"many parts of a Latin expression were implied rather than explicit."
perhaps is specific to the vantge point of an English speaker, given that
much of the meaning of the Latin is conveyed by the word endings which
English does not have. It follows that English has to provide that part of
the meaning by eg more explicit phraseology.
I am reminded of a particularly challenging translation of a technical
document from English into a language which has a full complement of word
endings (as in Latin). The English was grammatically ambiguous, but the
translation of course could not be. I had the gratifying experience of
taking the expert to one side to explain our problem, and to request a
rewrite. Why gratifying? Because it became clear that the reason for the
ambiguity was that the 'expert' did not have the first idea what he was
talking about, but hoped that peppering his piece with plenty of jargon
would convince most readers that they themselves didn't understand the
technicalities of what he was talking about - and move on to the next page.
In that case the vigilance was certainly burdensome. But Latin does have
its uses!
--
Piers
-----Original Message-----
From: olympus-owner@xxxxxxxxxx [mailto:olympus-owner@xxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf
Of Chris Barker
Sent: 23 November 2005 18:32
To: olympus@xxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [OM] Re: Another AP article full of praise
"To be watchful(or vigilant) is burdensome (or irksome)" ??
I accept your main point: that many parts of a Latin expression were implied
rather than explicit.
Chris
~~ >-)-
C M I Barker
Cambridgeshire, Great Britain.
+44 (0)7092 251126
www.threeshoes.co.uk
homepage.mac.com/zuiko
On 23 Nov 2005, at 15:16, Duncan Paterson wrote:
> I have no doubt that you're right here Chris. The "nd" is a giveaway;
> and "vigilans" is indeed, technically, an adjective but I believe that
> there are instances in which present participles are treated as nouns
> in English and in Latin. How about. "Vigilans odiosus est"?
>
> Enjoying the Latin refresher,
> Duncan.
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