Re: Medio-passive (was: A Survey)
| From: | Rob Haden <magwich78@...> |
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| Date: | Wednesday, October 1, 2003, 20:51 |
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On Wed, 1 Oct 2003 18:48:49 +0100, Ray Brown <ray.brown@...> wrote:
>Yep - the evidence from ancient Greek & Sanskrit point to
>PIE having an active and a medio-passive voice. There is
>no evidence of distinct passive.
[big snip]
>Passive forms in all IE languages are secondary developments.
Hmm... now I have some more questions!
What causes a language's speakers to develop a distinction between middle
and passive?
Conversely, what causes a language's speakers to lose a distinction between
the two?
Is it more common to have a split between active and medio-passive, or some
other distinction?
It seems to me that active and middle/medio-passive are synonymous
with "transitive" and "intransitive," respectively. What do you think?
- Rob
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