[B-Greek] "translating" the Middle Voice
Carl W. Conrad
cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Sat Apr 28 19:10:25 EDT 2007
On Apr 28, 2007, at 6:03 PM, Delbert Flora wrote:
> Mounce has us "translate" the voices for Active and Passive as
> follows:
>
> Active: I loose
> Passive: I was loosed
>
> What would be a good way of "translating" the Middle for beginners?
> And what
> would be added to this beginner's "translation" in a more advanced
> class?
> (He suggests something that denotes "self-interest" with many
> verbs, but not
> all. I guess I am looking for the proper way to learn from the very
> beginning so I can develop good habits.)
It is not at all helpful to imagine that there is one simple way to
"translate"
middle-voice forms. It all depends very much upon the particular verb
that
you are dealing with. I've prepared a nine-page iintroduction to
Greek voice
that some have found helpful. It's entitled, "Active, Middle, and
Passive:
Understanding Ancient Greek Voice" and it is a PDF file that can be
read on-line or downloaded at
http://www.ioa.com/~cwconrad/Docs/UndAncGrkVc.pdf
That short document is intended for beginning students. Some of the
more intricate problems concern ancient Greek voice are sketched out at
http://www.ioa.com/~cwconrad/GrkVc.html
Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Retired)
1989 Grindstaff Road/Burnsville, NC 28714/(828) 675-4243
cwconrad2 at mac.com
WWW: http://www.ioa.com/~cwconrad/
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