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Version & Voice: "Introversion" or "Subjective Version" and "Middle Voice"

From:eldin raigmore <eldin_raigmore@...>
Date:Thursday, March 9, 2006, 21:16
Question 1:
What, if anything, is the difference between "Introversion" or "Subjective
Version" on the one hand, and (classical) "Middle Voice" on the other?

The following abstract:
"Typology of Passive, Reflexive, and Middle (On the Georgian Data)"
by Rusudan Asatiani
(Oriental Institute, Georgian Academy of Sciences, Tbilisi)
http://liber.rsuh.ru/Conf/Zima/zima2002.pdf
(pp. 15-17)

would seem to indicate they are not very different, or that the difference
is not very important.

"Introversion" or "Subjective Version" is sometimes "defined" approximately
as follows:

---

A Transitive clause is (?) "introverse" (is that the right word?) if "the
destination of the action is for the agent"; I take that to mean that the
action is performed upon or is directed to or toward or for the benefit of
the agent or something in which the agent has a non-transient interest,
such as one of his or her own body-parts.

An Intransitive clause is "introverse" (? again, is that right?) if "the
action is contained within the agent".

Transitive Introverse clauses seem to correspond to "Classical Middle
Voice".

"Classical Middle Voice" is defined as "the agent or his/her/their/its
interests are affected".

Intransitive Introverse clauses seem to correspond to some of Suzanne
Kemmer's "middle voice" categories*, including the following:
"
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)

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)
"

*(See
http://www.benjamins.com/cgi-bin/t_bookview.cgi?bookid=TSL%2023
and
http://lists.ibiblio.org/pipermail/b-greek/2001-October/018862.html
)

---

Question 2:

Does anyone know of a natural language, whether extinct or still extant,
which attested both Version and Voice, in which the Middle Voice and
the "Subjective" Version occurred independently?

---

eldin raigmore