cwconrad wrote:Barry Hofstetter wrote:cwconrad wrote:
Well, Barry, there's always the possibility that the sentence was intended as "You already wrote to them on your own behalf, but now I'm going to write again."
Generous you are, perhaps to a fault.
I simply mentioned the possibility; I also have had occasion over the years to note that the stigmatic aorist middle 2 sg. does confound people thinking that it ought somehow to be a future indicative active 1 sg. with an augment that has no business being there ...
Upon a bit of further reflection on the matter of how the text of this exercise sentence
ought to have been written, it seems to me that there are two pedagogical values involved here (granting that it's a relatively trivial issue!!): on the one hand, we don't want to confuse the learner; rather, we want the focus to be on the single element in the exercise sentence; on the other hand, we want the learner to be alert and observant -- to give serious consideration to the whole of the exercise sentence. While it might seem improbable that the sentence as originally cited by Jacob Rhoden in the form, ηδη εγραψω αυτοις, αλλα νυν παλιν γραψω, was correctly cited, it
can yield the perfectly intelligible sense that I suggested (above). That 2 sg. aorist middle form is something worth underscoring in the beginner's memory: for my own part, I can remember encountering that form (not for γράφειν, to be sure) in a text and thinking that it must be a misprint, that surely this was supposed to be a future 1 sg. active.
Still on the other hand, Jacob spelled out that sentence as he read it -- or thought he was reading it -- from the textbook page without accents -- this wasn't a cut and paste entry from a digital text. That being the case, it's easy to see how the copying error might have arisen.
Barry, you are free to say that I am merely trying to extend a rather trifling thread in order to append yet another trifle to it -- and if you do, what harm can one more trifle do?