Re: Sensible passives (was: confession: roots)

Raymond Brown scripsit:

> >The English historical evidence strongly suggests "agent" as the correct
> >role.  Consider the Apostle's Creed:  "Jesus Christ [...] who was [...]
> >born of the Virgin Mary."  Now in modern language we'd expect "born to",
> >so what is that "of" doing?
>
> 16th cent. literal translation of Latin, I assume:
> ..qui natus est ex Maria Virgine.
Eh?  If the Reformers had been that literal, I'd expect "born from".

Offtopic:  When a traditional Navajo introduces him- or herself, he or she
says "born to XXX, born for YYY", where XXX is the mother's matriclan
and YYY is the father's matriclan.  (These are important to know
right away because they determine the obligations the other person
has to you and vice versa.)

--
John Cowan                                   cowan@ccil.org
One art/there is/no less/no more/All things/to do/with sparks/galore
        --Douglas Hofstadter

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