Adler: "aliquid" plus adjective

Latin Learning Latin
1

Salvete!

In his “Practical Grammar of the Latin language” Adler gives the following sentence:

“You have nothing good, but something bad.”

He translates it like this:

I am wondering about the malum. It seems to imply that Adler accepts the following version: “Non est tibi quidquam boni, sed aliquid malum.” But this contravenes what he says on page 65 of his textbook:

In my opinion only two versions are possible:

  • Non est tibi quidquam boni, sed aliquod malum.
  • Non est tibi quidquam boni, sed aliquid mali

Although Adler gives “(malum)” I think that aliquid mali is the correct translation which would amount to the following translation:

Non est tibi quidquam boni, sed aliquid nequam (> mali> ).

What do you think? Or am I entirely wrong?

Valete,

Carolus Raeticus

2

C o m p a r a t i o est, cum > aliquid factum, > quod ipsum non sit probandum, ex eo, cuius id causa factum est, defenditur.

I could not find a better example, but at nay rate aliquid can be modified by an adjective. The rule stated in Adler refers to substantives – and adjectives taken as such – in which case the genitive is to be employed.

aliquid mali seems to be more proper.

Perhaps in that example malum is there to define the meaning of nequam, which is indeclinable.

3

Both aliquid bonum (aliquid + neuter nom/acc. adjective), and aliquid boni (aliquid + genitive neuter 2d declension adj. or gen. noun) are idiomatic.

From Lewis & Short aliquis:

B Not unfrequently with adj.: Novo modo novum aliquid inventum adferre addecet, Plaut. Ps. 1, 5, 156: novum aliquid advertere, Tac. A. 15, 30: judicabant esse profecto aliquid naturā pulchrum atque praeclarum, Cic. Sen. 13, 43: mihi ne diuturnum quidem quidquam videtur, in quo est aliquid extremum, in which there is any end, id. ib. 19, 69; cf. id. ib. 2, 5: dignum aliquid elaborare, Tac. Or. 9: aliquid improvisum, inopinatum, Liv. 27, 43: aliquid exquisitum, Tac. A. 12, 66: aliquid illustre et dignum memoriā, id. Or. 20: sanctum aliquid et providum, id. G. 8: insigne aliquid faceret eis, Ter. Eun. 5, 5, 31: aliquid magnum, Verg. A. 9, 186, and 10, 547: quos magnum aliquid deceret, Juv 8, 263:

. . .

D Aliquid (nom. or acc.), with gen. of a subst. or of a neutr, adj. of second decl. instead of the adj. aliqui, aliqua, aliquod, agreeing with such word: aliquid pugnae, Plaut. Capt. 3, 4, 54: vestimenti aridi, id. Rud. 2, 6, 16: consilii, id. Ep. 2, 2, 71: monstri, Ter. And. 1, 5, 15: scitamentorum, Plaut. Men. 1, 3, 26: armorum, Tac. G. 18: boni, Plaut. Aul. 4, 6, 5; Ter. And. 2, 3, 24; Vulg. Joan. 1, 46: aequi, Ter. Ad. 2, 1, 33: mali, Plaut. Ep. 1, 1, 60; Ter. Eun. 5, 5, 29: novi, Q. Cic. Pet. Cons. 1, 1; Vulg. Act. 17, 21: potionis, Plaut. Men. 5, 2, 22: virium, Cic. Fam. 11, 18: falsi, id. Caecin. 1, 3: vacui, Quint. 10, 6, 1: mdefensi, Liv. 26, 5 al.—Very rarely in abl.: aliquo loci morari, Dig. 18, 7, 1.—

http://perseus.uchicago.edu/cgi-bin/philologic/getobject.pl?c.0:1876.lewisandshort

Aliquis/aliquid shouldn’t be confused with aliqui/aliqua/aliquod.

Aliqui/aliqua/aliquod is an adjective and needs a noun to modify. In this sentence, “Non est tibi quidquam boni, sed aliquod malum,” aliquod malum would correspond to English “some evil”, not “something bad/evil”.

Aliquis/aliquid is a pronoun and, like English “someone/something”, can be modified by an adjective or, in the case of aliquid, take a genitive noun or neuter 2d decl. adjective, as the examples show. Aliquid boni/mali is like French quelque chose de bon/mal, Italian qualcosa di buono/male.

NB: aliquis can also be modified by an adjective (I cut off the examples of this in L&S in order to focus on aliquid). Unlike aliquid, aliquis can’t take a genitive adjective complement. Aliquid can apparently only take a genitive second declension neuter adjective, according to L&S–probably because the genitive neuter form of a third declension adjective would be identical to the nominative masc./fem. form, which would be confusing, e.g., *aliquid terribilis. Only aliquid terribile would be possible: “something frightening.”

Check Lewis and Short for idiomatic usages like this.

Hope this helps.

Edited 7/19.

4

Thank you both for your help. I really have to remember looking things like this up in L&S first.

Have a nice week,

Carolus Raeticus