[B-Greek] Aorist M/P (or M and P) Finites and Participles
Carl Conrad
cwconrad2 at mac.com
Mon Mar 8 11:59:00 EST 2010
On Mar 8, 2010, at 9:17 AM, Cornell Machiavelli wrote:
> After reading some of the older posts, I wanted to make sure I'm understanding something.
>
> This is mostly argued by Dr. Carl Conrad. It has to do with the Middles and Passives that are better perceived as Middle-Passive verbs/participles.
>
> So, the Aorist Middle (ELUSAMHN...) and the Aorist Passive (ELUQHN...) should BOTH be understood as being Middle-Passive until other grammatical/contextual features have been analyzed. Is this correct?
>
> This next question is the same as the above, but deals with the participles - (LUSAMENOS...) and (LUQEIS). BOTH of these 'forms' should be understood as Middle-Passive until other grammatical features clarify whether or not it is meant as a Middle or a Passive. Is this correct?
>
> If the above is correct, then what are the main grammatical signals we should be on the lookout for as we seek to determine whether or not a usage is Middle or Passive, since form alone does not provide that data?
There are no middle forms of LUW/LUOMAI in NT Koine Greek. This is one of the curious and ridiculous things about NT Greek morphological charts; because LUW is a verb with so short a root and the vowel U suffers no confusing phonological changes in combination with the other formative elements of verbs, it is a handy paradigm of the "average Greek verb." The problem with average things is that they only exist in aggregates wherein likes are emphasized and unlikes are ignored. Forms of LUW in the aorist middle (ELUSAMHN, LUSAMENOS/H/ON) may be found in older Greek but not in the GNT.
But the same question may be asked about the verb APOKRINOMAI because this verb appears in the GNT 213 in the aorist "passive" (APEKRIQHN etc.), 7x in the aorist middle (APEKRINAMHN etc.), with not an ounce of difference in meaning. What these forms indicate is that the -QH- "passive" forms have largely supplanted the older aorist middle forms.
It is dangerous to make assumptions about whether a given aorist "middle" or "passive" form is really middle or passive in meaning. A verb that is intransitive and has an aorist "passive" form is in fact semantically middle: EPOREUQHN, HDUNQHN. On the other hand, a verb like EGEIROMAI "wake up/awake" is intransitive but has a causative (transitive) active form EGEIRW. There is no aorist middle form (there was an older HGROMHN); the aorist "passive" form HGERQHN ordinarily is the intransitive aorist for EGEIROMAI, but it may in some instances, particularly if an agent is indicated, bear a passive sense corresponding to the causative active EGEIRW.
Generalizations are of minimal value here. One who USES Greek needs to know all the major verbs -- especially the two or three dozen irregular verbs -- the same way that one knows quirky individual persons in one's extended family.
Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Retired)
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