[B-Greek] MNHMONEUW
Carl W. Conrad
cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Wed Apr 7 22:03:39 EDT 2004
At 4:34 PM -0700 4/7/04, Eddie Mishoe wrote:
>Acts 20,31
>
>DIO GRHGOREITE, MNHMONEUONTES hOTI TRIETIAN NUKTA KAI
>hHMERAN OUK EPAUSAMHN META DAKRUWN NOUQETWN hENA
>hEKASTON
>
>MNHMONEUW means to remember or keep in mind. As I was
>thinking about this verb and its Active voice, I
>couldn't help but wonder why this word is not used in
>the Middle voice. Does not the idea of "keeping
>something in mind" seem like an ideal verb to bear a
>Middle voice form? I hate asking questions about what
>DOES NOT occur, but I thought responses to this might
>give me a more concrete understanding of what
>differentiates Active from Middle semantically
>speaking. I do hope such a question is not
>inappropriate for this list, for I have greatly
>benefitted from the responses provided by the many
>scholars on this web site!!!
Actually this is a good question. In fact the standard verb for remember is
MIMNHSKOMAI and it is, of course, middle, as you might rightly expect. On
the other hand MNHMONEUW is what is called a "denominative" verb: a verb
derived from a noun or adjective, in this instance the adjective MNHMWN,
"mindful." MNHMONEUW is more of a stative type verb: "be mindful of," "keep
in mind." It has a frequentative and causative force to it.
--
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/
More information about the B-Greek
mailing list