[B-Greek] Deponents
Carl W. Conrad
cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Sat Jan 1 09:39:57 EST 2005
At 7:45 PM -0800 12/31/04, Mitch Larramore wrote:
>Dr. Conrad:
>
>The standard definition, I think, of deponent verbs
>is: middle or passive in form but active in meaning.
>Can you think of one example in which this is in your
>opinion true? Or, in every instance where others claim
>an active meaning, you would argue for a middle
>meaning?
No, I cannot think of any such: I would argue for a middle or middle/passive
sense. But it needs to be realized that such a narrow definition of "middle" as
"when subject acts upon or form him/herself" is far too narrow: the subject need
not be deliberately acting but undergoing an experience or transformation:
GINETAI "is being born" or OLLUTAI "is going to waste" or EGEIRETAI "is waking
up." The real problem with understanding Greek voice, in my opinion, lies in
failure to appreciate the nature of the Greek middle-passive and trying to
understand it in terms of the grammar of English or another non-Greek language.
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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