[B-Greek] Middle and Passive Voice

James Tauber jtauber at jtauber.com
Sat Aug 26 15:06:21 EDT 2006


Dionysios Thrax on Voice:


διαθέσεις εἰσὶ τρεῖς, ἐνέργεια,  
πάθος, μεσότης· ἐνέργεια μὲν οἷον  
τύπτω, πάθος δὲ οἷον τύπτομαι,  
μεσότης δὲ ἡ ποτὲ μὲν ἐνέργειαν  
ποτὲ δὲ πάθος παριστᾶσα, οἷον  
πέπηγα διέφθορα ἐποιησάμην  
ἐγραψάμην.

DIAQESEIS EISI TREIS, ENERGEIA, PAQOS, MESOTHS:
ENERGEIA MEN OI(ON TUPTW,
PAQOS DE OI(ON TUPTOMAI,
MESOTHS DE H( POTE MEN ENERGEIAN POTE DE PAQOS PARISTASA,
OI(ON PEPHGA DIEFQORA EPOIHSAMHN EGRAFAMHN.

It's easy to see how the Greek terms relate to our own words. Even  
the semantic role PATIENT is cognate with PAQOS.

Not surprisingly, Dionysios is concerned mostly (entirely?) with form  
and gives -W and -OMAI as the forms of the ACTIVE and PASSIVE.

Would it be correct to translate the penultimate line something like  
"The middle sometimes represents the active and sometimes the  
passive"? Or perhaps more insightfully "The middle sometimes  
represents the AGENT and sometimes the PATIENT".

Not quite sure what he means by the corrupted writing in the last line.

James Tauber


More information about the B-Greek mailing list