Universa Philosophia

Note that the verb signifies with time, or co-signifies or consignifies time, which is explained by that part of the definition conjugated through tenses: the verb indicates that its signified is exercised at some time, as ego scribo, writing is signified as exercised in the present time; whence a verb cannot but consignify time. Many nouns signify time, as hora, dies, annus; many connote time, because they signify a thing which customarily occurs at a certain difference of time, as caena; for to connote is to note together, and since dinner occurs after evening, when that word is heard we also conceive under evening; but it is not signified whether dinner is being eaten or not, but only the dining is signified according to itself. But when I say caenatur or non caenatur, I deny or affirm that dinner is being held at this evening time; whence the distinction of the verb from the other parts of speech is clear, and in how different a way the verb is taken from the noun, as when I say displicet mihi tuum vivere, the time at which another lives is not co-signified, but the infinitive is taken in the signification of nouns. But when I say dico te turpiter vivere, then viuo co-signifies time. Likewise the verb consignifies persons. Blessed Augustine, in the passage cited, vol. 1, in the book On Dialectic, calls the first and second persons composite, where he says that they are complex utterances, as curro, curritis, because they bring us into the knowledge not only of the signified through the verb but also of the persons themselves; but I do not sufficiently grasp why he denies the same of the third persons, for although very confusedly, one comes to the knowledge of some person, unless perhaps the most illustrious Augustine said this because of that confusion.