[B-Greek] Passive Voice

Carl W. Conrad cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Tue Feb 1 20:18:03 EST 2005


Yes, I do intend to go deeper into the history of the "morphoparadigms" and
especially of the so-called "first passive" in QH and its relation to the
"second passive" in -H. I won't try to anticipate that fuller argument at
this point, but let me sketch out some key points:

I think we ought to recognize the polarity of what we traditionally term
"active" and "middle-passive" morphologies in terms of the "active" as
UNMARKED and the "middle-passive" as MARKED. The fact is that, although
very many "active" voice-form verbs are transitive and take direct objects,
there are quite a few intransitive verbs appearing in the same
morphoparadigm. The "middle-passive" voice forms are less frequent, but
they are marked for designation of an experience or transitional process
undergone by the grammatical subject.

The fact is that not all but very many of the "second" perfect and
"second" aorist verbs in H are intransitive; quite a few of them correspond
to middle-voice present-tense forms, e.g. hESTHKA is intransitive perfect
NOT to hISTHMI ("cause to stand") but to the middle-voice form hISTAMAI
"stand"; PEPOIQA is intransitive perfect NOT to PEIQW but to the
middle-voice form PEIQOMAI "trust, rely on." GEGONA (older yet GEGAA) is
intransitive perfect to the middle-voice form GINOMAI. It's worth noting
too that the perfect middle-passive forms PEPEISMAI and GEGENHMAI bear an
identical semantic force to PEPOIQA and GEGONA, which is to say that those
perfect middle-passive forms are later developments.

Now consider the forms such as EFANH; we say that this verb comes from
FAINW, but the fact of the matter is that FAINW is the causative form of a
verb that is really more "natural" in the middle FAINOMAI as "appear."
Older Greek has a "second" perfect PEFHNA which is intransitive and relates
to the middle  FAINOMAI rather than to the active FAINW (there was a
causative form PEFAGKA "I have made appear" but PEFHNA meant "I have
appeared").

It should be noted that EFANH conjugates with ACTIVE endings (as do all the
aorist "passives" in QHN/QHS/QH/QHMEN/QHTE/QHSAN. The fact is that the 3d
sg. EFANH is intransitive aorist to FAINOMAI and it is formally exactly
like EBH, ESTH, which are usually termed aorist actives; it is also
formally exactly like EBLABH and EGRAFH: that is to say, the "second"
passives are formally IDENTICAL with the athematic aorist "actives" in H.
We ought to see the -QH- forms as -H- aorists with a Q extension that
assists linking the element H to consonant-stems. Consider also BLABHSETAI
and FANHSETAI: are these future "middles" or future "passives"? I'd say
they're intransitive: "he'll get hurt" and "he/she/it will appear."
Formally speaking it's clear that BLABHSETAI and FANHSETAI are not a whit
different formally from GENHSETAI (or from GENHQHSETAI, the more common
later Greek future of GINOMAI).

One final note: I haven't "announced" a new version of that document, but
only that I'm working on an expanded and, I hope, clearer formulation of my
views on ancient Greek voice. I don't know when it will appear--er, hOPOTE
FANHSETAI.


At 3:23 PM +0100 2/1/05, Marco Fabbri wrote:
>Professor Conrad announces a new version of his
>document NewObsAncGrkVc.pdf. It is already a very
>useful reading: I now look forward to the new
>version.
>
>I have already been persuaded by prof. Conrad
>that the difference between the
>MAI/SAI/TAI;MHN/SO/TO morphoparadigm and the -QH-
>morphoparadigm is not to be explained as a
>difference between Middle and Passive.
>
>I would be greatly interested if the new version
>elaborated further on the -H- forms, as they
>appear in aorists like EFANHN (from FAINW) or
>EBLABHN (from BLAPTW).
>
>The paper NewObsAncGrkVc.pdf as published
>actually mentions these forms, but doesn't focus
>on them.
>
>My questions are: can we say that there are only
>two different forms of MP (often called in this
>list MP1 and MP2)? If so, should EFANHN fall into
>the -QH- morphoparadigm? Wouldn't this look a bit
>strained, if the morphoparadigm is defined
>according to its form, not its function? If Q is
>missing, we have no longer -QH-.
>
>Should we rather construe a third morphoparadigm, that is apparent in EFANHN?
>
>Or should we re-define the morphoparadigm as -H-?
>
>If so, should we do anything similar with active
>voice, whenever there are double forms, such as
>the aorists ESTHSA and ESTHN? (Something like A1
>and A2: "active 1" and "active 2"). Indeed, it is
>striking that "active" ESTHN is so similar to
>"passive" EFANHN.
>
>I am not asking these question to challenge prof.
>Conrad's conclusions, but rather to point some
>more problems that are not tackled to my
>satisfaction by the traditional approach, and
>that may find a better answer.
>
>Marco Fabbri
>
>>The longer document is a fuller accounting for and exposition of my
>>understanding of the historical development of the Greek voices in
>>antiquity and a proposal for renaming the categories as well as dropping
>>altogether the obfuscating notion of "deponency." This is a November 2002
>>revision of some theses originally presented on B-Greek in May of 1997, but
>>I am currently in the process of revision and expansion of that document to
>>provide more thorough documentation with respect both to the historical
>>development of the morphology and to voice usage in the GNT as a usage
>>exhibiting both earlier and later stages of a shift from the older
>>MAI/SAI/TAI;MHN/SO/TO morphoparadigms toward the -QH- morphoparadigms as
>>primary vehicles to carry the "middle-passive" senses. The 2002 version of
>>my longer paper, entitled "New Observations on Ancient Greek Voice" is at
>>
>>http://www.ioa.com/~cwconrad/Docs/NewObsAncGrkVc.pdf
>>--
>>
>>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/
>
>
>--
>_______________________________________
>Prof. Marco V. Fabbri
>Dipartimento di Sacra Scrittura
>Pontificia Università della Santa Croce
>Piazza S. Apollinare 49
>I-00186 Roma
>Italy
>
>e-mail: fabbri at pusc.it
>fax: ++39-06-68164400
>---
>B-Greek home page: http://metalab.unc.edu/bgreek
>B-Greek mailing list
>B-Greek at lists.ibiblio.org
>http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/b-greek

-- 

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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