20
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How do we know that Italian words come from accusatives, not ablatives?
Professor Martin Maiden (Professor of the Romance Languages, Fellow of Trinity College) writes that
"The overwhelming majority of modern nouns and adjectives [in Italian - Alex B.] appear to ...
- 11.7k
19
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Why is an accusative mode needed?
Languages are full of redundancy. So I think the premise of this question—that the accusative case is "needed"—is problematic. For example, there isn't a need for English speakers to use the plural in ...
- 29.8k
15
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How do we know that Italian words come from accusatives, not ablatives?
Italian noun and adjective forms are not derived exclusively from Classical Latin accusative forms:
Sometimes an Italian form comes from the Classical Latin nominative, as in the singular form of the ...
- 29.8k
13
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Is "servos" accusative plural in Plautus's "is est servos ipse" and, if that's the case, why does "esse" takes accusative case there?
To expand a little on Joonas's answer, the nominative singular ending in Latin was originally /os/ for all masculine nouns of the second declension, which developed to /us/ as part of a more general ...
- 29.8k
13
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Why is *dōna* the plural acc. Instead of *donos* like the rest of the 2nd declensions?
Dōnum is neuter; amīcus, fīlius, and ager are masculine. Neuter nouns are always the same in both the nominative and accusative case, in both singular and plural. See this question for more about how ...
- 16.3k
13
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Why is "O felicem virum, beatum Ioseph" in the accusative case here?
The vocative is used when addressing someone. The fact that it isn't used in the first part of this prayer makes me think that that portion is not meant to be addressed to Joseph (unlike the "Ora ...
- 29.8k
12
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Is "servos" accusative plural in Plautus's "is est servos ipse" and, if that's the case, why does "esse" takes accusative case there?
It is servŏs in both instances, not servōs.
The old form of the nominative has the ending -os instead of the later -us.
What you see is indeed the singular nominative, but not in the form ...
- 116k
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Confusion regarding 'esse' + accusative
It's not that esse takes the accusative—it's that cupiō takes the accusative, and esse links two things in the same case. In other words, regem is accusative because mē is accusative, and mē is ...
- 69k
11
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Why is the accusative not used in Judges 5:23?
Since the word comes from male dico, it traditionally took the dative for the same reason that dico takes it. The dative expresses to whom something is spoken or for whom the speech is beneficial (or, ...
- 10.8k
11
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Why does "Hominem unius libri timeo" use comparativus unius instead of positivus unum?
It looks like a comparative (cf. facilius, melius, and many others) but it is in fact a genitive.
Thus unius libri is "of one book".
The word unus has an unusual declension:
nom: unus, una, ...
- 116k
11
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Unsure why the accusative relative pronoun is used? [Tacitus Annals 2.24]
I think corpora equorum must be the subject of the clause, with quos its object, and the verb tolerare being used with the following sense per Lewis and Short:
Transf., to support a person or thing, ...
- 29.8k
11
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Why is accusative pronoun "te" used in this construction?
These two sentences involve different analyses, which can be shown by using the following test: replacement of the infinitive (clause) by the neuter pronoun hoc. In the first example the infinitival ...
- 9,121
10
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Audire, with accusative or dative?
Actually, your quote from the Vulgate isn't an example of audire + dative! Though auditis is spelled the same as the present 2nd person plural ("You [pl.] hear"), it is actually an ablative perfect ...
- 42.6k
10
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What is the difference between "in umerīs" and "in umerōs"?
In + ablative means "in/on something" while doing the verb.
In + accusative means "into/onto something", i.e. the verb involves moving/transferring something else into/onto the ...
- 16.3k
10
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Should these "vellus" be "vellerum"?
Vellus is a neuter noun, and neuter nouns have the same form in both the nominative and accusative cases.
The proper accusative singular of vellus is vellus. Vellerum, meanwhile, is the genitive ...
cmw♦
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9
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Why nominative instead of accusative with verb "sum"?
In all Indo-European languages that I know, copulae are intransitive and normally take the nominative. So everything below will apply to other Indo-European languages, too.
It is important to ...
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9
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In memoriam: why not "in memoria"?
As L&S put it, in their classic textwall style (entry for in, II.C.2):
Of the object or end in view, regarded also as the motive of action or effect: “non te in me illiberalem, sed me in se ...
- 69k
9
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Confused with "per āera" in "Familia Romana"
Āera is accusative. If you look over in the left margin, you'll see "āera acc (= āerem)". Both āera and āerem are accusative forms of āer.
Now, you might be wondering, why is āera accusative ...
- 16.3k
8
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Accusative equals nominative for neuter words – how universal is this and why?
For the sake of completeness, it seems worth noting that there's one odd exception.
The gerund is a noun derived from a verb, representing an action (for example, volāndum "flying"). For the most ...
- 69k
8
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"Ego me omnium hominum beatissimum tot annos putabam": Why annos is accusative here?
It's the accusative of time, answering the question “how long?” (And not “when?” or “during which time?” – that would call for the ablative.)
“I thought myself the happiest of people for so many years....
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8
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Why does ‘lūdīs’ end in a short syllable in Ov. Ep. Sapph. 16?
It is a second-person singular verb form lūdis, “you play” (lūdō, lūdere).
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8
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Verb + esse + predicate nominative
This is called a nominativus cum infinitivo, which is possible with intellegitur because the finite verb is passive. Debeo normally has a mere infinitive with it, so there is no indirect statement ...
- 20.2k
8
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Why is *dōna* the plural acc. Instead of *donos* like the rest of the 2nd declensions?
This is because of the gender of the noun. Donum is neuter, wheras filius, amicus, etc, are masculine. The plural accusative for 2nd declension neuter nouns is -a.
- 8,732
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Unsure why the accusative relative pronoun is used? [Tacitus Annals 2.24]
It's accusative as the object of tolerāverant. Corpora is nominative: "except for those whom the washed-ashore-there bodies of horses sustained".
This isn't the most common meaning of ...
- 69k
8
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Use of accusative with operari in Opticae Thesaurus
Operari + accusative object is indeed not classical, but it is found in ecclesiastical Latin, including the Vulgate (and good dictionaries like Lewis & Short mention it). I understand we are ...
- 35.4k
8
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Are the following "prep. + accusative"'s used for location?
The idea that accusative means motion toward, ablative means location or motion away from, can be a good rule of thumb. There are some prepositions, like in and sub, which can take either case; in ...
- 69k
7
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Is there such a thing as the accusativus cum participio (a.c.p)? If not, what is this? (Greek)
Ephesians 1:16: οὐ παύομαι εὐχαριστῶν ὑπὲρ ὑμῶν μνείαν (ὑμῶν) ποιούμενος ἐπὶ τῶν προσευχῶν μου. (The second ὑμῶν is missing in the best Mss.)
The Vulgata has: non cesso gratias agens pro vobis, ...
- 18k
7
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What is an Adverbial Accusative?
First of all I have to point out that the word “quod” in book II, line 141 of Vergil's Aeneid is not an adverbial accusative, but simply a causal conjunction introducing the causal clause with the ...
- 159
7
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Accusative in genitive relative clause with verb finiebat
There aren't any special uses involved here; your incorrect assumption is that embolum (navis) aeneum is accusative -- in fact it's the nominative subject of finiebat. Literally, "one part of which a ...
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7
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Why would the praeposition "per" ever take an ablative instead of an accusative complement?
The L&S entry is pretty clear, in my opinion. Per takes the accusative, but it has mistakenly been used with the ablative. It cites two examples from later inscriptions:
Inscr. Miseni Repert. ex ...
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