Re: Test for middle voice?

Hi!

R A Brown <ray@...> writes:
>...
> > What about 'Tea
> > drinks more easily than water when you have a cold'?
>
> :-)
>
> Yes, indeed, although I have never heard that; but as we know from
> the frequent YAEDTs, it would be a misguided to say that would never
> occur in a language spoken over such a wide area as English
> is. Could any Romance language (or German) use a reflexive in that
> context (Tea drinks itself more easily....)?
Yes, that's one way to say it in German.  It doesn't sound strange in
any way: 'Tee trinkt sich leichter als Wasser, wenn man eine Erkältung
hat.'  I'd say it sounds a bit more formal than the slightly more
common way to say it: 'Tee läßt sich leichter als Wasser trinken ...',
i.e., using the auxiliary 'lassen'.

**Henrik

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