το άνευ κλίσι Ελληνικό: Verbs - Part 2

On this page we deal first with impersonal verbs and then we examine how the invariable ΤΑΚΕ verb, with no inflexions, handles tense, mood, voice or, indeed, non-finite forms

Some of Joseph Peanou's decisions here were controversial and some accused him of being influenced too much by Chinese. Joseph himself pointed out that his knowledge of Chinese was limited and argued strongly that his decisions were necessitated by the fact that the verb is invariable and that they were derived from the Greek language itself. If there was any perceived resemblance to Chinese, he maintained, it was coincidental and possibly due to the fact that both languages were dealing with similar problems.

[Impersonal Verbs] [Voice] [Tense and Aspect] [Mood] [Non-finite forms]

Impersonal Verbs

It will have been noticed from examples on other pages that, unlike ancient Greek where verbs had inflexions which indicated the subject, subject pronouns must be expressed in ΤΑΚΕ, and that ΤΑΚΕ uses a strict Subject-Verb-Object word order. There are, however, some verbs in ΤΑΚΕ which do not and, indeed, cannot have subject pronouns because they are impersonal, i.e. there is no subject. In such cases English uses a 'dummy' or expletive subject, namely "it"; ΤΑΚΕ does not use an expletive 'it' in such sentences, e.g. ες όψιο (it is late), τύχε διά ανθρωπικό αμαρτήματο (it happened through human error).

Other types of impersonal verb are:

There to be

In ancient Greek the meaning of "there is" and "there are" were expressed by ἔστι(ν) and εἶσι(ν) respectively; these are the same as the 3rd person forms of εἰμί (to be), except that they are not enclitic and are accented on the first syllable. In practice, ἔστι(ν) was often used when a plural noun followed. Joseph Peanou, therefore, simply used έστιν to mean "there is", "there are", etc.; e.g.
έστιν τρία ανδρό εν το πλοίο (there were three men in the boat).

'Weather' verbs

These are given in dictionaries in the 1st person singular forms just like other verbs as, among the ancients, Zeus or other deities could be subjects of such verbs and could speak for themselves. The ΤΑΚΕ verbs could, therefore, have been derived in the normal way, though in ΤΑΚΕ they would have been impersonal.

But Joseph Peanou was not over-fond of the short word ύε (← ὕω) for "it is raining"; nor was he happy at the lack of uniformity in Greek between noun and verb for things like: ψακάς ~ ψακάζω (drizzle), ὑετός ~ ὕω (rain, shower), ὄμβρος ~ ὄμβρει (heavy rain), χιών ~ χιονίζω (snow), ἀστραπή ~ ἀστράπτω (lightning), βροντή ~ βροντάω (thunder).

He noticed that the phrase ποιεῖν ὑετόν (to make rain, i.e. to rain) occurred in the ancient language and, having decided to use «ποίει υετό» (it makes rain, i.e. it is raining) in ΤΑΚΕ, he extended this impersonal use of ποίει to other weathers as well, e.g.

ποίει ψακάδο = it is drizzling
ποίει υετό = it is raining [shower]
ποίει όμβρο = it is raining heavily [and continuously]
ποίει χιόνο = it is is snowing
ποίει αστραπό = there's lightning
ποίει βροντό = it is thundering, there's thunder

Verbs with a noun clauses as subject

In ancient Greek we find such verbs as δεῖ (it is binding, it is necessary) and πρέπει (it is proper) as in: δεῖ μ' ἐλθεῖν (it is necessary that I go = I must go), πρέπει ἐσλοῖσιν ὑμνεῖσθαι (it is proper for brave people to hymned = The brave should be praised in song [Pindar]). The former verb is followed by the accusative and infinitive and he latter by the dative and infinitive. Occasionally πρέπει was also found followed by the accusative and infinitive.

In the ancient language, when δηλόω was used impersonally it was regularly followed by a noun clause beginning with the conjunction ὅτι, e.g. δηλοῖ ὅτι οὐκ Ὡμήρου τὰ Κύπρια ἔπεά ἐστι (It is clear that the Cyprian epic is not Homer's, i.e. it's clear Homer is not the author of the Cypria [Herodotos]). As ΤΑΚΕ does not have noun cases nor an infinitive, it uses exclusively noun clauses with ότι, as in the example from Herodotos, after such impersonal verbs. The ΤΑΚΕ versions of the three sentences above are:

δει ότι με βη (It is binding that I go = I must go)
πρέπει ότι εσλό-λαό ύμνει (It is proper that brave people are hymned = Brave people should be praised in song)
δήλου ότι το Κύπριο έπο ουκ ες εκ Ώμηρο (It is clear that the Cyprian epic is not Homer's)

Two other examples of such verbs are:

ένι ότι σέλαο ποίει τούτο (it-is-possible that you do this = You may do this)^*
τύχε ότι σφέλαο ουκ ες εκεί (it happens that they are not there = They happen not to be there)

Note: the examples above are not an exhaustive list of such verbs!

