[B-Greek] The term "MP" for "middle-passive" (was "Please help with LK 1:54")

Carl W. Conrad cwconrad2 at mac.com
Fri Dec 11 08:43:13 EST 2009


 
On Friday, December 11, 2009, at 06:14AM, "Iver Larsen" <iver_larsen at sil.org> wrote:
>----- Original Message ----- 
>From: "Jay Adkins" <jayadkins264 at gmail.com>
>To: <b-greek at lists.ibiblio.org>
>Sent: 11. december 2009 13:42
>Subject: [B-Greek] Please help with LK 1:54
>
>
>Thanks to all who responded to my question.  I was totally unaware and
>ignorant of the usage of PAIS.  While this was not the reason I wrote, I do
>appreciate the information.  My concerns were with regard to the usage of
>the infinitive.  Mr. Larsen did address the issue, however, in doing so he
>used another term in which I am ignorant of.  What are “MP forms?”  Should I
>remove the term ‘child,’ would my translation then convey the idea
>intended?  “He has helped His servant Israel to remember mercy.”
>
>Sola Gratia
>Jay Adkins
>
>--------------------
>Old timers on the list are used to MP as an abbreviation for Middle/Passive
>forms. I should have explained that. Carl Conrad can explain more about that or
>you could search the archives.

It's been several years now since I first proposed on this list that we should use
the term "MP" (meaning "middle/passive") for both the MAI/SAI/TAI;MHN/SO/TO
forms and for the -QH- aorist and future forms; I even suggested that we refer
to the former (MAI/SAI/TAI;MHN/SO/TO) forms as MP1 and to the -QH- forms 
as MP2. The reason for designating them both thus is that both form-sets can
indicate middle or passive semantic force to the verb; there's nothing at all
passive about MNHSQHNAI any more than there is about MIMNHSKESQAI. 
I disdain the traditional term "deponent" to designate a form like MNHSQHNAI
because that term seems to me to imply something irregular about the form
when in fact there is nothing irregular about it. The QH forms were already
used in the Homeric poems for the aorist of verbs with a middle-voice lemma
(e.g. DUNAMAI/HDUNHQHN, POREUOMAI/EPOREUQHN). In the course of
the Hellenistic/Koine period, the aorist forms of middle verbs came increasingly
to assume -QH- forms (e.g. older APEKRINAMHN was increasingly replaced
by APEKRIQHN without any change of meaning).

A brief formulation of my (more-or-less) current thinking about ancient Greek
voice can be accessed at: http://www.artsci.wustl.edu/~cwconrad/GrkVc.html

Carl W. Conrad



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