[b-greek] Kemmer's Middle-voice categories

From: Carl W. Conrad (cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu)
Date: Thu Oct 18 2001 - 10:06:15 EDT


Partly as an answer to Iver's question regarding Middle voice and the agent
experiencing, and also as a contribution to the broader discussion of
Middle and Passive voice, here's an item that I intend to include within my
final revision of my May 1999 "Observations on Ancient Greek Voice." It is
a listing of middle-voice categories (to which I've added notes on some
Greek and Latin verbs falling into these categories) compiled from Suzanne
Kemmer's _The Middle Voice_, Amsterdam/Philadelphia: J. Benjamins
Publishing Co., 1993. It is a list of the kinds of verbs that typically
find expression in middle-voice morphology. It is to a considerable extent
a compilation, and the illustrative verbs are my own addition, for the most
part.

1. Grooming, body care: washing,dressing, shaving, bathing, undressing,
cutting hair/nails, anointing self, buttoning clothes (Fr. se laver, Gr.
LOUOMAI)

2. Change in body posture: sit down, lie down, kneel down, arise, stand up
(Gr. KEIMAI, hEZOMAI, EGEIROMAI, ANISTAMAI)

3. Non-translational motion: stretch out, turn around, bend, shake head,
move neck, clench fists (Gr. TREPOMAI, KAMPTOMAI)

4. Translational motion: fly, flee, go away, run, hurry, go away from,
climb, arrive, leave, come, go (Gr. PETOMAI, ERCOMAI, POREUOMAI, Fr. s'en
aller, Lat. se removere)

5. Indirect reflexive: break one's arm, etc.; build oneself a house

6. Indirect middle, self-benefactive:choose, acquire for self, pray,
attain, reach (Gr. hAIREOMAI, KTAOMAI, EUCOMAI, OREGOMAI)

7. Naturally reciprocal events: meet, fight, greet, wrestle, embrace,
quarrel, converse, agree with, mate, take stock together (Gr. ASPAZOMAI)

8. Stative, naturally reciprocal: adjoin, be linked (copular), resemble one
another, match (Gr. ECOMAI)

9. Reciprocal marked naturally collective: assembling, gather, merge, be
packed, accumulate, multiply, thin out, densify

10. Emotion: be frightened, hate, be angry, marvel at, delight in, take
consolation, pity, care/worry, grieve/mourn, regret, be charmed, take
pleasure, repent, be satisifed (Gr. hHDOMAI, Lat. misereor)

11. Emotive speech: complain, lament, blame (Gr. OLOFUROMAI, MEMFOMAI)

12. Other speech actions: confess, boast, chide, accuse, lie, deceive,
threaten, refuse (Gr. KAUCAOMAI, AITIAOMAI, hOMOLOGEOMAI)

13. Simple cognitive events: ponder, meditate, interpret, devise, reflect,
consider, deliberate, calculate (Gr. hHGEOMAI, BOULEUOMAI, STAQMAOMAI)

14. Perception: look at, feel, hear (Gr. DERKOMAI, AISQANOMAI, AKROAOMAI,
Lat. conspicor)

15. Complex cognitive events: believe, forget, remember, suspect,
conjecture (Gr. OIOMAI, EPILANQANOMAI, Lat. obliviscor)

16. Commissive, intensive: resolve, view, undertake, promise, intend, swear
(Gr. hUPISCNEOMAI)

17. Spontaneous events: die, sink, develop, become light, change, dissolve,
evaporate, germinate, dissipate, grow, burst, spread out, convalesce, thaw,
melt, open, split, be born (a very large group, the mother of all of which
is GINOMAI)

18. Facilitative: inherent characteristic of patient allows action to take
place: "soup eats like a meal."

19. Impersonal: generic agent (both this and the above have generic aspects).

-- 

Carl W. Conrad Department of Classics, Washington University (Emeritus) Most months: 1647 Grindstaff Road/Burnsville, NC 28714/(828) 675-4243 cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu OR cwconrad@ioa.com WWW: http://www.artsci.wustl.edu/~cwconrad/

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