[B-Greek] Active vs Middle voice

Carl W. Conrad cwconrad at ioa.com
Sun Aug 14 11:44:42 EDT 2005


On Aug 14, 2005, at 9:56 AM, Mitch Larramore wrote:

> GGBB defines Active Voice: "the subject performs,
> produces, or experiences the action or exists in the
> state expressed by the verb." (p 410)
>
> Later, the Middle Voice is defined: "the subject
> performs or experiences the action expressed by the
> verb in such a way that emphasizes the subject's
> participation." (p 415)
>
> Can someone distinguish the nuance of the Active
> (experiences the action) from the Middle? It almost
> seems like the action performed by the subject is the
> same with both Active and Middle, but that there is a
> different emphasis. Is this right?
>
> I'm wondering if I can define the Active in such a way
> as to limit the action to an Active only, that is,
> without the possibility of someone saying, "That could
> be true of the Middle also."

I really don't think these definitions by Wallace are very helpful at  
all. I cannot escape the impression that such descriptions of the  
Greek Active and Middle voices have more to do with perceptions of  
the English voices than with the workings of the Greek voices  
themselves.

On my web-page entitled, "Propositions concerning Ancient Greek  
Voice" (http://www.ioa.com/~cwconrad/GrkVc.html) I wrote as follows:

"Common use of the term “active” can be confusing or misleading:  
while it may simply indicate that the grammatical subject of a verb  
is acting or performing the action, it may seem to imply that the  
verb must be transitive and take an object. That is confusing or  
misleading when one speaks of a Greek verb form as being middle or  
passive in voice but having an “active” meaning. In fact, middle and  
passive verb-forms in Greek may be transitive and take direct  
objects, but it is perhaps more common that they are intransitive."

The fact of the matter is that the morphological Active forms in  
Greek may bear a meaning that is transitive active (BALLEI TON PAIDA)  
or intransitive meaning (KAQEUDEI hO PAIS) or in some instances a  
passive meaning although taking a direct object and an agent  
construction (DEINA PASCEI hO PAIS hUPO THS MHTRUIAS: "the child is  
mistreated dreadfully by his stepmother.").

Accordingly I think it is important to distinguish morphology from  
semantics in any description of the active. Semantically, it seems to  
me "active" means transitive and causative. The looser phrasing that  
describes the "active" as indicating that the subject performs an  
action is misleading and opens the door to the traditional unhelpful  
accounts of "deponent" verbs as such verbs as have middle or passive  
"forms" but ACTIVE "meanings."

Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Emeritus)
1989 Grindstaff Road/Burnsville, NC 28714/(828) 675-4243
cwconrad2 at mac.com
WWW: http://www.ioa.com/~cwconrad/




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