Using Context to Resolve an Ambiguous Pronoun in a Prescribed Text
A student reads a prescribed verse passage in which ille appears three times in close succession, and is appears twice. The student translates all of them as 'he', producing an unclear English paragraph. The teacher points out that Latin pronouns often refer to different referents and that ille can be emphatic ('that man', 'he on the other hand'). The student must decide referents from context, gender/number agreement, and narrative logic, and must explain the decision. The passage describes a leader addressing troops while a messenger waits.
1. Explain the method for resolving the referents of *ille* and *is*, and why a blanket 'he' is inadequate.
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The student should resolve pronouns by three checks. First, grammatical agreement: gender, number, and case narrow the possible antecedents; ille masculine singular can refer to the leader or the messenger, so grammar alone is insufficient. Second, narrative logic: the passage places the leader addressing troops and the messenger waiting, so the pronoun in the speech frame most likely refers to the leader, while the pronoun near expectabat refers to the messenger. Third, emphasis: ille is deictic and often contrastive ('that man', 'he on the other hand'), so rendering it as plain 'he' loses the contrast the poet intends. A blanket 'he' is inadequate because English then cannot distinguish referents, producing ambiguity the Latin avoids. The student should state the antecedent explicitly in the translation or use a name, and justify the choice by citing the surrounding verbs. The exam rewards demonstrated sensitivity to Latin pronoun usage, not just a grammatically possible rendering.
2. The student must write a short commentary note on why *ille* is chosen over *is* in one line. Draft the reasoning the student should give.
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The student should argue that ille is the marked, emphatic demonstrative, used to point or contrast, whereas is is the unmarked anaphoric pronoun ('he, the aforementioned'). In the line in question, the poet uses ille at a moment of contrast - the leader is set against the waiting messenger - so the emphatic form signals 'that man' or 'he on the other hand'. Choosing is would flatten the contrast and lose the deictic force. The student should support this by noting the position of ille (often initial or in an emphatic slot) and the presence of a contrasting clause. The commentary should avoid overclaiming: the student can say ille is 'emphatic and contrastive' without asserting a fixed translation. The exam rewards the ability to connect a grammatical choice to literary effect, and this is precisely the judgement tested in prescribed-text commentary.