Comparative Teaching of Old Greek and Latin/Lesson 02 Part 1

Comparative Teaching of Old Greek and Latin Lesson 02 Part 1

Translated from the Greek Wikipedia|Wikiversity: "Συγκριτική διδασκαλία των κλασικών γλωσσών / (Comparative Teaching of the Classical Languages)"

LESSON 02 PART 1. Grammatical and structural analysis of Old Greek and Latin texts.

(The two first courses should, occasionally, be repeated)

2.1.1. Grammatical analysis of the sentence - Parts of speech.

(It should be given particular attention το the grammatical terms.)

Every effort to analyse ancient texts, Old Greek or Latin, and translate them, should begin from the period. We first separate the text into periods and then every period into its sentences and clauses. Every sentence or clause is analysed into its parts, main and secondary. This process in the first courses should be analytic, that is to say should be analyzed, to the extend it is possible, all words of the sentence or clause. Later, when it has been acquired some experience, the process can become more synthetic, i.e. should be analysed only the words that present problems and they will be omitted, in the analysis, the words the meaning and the functions of which in the sentence are easily perceptible.

From grammatical aspect, the words of a sentence may belong to ten different categories, which are named parts of speech: article, substantive, adjective, pronoun, verb, participle, adverb, preposition, conjunction and interjection. The first six are declinable and the next four are indeclinable. In Latin the parts of speech are nine, because it does not exist the article. The declinable parts of speech, in both languages, have “consequent terms” that is other determinative words, which determine parts of speech in detail and are separated into consequent terms of nouns, as cases, gender, number and declension, and of verbs, as disposition, voice, number, person, mood, tense and conjugation. Our knowledge of the meaning and the functions of a word in the sentence will be better, if we know a lot of consequent terms about that word.

From the eight cases the Indoeuropean Language had1,2 i.e. nominative, genitive, dative, accusative, vocative, ablative, organic and local, Ancient Greek maintained the first five and Latin the first six ones. Remains of the organic and local cases were saved in adverbial expressions both in the Old Greek and Latin language. As for the gender both Old Greek and Latin maintained the three genders of the Indoeuropean Language1,3 i.e. masculine, feminine, and neuter. From the three numbers the Indoeuropean Language had1,2 i.e. the singular, dual and plural, Ancient Greek maintained all while Latin10, as Modern Greek did, maintained only two of them, namely the singular and plural. From the three declensions, that very probably Indoeuropean4 had, Ancient Greek maintained all of them, while Latin developed two more, the fourth11 and fifth declension, based on the third declension forms.

In the system of the verb both ancient languages increased in four the two dispositions of the Indoeuropean Language5,6, i.e. active and passive, by adding the middle and neutral disposition, they also maintained the two voices5,7, active and passive, as Modern Greek did. The difference between disposition and voice is that the first one denotes what the subject makes or what suffers, while the second one, declares with which endings the verbal forms are declined. From the three numbers of the Indoeuropean Language8,9, singular, dual and plural, Ancient Greek maintained all three and Latin, as Modern Greek, only two, singular and plural. The persons in both languages are three, first, second and third person, singular and plural.

The moods in Ancient Greek are the indicative, the subjunctive, the optative and imperative. Latin does not have forms of the optative, instead of which it uses forms of subjunctive. With forms of subjunctive in Latin or of indicative and optative in Old Greek it is also formed the potential mood. Ancient Greek maintained the two conjugations of the Indoeuropean Language1,2, the first one with verbs ending in –ω and the second one with verbs ending in –μι. Latin developed the first conjugation of the Indoeuropean Language in four conjugations being distinguished by the ending of present active infinitive (-a’re, - e're, - ere, - i’re). Besides moods there also exist the noun forms of the verb, i.e. infinitive and participle in Ancient Greek and infinitive, participle, supine, gerund and gerundivum in Latin.

The tenses of the verb in Old Greek, that, it is sure, are more than the tenses which the Indoeuropean Language had got3,4, are: present, imperfect, future, aorist, perfect, past perfect and future perfect. Latin does not have aorist, in its place uses the perfect. Present generally declares present and duration, imperfect past and duration, future future and permanent or momentary action, aorist past and momentary action, perfect present and completed action, past perfect past and completed action and future perfect future and completed action. In Latin perfect also denotes past and momentary action, as Greek aorist does.

