Chapter 24: Ablative Absolute Passive Periphrastic Dative of Agent

Ablative Absolute The ablative absolute is a participial phrase consisting of 1.A noun or pronoun 2.A modifier (adjective, appositive, participle) Both of these, as the name suggests, will be in the ablative case.

Ablative Absolute The absolute phrase is only loosely connected to the main clause. (absolutus – loosened from, separated) It usually gives general circumstances relating to the sentence, but it is self- contained and separate from the sentence syntactically.

Ablative Absolute eō imperium tenente, ēventum timeō. hīs rēbus audītīs, coepit timēre. tē duce, nihil timēbimus. (NB: no present participle of sum) duce incertō, bellum terreō.

Ablative Absolute You can translate the ablative absolute literally eg: “with these things having been heard” But the ablative absolute can often carry additional meanings, like participles, and translated into a clause.

Ablative Absolute It can be used - temporally (when, while, as) - causal (since, because) - concessive (although) - conditional (if)

Ablative Absolute Temporal eō imperium tenente, ēventum timeō. Causal duce incertō, bellum terreō. Concessive hīs rēbus audītīs, coepit timēre. Conditional tē duce, nihil timēbimus.

Ablative Absolute Generally the noun or pronoun comes first, then the participle. When the phrase contains other words (eg adverbs, DOs, IOs, etc) they come in between the “frame.” eō imperium tenente, ēventum timeō.

Ablative Absolute Ablative absolutes are one of the ways that Latin can compensate for it’s missing participles (present passive and perfect active).

Ablative Absolute Having spoken these words, the orator sat down. Since there is no perfect active participle, we can rephrase this as “with these words having been spoken” or “when these words had been spoken” in an ablative absolute. Hīs verbīs dictīs, ōrātor sēdit.

Passive Periphrastic What is periphrasis? περίφρασις peri (περί) "about, around" + phrasis (φράσις) "speech, expression“ Device by which a grammatical concept is expressed by a phrase or standard idiom, instead of being shown by inflection or derivation. For example, the so-called compound tenses and all the modal expressions in English, as well as the passive voice, are periphrastic.

Passive Periphrastic Future passive participle (aka gerundive) plus a form of sum The participle (since it’s an adj) agrees with the subject in gender, number, and case The gerundive carries a sense of necessity, obligatory, or appropriate action.

Passive Periphrastic hoc faciendum est. This must be done. liber cum cūrā legendus est. The book must be read with care.

Dative of Agent The passive periphrastic construction is passive, but if the ‘doer’ or ‘agent’ is specified, it is specified NOT by the ablative of agent, but by a dative of agent.

Dative of Agent Hoc faciendum est tibi. This must be done by you. Liber mihi cum cūrā legendus est. The book has to be read with care by me.

Passive Periphrastic Sometimes a literal translation of the passive periphrastic and dative of agent can sound awkward, so we can transform the clause into an active construction. Liber mihi cum cūrā legendus est. Literal: The book has to be read by me with care. Active: I must read this book with care. But for now, let’s translate literally.