[B-Greek] Deponents (was 2nd aorsit ... FOLLOW UP)
Carl W. Conrad
cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Thu Apr 1 11:35:07 EST 2004
At 7:49 AM -0800 4/1/04, Cirk Bejnar wrote:
>--- "Carl W. Conrad" <cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu>
>wrote:
>>It might theoretically make sense to define a "deponent" verb
>> as a verb that doesn't have an active morphoparadigm
>
>I find this definition helpful as a notation to remind
>me what lemma to look up in a dictionary--one hates to
>waste time looking for ERCW when ERCOMAI is what you
>need--and not to try and reinterpret a gloss to give
>it a "middle sense" since such force has already been
>traslated.
>
>On the other hand, when I casually mentioned the term
>'deponent' tomy professor (in the context of a verb
>that lacked an future-active morphoparadigm) he
>reacted much as Dr. Conrad would and I could only
>appease him by affirming that I knew the term was
>"based on a misunderstanding of medeival Latin
>grammarians" even if it retained some utility for me.
>
>Cirk R. Bejnar
>Undergratuate in Classics
I appreciate this note and I invite Cirk to look at my pedagogical
document, "Understanding Ancient Greek Voice" at
http://www.ioa.com/~cwconrad/Docs/UndAncGrkVc.pdf
Let me add another note here, inasmuch as Stephen Carlson has also
commented on this and said
At 12:28 AM -0500 4/1/04, Stephen C. Carlson wrote:
>Coming from Latin, which does have a real deponent
>system, I was naturally very inclined to hold on to
>the concept of deponency in Greek. But it hurt more
>than helped in Greek. ...
I personally think that the term "deponent" is no more useful in Latin than
it is in Greek; I think it can be readily demonstrated that the verbs with
-OR lemmas in Latin are really middle-voice forms. Latin SEQUOR derives
from the very same PIE root as Greek hEPOMAI and functions like it with a
dative complement. The so-called "Greek accusative" is best explained like
its Greek prototype as the direct object of a middle-voice participle. I
remember my puzzlement when I first read the form VOLVITUR in Aeneid 1
which can only mean "rolls" and wondered why it was in the passive voice;
many years later I came to realize that it is NOT in the passive voice but
in the middle.
I think that what has happened in Latin is much the same as what happened
in later Greek: although it is commonly claimed that the Greek middle-voice
was replaced by the passive, the fact seems rather to be that the Greek
middle-passive morphoparadigms in MAI/SAI/TAI came to be supplanted by
-QHN/QHS/QH forms with the same dual functions. That's what happened in
Latin also, I believe: the OR/RIS/TUR forms bear BOTH middle AND passive
senses, depending upon the particular verb.
--
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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