[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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