10
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In what case is "Venetiarum" in "Patriarchatus Venetiarum"?
Venetiarum is the genitive plural of the first-declension noun Venetia, -ae. Venetiae, -arum (plural) is Latin for English Venice (singular).
Patriarchatus Venetiarum thus means "The Patriarchate of ...
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Why do we call a case a casus? And why rectus, obliquus?
Here's a short answer so far - no one knows.
Brandenburg 2013 writes that
"In non-technical contexts, ptôsis refers among other things to the ‘falling of dice’ (Pl. Resp. 10,604c6; Aristot. Eth. ...
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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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Declension uncertainty regarding Ablative / Nominative
One can split up the process of finding the case to three steps:
Find all possible cases a word could possibly be. Also bear in mind that there might be several options for the base word, like ...
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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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7
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Why use nominative in Coniugatio periphrastica passiva?
The answers given by Tony, Kingshorsey, and Joonas are correct and should be enough for learners of Latin. However, it is true (and interesting!) that, from a linguistic/philological point of view, ...
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Why do we call a case a casus? And why rectus, obliquus?
It appears that you are correct that a casus is seen as a kind of metaphor for a noun "falling into place."
Maurus Servius Honoratus (4-5th century AD) has an important quote that makes two ...
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5
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Double (identical) subject
I seriously doubt that Pater medicus laborat is a proper translation of "my father works as a doctor." It seems too literal, the Latin laborare is generally not used to talk about a calling, ...
5
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Did Latin have any ergative verbs?
If "ergativity" is to be (mis)understood à la Burzio (1986), i.e., as "unaccusativity" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burzio%27s_generalization ), yes, Latin has been claimed to present so-called "...
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4
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Did Latin have any ergative verbs?
I'm not going to use the term "ergative" because I don't understand its exact definition and when it is appropriate (and as the comments mention, it has another definition, so it can be ...
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4
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Can cases be replaced with prepositions + nominative?
The answer in Classical Latin is, not at all. No preposition can be followed by the nominative, and no preposition has quite the same meaning as one of the other cases. Something like *ex domus is ...
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4
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Why nominative instead of accusative with verb "sum"?
In (most? all?) Indo-European languages the verb "to be" is called copulative because it joins words that represent the same thing -- in your case, "Nile" and "river." In English, Jane might answer a ...
4
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Why is "Bonam Fortunam" the correct way to wish someone good fortune instead of "Bona Fortuna"?
First, if you say "good fortune", the two words must have same case, number and gender.
Therefore bona fortunam is always wrong.
(This may have been a typo, but I wanted to make sure.)
The question is ...
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4
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Why use nominative in Coniugatio periphrastica passiva?
The gerundive is a passive entity: it (whatever it is)-ought-to-be-done. Here: "The book: it-ought-to-be-read". So, "book" is the subject and is therefore nominative, by definition; not "he read the ...
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Can the nominative case be a complement?
Yes, esse and certain passive verbs are actually copulae. Gildersleeve and Lodge §§ 205–206 has the relevant information:
206.Other copulative verbs are: videri, to seem; nasci, to be born; fieri, to ...
cmw♦
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3
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Double (identical) subject
Pater medicus laborat.
Similar constructions do exist in Latin. Here are two examples from Allen & Greenough:
êius mortis sedētis ultōrēs (Mil. 79) , you sit as avengers of his death.
litterās ...
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3
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Multiple singular nominatives as a collective subject
Yes, your supposition is correct about the two singular nominatives agreeing with a plural verb:
317. Two or more singular subjects take a verb in the plural.
Pater et avus mortuī sunt. His father ...
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The Nominative Case Uses
A Latin adjective can sometimes be read either as a mere attribute or more broadly.
For example, consider these two translations:
Homo conscius intelligit.
1. A conscious man understands.
2. A ...
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3
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Why use nominative in Coniugatio periphrastica passiva?
Comparison to English might help here.
(English is often misleading for Latin, but here it can at least illustrate the same phenomenon.)
English distinguishes between nominative and accusative for ...
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3
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Why nominative instead of accusative with verb "sum"?
Sum looks like a transitive verb in that there is a subject and an "object" (which isn't really an object). However, it is not a transitive verb. One way that it is often explained is that sum, esse ...
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3
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Is the nominative gerund attested?
As there has been no answer so far, I would say that it is not attested.
I have never encountered it in texts or grammars — and I would be glad to hear whether more experienced Latinists share ...
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2
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Why nominative instead of accusative with verb "sum"?
A less-technical answer that could help the less technical (although it could be less precise):
This happens in most (if not all?) languages with declensions.
One way to see it, put in simple words, ...
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2
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Vicis - no singular nominative?
Not sure if this is a satisfactory answer, but given that no one has answered in a few days, I think I can write a few ideas.
The explanation is not ontological at all.
If you ask how that came to ...
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2
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When to use accusative and nominative?
Hugh is absolutely right, but just to add a bit more explanation…
Nominative is the "default case" in Latin. If all else fails, use the nominative. It's also, conveniently, the form listed in ...
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2
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When to use accusative and nominative?
My favourite animal is a dog.
Dog will be canis, nominative because 'is' isn't a transitive verb, it's a copular. However (just to confuse you) Animal mihi gratiosum, the subject, is also ...
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Why use nominative in Coniugatio periphrastica passiva?
The gerundive has no object; it functions as a passive adjective. It can be used attributively or predicately.
Liber legendus = a/the needing-to-be-read book
Liber legendus est = a/the book is ...
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When to use accusative and nominative?
Hugh's answer is good and correct, but let me offer you a different point of view.
English makes a distinction between nominative and accusative only for some pronouns.
The nominatives (I, he, she) ...
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