or A lot easier to translate than it is to understand in English Ablative Absolute Definition An ablative absolute is a dependent participial construction consisting of two or more words usually a nounpronoun and a participle both in the ablative case that are grammati ID: 198559
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Slide1
Ablative Absolute
…or,
“A
lot easier to translate than it is to understand in English
.”Slide2
Ablative Absolute - Definition
An ablative absolute is a dependent
participial construction
consisting of two or more words, usually a noun/pronoun and a participle, both in the ablative case, that are grammatically independent of the rest of the sentence.
Essentially, this means that the noun or pronoun in the ablative absolute
CANNOT
be referred to elsewhere in the sentence!!Slide3
Ablative Absolute
Based on the definition, which of these sentences
CANNOT
be an ablative absolute?
After the city was captured, the people rejoiced.
With Caesar as dictator, the Roman people feared Caesar.
With the enemies having been defeated, the soldiers cheered.
Since the students had done well, the teacher gave thanks.Slide4
Ablative Absolute
Based on the definition, which of these sentences
CANNOT
be an ablative absolute?
With Caesar as dictator, the Roman people feared Caesar.
Since the word “Caesar” is repeated, the Romans would NOT use this as an ablative absolute.Slide5
Ablative Absolute Flavors
Noun (Pronoun) + Perfect Passive Participle
Urbe
captā
,
Militibus
victīs
Noun + Present Active
Participle
Imperatore
contradicente
,
p
oētā
scribente
2
nouns
Caesare
duce,
Tē
consuleSlide6
Translations of Ablative Absolutes
There are several ways to translate Ablative Absolutes. The first way to learn is the “vanilla” way…it’s kind of like playing Mad
Libs
. (In case I am getting older than I thought and you guys don’t know what Mad
Libs
are, they’re sort of a game in which you pick words at random to make funny stories)
Let’s look at the ablative absolute
“
urbe
captā
”
again.
The vanilla way to translate this is “With the (noun) having been
(
verbed
),”
so in this case we would say “With the
city
having been
captured
.”Slide7
Translation of Ablative Absolutes
There are other ways that
urbe
captā
can be translated apart from “with the city having been captured.” Ablative absolutes can be given different kinds of denotation, as seen below.
Temporal –
When
the city
had been captured
…
Causal –
Since
the city
had been captured
…
Conditional –
If
the city
had been captured
…
Concessive (less common) –
Although
the city
had been captured
…Slide8
YOUR TURN!!!
Translate the ablative absolute below into English in THREE different ways…
Latinā
ā
novō
magistrō
pulchrō
hodiē
doctā
…Slide9
Other Ablative Absolutes
Translation for an ablative absolute that contains a
present
participle is very similar.
Let’s look at “
Virō
fatuō
imperium
tenente
.”
Possible Translations
1) With a foolish man holding the power
2) When a foolish man holds power
3) Since a foolish man holds power
4) If a foolish man holds power
5) Although a foolish man holds power
Look to the main clause of the sentence to determine the best translation, keeping in mind that there may not be one definitive right answer.Slide10
Still More Ablative Absolutes!
Why would it be possible for two nouns to comprise an ablative absolute?
HINT!! Think of a phrase like “With Hadrian being the emperor.” That
would
be an ablative absolute in Latin.
The Latin verb
sum
does not have a present participle, therefore the English word “being” is implied only, and will not be found in a Latin sentence.Slide11
You guessed it…more AA’s
Therefore, to say “With Hadrian being the emperor,” we simply put the name “Hadrian” and the noun “emperor” in the ablative case.
Hadrianō
imperatore
Some similar examples from Latin literature
…
mē
duce
, carpe
viam
! (Ovid,
Met.
8.208)
…
quamquam
nec
sapienter
et
me
invito
facit
(Cicero,
Pro
Caelio
, 7.16Slide12
Just a few more things…
In English, a pretty common thing to say might be, “Having finished the race, the athlete cried.” How would we say this in Latin?
You got it. An ablative absolute. But, what’s the problem there? How do we form a perfect active participle?Slide13
Answer…
YOU DON’T!!!Slide14
So then what?
Latin does not have a perfect active participle, so we must use an ablative absolute and a perfect passive participle. Let’s look at our example again…
“Having finished the race, the athlete cried”
Since the only perfect participle available to us is a perfect
passive
participle, we have to re-word the sentence in a passive way, so…Slide15
We need to say…
With the race having been finished, the athlete cried,
or…
Cursū
perfec
tō
,
athlēta
flēvit
.