Table of tenses, moods and noun forms of verb in Old Greek active voice

Tenses / Indicative / Subjunctive / Optative / Imperative / Infinitive / Participle

Present / λύω / λύω / λύοιμι / λῦε / λύειν / λύων

Imperfect / ἔλυον / - / - / - / - / -

Future / λύσω / - / λύσοιμι / - / λύσειν / λύσων

Aorist / ἔλυσα / λύσω / λύσαιμι / λῦσον / λῦσαι / λύσας

Perfect / λελύκω / λελύκοιμι / λελυκώς ἴσθι / λελυκέναι / λελυκώς

Past perfect / ἐλελύκειν / - / - / - / - / -

Future perfect / λελυκώς ἔσομαι / - / λελυκώς ἐσοίμην / - / λελυκώς ἔσεσθα ι / λελυκώς ἐσόμενος

Table of tenses, moods and noun forms of verb in Latin active voice

Tenses / Indicative / Subjunctive / Imperative / Infinitive / Participle

Present / amo / amem / ama / ama’re / amans

Imperfect / ama’bam / ama’rem / - / - / -

Future / ama’bo / amatu’rus sim / ama’to / amatu’rum esse / amaturus

Perfect / ama’vi / ama’verim / - / amavi’sse / -

Past perfect / ama’veram / amavi’ssem / - / - / -

Future perfect / ama’vero / - / - / - / -

In the Latin Language the present tense has moreover the noun forms of the verb: supine, gerund and gerundivum. In passive voice the future perfect has an infinitive. In passive voice participle there is only in the perfect tense. More special cases will be examined in the texts.

2.1.2. Structural analysis of a sentence - the basic terms.

(It should be given particular attention to the syntactic terms.)

From syntactic aspect the terms of each sentence can be main, as the subject and the predicate, and secondary, as the determinations. For easier comprehension of the syntactic structure of the ancient languages we will classify, at the syntactic analysis, the words of each sentence in ten categories - basic terms: five main terms, i.e. subject, verb, direct object, indirect object and predicative, and five determinations: i.e. nominal (noun, substantive) determination, adjectival and predicative determination, adverbial noun (noun, substantive) determination, adverbial determination and prepositional determination.

When we analyze, in order to translate, a text, after we have separated it into periods and the periods into sentences and clauses, we will first find and analyse the main terms of each sentence, or participle or infinitive that exists in the sentence. The remaining words will constitute determinations. If after the finding the main terms there is left over a substantive this will be a nominal of the same case determination or a nominal of different case determination, in case it determines other name, or an adverbial noun determination, in case it determines a verb. If an adjective, pronoun or participle is left over it will be an adjectival or predicative determination. If an adverb is left over it will be an adverbial determination and if it is left over a preposition with a noun it will be a prepositional determination. Conjunctions and interjections are only recognized grammatically in accordance with their functions in the sentence. More special cases will be examined in the texts.

Subject of a sentence is the person or thing or clause etc. that makes or suffers what the verb says or generally the person or thing or clause etc. about which the verb of the sentence says something. In both languages, as in Modern Greek as well, as subjects they are used substantives (ὁ Θεός ἐστι δίκαιος), pronouns, adjectives used as substantives (οἱ θνητοί εἰσιν ἐφήμεροι), participles (οἱ φιλοσοφοῦντές εἰσιν τίμιοι ), infinitives (τὸ μανθάνειν ἐστὶν ἡδύ) and clauses near impersonal verbs (ὅ πάντες ἐθρύλουν γέγονε), prepositional determinations (ἀπέθανον περὶ τοὺς χιλίους) etc. In Latin, because of the lack of article, an adjective or a participle is seldom used as subject. The case of a subject is the nominative. However, when the subject is of an infinitive and it is different from the subject of the main verb of the clause, then it enters in accusative case. The subject of a participle always enters in case same with the case of the participle.

