illustrates how the narrator may use the present tense to suggest that gods and other immortal beings do not just exist in his story world, but are part of his own world as well. The idea that the narrator wants to suggest that one of his characters is part of his own world may be fruitful in explaining a notoriously complicated present tense form of the Aeneid, viz. redit in 2.275. Aeneas tells how Hector appeared to him in a dream and compares Hector’s features then with those he had when he was still alive. The state of affairs redit is presented in relation to Hector and is, therefore, part of the information mode. (29) ei mihi, qualis erat, quantum mutatus ab illo Hectore qui redit exuuias indutus Achilli uel Danaum Phrygios iaculatus puppibus ignis! 2.274–276
Ah me, what aspect was his! How changed he was from that Hector who returns after donning the spoils of Achilles or hurling on Danaan ships the Phrygian fires! The problem of the use of the present tense here is twofold. The present tense indicates that the state of affairs is contemporaneous with a person existing in the time of narration. First, however, Hector does not exist in the time of narration, and second, the state of affairs redit refers to a single event, given what we know of Hector’s life (or actually two single events). It does not refer to a state of affairs that is contemporaneous with his existence. The second part of the problem is easily solved when we assume that redit is presented as a characteristic of Hector and interpret it in the same way as serenat above. When we see redit as a single event that has become a characteristic (Mackail 1930 ad loc., Pinkster 1999: 714), the state of affairs is contemporaneous with the element about which it gives information. The first part of the problem is solved, when we take a closer look at this element: illo Hectore. Aeneas does not refer to the actual person of Hector, who lived in his past, he refers to a specific Hector, an image he has stored away in his memory. This mental representation of Hector exists in the time of narration.65 It is with this element that the state of affairs redit is contemporaneous. 65
Present tense forms that are similar to redit in that a single event is presented as a characteristic are obtruncat in 2.663, generat in 8.141, dat in 9.266 and petit in 10.313. Pinkster (1999: 715) classifies generat as a ‘cataloguing’ present tense form, similar to the present
82
chapter 3
5.2 Information Presented from a Base in Reference Time In the catalogue of Italian warriors in book 7, Halaesus, Agamemnon’s son, is told to have gathered a thousand warlike tribes ( ferocis mille populos). These tribes are an element from the past if considered from the time of narration. Nevertheless, the information given in relative clauses about these peoples is set in present tense forms: (30) hinc Agamemnonius, Troiani nominis hostis, curru iungit Halaesus equos Turnoque ferocis mille rapit populos, uertunt felicia Baccho Massica qui rastris, et quos de collibus altis Aurunci misere patres Sidicinaque iuxta aequora, quique Cales linquunt amnisque uadosi accola Volturni, pariterque Saticulus asper Oscorumque manus. teretes sunt aclydes illis tela, sed haec lento mos est aptare flagello. laeuas caetra tegit, falcati comminus enses. 7.723–732
Next, Agamemnon’s son, foe of the Trojan name, Halaesus, yokes his steeds to the car, and in Turnus’ cause sweeps along a thousand warlike tribes, men who turn with mattocks the wine-rich Massic lands; whom Auruncan fathers sent from their high hills, and the Sidicine plains hard by; those who leave Cales, and the dweller by Volturnus’ shallow river, and by their side the rough Saticulan and the Oscan bands. Shapely javelins are their weapons, but it is their way to fit these with a pliant thong. A shield protects their left side; their curved swords are for close combat. The present tense forms iungit and rapit represent events taking place in reference time and form a (pseudo-simultaneous) narrative sequence. The relative clauses give further information about one element in the narrative sequence, viz. a thousand warlike tribes. That is, uertunt and linquunt indicate characteristic features of these peoples that hold for reference time, and misere, a perfect tense form, indicates a characterizing event in their past. The present tense forms in pseudo-simultaneously narrated summaries (e.g. 9.360–363). In the case of petit in 10.313, the character belongs to the past, but, similarly to Aeneas referring to his mental image of ‘that’ Hector, the narrator seems to refer to a mental representation (i.e. a literary character) rather than to a person from the past.
praesens
83
tense forms sunt and est, too, give further information, about their weapons, and the last present tense form tegit is descriptive, as this sentence contains explicit spatial cues (i.e. laeuas, tegit). In this passage, the narrator combines narrative, information and description and enhances the vividness of this combination even further by using the present tense consistently. Thus, the use of the present tense turns the catalogues, at times, into a convincing imitation of a live report of peoples approaching a battle field.66 Present tense forms in information from a base in reference time occur almost exclusively in catalogues: 24 of these 32 present tense forms are part of a catalogue.67 As the example above illustrates, the narrator stretches the versatility of the present tense to the limit in these catalogues, in order to suggest that he gives information about these peoples as he sees them marching in the direction of Latium (cf. Williams 196). 5.3 The Present Tense in Similes Similes contain mainly present tense forms: 284 of the 341 indicative verb forms in similes are present tense forms.68 A simile exemplifies an element in the story world, by presenting characteristics of another element which generally exists in the time of narration. This is why I consider similes as presented in the information mode.69 This may be illustrated by means of the simile below in which Aeneas is compared to an oak (cf. Williams 1983: 166).70 The simile contains several situations characteristic of the oak, the element about which information is given. (31) ac uelut annoso ualidam cum robore quercum Alpini Boreae nunc hinc nunc flatibus illinc eruere inter se certant; it stridor, et altae consternunt terram concusso stipite frondes;
66
67 68
69 70
Nevertheless, the narrator can undo this illusion by means of a remark that is unequivocally made from his own point in time, such as the remark about Clausus: Claudia nunc a quo diffunditur et tribus et gens per Latium (7.708). The instances outside catalogues are found in 5.371 (occubat), 6.338 (seruat), 7.55–58 (petit, obstant), 10.351 (mittit), 10.518 (educat), 10.706 (occubat, habet), 12.352 (aspirat). The other tenses occurring in similes are the perfect tense (53 instances), the imperfect tense (2 instances) and the future tense (2 instances). One verb form is an ambiguous tense form (present or perfect). More research is necessary, however. Some similes seem to display temporal progression, which would mean that they are presented in the narrative mode. For a more literary approach of the similes in Vergil see e.g. Hornsby (1970), Rieks (1981).
