Re: Middle voice

At 4:20 pm -0400 25/9/98, Sally Caves wrote:
>On Fri, 25 Sep 1998, Pablo Flores wrote:
>
>> A question to whoever knows out there:
>> What is "middle voice" in verbs?
>>
>> I know what active and passive voice are, but this is something I've
>>never imagined. I don't know where I read about it, or what language was
>>mentioned to have it. If someone could answer and give me an example in
>>any language, I'd be grateful.
>>
>> --Pablo Flores
>>
>
>The best answer will come from Raymond Brown, expert in ancient Greek, for
>whom the Middle Voice was common.
Thanks, Sally ;)

I'm sorry I'm a little tardy in replying.  I have read all the other
replies as well.  it seems there's a bit of confusion about because the
term has been


Let's get back to ancient Greek. The middle voice was _reflexive_ and,
contrary to what has been stated, it could be used strictly reflexively,
e.g.
pauomai = I stop (myself) ~ pauo: [trans.] = I stop [someone, something]
phainomai = I show myself, I appear

epraponto pros le:isteian = they turned (themselves) to piracy.

Often, as it has been said, the reflexive meaning was indirect, i.e. 'for
onself', cf.
ho de:mos tithetai nomous = the people make laws for themselves.

touton metapempomai = I sent for him [to come to me]

It may imply that the object belongs to the subject, e.g.
e:lthe lusomenos thugatra = he came to ransom his (own) daughter.

To cause something to be done for one's own advantage, cf.
ACTIVE: daneizo: = I lend
MIDDLE: daneizomai = I borrow (i.e. I cause some to lend to me)

ACTIVE: mistheo: = I let
MIDDLE: misthoumai = I hire (i.e. I cause something to be let to me)

ACTIVE: tino: = I pay a penalty
MIDDLE: tinomai = I punish (i.e. I cause someone to pay a penalty)

Sometimes the middle developed a special meaning, cf.
ACTIVE: hairo: = I take
MIDDLE: hairomai = I choose

ACTIVE: hapto: = I fasten
MIDDLE: haptomai = I cling to

ACTIVE: apodido:mi = I give back
MIDDLE: apodidomai = I sell

ACTIVE: grapho: = I write, I propose a vote
MIDDLE: graphomai = I indict

And interestingly -
ACTIVE: gameo: = I marry [if I am a man]
MIDDLE: gamoumai = I marry [if I'm a woman]

The latter suggests that she gets the bloke to do this for her own advantage ;)

As Sally said, some verbs are deponent, i.e. have only middle (& sometimes
passive) forms, but no active forms, e.g.
erkhomai = I go  [cf. Spanish 'irse']
hepomai = I follow
etc.

Indeed, the ancient Greek middle reminds me very much of the reflexives of
the Romancelangs.  Just as in the modern Romance languages, so in early
Greek the middle could have a 'straight' passive meaning.  This seems to
have been inherited from the parent ProtoIndoEuropean.

But ancient Greek did start to develop distinct passive forms; the aorist &
future forms in ancient Greek do distinguish between middle & true
passives.   The forms derived from the "present stem" & the "perfect stem"
however did _not_ have distinct passives and the middle voice served as
passive also.



>He explained it to me once, about six
>months ago, but I'm still pretty dense.  I still think that the Latin
>deponent is some kind of hold over from an IE middle voice, but I recall
>that Ray set me straight about that as well.
I don't recall what I said.  But the Latin passives are some kind of hold
over from the IE middle just as, I'm sure, is the fondness of the
Romancelangs for reflexive verbal forms.  But the actual morphology of the
Latin deponents & passives are not; the endings from different sources and
were a Latin invention.

> I wonder if Old
>English impersonal verbs are some kind of development from a Germanic
>"middle voice," but Germanic has some features in it that are uniquely its
>own, unshared by other IE languages.  The impersonal verbs occur only in
>the third person and take a dative object; they are usually used by verbs
>of feeling, thinking, having the impression that, regretting:
>
>Me thinketh hit hefigtime for aenig otherum menn
>"To me it seems [that it is] difficult for any other man..."
No - I don't think this has anything to do with the middle voice.  Similar
constructions are found in Latin & the Celtic languages also BTW.

>Hmmm.  Not doing so very well here.  I don't think the impersonals have
>much to do with a middle voice, which is actually somewhere between
>a passive and an active,
I think you're right to think they have not much to do with the middle voice ;)
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And at 12:59 pm -0700 25/9/98, JOEL MATTHEW PEARSON wrote:
........
>
>That's how the term "middle" is used by Classical grammarians.
>In generative syntax, the term "middle" refers to constructions
>like those in the (c) sentences below:
>
>        (a)  We sell this fruit at the farmer's market.
>        (b)  This fruit is sold at the farmer's market.
>        (c)  This fruit sells well at the farmer's market.
And (c) is reflexive in the Romancelangs (Ces fruits se vendent....) which
is one of the possible uses of the 'classical' middle!

But clearly the use of "middle" by generative linguists is more precisely
delimited than the broad, classical use as Joel's mail goes to show.  So it
rather depends upon the context in which one comes across the term, it
seems to me.

Ray.