[B-Greek] QHN QHS QH... as Middle

Carl W. Conrad cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Thu Aug 16 19:30:22 EDT 2007


On Aug 16, 2007, at 6:14 PM, Delbert Flora wrote:

> Follow up to this statement by Dr. C. Conrad:
>
>> The fact is that it is erroneous to think of the -QH- endings  as  
>> distinctly passive; they are, like the MAI/SAI/TAI,MHN/SO/TO   
>> endings, ambivalently middle-passive. An important fact of Greek   
>> linguistic history is that the -QH- forms increasingly came to   
>> replace the older second-aorist MHN/SO/TO aorists. E.g., the form   
>> EGENHQHN supplants the older form EGENOMHN with no demonstrable   
>> difference in meaning from EGENOMHN.
>
>
> For some reason, I was under the impression that MOST MHN/SO/TO  
> forms are pragmatically (how they are actually used in the GNT)  
> middle, and that MOST QHN/QHS/QH forms are pragmatically passive.  
> Given the above information, is my impression wrong? It would not  
> make sense for a primarily middle conjugation to be replaced by a  
> primarily passive conjugation.

I think that the impression you hold is questionable, the more so if  
you cease to classify as "deponents" the verbs that are commonly  
classified as such. It is a mistake to confound morphology with  
semantics in the matter of voice. There are active-voice verbs that  
have passive meaning (PIPTW, APOQNHiSKW, PASCW) -- not many, to be  
sure. HGERQHN is passive morphologically but is middle semantically  
as a standard aorist form to  the present tense EGEIROMAI (there was  
an older Homeric aorist form HGROMHN that was supplanted by HGERQHN).  
Voice in ancient Greek verbs is a complex matter that has been much  
oversimplified in some ways and overcomplicated in others by  
traditional pedagogy. Much that concerns the active/middle/passive  
semantics of Greek verbs must be learned as one becomes familiar with  
each verb that is in any way deviant from a pattern, and the degree  
of transitivity of a verb bears heavily upon its voice semantics.

If you care to go further into my views on voice, see my web-page:
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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