84
chapter 3
ipsa haeret scopulis et quantum uertice ad auras aetherias, tantum radice in Tartara tendit: 4.441–446
Even as when northern Alpine winds, blowing now hence, now thence, emulously strive to uproot an oak strong with the strength of years, there comes a roar, the trunk quivers and the high leafage thickly strews the ground, but the oak clings to the crag, and as far as it lifts its top to the airs of heaven, so far it strikes its roots down towards hell. The states of affairs of certant, it, consternunt, haeret and tendit are presented in relation to the oak in this simile. In fact, we should not speak of the oak, but of the type of oak in this simile, since the states of affairs do not refer to one specific oak, featuring in a specific event or situation that took place at a particular moment.71 Instead, they refer to states of affairs that regularly occur in (certant, it, consternunt) or are valid during (haeret, tendit) the existence of oaks of a certain type. This type of oak, in its turn, supposedly exists in the time of narration. The simile is presented in the information mode, but its content is not presented as new information.72 On the contrary, the narrator suggests that his audience knows this type of oak and what happens to it during a storm, and in the case where they don’t, he gives them a rather specific picture of it. Similes, of course, gain their strength from the suggestion that the information they present is common knowledge, although they usually sketch rather detailed and specific circumstances that no-one may have ever experienced in that exact way.73
71
72
73
The states of affairs of a simile are generic states of affairs (Smith 2003: 24), in that they refer to the properties of kinds (e.g. strong, old oaks) and abstract individuals (e.g. a statesman, cf. 1.148 ff.). This holds for all similes in the Aeneid. The similes of the Aeneid all consist of generic states of affairs, expressed by present tense forms. The simile in which Dido is compared to Pentheus and Orestes (4.465–473) may seem to refer to a specific occurrence in a story world and not to states of affairs about a kind or abstract individual, but the narrator does not refer to specific events, but to their enactment in a theatre, as becomes clear from scaenis in line 471 (Conington, 1963). (Please note, however, that there are conjectures for scaenis (e.g. furiis, saeuis or poenis), but most commentaries reject these conjectures.) For the conflict between universality and specificness in similes see Bakker (2001: 21).
praesens
6
85
Conclusion
The present tense indicates that a state of affairs is contemporaneous with the base. In the Aeneid, the base can be the time of narration or reference time. The semantic value of the present tense and the concomitant availability of these two bases are just two factors that influence the interpretation of a particular present tense form. Other factors are the telicity of its predicate frame and its relation to the states of affairs in the context (the discourse mode). My analysis of indicative present tense forms in the Aeneid (direct speech excluded) results in the quantitative overview presented in table 9. The present tense is the most frequent tense form in the Aeneid: over 60 % of its tense forms are present tenses (N = 5794). The table shows that the most frequent interpretation of the present tense is that of an event taking place in reference time. The table also shows that situations are almost as frequent as events. By alternating the events of his story with situations, the narrator of the Aeneid achieves the effect of a natural time flow, imitating that of real life (i.e. a scenic pace). This relatively slow narrative pace creates the effect of evidentia that has often been related to the use of the historical present, but should in my opinion be related to pseudo-simultaneously narrated sequences with a scenic pace. Present tense descriptions, too, contribute to this effect of evidentia as they indicate what can be seen in different parts of the story world, thus inviting the narratees to construct vivid pictures in their minds (demonstratio ad oculos). Furthermore, several present tense descriptions do not unambiguously indicate a base in reference time and, thus, seem to draw the reader into a story world overlapping with their own world. The world of the narrator and his narratees is also evoked by means of present tense forms in report and information and, especially, by means of the many similes containing present tense forms. These similes generalize the story, presenting it by means of highly recognizable scenes. In short, the narrator of the Aeneid uses the versatility of the present tense to create a narrative style that allows his narratees to become immersed in a world of the past, while they are at the same time reminded that this past world is also highly relevant for or even coincides with their present world.74
74
For a relation between this manner of presentation and the ideology of the Aeneid, see Rossi (2004: 125–149). See also Adema (2013), for a discussion of the ideology of the Aeneid in relation to the use of the present tense in the katabasis episode of the Aeneid.
86 table 9
chapter 3 Interpretations of the present tense in the Aeneid
Discourse mode
Interpretation
Pseudo-simultaneous narrative
Event in reference time, temporally related to other state(s) of affairs Situation Frame Starting situation Situation in reference time, spatially related to other state(s) of affairs Situation in time of narration and/or in reference time, spatially related to other state(s) of affairs State of affairs contemporaneous with time of narration State of affairs contemporaneous with reference time Characteristic of element existing in time of narration (actual, generalizing or universal present) Characteristic of element existing in reference time (historical present) Characteristic of element existing in time of narration (generalizing present)
Pseudo-simultaneous description Ambiguous description
Report from a base in time of narration Report from a base in reference time Information from a base in time of narration Information from a base in reference time Similes
Othera Total
Occurrences % 1468
41
1016 54 239 138
28 1 7 4
77
2
41
1
13