[B-Greek] Aorist Middle/Passive

Carl Conrad cwconrad2 at mac.com
Mon Oct 11 09:35:59 EDT 2010


On Oct 11, 2010, at 9:22 AM, Stephen Carlson wrote:
> On Mon, Oct 11, 2010 at 9:07 AM, Carl Conrad <cwconrad2 at mac.com> wrote:
>> Mine eyes have seen the aorist middle/passive presented in a
>> Hellenistic fashion in the manner I have long thought it deserves
>> to be presented. Micheal Palmer has done it; it's part of his
>> online Koine Greek Grammar, a commendable and very
>> fine piece of work. Check it out
>> 
>> http://greek-language.com/grammar/21.html
> 
> His lesson about the aorist middle/passive.  Does it hold up for (all)
> other tenses?
> 
> Stephen Carlson
> 
> P.S. I'll be teaching the middle/passive (in the present) in about two weeks.

The key points, I think (he says -- after several years of trying to say 
something simple about something that's really pretty complex) are:
(1) "Passive" verb-forms in QH/H may convey EITHER middle OR passive
semantic force;
(2) Discerning the middle or passive meaning in the case of particular
verbs requires (a) recognizing whether an agent is at least implicitly
present, and/or (b) knowing the characteristic usage of the particular verb.

In other words, the QH/H form by itself is not an indicator of passive
meaning in an aorist or future tense, any more than MAI/SAI/TAI;
MHN/SO/TO endings are indicators of passive meaning in any of the
other five tenses.

Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Retired)






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