Re: just curious.. ;)
| From: | Andreas Johansson <and_yo@...> |
|---|
| Date: | Sunday, October 28, 2001, 13:56 |
|---|
Padraic wrote:
>I would classify them as middle voice; and disagree that the middle
>is just a jumped up passive. [Historically, I think it's rather the
>other way round, the passive developping from the middle, in IE.]
>
>What the stew is doing is _clearly_ not active and it's clearly not
>passive; nor is it reflexive because the D.O. and subject aren't
>identical.
I fail to see how it's _clearly_ not active. From the fysical PoW, what the
stew is doing is sending out minuscule bits of itself. Sounds pretty active
to me. (And I know that the constrction is older than knowledge how our
sense of smells works. I'm nonetheless inclined to believe that at least
some people in the far past perceived smelling as an activity that things
"did".)
I don't exclude the possibility that it's middle voice - indeed it's perhaps
likely since everyone but me seems to agree it's that (or passive in David's
case), but it still feels active to me.
Andreas
>It's in the middle! The middle is where the subject acts
>upon, for or in reference to itself. Such verbs seem to fall in the
>last of these categories.
>
>All we'd need to do now is use the middle termination (which is null
>in English). Probably won't happen though!
>
>Padraic.
>
>On Fri, 26 Oct 2001, Andreas Johansson wrote:
>
> > David Peterson wrote:
> > > One of the functions might be the so-called "middle voice", which
>I
> > >disagree with whole-heartedly--I think it's just a glorified passive
>with
> > >no
> > >agent. Nevertheless, it's in phrases like "The stew cooks nicely"
>("up" is
> > >often added after the verb), "It eats like a meal", "It smells good"
> > >(??!?!?).
> >
> > Odd - I'd never thought of "smells" in sentences like "It smells good"
>as
> > anything but a plain, boring, active verb. Why would one characterize it
>as
> > middle or passive voice?
> >
> > Andreas
> >
> >
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