Aoriste et perfectum : l’ambivalence du parfait de l’indicatif passif et déponent en latin
Résumé
From the beginning to the end of the Latin period the indicative perfect periphrasis of passive and deponent verbs was basically ambiguous. Depending on the context, it could either refer to a past event occurring before the enunciative nunc or to a state resulting from a prior event adjacent to it. Auxiliary esse in the indicative present plays no role in our interpretation, everything hinges on the -tus ending adjective. The latter marks a complex representation of the event involving both the development of a prior event and an unbounded resulting state. The context is a critical factor in focusing the attention of the addressee on one or the other phase included in that single form.