[B-Greek] Emphasis with Active Voice
Carl W. Conrad
cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Wed Jul 18 05:34:56 EDT 2007
On Jul 18, 2007, at 12:08 AM, Delbert Flora wrote:
> Working my way through some of Greek Grammar Beyond the Basics, I
> am wondering about Voice. Wallace gives very similiar definitions
> between Active and Middle Voices:
>
> of the Active Voice == the subject performs or experiences the
> action. (Under Active)
>
> of the Middle Voice == the subject performs or experiences the
> action. (Under Middle)
>
> With the Middle, the emphasis is upon the subject's participation.
> What would be the Active's emphasis?
>
> Also, in what way do these two voices overlap? Obviously based on
> Wallace's definitions they must be very similiar in some usages.
The traditional explanations of Greek voice usage are problematic in
several ways, not least in the failure to distinguish FORM (Active or
Middle-Passive morphology) from FUNCTION (role of the subject as
agent, patient, experiencer, beneficiary; transitive or
intransitive). The fact is that there are some verbs that have Active
FORM but that function much as do most Middle-Passives (e.g. PASCW,
PIPTW, APOQNHiSKW) and that there are quite a few verbs with Middle-
Passive FORM that function much as do Active verbs with the
difference that these verbs have a subject that is an agent, an
object that is a patient, and a beneficiary that is co-referential
with the subject (e.g. LUETAI hO NEANIAS TON hIPPON ("the lad unties
his horse"); this is different from LUEI hO NEANIAS TON hIPPON where
the lad in question performs the action of untying the horse but is
not himself expressly indicated as the beneficiary of the action.
The ancient Greek voice system is quite complex but traditional
accounts of it in text and reference books are often more confusing
than helpful. Some have found useful my short introductory account,
"Active, Middle, and Passive: Understanding Ancient Greek Voice" --
it can be read online or downloaded from my web-page
http://www.ioa.com/~cwconrad/GrkVc.html
or directly at
http://www.ioa.com/~cwconrad/Docs/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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