Questions tagged [morphology]
For questions about morphology.
148
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ambobus? (a morphologically peculiar adjective with a peculiar syntax here)
There is a very famous passage in the Aeneid that narrates its hero looking at some pictures of the Trojan War, which he barely escaped from:
Miratur. Videt Iliacas ex ordine pugnas,
Bellaque iam ...
3
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1
answer
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What is the meaning of these Greek words ἵπποπείρην and ἐπεμβάτην?
Recently I have come across this short poem of Anacreon, which I give below in its totality for the sake of context:
Πῶλε Θρῃκίη, τί δή με
λοξὸν ὄμμασι βλέπουσα
νηλεῶς φεύγεις; δοκεῖς δέ
μ’ οὐδὲν ...
6
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1
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How did the contracted perfect passive work?
I was shocked when I saw the word "latest" in a Latin book. The book's English translation implies it is related to "latus." The next word "alteque" would have suggested ...
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Saint Augustine letter to Nebridio
In one of Saint Augustine's letters, numbered Carta 10 [CSEL 34/1,22 ] (PL 33,73) in "Obras Completas de San Agustin VIII – Cartas (1.º) 1-123", we see the phrase:
Mittaturne ad te ...
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Why do emasculatus and effeminatus mean the SAME thing, despite being formed the SAME way with OPPOSITE morphemes? [duplicate]
The etymological constructions of emasculatus and effeminatus are identical:
emasculatus < ex- + masculus + -atus
effeminatus < ex- + femina + -atus
Since masculus and femina are opposites, ...
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What does Martin Waldseemüller mean by "asie partis" in his map Carta Marina?
This webpage from Spanish BBC talks about the second main map by Martin Waldseemüller, the first mapper to name the continent America, called Carta Marina. There, we see the southern portion of ...
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Shouldn't be "intravisset" instead of "intrasset"?
The following excerpt comes from Titus Livius Ad urbe condita, liber XXV, capititulum XXXI (emphasis mine):
Paucis ante diebus quam Syracusae caperentur, T. Otacilius cum quinqueremibus octoginta ...
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Why is the inflection of supellex so weird?
The noun supellex takes the stem supellectil- in declined forms. The -il- part seems related to the suffix -ilis as in fragilis, but it disappears in the nom. sg. form.
(By the way, the expected nom. ...
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What does "nosse" mean?
What does nosse mean? I cannot find it in Lewis & Short. For example (Cicero, Philippicae 6.1.6):
Quam ob rem, quod quaesivit ex me P. Apuleius, homo et multis officiis mihi et summa ...
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Which senses does ob have in the following words?
Oxford Latin Dictionary says that prep. ob has the following senses:
ob prep.
In the direction of, towards.
In front of or in the way of (so as to block).
a. (giving the grounds for an attitude,...
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4
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How one can say "The door opened" in Latin?
I'm interested in knowing all the possible grammatical (i.e. morphosyntactic) ways to express the perfect construction "The door opened" in Latin. It seems to me that, in this case, a ...
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Why is the superlative form of "fertilis" "fertilissimus" rather than *fertillimus?
Superlatives of adjectives ending in -lis are usually formed with the suffix -limus. For example, the superlative of facilis is facillimus. So, why is the superlative of fertilis fertilissimus, rather ...
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Why is regenerationis genitive in lavacro regenerationis?
Context: ...quae quidem translatio post Evangelium promulgatum sine lavacro regenerationis aut eius voto fieri non potest...
I understand that lavacro is in the ablative case because sine is paired ...
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Why do words starting with vu- all have alternative forms starting with vo-?
As far as I can see, every Latin word that starts with vu- has a collateral form starting with vo-. It's not many, but these at least: vulgus, vulnus, vulpes, vultur, vultus, and indeed vulva, where ...
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Declensions and Conjugations in Latin
I have noticed that in charts parsing the Declensions and Conjugations of Latin words, that the words are sometimes parsed with what looks like multiple options. For example, if you take the root &...
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When do the demonstratives ille, illa, illud become reduced definite articles?
