[B-Greek] Correct notions about "deponent" verbs

Carl W. Conrad cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Thu Nov 20 19:33:39 EST 2003


At 6:55 PM -0500 11/20/03, <bertdehaan at gosympatico.ca> wrote:
>  I am trying to 'wrap my mind around' the idea of -MAI verbs being either
>intransitive or indicating some sort of involvement of the subject.
>If I take DECOMAI, I can see that receive means the same as accept for
>one-self.
>But what about PROSEUCOMAI. If it just means, I pray, then it would be
>intransitive (right?)  If some-one is praying a prayer then the noun
>-prayer- is the direct object of the verb -praying- is it not? If my
>reasoning is correct then in this case the verb is not intransitive.
>Is there a different form for this verb with the -W- ending, or is there a
>different explanation?
>I hope I worded my question clear enough.

No, there's no active form of the verb, but you shouldn't get hung up on
whether the verb used to translate a Greek verb into English (or some other
target language) is transitive or active or can take a direct object. Many
verbs that are intransitive in Greek have middle forms because the subject
evidently conceived of as "involved"--that doesn't mean as an active
performer deliberately performing an action necessarily, although it may be
that too. The subject of a middle-passive verb is undergoing a process,
functioning as the recipient of an action, or perhaps "projecting"
him/herself into a new phase. But not all intransitive verbs in Greek are
middle in form: ERCETAI ("goes/comes") and POREUETAI ("travels/fares") are
indeed middle, but in the aorist ERCETAI is HLQEN--an "active-voice" form;
BAINEI ("strides/goes") is active and active, but its future is BHSETAI,
which is middle in form. Several verbs that have active forms in the
present are middle in the future: pres. LAMBANW fut. LH(M)YOMAI, pres.
hORAW fut. OYOMAI. Even the most fundamental of intransitive verbs, "to be"
is "active" in the present EIMI but "middle" in the future ESOMAI (and in
modern Greek even the present is middle: EIMAI.

On pages 9-10 of my paper (http://www.ioa.com/Docs/NewObsAncGrkVc.pdf)
you'll find two lists of categories into which middle-passive verbs fall,
the first that of Suzanne Kemmer (_The Middle Voice _), the second that of
Neva Miller ("A Theory of Deponent Verbs, appendix 2 of Friberg, Timothy
and Barbara, and Miller, Neva F., _Analytical Lexicon of the Greek New
Testament_, Baker Books: 2000, pp. 423-430).
-- 

Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Emeritus)
1989 Grindstaff Road/Burnsville, NC 28714/(828) 675-4243
cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
WWW: http://www.ioa.com/~cwconrad/



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