Kmetko - medial function of the middle voice
Posted: February 13th, 2020, 3:31 pm
I have recently been reading through a thesis by Susan Kmetko on the middle voice. I am intrigued by their claims of a medial sense of the middle voice. This isn’t something I recall engaging with in other studies and find it interesting but also am a bit wary of it as it seems new to me
I have given examples below of her summaries on these points. Has anyone come across this medial view before and have any thoughts on it? Similarly, do you know of any works that have further developed the discussion on middle voice with this medial view?
I have given examples below of her summaries on these points. Has anyone come across this medial view before and have any thoughts on it? Similarly, do you know of any works that have further developed the discussion on middle voice with this medial view?
.In the previous chapters, the syntactic function of middle-form verbs (both oppositional and media tantum) was examined as it appeared in context in First Thessalonians or Second Corinthians. This function was then compared to three descriptors of middle function. 1These criteria are presented once more for reference:
1. The grammatical middle function in which the subject is essentially the direct or indirect object of the verb, acting on, for or by itself.
2. The linguistic notion of subject-affectedness with different manifestations as described by Rutger Allan.
3. The linguistic concept of internal diathesis posited by Benveniste and developed by Eberhard as medial function, indicating that the subject is actively engaged within the encompassing process of the verb
https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/T ... 58f7abe000These three descriptors of the middle voice emphasise different aspects of middle function. The grammatical descriptors focus on the subject as agent, i.e. how and why it acts in a particular manner. The principle of subject-affectedness emphasises the impact of the action on the subject, while the medial notion is concerned with the process in and of which the subject partakes. This does not require a specific type of effect to be articulated; rather it implies an interactive, interdependent experience, thus often pointing to relational situations. These three perspectives are not mutually exclusive, but rather complementary; taken together, they have enabled the middle function of the samples of middle verbs in this investigation to be recognised.