From: Carl W. Conrad (cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu)
Date: Mon Oct 22 2001 - 17:11:51 EDT
At 10:04 PM +0200 10/22/01, Iver Larsen wrote:
>> (b) the QHN/QHS/QH & QHSOMAI/QHSHi/QHSETAI morphology
>> traditionally associated in the grammar books and teach of Greek
>> constitutes essentially aorist and future paradigms that have supplanted
>> older MAI/SAI/TAI & MHN/SO/TO paradigms in the aorist and future tenses,
>
>Carl, I am just focusing on this bit, because I have a question.
>If the -QH- forms ("passive") have supplanted older -MAI- etc forms
>("middle"), how are we to understand the verbs that have aorist forms in
>both active, middle and passive?
>Are you saying that it is only for those verbs that occur in the "passive"
>forms and do not also occur in the "middle" forms where the "passive" has
>supplanted the "middle"?
Iver, I think that the language is always in a process of change from older
forms and idioms to newer forms and idioms; while that's happening, there
are concurrent forms and idioms performing the same functions. One common
one: there are "second" aorists that are conjugated partly with O/E endings
and partly with -A- endings Mt 12:2 has EIPAN but 12:24 has
EIPON--alternative 3 pl. forms with the same subject (hOI FARISAIOI). There
are quite a few verbs in NT Koine that still show aorist and future middles
with -MAI- forms, but far more that show -QH- forms in the aorist and
future. hISTHMI/hISTAMAI is an interesting example showing concurrent
forms: of course the active means "cause to stand" and so we have aorist
and future forms in ESTHSA and STHSW, but in the intransitive sense we have
the more common ESTHN and the newer form ESTAQHN; the latter CAN be passive
but it isn't necessarily so. For example:
Mt 2:9 hO ASTHR ... ELQWN ESTAQH EPANW hOU HN TO PAIDION (ESTAQH intransitive?)
Mt 27:11 hO DE IHSOUS ESTAQH EMPROSQEN TOU hHGEMONOS (ESTAQH perhaps passive?)
Lk 24:3;6 ... AUTOS ESTH EN MESWi AUTWN ... (ESTH clearly intransitive)
Some students of Greek memorize lists of "middle deponents" and "passive
deponents" as a way of keeping clear which verbs have aorists and futures
with standard MP inflection and which have aorists and futures with -QH-
inflection.
In the course of my reading on what some of the older and more recent
grammars have to say about voice, I have been amazed to see how clear AT
Robertson in his big book is about these issues (pp. 332-4; "(c) The
Relative Age of the Voices"; "(d) The So-called 'Deponent' Verbs"; "(e) The
Passive Supplanting the Middle."
--
Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Emeritus)
Most months: 1647 Grindstaff Road/Burnsville, NC 28714/(828) 675-4243
cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu OR cwconrad@ioa.com
WWW: http://www.artsci.wustl.edu/~cwconrad/
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