Grammatically parsed sentence

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jamesbath
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Grammatically parsed sentence

Post by jamesbath »

Salvete,

I have parsed the following sentence grammatically. Will someone point out my errors?

The original sentence is this:
"...nulla eius <substantiae> nominis significatio potest distincte intelligi, quae Deo et creaturis sit communis" -- Descartes

Translation (not mine):
"No signification of this name <'substance'> which would be common to God and his creation can be distinctly understood." -- Translated in Martin Heideggar's book "Being and Time".


Finally, my parsing of the original sentence follows:

"nulla (nom fem) . . . . . eius (gen) . . . . . <substantiae> (gen sing) . . . . . nominis (gen) . . . . . significatio (nom fem) . . . . . potest (V 3rd sg pres) . . . . . distincte (adv) . . . . . intelligi (pass inf) . . . . . quae (nom fem). . . . . Deo (dat). . . . . et (and) . . . . . creaturis (dat) . . . . . sit (V sub act 3rd) . . . . . communis (acc).

Thanks.

adrianus
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Re: Grammatically parsed sentence

Post by adrianus »

communis (adjectivum tertiae declinationis nominativo casu feminini generis singularis numeri)
I'm writing in Latin hoping for correction, and not because I'm confident in how I express myself. Latinè scribo ut ab omnibus corrigar, non quod confidenter me exprimam.

jamesbath
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Re: Grammatically parsed sentence

Post by jamesbath »

adrianus wrote:communis (adjectivum tertiae declinationis nominativo casu feminini generis singularis numeri)
Primo putari communis erat adjectivum sed deinde habui difficultatem adaequabamus genera.

Exemplum: Deo dativus vel ablativus "singularis masculinus" nomen est. Sed creaturis dativus vel ablative "pluralis femininus" nomen est. Et communis sicut adjectivum non dative vel ablative est.

Non intelligo.


(Translation)
At first, I thought communis was an adjective but then I had problems matching genders.

Example: Deo is a dative or ablative "singular masculine" noun. But creaturis is a dative or ablative "plural feminine" noun. And communis, as an adjective, is neither dative nor ablative.

I don't understand.

MightyManrock
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Re: Grammatically parsed sentence

Post by MightyManrock »

"... significatio... quae... sit communis"

"Communis," unless I'm horribly mistaken, is modifying "significatio" here, and so it's a feminine adjective in the nominative singular.

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parjanya
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Re: Grammatically parsed sentence

Post by parjanya »

"...nulla eius <substantiae> nominis significatio potest distincte intelligi, quae Deo et creaturis sit communis"
[nulla significatio] [eius (substantiae) nominis] potest distincte intelligi, [(significatio) quae communis] sit Deo et creaturis.

[no meaning] [of the name of this (substance)] can distinctly be understood, [(meaning) that common] is/be to god and to the creatures.

See the 'et', "to God and to the creatures", you don't need to agree different things like that, they are both in the dative, but they don't qualify each other. Think of... latine loqui dulce est amicae et fratribus.

'Communis' is indeed an adjective, it qualifies the feminine 'quae' that has 'significatio' as its antecedent. It seems to be in the nominative, and so you need to chase a nominative there to whom it may agree... just 'quae' is left.

jamesbath
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Re: Grammatically parsed sentence

Post by jamesbath »

parjanya wrote: See the 'et', "to God and to the creatures", you don't need to agree different things like that, they are both in the dative, but they don't qualify each other. Think of... latine loqui dulce est amicae et fratribus.

'Communis' is indeed an adjective, it qualifies the feminine 'quae' that has 'significatio' as its antecedent. It seems to be in the nominative, and so you need to chase a nominative there to whom it may agree... just 'quae' is left.
Very helpful, parjanya. Especially about communis qualifying quae. Of course! The rest of it I will meditate on for I see helpful insight there as well.

Gratias tibi ago.

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