Re: Observations on Ancient Greek Voice (LONG!)

From: Jonathan Robie (jwrobie@mindspring.com)
Date: Wed May 28 1997 - 13:00:00 EDT


This is a great discussion in response to a really great post by Carl! Hey,
this is fun!

My guess is that most people who know German, French, Norwegian, or some
other language that uses reflexive verbs found Carl's post very helpful. I
certainly did.

But I wonder how to teach this to most native English speakers, who probably
do not have a solid understanding of what a reflexive verb is, though. I
managed to dredge up an example in English: "she dressed herself", which can
also be expressed as an active or a passive construction ("she dressed",
"she got dressed"). In English, I'm just guessing that this last form, "she
got dressed", can only take this particular meaning with verbs that have
reflexive forms - "she got fired", for instance, has a totally different
meaning.

Randy Leedy wrote:
>I'm not sure I can call these verbs reflexive rather than middle across the
>board; what about those that are clearly transitive, such as LHMYOMAI
>(future of LAMBANW)?

Well, I can at least provide some data. Gramcord says that LAMBANW occurs 17
times in the middle:

Matt 10:41 o decomenos profhthn eis onoma profhtou misqon profhtou
*lhmyetai*, kai o decomenos dikaion eis onoma dikaiou misqon dikaiou *lhmyetai*.
Matt 19:29 kai pas ostis afhken oikias h adelfous h adelfas h patera h
mhtera h tekna h agrous eneken tou onomatos mou, ekatontaplasiona *lhmyetai*
kai zwhn aiwnion klhronomhsei.
Matt 20:10 kai elqontes oi prwtoi enomisan oti pleion *lhmyontai*: kai
elabon (to) ana dhnarion kai autoi.
Matt 21:22 kai panta osa an aithshte en th proseuch pisteuontes *lhmyesqe*.
Mark 12:40 oi katesqiontes tas oikias twn chrwn kai profasei makra
proseucomenoi: outoi *lhmyontai* perissoteron krima.
Luke 20:47 oi katesqiousin tas oikias twn chrwn kai profasei makra
proseucontai: outoi *lhmyontai* perissoteron krima.
John 5:43 egw elhluqa en tw onomati tou patros mou, kai ou lambanete me: ean
allos elqh en tw onomati tw idiw, ekeinon *lhmyesqe*.
John 16:14 ekeinos eme doxasei, oti ek tou emou *lhmyetai* kai anaggelei umin.
John 16:24 ews arti ouk hthsate ouden en tw onomati mou: aiteite kai
*lhmyesqe*, ina h cara umwn h peplhrwmenh.
Acts 1:8 alla *lhmyesqe* dunamin epelqontos tou agiou pneumatos ef umas kai
esesqe mou martures en te Ierousalhm kai (en) pash th Ioudaia kai Samareia
kai ews escatou ths ghs.
Acts 2:38 Petros de pros autous: metanohsate, (fhsin,) kai baptisqhtw
ekastos umwn epi tw onomati Ihsou Cristou eis afesin twn amartiwn umwn kai
*lhmyesqe* thn dwrean tou agiou pneumatos.
Roma 13:2 wste o antitassomenos th exousia th tou qeou diatagh anqesthken,
oi de anqesthkotes eautois krima *lhmyontai*.
1Cor 3:8 o futeuwn de kai o potizwn en eisin, ekastos de ton idion misqon
*lhmyetai* kata ton idion kopon:
1Cor 3:14 ei tinos to ergon menei o epoikodomhsen, misqon *lhmyetai*:
Jame 1:7 mh gar oiesqw o anqrwpos ekeinos oti *lhmyetai* ti para tou kuriou,
Jame 1:12 Makarios anhr os upomenei peirasmon, oti dokimos genomenos
*lhmyetai* ton stefanon ths zwhs on ephggeilato tois agapwsin auton.
Jame 3:1 Mh polloi didaskaloi ginesqe, adelfoi mou, eidotes oti meizon krima
*lhmyomeqa*.

Jonathan

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Jonathan Robie jwrobie@mindspring.com http://www.mindspring.com/~jwrobie
POET Software, 3207 Gibson Road, Durham, N.C., 27703 http://www.poet.com
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