8. Tolleturne fama huius medici istis versibus novis?
What does "tolleturne" mean here? Is that poem "destroying" or "uplifting" the fame of this doctor? Although my instinct tells me that "uplifting" makes more sense, I cannot be 100% sure. How to differentiate the two total opposite meaning of "tollere": uplift vs. destroy?
Chap. 23 Practice and Review 8
-
zhongv1979
- Textkit Neophyte
- Posts: 28
- Joined: Wed Jan 18, 2006 4:15 am
-
Deudeditus
- Textkit Enthusiast
- Posts: 425
- Joined: Sun Sep 04, 2005 5:15 am
- Location: The world, man.
- Contact:
in a situation like this, i don't believe it can be decided with any real authority which meaning to give to this Ianus-like verb. in context, it would more than likely be relatively clear which meaning to use. The good thing, though, is that you recognize both possible meanings, and are better prepared to deal with this situation when next you encounter it. 
uale
-Jon
uale
-Jon
-
Interaxus
- Textkit Enthusiast
- Posts: 581
- Joined: Tue Sep 28, 2004 1:04 am
- Location: Stockholm, Sweden
Hi Zhongv1979,
8. Is the fame of this doctor being uplifted by those verses?
Just one nitpick: tolletur is future, not present (tollitur), so it must be Will the fame of this doctor be uplifted, etc. Hope this doesn't sound ungrateful, Benissime! Your Answer key is a monument.
Perhaps ‘uplifted’ here equates to ‘enhanced’ , ‘promoted’, etc.
As to the 'Janus' nature of this verb: The basic meaning of tollere was probably ‘raise’, lift up’, in a physical sense. It’s easy to see how it might come to be used in the sense of ‘remove’. After all, when you pick up something from a table or other surface, you remove it. It’s a small step from there to metaphorically removing someone from the scene (destroying, eliminating, taking out). Also, think of a cyclone 'removing' (sweeping away, destroying) a city.
Even so, the sentence still seems to be ambiguous. Without more context, perhaps it could mean:
Will the reputation of this doctor be destroyed by those verses?
In fact, aren't these out-of-context sentences in Practice and Review a key weakness of the Wheelock system?
Cheers,
Int
Well, you can always download Benissimus’ Wheelock Answers from this site. There you’ll find:8. Tolleturne fama huius medici istis versibus novis?
What does "tolleturne" mean here? Is that poem "destroying" or "uplifting" the fame of this doctor? Although my instinct tells me that "uplifting" makes more sense, I cannot be 100% sure. How to differentiate the two total opposite meaning of "tollere": uplift vs. destroy?
8. Is the fame of this doctor being uplifted by those verses?
Just one nitpick: tolletur is future, not present (tollitur), so it must be Will the fame of this doctor be uplifted, etc. Hope this doesn't sound ungrateful, Benissime! Your Answer key is a monument.
Perhaps ‘uplifted’ here equates to ‘enhanced’ , ‘promoted’, etc.
As to the 'Janus' nature of this verb: The basic meaning of tollere was probably ‘raise’, lift up’, in a physical sense. It’s easy to see how it might come to be used in the sense of ‘remove’. After all, when you pick up something from a table or other surface, you remove it. It’s a small step from there to metaphorically removing someone from the scene (destroying, eliminating, taking out). Also, think of a cyclone 'removing' (sweeping away, destroying) a city.
Even so, the sentence still seems to be ambiguous. Without more context, perhaps it could mean:
Will the reputation of this doctor be destroyed by those verses?
In fact, aren't these out-of-context sentences in Practice and Review a key weakness of the Wheelock system?
Cheers,
Int