^*In the ancient language the two compounds of ἔστι(ν), namely ἔξεστι(ν) and ἔνεστι(ν), both meant 'it is possible'. The later was often shortened to ἔνι, which is the form adopted for ΤΑΚΕ.

Voice

The active and passive voice of modern European languages and other languages are well known. Ancient Greek had also the 'middle voice' which served to express that the subject was either acting upon himself/ herself (reflexive) or for himself/ herself (indirect reflexive) or was in some way involved for better or for worse in the action¹. In fact, ancient Greek distinguish three voices only for the perfective and predictive aspects. The imperfective and perfect aspects had only a two way distinction: active ~ mediopassive, i.e. the same forms did duty for both middle and passive meanings².

We shall consider aspect in the next section below. Suffice it to say that Greek inherited three aspects from its parent Proto-Indo-European language: the imperfective, perfective and perfect. These were shown by different verbal stems. The Greeks developed a predictive aspect verb stem also (the so-called 'future tenses' of the grammar books) and even, in the passive only, a less commonly used predictive perfect (a so-called 'future-perfect'). The six principle parts which give the six verbal stems, from which all other verbal forms are derived, correspond to aspect and voice thus (we use βάλλω "throw" as an example):

'present stem' (βάλλ-ω) denotes the imperfective aspect for all voices.
'future stem' (βαλέ-ω) denotes the predictive aspect for active and middle voices.
'aorist active stem' (ἔ-βαλ-ον) denotes the perfective aspect for active and middle voices.
'perfect active stem' (βέβληκ-α) denotes the perfect aspect for the active voice.
'perfect passive stem' (βέβλη-μαι) denotes the perfect aspect for the middle and passive voices; the 'future perfect' passive is also derived from this..
'aorist passive stem' (ἐ-βληθ-ην) denotes the perfective aspect for the passive voice; the 'future' passive is also derived from this.

Where a stem served, as most did, for more than once voice, the specific voice was indicaed by the personal endings of the verb. As ΤΑΚΕ has no inflexions, its verb has no pesonal endings and the ΤΑΚΕ verb itself is neutral as regards voice. Let us, therefore, consider how ΤΑΚΕ handles the three voices of the ancient language.

¹Middle is also used by some to denote English verbs as in 'John is shaving' and 'Lisa undressed'. Some even use the term to denote any verb in English which has only one argument and that argument is the actor. We do not use 'middle' with that meaning here; by 'middle' we mean strictly what was expressed by the middle voice of ancient Greek.
²Some people use the term mediopassive to denote English forms where the verb has an active morphological form but a passive meaning as in 'This reads well', 'This book is selling well'. This is not the meaning here. By mediopassive we mean simply those forms of the ancient Greek verb by which certain aspects used a single form to cover both the middle and passive meanings of other aspects.

The Active Voice

The active voice presents no problem; all the example we have seen so far have been of active verbs.

The Middle Voice

Let us consider the different uses of the ancient Greek middle voice and how eacch usage is represented in ΤΑΚΕ.

Acting on oneself: as in the English 'John is shaving' and 'Lisa undressed'.
ΤΑΚΕ behaves just like English, that is the transitive verb is used without an object, himself, herself etc being 'understood'; e.g. το Ιωάννο ξύρει (John is shaving, John shaved), το Λίσα απόδυε (Lisa is undressing, Lisa undressed).
Other examples are: σφε λούε (He is washing, he washed), σφέλαο κάθιζε (They are sitting, they sat)
με στη (I am standing, I stood).
If the middle or reflexive meaning is not clear, we may make it so by using the reflexive pronoun, e.g.
σφε κτείνε αυτό (He killed himself)
άρα σε βλάπτε αυτό; (Did you hurt yourself?) The particle άρα introduces a question if there is no specific question word.
(In ΤΑΚΕ σφε κτείνε and άρα σε βλάπτε; without direct objects are likely to be undertood as passives.)

Acting for oneself or with reference to oneself: ΤΑΚΕ uses the reflexive as the indirect object, i.e. εις αυτό, which must come after the direct object, e.g.

