[B-Greek] Accusative of retained object

Iver Larsen iver_larsen at sil.org
Mon May 21 18:05:55 EDT 2007


See below:

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Carl W. Conrad" <cwconrad2 at mac.com>
Sent: Monday, May 21, 2007 7:54 PM
Subject: Re: [B-Greek] Accusative of retained object


For what it's worth, there's an explanation for this construction which, though I firmly believe it 
to be true, will be rejected out of hand by most who think in traditional terms about ancient Greek 
voice:

Although these QH forms are called passive and can indeed be said to function semantically as 
passive in several instances, yet they are really syntactically middle, and middle verbs can take an 
accusative object. One might compare French usage in an expression like, "Ils ont eu les mains 
liées." That will English as "they had their hands tied" or "Their hands were tied."

Carl W. Conrad
----------------------------
Yes, that is also how Rom 3:2 has been rendered in Danish Bibles:
They got/had God's word(s) entrusted. (De fik Guds ord betroet)

If we look at at the basic case frame, we have

A(nom) entrusts B(acc) to C(dative)

A passive transformation would result in B(nom) is entrusted to C(dative)

A "middle transformation" would result in C(nom) gets B(acc) entrusted.

Traditional Greek grammar is in need of either a transformation or a reformation.

Iver Larsen




More information about the B-Greek mailing list