Re: "He opened the door and he (same referent) left the room"

On Saturday, June 26, 2004, at 07:34 , Trebor Jung wrote:

> Doug wrote: "In some languages, when clauses are combined, one of the
> verbs
> is marked for "same subject" or "different subject," thereby clarifying
> whether the same referent is meant."
In Classical Latin, if the two subjects are the same, the first action
will be expressed by an appropriate subordinate clause, leaving the second
verb only as main verb. In the sentence concerned, we would have the good
ol' "ablative absolute":

ianua aperta de cella exit

It could be argued that "the door having been closed" doesn't tell us who
(or what) closed the door. Theoretically, that is correct. But, unless the
agent is marked, it would be assumed that the person who quitted the room
was the same person who had opened door.

If the two subjects are different than pronoun subjects must be used.
Exactly which pronouns will depend upon on context, but a contrast of 'hic'
  and 'ille' is, I guess, the most likely. So we might have:

ille ianuam aperuit, hic de cella exit.

This would not only contrast subjects but also the actions (hence no
conjunction). If there's no contrast of action, the the first should be
made subodinate ('cause it happened first). Once again the best wording
will depend upon context; but we might have:

hic, cum ille ianuam aperuisset, de cella exit.

or, perhaps, more likely:
qui, cum ille ianuam aperuisset, de cella exit (using the "connecting
relative" to refer to the person we were talking about in the previous
sentence.


Ray
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