Re: Medio-passive (was: A Survey)
| From: | Ray Brown <ray.brown@...> |
|---|
| Date: | Sunday, October 5, 2003, 6:20 |
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On Saturday, October 4, 2003, at 01:17 , John Cowan wrote:
> Christophe Grandsire scripsit:
>
>>> Whether or not "je lave les mains" would have the same response in
>>> French
>>> I leave to Christophe to comment.
>>
>> It would. Such a sentence would trigger the question "les mains de qui ?
>> "
>> ("whose hands?").
Thanks - I suspected as much.
> In German, however, it would default to the person's hands, and "I wash
> my hands" would seem over-specific.
Which is further support of my thesis that the use of reflexive verbs where
ancient Greek used the 'middle voice' is a feature of the Romance
languages.
Ray
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