Ancient Greek	English	ΤΑΚΕ
ὁ δῆμος τίθεται νόμους	The people³ makeἐ laws for themselves	το δήμο θη νόμο εις αυτό
τοῦτον μεταπέμπομαι	I send for him, i.e. I send after him to come to me	με μετάπεμπε σφε εις αυτό
ἀπεπέμπετο αὐτούς	He dismissed them, i.e. He sent them away for his own benefit/ peace of mind etc.	σφε απόπεμπε σφέλαο εις αυτό

³λαό means 'people', 'persons' in a general sense; δήμο means 'people', 'the sovereign people' in a political sense, cf. δημοκρατίο (democracy).

Acting on an object belonging to oneself: We have seen, in fact, how this is done on the Pronouns page. Consider this ancient Greek sentence:
ἦλθε λυσόμενος θύγατρα (He came to ransom his [own] daughter) - λυσόμενος is a future middle participle expressing purpose.
In ΤΑΚΕ we shall use a clause beginning with ίνα in order to express purpose. We saw on the Pronoun page "A possessive would be expressed only if it did not refer to the subject", i.e. it would be assumed that the object το θυγατρό (the daughter) is the subject's daughter unless otherwise stated. We also read on that page: "If, however, we wish to emphasize that something belongs to or pertains to the subject, ΤΑΚΕ uses the τ' αυτό πατρίδο (the very country) construction with an infixed possessive".
Therefore the ΤΑΚΕ version of the sentence above is either:
σφε έρχε ίνα σφε λύε το θυγατρό
or if emphasis is required:
σφε έρχε ίνα σφε λύε το εκ σφ' αυτό θυγατρό
Having a causative meaning: ΤΑΚΕ uses ποίει ώστε 'to bring it about that' e.g.

Ancient Greek English ΤΑΚΕ

ἐδιδαξάμην σε I had you taught
(i.e. I brought it about that you were taught) με ποίει ώστε σε δίδασκε

The Passive Voice

Ancient Greek	English	ΤΑΚΕ
ἐδιδαξάμην σε	I had you taught (i.e. I brought it about that you were taught)	με ποίει ώστε σε δίδασκε

As ΤΑΚΕ verbs are neutral as regards voice, a transitive verb with only one argument may be taken as passive in meaning. Thus the so-called mediopassives of English are treated in exactly the same way in ΤΑΚΕ, e.g.

σφε γέυε το ζωμό (She tastes the soup) ~ το ζωμό γέυε καλό (The soup tastes nice)
με ανάγνω τούτο (I am reading this) ~ τούτο ανάγνω καλό (This reads well)
σφε λούε το υφάσματο (He is washing the fabric) ~ τούτο το υφάσματο λούε ράδιο (This fabric washes easily)

As we saw in the last example of middle verbs, this applies not just to a minority of verbs, as in English, but to all transitive verbs, e.g.

σφε δίδασκε το παιδό εν οίκο (She teaches the children at home) ~ το παιδό δίδασκε εν οίκο (The children are taught at home)⁴
το Οιδίποδο κτείνε το πατρό (Oedipus killed his father) ~ το Λάιο κτείνο υπό το υιό (Laius was killed by his son)⁵

A transitive verb may be used impersonally with a passive meaning, e.g.
λέγε ότι το Οιδίποδο κτείνε το πατρό (It is said that Oedipus killed his father).

If, however, it is wished to make a passive meaning clearer, one can use πάθε (to have something done to one, to suffer) as an auxiliary, thus:

το Λάιο πάθε κτείνε (Laius suffered being killed = Laius was killed)

⁴δίδασκε behaves very much like 'learn' in certain styles of colloquial English; also it is one of the few verbs that may have two direct objects, e.g. σφε δίδασκε το παιδό το μαθήματο (She teaches her children mathematics [coll.: 'She learns her children mathematics']) ~ το παιδό δίδασκε το μαθήματο (The children are taught mathematics [coll.: 'The children are learnt mathematics'] or The children learn mathematics). It is also possible to say in both ΤΑΚΕ and English: το μαθήματο δίδασκε το παιδό (Mathematics are taught the children); though in both languages it would sound stilted. In ΤΑΚΕ it is more idiomatic to say μαθήματο δίδασκε υπό το παιδό.
⁵Oἰδίπους (Oedipus) was variously declined. In the tragedians the accusative was Oἰδίπουν and the genitive Oἰδίπου. But in other writers we also find the normal 3rd declensions forms with accusative Oἰδίποδα and genitive Oἰδίποδος. There was also a 1st declension variant Oἰδιπόδης (with genitive Oἰδιπόδου, or dialect equivalent) found in Epic, Ionic and some other dialects. Joseph adopted the regular 3rd declension genitive Oἰδίποδος, as being a fair compromise between the tragedians' Oἰδίπου and the Epic-Ionic Oἰδιπόδου, as the basis for the ΤΑΚΕ form of the name. Notice also the accent on Λάιο. It is not the diphthong αι [aɪ], but simply [a]. The word is ['lajjɔ] in ΤΑΚΕ and Λάιοs was three syllables in ancient Greek (i.e. Λά-ι-οs).

