CLASSES OF SUBORDINATE CLAUSES

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Subordinate clauses are of three classes:

1. Substantival clauses: in which the subordinate clause plays the part of a substantive and is either the subject or the object:

, οὐκ ἴστε ι ὅ τι ποιεῖτε you do not know what you are doing 1. 5. 16.

2. Adjectival (attributive) clauses: in which the subordinate clause plays the part of an adjective, and contains a relative whose antecedent (expressed or implied) stands in the principal clause:

( = τὴν ὑπὸ Φιλίππου πεμφθεῖσαν).

3. Adverbial clauses: in which the subordinate clause plays the part of an adverb or adverbial expression modifying the principal clause in like manner as an adverb modifies a verb.

(here ὥστε . . . ἀκούειν may be regarded as having the force of an adverb: and in a manner audible even to the enemy); πῶς ἂν οὖν ὀρθῶς δικάσαιτε περὶ αὐτῶν; εἰ τούτους ἐά̄σετε τὸν νομιζόμενον ὅρκον διομοσαμένους κατηγορῆσαι κτλ. how then would you judge correctly about them? if you permit (i.e. by permitting) them to make their accusations after having sworn the customary oath, etc. Ant. 5.90. Cp. 1095 end.

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Accordingly all complex sentences may be classified as Substantival sentences, Adjectival sentences, and Adverbial sentences. This division is, in general, the basis of the treatment of complex sentences in this book, except when, for convenience, closely connected constructions are treated together; as in the case of (adverbial) pure final clauses and (substantival) object clauses after verbs of effort and of fearing.

a. Some sentences may be classed both as substantival and adverbial, as clauses with ὥστε and ὅπως. An adverbial or adjectival clause may assume a substantival character (2247, 2488).

Complex sentences are considered in the following order: Adverbial, Adjectival, Substantival.