Re: German participles

Am Sat, 24 Jun 2006 11:54:39 +0200 schrieb Oliver Neukum:

Joachim Pense wrote:

Am Fri, 23 Jun 2006 09:50:24 +0200 schrieb Oliver Neukum:

Ray wrote:

Hi,

I'd like to invite the native speakers of German or anyone familiar
with the language among you to examine the following sentence:

"Acht Gestalten, die Gesichter hinter Tuechern und Wollmuetzen
versteckt, schlendern langsam zum Haus Nummer 128. "

Someone told me that "die Gesichter hinter Tuechern und Wollmuetzen
versteckt" is a reduced relative clause. But I doubt it. Can it be an
"absolute participial construction" instead?

No, because the reference to "Gestalten" is clear. It is an
elliptical construction. You can get their from a relative
clause, an attributive genitive or a prepositional construction.


Couldn't it translated into Latin, using an ablativus absolutus? (I
won't try, i don't feel at home translating into Latin.) Would an
ablativus absolutus be impossible if there was an attributive relation
to the subject?

What cannot be rendered as an absolute ablative in Latin?


I didn't say it cannot; I asked if it could, but was not sure.

Joachim
.

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