More specifically, what are the first attestations of the nascent reduced forms of the definite articles in Latin (or Proto-Romance) e.g. Latin illam > la?
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How often was the -i- stem dropped in second declension nouns?
In chapter four of Wheelock's Latin, it states that:
In spelling the genitive singular of neuter (and masculine) nouns with a base ending in -i- the Romans sometimes dropped that vowel, e.g., cōnsilī ...
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“Itis” Versus “Is” in Latin
I am learning Latin on Duolingo, and the app does not clarify when to use “itis” and when to use “is”. They both mean “to go”, for the second person singular in present tense. Clarification would be ...
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Did Plautus say "morbus hepatiarius" or "morbus hepatarius"?
The word hepat(i)arius seems to be a hapax found in Plautus's Curculio.
The meaning and use of the adjective seems interesting, but this question is focused on its form. Is the right form hepatarius ...
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Suffixes -τρον, -θρον, and -εθρον
Dickinson College's digitization of the grammar text by Goodell seems to suggest that -τρον and -θρον are synonyms. We also have πτολίεθρον, where it looks to me like the suffix is -εθρον (unless this ...
user3597
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What is the general ablaut rule that explains examples like φρήν, πρόφρων, πρόφρονα?
Φρήν (midriff, will) gives rise to the adjective πρόφρων (eager, literally motivated by will). It looks to me like the -ων comes from ablaut applied to -ην. (It doesn't look like a suffix -ων, since ν ...
user3597
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When are deponent perfect forms used with a present meaning?
As Cerberus mentions in this answer:
With many (semi-)deponent verbs, the perfect participle often has a present meaning.
And in the comments:
I thought this was commonly known, but apparently not.
...
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Why does conscio not have four principal parts?
I have been using working through some latin translations and stumbled across conscio, -ire, -ivi in my latin dictionary, which it lists as a transitive verb meaning "to have on one's conscience.&...
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Is "Noli illud dixisse!" good Latin for "You should not have said that!"?
I am trying to understand how the perfect imperative functioned in Latin. Is "Noli illud dixisse!" good Latin for "You should not have said that!"? I know "Noli illud dicere!&...
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What is wanting in Gildersleeve's declension charts?
In Gildersleeves Latin Grammar you can find declension charts with the word wanting inserted in 3 places
I
II
III
Nom. a.
us (os) ; wanting ; um (om).
s ; wanting.
Gen. ae (ās, āī, āi).
ī (ēī).
is ...
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Why is it "Discipulus pulcher est" and not "Discipulus pulchrus est"?
I think its something with declension, but can't quite wrap my head around why it would be pulcher instead of pulchrus for that phrase.
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'Fomites'? From 'fomes'?
Of the many candidates for 'word of the year', 'fomites' is a semifinalist for sure (with the added flavor of multiple pronunciations).
But why the dental '-t-' in the plural? What is the pattern? Is ...
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Is there any rule for determining whether a verb beginning with ε- will augment to η- vs ει-, or must all verbs' behaviors be memorized?
For instance, the verb ἐλευθερῶ augments to ἠλευθέρουν in the past, whereas the verb ἔχω augments to εἶχον (not ἦχον as might have been predicted).
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In Vulgate, Matthaeus 4:23, it says "et prædicans Evangelium regni". Shouldn't it be "regno" (dative) rather than "regni" (genitive)?
In Vulgate, Matthaeus 4:23, it says "et prædicans Evangelium regni". Shouldn't it be "regno" (dative) rather than "regni" (genitive)? He was talking the gospel TO the ...
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Why is *dōna* the plural acc. Instead of *donos* like the rest of the 2nd declensions?
I am currently studying the declensions for nouns (currently on the 2nd one) and saw this difference.
amīcōs, fīliōs, agrōs
VS
dōna
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Why -ώς in αἰδώς?
The word αἰδώς means awe, shame, or respect. There are related words such as αἰδοῖος. I feel like I ought to be training my brain to recognize inflections in order to get clues as to meaning, but as ...
user3597
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Tables of Greek expressions for time, place, and logic
I'm trying to build my vocabulary in koine using flashcards, and so far have had pretty good success attaining a decent level of reading fluency, e.g., I can get through the first couple of chapters ...
user3597
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0
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On the (necessary or typical?) relationship between double accusative and causation
I was wondering if there is a syntactic/semantic generalization that can account for the so-called "double accusative" predicative frame in Latin (verbs with person & thing (docere ...