NOTE: It will be seen from the last example above that when the subject of an auxiliary verb and its dependent verb (expressed by an infinitive in many languages) is the same, the two verbs are simply juxtaposed to form a quasi-compound verb. Indeed, it was suggested to Joseph Peanou that a quasi-compound such as πάθε κτείνε be written πάθε-κτείνε or even παθεκτείνε. Joseph would have none of that and insisted the two verbs be written separately. He talked of the two verb as forming as «ῥηματκόν σύνταγμα» (or in ΤΑΚΕ: ρηματικό συντάγματο), i.e. a verbal syntagm. We find the same construction used with the aspectual and modal auxiliaries below.

Tense and Aspect

If one looks in a grammar of ancient Greek one is presented with apparently seven indicative 'tenses', five 'tenses' in the optative mood, and three each in the subjunctive and imperative moods. In fact, what are traditionally referred to as 'tenses' are not only distinctions of tense, in the strict sense of the word, but also of aspect. It will be better to distinguish clearly these two concepts.

Tense

Tense is, properly speaking, that grammatical category that correlates most directly with distinctions of time. In Greek this was marked only in the indicative mood and was a simple contrast between past and non-past. The past tenses were marked by the 'temporal augment' at the beginning of the verb and by a different set of endings from the non-past.

ΤΑΚΕ drops the tense system altogether. Time differences are shown entirely by context, as in many languages. If the meaning is not clear, then adverbs or adverb phrases such as νυν (now), τότε (then), ποτέ (sometime), εχθές (yesterday)⁶, σήμερον (today), αύριον (tomorrow), εις το μέλλοντο (in the future).

Future could also be indicated by the use of modal verbs such as μέλλε (to be likely to, to be about to) and θέλε (to be willing), see the section below on 'Mood'.

⁶This was also found in the ancient language as χθές, but the longer form was more common and is, therefore, the form adopted in ΤΑΚΕ.

Aspect

Aspect is a grammatical category that relates to the internal temporal structure of a situation.

The predictive and predictive perfect forms did not survive the ancient period either in our time-line or in WHATL. By the time of the Greek Koine, the perfect aspect was becoming confused with the perfective aspects and, in our timeline, the perfect forms dropped out of of use; modern Greek distinguishes only the imperfective and perfective aspect. There was similar confusion in WHATL, though some perfect forms persisted but with perfective meanings. In the Hellenic languages of western Europe the tense/aspect system had become considerably reorganized.

In ΤΑΚΕ there is no formal marking of aspect. Aspect, when necessary, may be marked by aspectual auxiliary verbs such as άρχε (to start, begin), πέραινε (to finish, accomplish), διατέλει (to continue), έθιζε (to accustom, be accustomed) e.g.

σφε άρχε λέγε (he started to speak, began speaking)
σφε πέραινε λέγε (he finished speaking)
σφε διατέλει λέγε (he continued to speak, carried on speaking
σφε έθιζε λέγε (he was accustomed to speaking)

Mood

By 'mood' we mean that grammatical category which expresses the degree or kind of reality of a proposition as perceived by the speaker or writer. Ancient Greek distinguished four moods in its verbal morphology, namely: indicative, imperative, optative and subjunctive. By the use of modal auxiliary verbs such as δύναμαι (I am able, I can) and impersonal verbs such as πρέπει (it is proper that...) and δεῖ (it is required that...), see impersonal verbs above, other modalities were expressed. ΤΑΚΕ also retains modal auxiliaries and modal impersonal verbs; it does not, however, retain any modal inflexions. Let us, then, consider first how ΤΑΚΕ renders the four grammatical moods of classical Greek and then look at some of the modal auxiliaries used in ΤΑΚΕ.

On the 'Pronouns' page it was stated that "Joseph decided, especially as the verb is invariable and has no inflexions for mood, to keep the dual system of μή and οὐ negatives." These are written simply as μη and ου (or ουκ before vowels) in ΤΑΚΕ. The use of these two words for 'not' also help to distinguish modality.

Indicative

We have seen several examples of this already. It is the plain verb used either impersonally or after a subject noun phrase either in the main clause or in a ότι clause. The negative, put before the verb, is always ου(κ), e.g.
σφε ου λέγε εκείνο (she did not say that),
σφε λέγε ότι σφέλαο ουκ έρχε σήμερον (she said [that] they were not coming today).

