> Elliott Lash wrote:
> [snip]
>
> > In any event, I think this is fairly common. In
> Latin
> > for instance, the same set of morphemes can be
> either
> > active or passive, depending on the verb they are
> > attached to. This set of morphemes is usually
> called
> > 'passive' or 'deponent', but the deponent is
> really
> > just an active use:
> >
> > deponent passive
> > mori-or 'I die' ~ am-or 'I am loved'
>
> Umm - I fail to see how "I die, I am dying" can
> possibly be considered
> _active_! Surely, if anything is passive, dying is.
>
> (I discount suicides from this - but they are a tiny
> minority, and then
> the reflexive 'I am killing myself' is perhaps more
> appropriate.)
>
> It has always seemed to me that Latin is rather more
> true to reality in
> giving the verb "to die" passive endings. I have yet
> to be convinced
> that 'morior' should be classified as a deponent
> verb any more that
> 'nascor' (I am being born) should be. The babe that
> gets thrust into int
> the world from its mother's womb s hardly the agent.
> At least with this
> verb English uses passive forms as well as Latin;
> yet, strangely
> anglophone Latin textbooks still list 'nascor' as a
> deponent - weird!
>
> A better example would surely be to contrast:
> eam sequor = I am following her ~ ab ea amor = I
> am loved by her
>
> > Ancient Greek has the same thing, but it is less
> > systematic about it.
>
> Sorry, I completely fail to understand how Latin is
> more systematic than
> Greek in this respect.
>
> --
> Ray
> ==================================
> ray@carolandray.plus.com
>
http://www.carolandray.plus.com
> ==================================
> Nid rhy hen neb i ddysgu.
> There's none too old to learn.
> [WELSH PROVERB]
>