Re: parsing deponents

To: B-GREEK@virginia.edu
Subject: Re: parsing deponents
From: "Dan G. McCartney, Westminster Semin" <dmccartney@shrsys.hslc.org>
Date: Fri, 28 Oct 1994 13:19:08 EST
Sender: virginia.edu!owner-b-greek
Sender: dmccartney@shrsys.hslc.org

Andy Smith writes
>
>I have what must seem like a very mundane question, but one that I would like ananswer to nonetheless.  It concerns middle voice and/or deponent verbs.  How
>do you parse these, specifically what voice do you give them?  For example,
>apokrinomai, "I answer," is of course passive in form, but active in meaning. 
>Would you instruct a student to parse it as first person, singular, present,
>deponent, indicative?  Or would you recommend 1st pers., sing., pres., MIDDLE, 
>indicative.  I have seen both done, and I am not sure what is normal procedure.
>Thanks for any help you can give.

There are two issues to be recognized by the student -- the formal and the
semantic.  I have always instructed my students to identify both the form
(middle, passive, or mid/pas) *and* the fact that it is deponent, thus being
translated with an active force.

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