[B-Greek] explicit Middle voices

Carl W. Conrad cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Fri Jan 7 11:14:30 EST 2005


At 7:30 AM -0800 1/7/05, Eddie Mishoe wrote:
>Dr. Conrad:
>
>You have stated, I believe, that a verb in the MP form
>is Passive if hUPO + Genitive is supplied. This makes
>perfect sense. My question is now this: Can the Greek
>writer grammatically make a Middle Voice to be
>understood? Are there any clues that preclude an MP
>form being Passive, thereby requiring a Middle sense?

There are a couple things to consider, both having to do with context. One
important consideration is the	Aktionsart of the verb: what is its
essential nature: certain verbs are more likely to be middle. Suzanne
Kemmer in her book on Middle Voice offers the following categories of verbs
that typically find expression in middle-voice morphology. I present a
compilation from her listings and the illustrative verbs in Greek are, for
the most part, my own compilation:

1. Grooming, body care: washing, dressing, shaving, bathing, undressing,
cutting hair/nails, anointing self, buttoning clothes (Fr. se laver, Gr.
LOUOMAI)
2. Change in body posture: sit down, lie down, kneel down, arise, stand up
(Gr. KEIMAI, hEZOMAI, EGEIROMAI, ANISTAMAI)
3. Non-translational motion: stretch out, turn around, bend, shake head,
move neck, clench fists (Gr. TREPOMAI, KAMPTOMAI)
4. Translational motion: fly, flee, go away, run, hurry, go away from,
climb, arrive, leave, come, go (Gr. PETOMAI, ERCOMAI, POREUOMAI, Fr. s'en
aller, Lat. se removere)
5. Indirect reflexive: break one's arm, etc.; build oneself a house
6. Indirect middle, self-benefactive: choose, acquire for self, pray,
attain, reach (Gr. hAIREOMAI, KTAOMAI, EUCOMAI, OREGOMAI)
7. Naturally reciprocal events: meet, fight, greet, wrestle, embrace,
quarrel, converse, agree with, mate, take stock together (Gr. ASPAZOMAI)
8. Stative, naturally reciprocal: adjoin, be linked (copular), resemble one
another, match (Gr. ECOMAI)
9. Reciprocal marked naturally collective: assembling, gather, merge, be
packed, accumulate, multiply, thin out, densify
10. Emotion: be frightened, hate, be angry, marvel at, delight in, take
consolation, pity, care/worry, grieve/mourn, regret, be charmed, take
pleasure, repent, be satisfied (Gr. hHDOMAI, Lat. misereor)
11. Emotive speech: complain, lament, blame (Gr. OLOFUROMAI,MEMFOMAI)
12. Other speech actions: confess, boast, chide, accuse, lie, deceive,
threaten, refuse (Gr. KAUCAOMAI, AITIAOMAI, hOMOLOGEOMAI)
13. Simple cognitive events: ponder, meditate, interpret, devise, reflect,
consider, deliberate, calculate (Gr. hHGEOMAI, BOULEUOMAI, STAQMAOMAI)
14. Perception: look at, feel, hear (Gr. DERKOMAI, AISQANOMAI, AKROAMAI,
Lat. conspicor)
15. Complex cognitive events: believe, forget, remember, suspect,
conjecture (Gr. OIOMAI/OIMAI, EPILANQANOMAI, Lat. obliviscor)
16. Commissive, intensive: resolve, view, undertake, promise, intend, swear
(Gr. hUPISCNEOMAI)
17. Spontaneous events: die, sink, develop, become light, change, dissolve,
evaporate, germinate, dissipate, grow, burst, spread out, convalesce, thaw,
melt, open, split, be born (a very large group, the mother of all of which
is GI(G)NOMAI)
18. Facilitative: inherent characteristic of patient allows action to take
place: "soup eats like a meal."
19. Impersonal: generic agent (both this and the above have generic aspects).

Another factor is the degree of transitivity of the verb; a transitive verb
is likely to have an active-voice form which is causative in sense; its MP
form may well be genuinely middle and it may have a "passive" (-QH-) form
which should be interpreted as truly passive in sense. BUT Koine Greek is a
language in flux, as I never tire of repeating; the -QH- aorists are
supplanting the MHN/SO/TO aorists; I counted only 18 verbs in the GNT that
had BOTH MHN/SO/TO and -QH- aorists, so quite a few -QH- aorists really ARE
middle rather than passive; take a verb like APOKRINOMAI, traditionally
classified as a "deponent" but a true middle voice: this verb appears only
7 times in the MHN/SO/TO aorist, 213 times in the -QH- aorist; one can be
dead sure that those forms in APEKRIQHN or APOKRIQEIS are middle in sense.
-- 

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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