Imperative (also jussive and hortative)

The ancient Greek imperative mood had both second and third person forms. The latter are sometimes called 'jussive'. There were no first person forms, though some languages do have 1st person imperatives; such imperatives are often known as 'hortatives'. Greek expressed this, as many other languages do, by using its subjunctive mood. It will, however, be convenient to deal with all three types of imperative together.

In the ancient language imperatives could be preceded by ἄγε, φέρε or ἴθι. Although these were themselves 2nd person singular imperatives (ἄγε ← ἄγω 'to lead', φέρε ← φέρω 'to bear, carry', and ἴθι ← εἶμι 'to come, go'), they came to be used optionally as invariable particles before both 2nd person and third person imperatives, whether singular or plural, and before the first person singular of the subjunctive when used in a hortative sense. As both άγε (to lead) and φέρε (to bear, carry) are verbs in ΤΑΚΕ, but the defective and irregular verb εἶμι is not used, Joseph Peanou decided to adopt ίθι as an 'imperative particle'. In ΤΑΚΕ, just as in the ancient language, the negative for all imperative and hortative forms is μη.

The 2nd person imperative is normally expressed by the plain verb, e.g.
απόβη (Go away!), πρόσερχε (Come here!)
μη απόβη (Don't go away!), μη λέγε εκείνο (Don't say that!)
The 2nd person pronoun may be used for emphasis, if desired; but in this case ίθι must be used if the command is positive, but is optional in negative forms, e.g.
ίθι σε απόβη (You are to go away!)
(ίθι) σε μη απόβη (You are not to go away!)

The third person imperative, often referred to as 'jussive' mood, is shown in French by 'que' followed by a subjunctive and in English by the auxiliary 'let', as in the well-known: "Qu'ils mangent de la brioche!", "Let them eat cake". In the third person forms, ίθι is compulsory in positive sentences, but may be omitted in negative ones. Examples:
ίθι σφέλαο φάγε πλακούντο (Let them eat cake!)
(ίθι) σφε μη γνω περί τούτο (Let him not know about this!).

The first person imperative, or hortative, has the same construction as the third person imperatives, e.g.
ίθι μέλαο απόβη (Let's go!)
(ίθι) μέλαο μη ποίει τούτο (Let's not do that!).

Optative

The main uses of this mood in the ancient language were:

In subordinate clauses to replace the indicative or the subjunctive if the main verb were past.
In certain types of conditional clauses.
As main verbs to express wishes.

Use (a) does not concern us here as ΤΑΚΕ has no tenses and, therefore, no rules of 'sequence of tense'; in any case, this use of the optative was optional even in the ancient language. Also the various types of subordinate clauses will be considered under Syntax. Similarly, use (b) will not concern us here as conditions are considered under Syntax. It is only use (c) that concerns us here.

The ancients distinguished between two sorts of wishes, and ΤΑΚΕ also makes the same distinction between:

those wishes that refer to the future where it is implied that the object is attainable (even if it would need a miracle for its attainment);
those wishes that refer to the present or past where it is implied that the object of the wish is not or was not attained.

Wishes that refer to the future
In the ancient language these could be expressed simply by using the optative form of the verb. But such wishes were often preceded by εἰ, εἴθε or εἰ γάρ. As ει is used in ΤΑΚΕ to me 'if' or 'whether', Joseph Peanou did not wish to give it a further use; he considered that είθε would be too easily confused with the imperative particle ίθι. He therefore chose to use ειγάρ in ΤΑΚΕ, writing it as a single word (in any case, the ancients did not separate words with white space). The negative is μη, e.g.
ειγάρ σε γένε φίλο εις μέλαο (May you become a friend to us)
ειγάρ το βασιλεύ ζη εις αεί (May the king live for ever!)
ειγάρ σφε μη άνερχε σήμερον (May he not return today!)
ειγάρ σε μήποτε πάθε δυστυχίο (May you never suffer misfortune).

Wishes that refer to the present or past
In Attic Greek these were expressed by εἴθε or εἰ γάρ, which could not be omitted, followed by a past indicative tense. As ΤΑΚΕ has no tense marking, this cannot be done in ΤΑΚΕ. In Homer and the poets we find a different construction, namely ὤφελον (I ought) and the infinitive, e.g. ὤφελε τοῦτο ποιεῖν (would that he were doing this), literally "he ought to be doing this", and ὤφελε τοῦτο ποιῆσαι (would that he had done this), literally "he ought to have done this". This ὤφελον is a strong aorist of a verb ὀφείλω (to owe), which in ΤΑΚΕ is όφειλε, since in later Greek the verb had a weak aorist with the normal meaning of 'I owed'.

