[B-Greek] Matt. 21:22 LHMYESQE

Carl W. Conrad cwconrad2 at mac.com
Tue Aug 29 23:15:12 EDT 2006


 
On Tuesday, August 29, 2006, at 07:54PM, Mitch Larramore <mitchlarramore at yahoo.com> wrote:

>Dr. Carl Conrad:
>
>You wrote...
>> LHMYOMAI "I'll get it in my hot little hands."
>
>Do you mean this as something I will receive from
>someone else (I'll be more of a recipient), or
>something I'll acquire on my own doing (more middle)?
>
>It seems like the idea is that if you pray believing,
>you will be the recipient of something, rather than
>grasping something yourself. I may not be
>understanding your words or terminology. Could you
>restate your point another way.

(1) Remember that the future of LAMBANW is LHMYOMAI -- 
middle; there is no active form LMHYW in the future.

(2) I've noted, as have others, that several Greek 
verbs that have active forms in the present tense 
are middle-only in the future tense. One could claim 
that this is simply anomalous, or, what amounts to 
the same thing: they are DEPONENT in the future 
(meaning that the change of voice is unintelligible). 
I prefer to think that there's something about the 
nature of these verbs (Aktionsart?) that makes the 
Greek-speaker/thinker suppose that future performance 
of these actions is somehow advantageous to the 
subject of the verb.

(3) Four of these verbs that come readily to my mind 
(LAMBANW/LHMYOMAI 'apprehend', LAGCANW/LHXOMAI 'get 
as lot', TUGCANW/TEUXOMAI 'hit upon/get by chance', 
MANQANW/MAQHSOMAI 'learn') all involve the notion of
acquisition; my guess is that when one thinks of these
as future achievements one thinks of these actions as
advantageous to the performer of the action, and that
is why they are middle.

(4) So let's try it again: LAMBANW hA HiTHSA (I grasp
what I've prayed for); LHYMWOMAI hOSA AN AITHSW (I
shall OBTAIN -- get for myself -- whatever I pray for).

That's how I look at this matter; I really don't know
how to put it any clearer than that; I only repeat that
I don't think it is an accident that these verbs are
middle in the future and have no active future forms.


>--- "Carl W. Conrad" <cwconrad2 at mac.com> wrote:
>
>>  
>> On Tuesday, August 29, 2006, at 03:18PM, Mitch
>> Larramore wrote:
>> 
>> >KAI PANTA hOSA AN AITHSHTE EN THi PROSEUCHi
>> >PISTEUONTES LHMYESQE
>> >
>> >My parser identifies LHMYESQE as Future Middle. Why
>> is
>> >this a Middle and not a Passive? Does a Middle mean
>> >that the subject brings about the answered prayer
>> in
>> >some way??
>> 
>> The future tense of LAMBANW is LHMYOMAI. As I noted
>> last night, 
>> this is one of a sizable number of present-tense
>> actives that
>> have the future-tense form in the middle (there is
>> no LHMYW).
>> My guess is that the verbal concept in these verbs
>> when projected
>> into the future involves subject-focus, e.g. LAMBANW
>> "I grasp"--
>> LHMYOMAI "I'll get it in my hot little hands."
>> 
>> 
>> 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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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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