Questions tagged [ambiguity]
The ambiguity tag has no usage guidance.
36
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"hōc enim ūnō modō...scelus" or "hoc enim ūnō modō...scelus" ? (Ritchie's Fabulae faciles, §20)
I read in Ritchie's Fabulae faciles ([Hercules, §20], macrons are mine):
Vbi Herculēs fīnem fēcit, Pȳthia prīmō tacēbat; tandem tamen iussit
eum ad urbem Tīryntha īre et Eurysthēī rēgis omnia ...
- 717
6
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0
answers
128
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On the (alleged) ambiguity of "Fabricius a subsellis demisso capite discesserat" (Cic. Clu. 58)
Some Latinist scholars (e.g. Lavency (1986) and Longrée (2014), i.a.; see the full references at the bottom of this post) have noted that the following example from Cicero could in principle be ...
- 9,036
4
votes
1
answer
565
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Did poets use ambiguity in poetry?
Ambiguity seems very likely in Latin, due to the identicalness of inflected forms, flexibility of word order, homophony, and the like.
In many other languages, ambiguous sentences are often used in ...
- 3,010
1
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1
answer
203
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Ambiguity of genitive
In some nouns the genitive singular is the same as another case, such as:
First declension: fīliī could also be nominative plural
Second declension: fīliae could also nominative plural
Some third ...
- 283
5
votes
1
answer
155
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How to translate this particular phrase? Is it ambiguous?
(From Ovid Apollo and Daphne, book 1 of Metamorphoses)
ut canis in vacuo leporem cum Gallicus arvo
vidit, et hic praedam pedibus petit, ille salutem;
alter inhaesuro similis iam iamque tenere
...
- 1,173
5
votes
1
answer
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What does Valerius Maximus mean in the line “eoque ictu origo et principium fortioris tragoediae extinctum est.”?
Valerius Maximus, in Facta et Dicta Memorabilia, describes the death of Aeschylus (V.Max. 9.12(ext).2):
Aeschyli uero poetae excessus quem ad modum non uoluntarius, sic
propter nouitatem casus ...
- 153
10
votes
1
answer
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"Aurea prima sata est aetas" - is there ambiguity here?
I'm (re)teaching myself Latin (I studied at school decades ago), and I've just picked up a book of excerpts from Ovid.
Aurea prima sata est aetas, quae vindice nullo,
sponte sua, sine lege fidem ...
- 1,173
10
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1
answer
207
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Does word order lessen the ambiguity in Accusativus cum Infinitivo?
A question was recently asked about how to say "I thinks he loves me" in Latin, because the most straightforward translation is ambiguous as to who may be loving who:
Puto eam me amare
In ...
- 8,692
6
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1
answer
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Hidden from/by you
I answered a question a moment ago and I contemplated phrasing "hidden from you" as a te absconditum.
But then I realized that the pronoun could also be taken as an agent, rendering it "...
- 115k
4
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4
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Disambiguation of "nobis vobis" and "nobis nobis"
For many words, the dative and ablative take the same form. Two examples are nos and vos (nobis and vobis, respectively).
Imagine you want to say something like "from us to you [plural]" (where "...
- 12.5k
9
votes
4
answers
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Can 'in-' mean both 'in' and 'no'?
The prefix in- can mean "in" or "into" or similar, as in inire.
It can also mean "non-" or "un-", as in infelix.
Both meanings of the prefix are attested, but I am not familiar with any case where ...
- 115k
2
votes
1
answer
725
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How to translate "from nothing to existence" preferably keeping ambiguity
What's a possible Latin motto meaning roughly "from nothing to existence/reality/something"? I'd like it to be ambiguous if possible, preferably implying "(something) comes into being from nothing" ...
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6
votes
1
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93
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How to resolve ambiguities with the infinitive
In the Vulgata, Titus 3:8 reads as follows:
Fidelis sermo est: et de his volo te confirmare: ut curent bonis
operibus præesse qui credunt Deo. Hæc sunt bona, et utilia hominibus.
In particular, ...
- 10.8k
5
votes
2
answers
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Are the pronoun-looking forms of quire attested?
The verb quire is conjugated like ire, and there are some forms that look like an interrogative or relative pronoun.
Those forms are quīs and quī.
Are these attested in classical ...
- 115k
6
votes
1
answer
248
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How "sōlā fidē" means what it is supposed to mean
The question is whether the phrase (a) denies there being more than one faith or (b) excludes there being any other means of salvation.
BACKGROUND
I am assuming that the phrase is intended to ...
- 1,513