[B-Greek] Latin Motto in Greek
Carl W. Conrad
cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Fri Mar 12 13:09:16 EST 2004
At 12:41 PM -0500 3/12/04, Richard Ghilardi wrote:
>Hi b-greekers,
>
>The motto of my college alma mater is: docendo discimus (we learn by
>teaching).
>
>How would this best be put into Greek?
>
>1) (EN) TWi DIDASKEIN MANQANOMEN (infinitive)
>
>2) DIDASKONTES MANQANOMEN (circumstantial participle)
>
>3) DIDASKONTOS MANQANOMEN (gen. absolute)
>
>I don't think that #3 is even possible. Doesn't the gen. abs. need some
>sort of expressed substantive as a subject? I don't know whether
>responses should be on- or off-list?
#3 is indeed impossible: it does require both subject (substantive or
pronoun) and predicate (verb in participle) to be in the genitive case.
I think that both ##1 and 2 will express the sense.
I'm reminded of two such mottoes. One is Solon's celebrated dictum, GHRASKW
AEI POLLA DIDASKOMENOS, which might be freely Englished as "I age but keep
from growing senile by continuing to absorb new lessons." The other is my
high school motto, DISCIMUS AGERE AGENDO: "we learn to do by doing."
--
Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Emeritus)
1989 Grindstaff Road/Burnsville, NC 28714/(828) 675-4243
cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
WWW: http://www.ioa.com/~cwconrad/
More information about the B-Greek
mailing list