From: yochanan bitan (ButhFam@compuserve.com)
Date: Mon Dec 06 1999 - 14:37:24 EST
to underline good basic language perspective:
carl wrote:
>In general I think the Greek-speaker has/had a natural
>tendency to use a middle-voice form for any verb involving a high degree
of
>personal involvement of the subject, but I think we'll see some
>fluctuations and deviations in the voice-usage of verbs that are just
>coming into standard use. I admit this must sound very speculative, but I
>really believe it's true, and I think the phenomena you're pointing out
>about AGALLIAOMAI and AGALLIAW are not at all surprising.
amen. i am glad that carl really believes its true. so do i. this is the
way languages work and are used.
the trick may be using a language and finding ways inside. (how? that's the
secret!)
you will notice that people don't get tied up in knots, worried about
whether english future tenses are really 'volitionals', just because
english futures use the verb 'will'.
and we have middles developing in english in our very midst. 'they got done
in'. 'they got blessed'. 'they got implicated.' maybe some of them will
idiomatically fix themselves in only that structure, and then we'll have
deponents.
people use the language.
errwsqe
randall buth
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