[B-Greek] "translating" the Middle Voice
frjsilver at optonline.net
frjsilver at optonline.net
Sat Apr 28 19:25:30 EDT 2007
Dear Friends --
To a certain extent, almost all truly intransitive verbs have the force of Middle Voice forms, which don't exist for all Greek verbs. And there is a maddening tendency of Middle forms to overlap Passive forms in various times, places and styles. Let your context be your guide!
Generally -- *very* generally -- it can be said that Greek Middle Voice corresponds to 'reflexive' syntax in English and many other languages, and to actions which agents perform on/for themselves.
So:
ACTIVE: "I bathed the baby.'
MIDDLE: 'I bathed before bedtime.'
PASSIVE: 'The baby was bathed before bedtime.'
ACTIVE: "I examined the wound I received.'
MIDDLE: 'I examined myself for wounds.'
PASSIVE: 'My wounds were examined.'
Of course, this isn't a complete or definitive list of the possibilities, but I hope it helps a little.
CRISTOS ANESTH!
Father James Silver
Monk James
Orthodox Church in America
----- Original Message -----
From: Delbert Flora
Date: Saturday, April 28, 2007 6:03 pm
Subject: [B-Greek] "translating" the Middle Voice
To: b-greek at lists.ibiblio.org
> 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.)
>
> Kindly,
> Delbert Flora
>
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