Usor:Robert.Baruch/Latin Composition

My method of translating from English to Latin works like this:

1. Convert idiomatic English to pseudo-Latin structures.
2. Choose Latin words that best seem to fit the sense of the English.
3. Compose the sentence in neutral word order.
4. Change the word order to add emphasis.
5. ?
6. Profit

For step 1, I usually consult my well-thumbed copy of Bradley's Arnold to find typical Latin constructions. What follows is a summary of all the constructions from Bradley's Arnold, in an attempt to make a quick reference.

Converting to pseudo-Latin disambiguates the English and emphasizes the Latin structure. For example, in English, the prepositional phrase with something could mean many things depending on its context. In the sentence I went with David to the store, it means accompaniment, and the pseudo-Latin would be I went along with David to the store. On the other hand, I went with a bicycle to the store shows agency, and the pseudo-Latin is I went by means of a bicycle to the store. And even I went with joy to the store is neither accompaniment nor agency but manner, and so the pseudo-Latin becomes I went in a manner of joy to the store.

Step 1 also involves converting English words to their Latin-like equivalents. For example, the English verb obey is the Latin-like gives obedience, which is why pareo takes a dative and not an accusative.

Verbs that take the dative rather than the accusative

Many Latin verbs such as pareo, obey, take a dative object rather than an accusative object. I like to think that these verbs are actually the verb give, with an accusative built-in. So pareo actually means give obedience, and so the only thing left is an indirect object. Another verb in this class is impero in its intransitive form, command. It means give a command. Its transitive form means demand, which has no accusative built in, for the accusative is the thing demanded.

Separation

Separation is movement from inside a set to outside that set, or a simple statement of being outside a set. Separation can be considered a subcase of respect.

Prototypes

• to lack something
• to abstain from something
• to originate, descend, come out from something
• (to be) free from something
• to leave, abandon, cease something
• to banish, exempt, deprive, free, keep away something from something

Psuedo-Latin

• verb or adjective, separated (or separating) from noun.

Construction

• Use a prepositionless ablative, but:
  • Include ab with careo, libero and compounds of dis-, se-, ab-.
  • Include ab with adjectives.

Examples

• And those men also are hardly ever free from blame.
  • And those men also are hardly ever free, separated from blame.
  • Et illi quoque haud saepe sunt a culpa liberi.
• And yet you desisted from a word about the sentence.
  • And yet you desisted, separating from a word about the sentence.
  • Et verbo de sententia destitisti.

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Agent

Prototypes

• To be verbed by someone
• To verb or be verbed by means of or with something
• To verb or be verbed using or with something

Psuedo-Latin

• verb or be verbed by person
• verb or be verbed by means of noun

Construction

• Use the ablative, and include ab for animate objects.

Examples

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Accompaniment

Prototypes

• To verb or be verbed with someone
• To verb or be verbed along with something

Psuedo-Latin

• verb or be verbed along with noun

Construction

• Use the ablative with cum.

Examples

• I lived with Pansa in Pompey.
  • I lived along with Pansa in Pompey.
  • Cum Pansa in Pompeiano vixi.
• He joined himself with the armies of Ariovistus.
  • He joined himself along with the armies of Ariovistus.
  • Cum copiis Ariovisti se coniunxit.