One also found ὄφελον used with the accusative and infinitive to express these sorts of wishes. In this construction ὄφελον is the neuter participle with ἐστί (is) 'understood'. It is this later use that Joseph Peanou adopted and adapted for ΤΑΚΕ, since he used όφελο as an optative particle in a similar way to ειγάρ for future wishes. Once again the negative is μη, e.g.
όφελο σφε ποίει τούτο (Would that he were doing this/ had done this)⁷
όφελο μέλαο ες εκεί (Would that we were there/ had been there)
όφελο σφε μη ποίει εκείνο (Would that he were not doing that/ had not done that)
όφελο σφέλαο μη βη εις εκεί (would that they were not going there/ had not gone there).

⁷Whether the meaning is present 'were doing' or past 'had done' depends upon context.

Subjunctive

The main uses of the subjunctive are in various types of subordinate clauses; these we shall deal with under Syntax. There were three uses where the subjunctive occurs as a main verb:

In Homer it occurred with sense of a future tense; this usage disappeared from later greek as specific future forms were developed.
In 1st person exhortations, e.g. μὴ τοῦτο ποιῶμεν (Let us not do this).
In what are called deliberative questions, e.g. τί εἴπω; (What am I to say?)

Usage (i) does not concern us as it died out in early Greek and, in any case, ΤΑΚΕ does not distinguish tense; usage (ii) has been dealt with above under the imperative mood. There remains to consider only the deliberative question. There was no formal marking of the positive questions other than the use of a subjunctive verb; negative questions of this sort used μή.

Josephus used the particle τἆρα, a contraction of τοι ἄρα and τοι ἆρα, to mark this sort of question. The particle τοι was probably in origin an ethic dative of the pronoun for 'you', and meant something like 'let me tell you, mark you, look you'; the particle ἄρα had several uses, but in questions it showed anxiety on the part of the questioner so is, perhaps, appropriate in these questions. Neither τοι not ἄρα could be first word in a clause. The particle ἆρα, on the other hand, did stand first word and marked the sentence as a question.

Examples of deliberative questions are:
τι τάρα μέλαο ποίει; (What are we to do do? What were we to do?)
τάρα μέλαο βη εις εκεί σημερον; (Are we to go there today?)
τάρα μέλαο μη ποίει τούτο; (Are we not to do this?)

Modal verbs

Other modal distinctions can be made, as in other languages, by the use of modal auxiliary verbs, e.g. με δύνα ποίει σφε (I can do it), με μέλλε ποίει σφε (I am about to do it. I am going to do it), με θέλε ποίει σφε (I am willing to do it), με βούλε ποίει σφε (I wish to do it. I want to do it).

As we have already seen with the aspectual auxiliaries above, if the subject of both verbs are the same, we simply juxtapose the two verbs to form a single verbal syntagm. If, however, θέλε and βούλε have a different subject from the verb that follows, ΤΑΚΕ uses a clause beginning with ίνα ( ancient ἵνα), thus:
με θέλε ίνα σε βη (I am willing that you go. I am willing for you to go).
με βούλε ίνα σε βη (I want you to go).
The negative in ίνα clauses is μη, e.g. με βούλε ίνα σε μη ποίει τούτο (I want you not to do this. I don't want you to do this).

As we saw with the impersonal verbs above, modal meanings may be shown with such verbs, e.g.,
δει ότι μέλαο απόβη (We must go away [litreally: it is binding that we go away])
ένι ότι σφέλαο ποίει τούτο (You may do this [literally; it-is-possible that you do this])
πρέπει ότι σφε απόβη σήμερον (He ought to go away today [literally: it is proper that he goes away today]).

The negative in ότι clauses is ου(κ), e.g. δει ότι μέλαο ουκ απόβη (We must not go away).

Compare this with: ου δει ότι μέλαο απόβη (We don't have to go away [literally: it is not binding that we go away]).

Non-finite forms

The non-finite forms of verbs are those which cannot serve as the only verb in simple sentences. Ancient Greek had two such sets of non-finite verb forms: participles (verbal adjectives) and infinitives (verbal nouns). Indeed, it had a participle and an infinitive for each aspect in each voice. This meant that a transitive verb had 11 different participles and 11 different infinitives.

This rich system of non-finite verbs has almost disappeared from modern Greek in our timeline. Of the participles, only one true one remains, a passive participle. There is also a form commonly called the active participle, but it is invariable and adverbial in nature and might be better called a gerund. The ancient infinitives all but vanished, leaving only the απαρέμφατο, or 'infinitive', of modern Greek: an invariable form, identical to the 3rd person singular aorist subjunctive, whose sole use is after the verb έχω (I have) to form perfect tenses.