Predicative denotes a quality of the subject or of the object of a verb, which in this case is said conjunctive verb. Generally as predicatives are used the same words that are also used as subjects (Σόλων ἦν νομοθέτης, τὸ αἰσθάνεσθαι ἐπίστασθαί ἐστι). Predicative agrees with its subject on gender, number and case, if it is an adjective (ἡ θυγάτηρ ἐστὶν ἀγαθή) or at least on case, if it is a substantive (ὁ χρυσός ἐστι μέταλλον). When it is a substantive it enters also in genitive case, which is then said predicative genitive (ἡ ἡγεμονία ἐστὶ τῶν πολιτῶν, Πρόξενος ἦν τριάκοντα ἐτῶν, ἡ οἰκία ἐστὶ ταλάντου). In Latin substantial predicative also enters in dative case, in order to declare aim, and in ablative, in order to declare quality or situation. Near verbs of movement an adjective can be used as adverbial predicative denoting place, manner, time, aim, order (ἐγὼ ἑόρακά σε ἄσμενος). Near verbs that declare development it can be used a substantive or an adjective as preventive predicative or as predicative of result, that declares the result of an action that is found in development (μέγας ἐκ μικροῦ Φίλιππος ηὔξηται).

Object of a verb is what accepts the action of the subject. It is direct with verbs taking one object (σὺ τρέφεις κύνας, ἐπεμελοῦντο τῆς πόλεως, πλησίαζε τοῖς ἀγαθοῖς) and indirect with verbs taking two objects (direct and indirect) (ἀποστερεῖ ἡμᾶς τὸν μισθόν, ἔπαυσαν τὸν Τιμόθεον τῆς στρατηγίας, φέρω πέπλον σοι, κοινωνῶ μηδενὸς τούτου). Generally as objects are roughly used the same terms that are also used as subjects. In order to distinguish which of the two objects, of a verb taking two objects, is the direct, we change the structure into passive voice, when the direct object becomes subject. The case of the direct object is usually the accusative, but there exist verbs that also accept object in genitive, dative and ablative.

If at the structural analysis of a sentence we have found the main basic terms, i.e. subject, verb, direct object, indirect object and predicative, if of course all of them exist in the sentence, the remaining words will be determinations. If it is left over a substantive, that determines a noun, it must be a nominal determination of the same case, i.e. apposition (ἀνὴρ ῥήτωρ, Ἀλέξανδρος ὁ βασιλεὺς ἦν Μακεδών, Σάμιος ὁ ναύαρχος) or explanation (μεγίστου κακοῦ ἀπαλλαγή, πονηρίας, ὁ κοινὸς ἰατρὸς θεραπεύσει σε, χρόνος) or a nominal determination of different case, i.e. possessive genitive (οἶκος δεσπότου, ἡ ἀρετὴ τοῦ ἀνδρός), genitive of creator or author (νόμοι Δράκοντος ), genitive of origin (Θουκυδίδης Ὀλόρου ), genitive of divided whole (μέρος τι τῶν βαρβάρων, οἱ σώφρονες τῶν πολιτῶν), genitive of matter or content (σωρὸς σίτου, τοῖχος πλίνθου), genitive of quality (λευκότης χιόνος ), genitive of measure (ὀκτὼ σταδίων τεῖχος), genitive of value (ἱερὰ τριῶν ταλάντων), genitive of cause (γραφὴ ἀσεβείας), subjective genitive (ἡ βασιλέως ἐπιορκία, φόβος τῶν βαρβάρων), objective genitive (ἐπιθυμία τοῦ ὕδατος), dative of utility (ἦσαν γὰρ τοῖς Ἀθηναίοις οἱ ἱππεῖς ὠφέλιμοι), dative of friendship (ὁ ἀγαθὸς ἔστω φίλος τῷ ἀγαθῷ), dative of enmity (τύραννος ἐχθρὸς ἐλευθερίᾳ καὶ νόμοις ἐναντίος), dative of obedience (εὐπειθὴς τοῖς ἄρχουσι), dative of identity or resemblance (ὁμοίαν ταῖς δούλαις εἶχεν τὴν ἐσθῆτα), dative of equality or matching (τὸ αἰσχρὸν ἀνάρμοστόν ἐστι τῷ θεῷ), dative of relation (τῷ μὲν τρόπῳ γίγνου φιλοπροσήγορος), accusative of relation (ἀνὴρ θαυμάσιος τὸ κάλλος).

