[B-Greek] TETARAKTAI in JOHN 12:27
Iver Larsen
iver_larsen at sil.org
Tue Mar 4 13:46:46 EST 2008
----- Original Message -----
From: "Elizabeth Kline" <kline_dekooning at earthlink.net>
To: "greek B-Greek" <b-greek at lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: 4. marts 2008 00:56
Subject: [B-Greek] TETARAKTAI in JOHN 12:27
> 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.
Why are you saying that hH YUCH is not a patient? I would describe it as such.
Whether the form is considered morphologically a middle or passive does not change the semantic role
of patient expressed by the subject.
The role of Agent is normally restricted to animate beings, but Cause is an expansion of that notion
to include inanimate concepts.
To give an English example:
"It disturbed me" is syntactically transitive with a Cause role referring to some event as subject
and "me" as object and patient.
"I was disturbed" can be considered either middle or passive with "I" as the patient and no
expressed Cause.
In English it is possible to add the Cause role as a secondary role and it becomes:
"I was disturbed by it".
I don't know whether such secondary Cause role addition is possible in Greek in the same way that
secondary Agents can be added by hUPO.
The closest I could find for this verb was in Ezek 34:19, but that is a more literal sense of
TARASSW:
TO TETARAGMENON hUDWR hUPO TWN PODWN hUMWN EPINON
And they were drinking the water that had been disturbed/stirred up by (the trampling of) your feet
Iver Larsen
More information about the B-Greek
mailing list