[B-Greek] TETARAKTAI in JOHN 12:27
Elizabeth Kline
kline_dekooning at earthlink.net
Mon Mar 3 16:56:08 EST 2008
JOHN 12:27 NUN hH YUCH MOU TETARAKTAI ...
Here we have a middle/pass perfect with hH YUCH as subject. This
clause has low transitivity. hH YUCH is not an agent or a patient.
The verb TETARAKTAI describes a state without any suggestion (within
this clause) of how hH YUCH came to be in this state, i.e. no cause
or agent is encoded. However, a cause can be supplied without
difficulty from the local discourse.
Two questions:
In traditional grammar TETARAKTAI would be described as a passive.
The passive has been understood as a means of suppressing the notion
of agency but I am not sure how relevant this is to states.
I am having some difficulty fitting this into the "middle marked for
subject affectedness" scheme of things.
Elizabeth Kline
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