If the substantive that is left over determines a verb it will be an adverbial noun determination as genitive of time (ἐφυλάττοντο νυκτός τε καί ἡμέρας), genitive of cause (αἰτιᾶσθαι ἀλλήλους τοῦ γεγενημένου, ἀσεβείας φεύγω ὑπὸ Μελήτου), genitive of quantity (πόσου διδάσκει Πρόδικος;), genitive of value (Θεμιστοκλέα τῶν μεγίστων δωρεῶν ἠξίωσαν ), genitive of relation (τί δὲ ἵππων οἴει;), dative of place (Οἱ Ἕλληνες ἔστησαν τρόπαια Μαραθῶνι καὶ Σαλαμῖνι), dative of time (τετάρτῃ δὲ ἡμέρᾳ καταβαίνουσιν εἰς τὸ πεδίον), dative of cause (δειλίᾳ ἔλιπον τὴν τάξιν, χαλεπῶς φέρω τοῖς παροῦσι πράγμασι), instrumental dative (ἔβαλέ με λίθοις), dative of means or escort (Ξέρξης διακοσίαις καὶ χιλίαις ναυσὶν ἀφίκετο), dative of quantity (πολλῷ κρεῖττον), dative of relation (οὔτε ποσὶν εἰμι ταχὺς οὔτε χερσὶν ἰσχυρός), accusative of time (τὴν μητέρα τελευτήσασαν πέπαυμαι τρέφων τρίτον ἔτος τουτί), accusative of place (πέμψομεν αὐτόν Ἑλλάδα), accusative of extent, (ἀπέχει Πλάταια Θηβῶν σταδίους ἑβδομήκοντα), accusative of cause (ἀλλ’ αὐτὰ ταῦτα καὶ νῦν ἥκω παρά σε), accusative of manner (τίνα τρόπον κόψω τὴν θύραν;). In Latin many of the uses of the genitive and dative are expressed with the ablative, as, near names, the ablative of quality, the comparative ablative, the ablative of society or escort, the ablative of relation and, near verbs, the instrumental ablative, the ablative of measure, of difference, of time etc.

If an adjective or a pronoun or a participle is left over, during the analysis of a sentence, it will be an adjectival (τὰς παλαιὰς πράξεις) or predicative determination (καὶ κατεκαύθη πᾶσα ἡ πόλις), adjectival, when permanent quality is declared, and predicative (κατέλαβον τὰς κώμας ἐρήμους), when non permanent quality is declared, adjectival if the adjective has an article, predicative if the substantive has an article but the adjective has not. If it is left over an adverb it will be an adverbial determination and if it is left over a preposition with its object (usually substantive), it will be a prepositional determination. More special cases will be examined in in the texts.

2.1.3. Peculiarities, deflections and completions:

(These elements are studied in second and in third phase, i.e. after it has been completed the study of the regular course.)

1. Latin grammars written in foreign languages do not usually report as separate parts of speech the participle and the interjection neither make they discrimination between adjectival and predicative determination.

2. Sometimes the subject and seldom the object of the verb of a noun clause of “ὅτι” or of an indirect question clause it is transported to the main sentence as object and this form it is called prevention (οἶδα τὸν ἄνθρωπον ὡς θνητός ἐστι).

3. A Subject of neutral gender and plural number accepts a verb of 3rd singular person, Attic structure (τὰ ἱερὰ οὐκ ἐγίγνετο).

4. A pronominal subject (i.e. a pronoun as subject) of neutral gender is usually drawn by the gender of the predicative, attraction of gender (usually being said attraction of the relative) (αὕτη (= τοῦτο) ἄλλη πρόφασις ἦν).

5. The object of the same root as the verb, when it is omitted and in its place it is used as object the adjectival determination, has often adverbial meaning (μέγα φθέγγομαι, δεινὰ ὑβρίζω).

6. The adjectival determination compares the determined word to another person or thing, the predicative determination compares the determined word to itself (ηὗρον τὴν ἔρημον πόλιν, ηὗρον τὴν πόλιν ἔρημον).

7. The adjectives ἄκρος, μέσος, ἔσχατος, ἥμισυς, μόνος, πᾶς, ἅπας, ὅλος when they are without an article and determine a substantive with article are predicative determinations.

To continue look at: Lesson 02 Part 2

To see the Introduction look at: Introduction