[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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