The Hellenic languages of WHATL also drastically simplified the old system. ΤΑΚΕ must go still further; it has no inflexions and, therefore, cannot have any participles and infinitives derived from the finite verb. In this respect ΤΑΚΕ differs from 'Latino sine flexione' in our timeline, since the latter, despite its name, did allow inflexions to form participles and infinitives. Let us then consider how ΤΑΚΕ handles the uses of the ancient Greek participles and infinitives.

Participles

The ancient participle had three main uses:

1. Attribute Participle

The participle may qualify a noun like an attributive adjective. Here, especially when preceded by the definite article, it may often be translated by a relative clause. ΤΑΚΕ, indeed, uses just such a clause. In Homer and some dialects we often find the definite article used as a relative pronoun; in ΤΑΚΕ relative clause are normally introduced by the definite article. Indeed, they are regarded simply as attributes, cf.
το εσλό λαό or το λαό το εσλό = The brave people
το εν το πλοίο λαό or το λαό το εν το πλοίο = The people in the boat
το άφικε σήμερον λαό or το λαό το άφικε σήμερον = The people who are arriving today or The people arriving today.

In other words, one just uses the appropriate finite verb in the attributive clause, the subject of the verb being the head of the noun phrase itself. If the noun is indefinite, there must, of course, be no definite article preceding the noun, so the relative clause may only follow he noun. Some other examples are:

Ancient Greek	English	ΤΑΚΕ
πόλις κάλλει διαφέρουσα	A city excelling in beauty	πόλι το υπέρβαλλε εν κάλλο
ανὴρ καλώς πεπαιδευμένος	A man who has been well educated A well educated man	ανδρό το παίδευε καλό
οἱ πρέσβεις οἱ ὑπὸ Φιλίππου πεμφθέντες	The ambassadors [who were] sent by Philip	το πρέσβυ-λαό το πέμπε υπό Φίλιππο or το πέμπε υπό Φίλιππο πρέσβυ-λαό
οἱ ἄνδρες οἱ τοῦτο ποιήσοντες	The men [who are] going to do this	το ανδρό-λαό το μέλλε ποίει τούτο or το μέλλε ποίει τούτο ανδρό-λαό

2. Circumstantial Participle

The ancient participle was often used to define the circumstances of an action. In this usage it could define the various relationships. ΤΑΚΕ expresses the relationships with an appropriate adverbial clause (these adverbial clauses will be dealt with in more detail when we consider Syntax), or by a separate finite verb, thus:

Ancient Greek	English	ΤΑΚΕ
ταῦτα ἔπρασσε στρατηγῶν (relationship: time)	He did this while he was general	σφε πράσσε τούτο έως σφε στρατήγει.
λέγω δὲ τοῦδ' ἕνεκα, βουλόμενος δόξαι σοι ὅπερ ἐμοί (relationship: cause)	I speak for this reason, because I wish that what seems good to me seems good to you.	με λέγε διά τούτο το επίνοιο, δι' ότι με βούλε ίνα το δόκει εις με τούτο δόκει εις σε.
λῃζόμενοι ζῶσιν (relationship: manner, means)	They live by plundering	σφέλαο ζη εξ ότι σφέλαο λήζε σκύλο.
ἦλθε λυσόμενος θύγατρα (relationship: purpose)	He came [in order] to ransom his daughter	σφε έρχε ίνα σφε λύε το θυγατρό.
πῶς, δίκης οὔσης, ὁ Ζεὺς οὐκ ἀπόλωλεν; [lit. How, justice existing, Zeus has not been destroyed?] (relationship: conditional)	How, if there is justice, has Zeus not been destroyed?	πως, ει έστιν δίκο, το Διός ουκ άπολε;
ὀλίγα δυνάμενοι προορᾶν, πολλὰ ἐπιχειροῦμεν πράττειν (relationship: concessive)	Although we can foresee little, we attempt to do much	εικαί μέλαο δύνα προόρα ολίγο, μέλαο επιχείρει πράσσε πολύ.
παραλαβόντες Βοιωτοὺς ἐστράτευσαν ἐπί Φάρσαλον (relationship: attendant circumstance)	Taking the Boiotians, they marched upon Pharsalos, i.e. They took the Boiotians and marched upon Pharsalos	σφέλαο παράλαβε το Βοιωτο και στράτευε επ' εις Φάρσαλο.

3. Supplementary Participle

This is something peculiarly Greek, and many languages would use an infinitive or a gerund in this sense. It is the used of the participle to complete the idea expressed by the verb by showing what it relates to. e.g. παύομεν σε λέγοντα (We stop you speaking. We stop you from speaking); παυόμεθα λέγοντες (We stop speaking. We cease to speak).

