A New Conception
A new conception for most of us, anyway. Give me a moment to set the stage . . .
A few years back I saw a film called Arrival. The premise is that alien spacecraft have been visiting Earth. The U.S. Army calls upon linguist Louise Banks (played by Amy Adams) to try to communicate with the aliens. The biggest hurdle she encounters has to do with the way the aliens experience time. They don’t experience time in a linear war as we do. They experience past, present, and future together, or maybe in a more cyclical way.
In any case, their language is likewise non-linear. Accordingly, they express themselves in writing with what look like circular patterns that they form with one inky squirt. In deciphering the aliens’ language and learning about their experience of time, the protagonist comes to some profound insights about her own life and experience, with implications for humanity as a whole.
Latin is (a little) alien
The Latin language is a little bit (just a little) like the alien language from the film. At least it is from the perspective of us speakers of Modern English. In English the word order determines the function of words in a sentence. First comes the subject, then the verb, then the direct object. Of course, it’s a little more complicated than that, especially once sentences get more complex. Even then, however, word order drives syntax. When we grow up speaking English, our brain comes to understand linear sequence as the determinant of function – we may even assume that’s the only way to do it.
When we grow up speaking English, our brain comes to understand linear sequence as the determinant of function – we may even assume that’s the only way to do it.
The word order in Latin, however, is much more fluid. Endings, and therefore the forms of words (especially nouns, pronouns, and adjectives) are much more important in determining their relationship to the rest of a sentence. Accordingly, while for instance the subject usually does come at the beginning of a Latin sentence, it doesn’t need to. We can put it anywhere we want in the sentence.
Gobbledygook or Worse
What that means for us native English speakers is that reading a Latin sentence can be much like Louise Banks’ encounter with the alien language in Arrival. If we simply apply the pattern we’re used to in English, we end up with gobbledygook – or worse. That’s why when we learn Latin, we don’t simply need to learn new words and new rules; we need to learn a whole new way of understanding the syntax of how the words relate to each other in a sentence. In other words, a new conception.
I’ve seen my students struggle with this reality over the years. It takes quite a bit of direction and correction to keep them from automatically making the first noun they come to the subject. It’s also an ongoing process to accustom them to waiting patiently for the end of the sentence for the main verb, which is where they will most often (but not necessarily – see above) find it.
Two Ways
An important question this situation raises for teachers and learners of Latin is how to approach reading Latin sentences. A traditionalist might recommend finding the verb first of all, then the subject, and work from there. Someone committed to the reading-based approach might prefer simply taking the words in the order they come without giving too much explicit thought to form or function.
There are drawbacks each approach. If we begin with a grammatical analysis of the sentence, we’re puzzle solving, but not really learning to read sentences qua sentences. Ignoring or downplaying the need to recognize forms, however, can lead to a different problem. Consider this time-honored example: Canem vir mordet. Most beginning learners will see the word for “dog” coming first and just assume that the sentence means “The dog bites the man” when in fact the endings tell us the opposite. Here, the man, vir, is biting the dog, Canem.
The Middle Way
The best approach, as is often way, involves doing both things. I know, I know, easier said than done. But, as we saw, we need a new conception. Here is my preferred approach (not my original idea; you’ll find it in many other sources):
On your first encounter with a Latin sentence, read through the entire thing without stopping to analyze anything. Be aware of forms, but you should focus more on just getting a general sense of what the sentence is about.
Next, go through the sentence again, this time with an analytical eye. That means, yes, find the verb; it’s most likely at the end, but it could be anywhere. Identify the case of nouns and be sure you understand what the case ending is telling you about the function of that noun in the sentence. Then you can make a point of accounting for any adjectives, prepositional phrases, adverbs, etc., and understanding how they affect the overall meaning of the sentence.
The Final Step
Finally, do another read-through. This step is crucial to developing a good Latin reading ability. It’s like step one, only now it’s informed by an explicit understanding of what all the forms are telling you. Imagine that you are a native Latin speaker, simply reading a sentence. Try to take the words as they come, without skipping around to fit them into an English linear pattern. Again, this third step is vitally important. This is as close as you can come, at this stage of your learning at least, to reading like a native speaker.
Cave Canem: “Beware the Dog”
Mosaic from Pompeii
If you follow this process, you’ll find over time that you’ll get you’ll get more meaning from that first read-through. Let’s take the sentence we looked at above as an example: Canem vir mordet. You’ll have seen accusatives without prepositions often enough that you’ll probably conclude that Canem is the direct object, even though there’s no subject and verb in front of it. Just as importantly, you won’t need to stop and think about it. In the same way you’ll immediately take the nominative vir as the subject. Instead of trying to force them into a linear English pattern of meaning, you’ll know that the man is doing something to the dog and you’ll be able to hold that thought until the verb mordet comes along to tie it all together.
Both/And: The New Conception
Sometimes both/and is the solution to an apparent either/or dilemma. The reading-based people are correct that we need to try to read the sentence as written. At the same time, the traditional grammar-based folks make an important point that if we don’t know what the forms mean, we won’t understand what the sentence is actually saying. Like Louise Banks in the film Arrival, we need to learn to see language in a whole new way – we need a new conception of how to approach a sentence.
