[B-Greek] TETARAKTAI in JOHN 12:27
Elizabeth Kline
kline_dekooning at earthlink.net
Wed Mar 5 01:28:01 EST 2008
On Mar 4, 2008, at 10:46 AM, Iver Larsen wrote:
>
>> 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.
Iver,
I was thinking that stative semantics of NUN hH YUCH MOU TETARAKTAI
de-emphasizes the notions of causation/agency and without a cause/
agent you have no patient because what you are describing is a state
of being not a transition between two states which would take a cause/
agent either stated or inferred. Beyond that, I have no real problem
with hH YUCH MOU as patient.
Elizabeth Kline
> 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
More information about the B-Greek
mailing list