This type of construction was found with verbs denoting: to begin, to continue, to endure, to persevere, to cease/ stop, to repent, to be weary, to be pleased, to be displeased, to be ashamed, to permit, to cause. i t may also be found with verbs of perception and verbs signifying overlooking (i.e.' turning a blind eye'), allowing, permitting or doing something with anyone noticing.

In ΤΑΚΕ, if the participle would have agreed with the subject, then the two verbs form a verbal syntagm, e.g. μέλαο παύε λέγε (We stop talking). But if the participle would have agreed with the object, then we use an appropriate clause (usually a ότι clause), e.g. μέλαο παύε ότι σε λέγε (We stop the-fact-that you are talking, i.e. We stop you talking). We shall be looking at clauses in more detail in the sections on Syntax.

Infinitives

Simple infinitive as subject, complement or object

We saw in the section on impersonal verbs above that the ancient accusative and infinitive is replaced by a clause beginning with ότι. Also dative with a subject infinitive is replaced by an ότι clause, e. εξῆν ἡμῖν μένειν (it was possible for to remain) → ένι ότι μέλαο μένε (it was possible that we remain).

We have also seen that the infinitive as object is rendered in ΤΑΚΕ as a simple verb in a verbal syntagm if the subject of the infinitive was same as the subject of the main verb or by an appropriate clause if the two subjects are different, e.g. με βούλε βη (I want to go) ~ με βούλε ίνα σε βη (I want you to go).

If the infinitive was the complement then we use a ότι clause, e.g. ἀνάγκη ἐστὶ πάντας ἀπελθεῖν (a necessity is that all withdraw, i.e. there's a need for everyone to withdraw) → ανάγκο ες ότι παντό-λαό απόβη.

Infinitive with the definite article

The main use of this is as the subject of a verb, e.g. τὸ γνῶναι ἐπιστήμην λαβεῖν ἐστιν (To know is to obtain knowledge); there is no article before λαβεῖν (to take, obtain) as that is the complement of ἐστιν (is). In ΤΑΚΕ ότι marks a noun clause, and this may, of course, be used as subject. When a transitive verb is simply used by itself then it resembles in meaning the impersonal passive in Latin, i.e. γνω = Latin: noscitur, French; on sait. So the ancient τὸ γνῶναι becomes ότι γνω.

In ΤΑΚΕ the complement of 'to be' is shown by placing it after the verb, e.g.

Ancient Greek	English	ΤΑΚΕ
τὸ γνῶναι ἐπιστήμην λαβεῖν ἐστιν	To know is to obtain knowledge	ότι γνω ες ότι επιστήμο λάβε (Note: λάβε here is passive and επιστήμο is its subject)
τοῦτο ἐστι τὸ ἀδικεῖν	This is to act unjustly	τούτο ες ότι αδίκει
τὸ γὰρ θάνατον δεδιέναι οὐδὲν ἄλλο ἐστὶν ἢ δοκεῖν σοφὸς εἶναι μὴ ὄντα	For to fear death is nothing else than to seem to be wise without being so	ότι γαρ⁸ θάνατο φόβει ες ούτι άλλο η ότι δόκει σοφό καιγάρ ουκ ες σοφό (For death to be feared is nothing else than to seem wise although not being wise)

⁸In the ancient language several conjunctions, such as γαρ (for) always came second word in the clause and not first, as in English. Τhis peculiarity was retained in ΤΑΚΕ.

Infinitive with adjectives

An ancient example is ἄξιος τοῦτο λαβεῖν (worthy to do this). Very occasionally, ἄξιος was found with a ἵνα clause showing the purpose for which one was worthy. This becomes the normal usage in ΤΑΚΕ , e.g.

Ancient Greek	English	ΤΑΚΕ
ἄξιος τοῦτο λαβεῖν	Worthy to do this/ worthy of doing this	άξιο ίνα σφε λάβε τούτο (worthy that he/she may do this)
δεινὸς λέγειν	skilled in speaking	δεινό ίνα σφε λέγε
πρόθυμος λέγειν	eager to speak	πρόθυμο ίνα σφε λέγε

Infinitive of purpose

Also in ancient Greek an infinitive could be used, as in modern English, to express purpose. In ΤΑΚΕ we just use a purpose clause, thus:

Ancient Greek	English	ΤΑΚΕ
τὴν πόλιν φυλάσσειν αὐτοῖς παρέδωκε	He delivered the city to them to guard	σφε παράδω το πόλι εις σφέλαο ίνα σφέλαο φυλάσσε σφε (He delivered the city to them in order that they might guard it))