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What construction is "διδαχή?"
There is an interesting early Christian document called the Διδαχή, translated into English as "The Teaching." The word seems to be classical, not just Koine. Is this some kind of more ...
user3597
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On the formation of perfect passive infinitives
I Think I understand why the passive infinitive of " amo " is not " esse amatus" : "being loved" is not perfect ( without any play on words).
So we need something else ...
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Are there ever separate number and case markers in Latin?
It seems to me that in Latin the case endings in singular and plural have very little in common.
For an example of singular–plural pairs: puella–puellae, puellam–puellas, puellae–puellarum, puellae–...
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What would the perfect stem of 'apparere' be?
Lewis and Short only give present stem forms of the verb appărĕre, appărio.
They say, quite rightly so, that it comes from ad+părĕre, and one would therefore expect the conjugation to be as that ...
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Is "gate to heaven" "foris paradisi" or "foris paradiso"?
I noticed that the Croatian for "gate to heaven" is "vrata raja", "raja" being the genitive singular (rather than dative) of "raj" (heaven). I was wondering how ...
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Deriving verbs from nouns: iota > iotare
What is the natural way in which to derive verbs from nouns, where
their meaning is to furnish something with the thing named by the
noun? For example, what might one call an omega furnished with an
...
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Is it φιλημι or φιλημμι?
In fragments of Sappho, we see athematic (μι-verb) forms for what Attic would call contract verbs, like φιλημ(μ)ι and καλημ(μ)ι for Attic φιλέω, καλέω.
However, authorities seem to differ on how many ...
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Is unius an irregular genitive?
I notice that the genitive of unus can apparently be either the regular uni, or can also be unius.
Is this form, unius, just a completely irregular oddity, or is there some logical precedent for it? ...
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Trying to coin a new word, and trying to stay true to Latin Sandhi phonological rules
I'm writing a paper and I'm proposing a couple of new latin terms:
alterpersona
realterpersona
or to break them down into components
alter-persona
re-alter-persona
I'm wondering about the sandhi ...
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In "fortis fortuna adiuvat" is "fortis" accusative plural?
Fortis fortuna adiuvat, is fortis accusative plural here?
Fortis has different forms for the same conjugation as I see at Wiktionary, and I couldn't find which forms adiuvare takes as an exhaustive ...
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"Tu quoque, Brutus, mi fili?" Grammar question
Someone told me these were Caesar's actual last words. Google confirms this. But I can't find an explanation for what looks to me like weird grammar.
First of all, shouldn't "Brutus" be &...
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How to decline a whale?
The Latin word cētus (a whale or some other major sea creature) behaves peculiarly.
In singular it is a normal-looking masculine cētus, but in plural it is a neuter cētē.
The ...
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What are the θη-future and θη-aorist?
I see on quite a few resources tenses referred as θη-future or θη-aorist and I don't understand what it exactly means.
Are θη-future and θη-aorist another way to say future passive and aorist ...
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What are the relative frequencies of cases in Latin?
Latin has seven cases: nominative, accusative, genitive, dative, ablative, vocative, locative.
What are their relative frequencies in classical Latin?
I suppose an answer would have to be based on ...
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2
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Which Latin declension is most common?
Does anyone know the rough proportions of Latin words that fall into each of the five declensions? Which is most common? Which is least common?
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Why do we learn the genitive singular of each Latin noun?
When Latin nouns are listed for memorisation they are listed with the nom. sg., the gen. sg. and their gender. E.g. agricola, agricolae, masculine. Why are each of these forms necessary for ...
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Livy Book 1 27.1 type of subjunctive, sequence of tenses
Invidia vulgi, quod tribus militibus fortuna publica commissa fuerit, vanum ingenium dictatoris corrupit.
What kind of subjunctive is fuerit and why. What tense is corrupit — perfect with or ...
