Re: Mediopassive/labile verbs; was: very confused - syntax question

Sally Caves wrote:

> And thus "middle" would mean that the subject is both?  This is where I
> have missed the point.  "I wash" is also "me wash"?  That makes perfect
> sense.
Just so.  "I wash-MIDDLE" means "I wash myself", "I am washer and
washee", "I am agent and patient in the act of washing", just as
"I wash-ACTIVE" means that I am agent, and "I wash-PASSIVE" means I
am patient.

As I said before, the historic use of "medio-passive" is to name
*forms* that can be used for either the middle or the passive voice
in Gk, Skt, Hittite.  It has apparently been buccaneered to
name not a voice (as I thought) but a verb class also
known as "unergative".

> Except that some linguists are using it this way, which is why the
> term works its way into some dictionaries, leading the ignorant astray.
> Under the fourth type of "labile" or "amphibious" verb, Trask lists
> the "mediopassive."
"He who would take all of knowledge for his province (i.e. lexicographers)
must frequently define what he does not understand."
        -- I forget who, maybe J.A.H. Murray (ed. OED)

--
John Cowan      http://www.ccil.org/~cowan              cowan@ccil.org
   Schlingt dreifach einen Kreis um dies! / Schliesst euer Aug vor heiliger Schau,
   Denn er genoss vom Honig-Tau / Und trank die Milch vom Paradies.
                        -- Coleridge / Politzer