[B-Greek] Passive Construction

Carl W. Conrad cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Fri Feb 16 10:04:19 EST 2007


On Feb 16, 2007, at 9:29 AM, Eddie Mishoe wrote:

> John:
>
> Yes. It just so happens that I'm reading that very
> thing in Caragounis' new book. He lists Mt. 15:2,
> NIPTONTAI TAS CEIRAS, as well as several other verses
> (Acts 7:58, 26:21, Eph. 5.16, Ti 2:7). He procedes to
> indicate that such a usage is because of a lack of
> understanding the 'fine distinctions' of the Attic.

Yes; he gets that phrasing from Hatzidakis, I think; I also think  
he's wrong about this. NIPTONTAI TAS CEIRAS is the classical usage of  
the middle. The Attic form of the present is NIZW, NIYW, ENIYA; NIPTW  
is a new present developed from the aorist/future stems. And if you  
check LSJ you will find that NIZW is used in Attic in the middle  
voice. NIPTONTAI is not "wash themselves" but "wash FOR themselves."

>
> However, I'd like to have someone explain why the
> transitivity of a verb affects its voice. Dr. Conrad?,
> Dr. Buth?, etc.

I've tried to clarify this, although with insufficient detail, on my  
web-page, http://www.ioa.com/~cwconrad/GrkVc.html
I do refer there to an important article that goes far to explain the  
relationship between transitivity and voice: Egbert J. Bakker,  
“Voice, Aspect and Aktionsart: Middle and Passive in Ancient Greek”  
in Barbara A. Fox, Paul J. Hopper, edd., Voice: Form and function  
(Typological Studies in Language 27) (Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John  
Benjamins Publishing Company, 1994), pp. 23-47

> --- CTCE <jfs at jfsanders.com> wrote:
>
>> I have a question concerning the passive
>> construction in Greek.  This pertains to transitive
>> verbs only.  I do not have an example at my
>> fingertips, but there are examples where the
>> transitive verb in the middle voice is passive in
>> construction, that is, the direction of the verb
>> refers back to the subject and the agent directing
>> the verb is in an oblique case.  (I saw examples in
>> Funk, but I do not recall the place to cite the
>> reference).
>>
>>
>>
>> Is this true of all transitive verbs in the middle
>> voice?  Or, to put it in another way, are there
>> examples where a transitive verb in the middle voice
>> has a direct object (and consequently, the flow is
>> from the subject to the object, with the
>> "middleness" of the verb emphasized?
>>
>>
>>
>> John Sanders


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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