[B-Greek] Voice: Distinguishing a Middle from a Passive
Carl Conrad
cwconrad2 at mac.com
Sat Nov 10 07:41:11 EST 2007
On Nov 9, 2007, at 7:10 PM, Mitch Larramore wrote:
> My Reader's Greek New Testament (I'm not going to
> ever, ever mention the word 'interlinear' again on
> this site!!!!!) lists the following words with
> definitions in both the Active and Passive:
>
> EKPLHSSW: I amaze; Passive: I am amazed
>
> MHKUNW: make long; Passive: I become long, grow
>
> I've tried to follow the discussions on Voice out here
> on this list (giving most of my attention to Dr.
> Conrad and Dr. Buth) and still am significantly
> confused, but I attribute that to my already deficient
> understanding of even English grammar, much less
> Greek. Anyway, both of these Passives to me seem like
> Middles, since the emerge/arise from WITHIN a person's
> body/soul. I simply do not understand why someone
> (complied by: Goodrich and Lukaszewski) would call
> these Passives.
There are two issues here:
(1) EKPLHSSW is active causative (transitive), something like
"dumbfound"; EKPLHSSOMAI with an aorist of EXEPLAGHN is intransitive
middle, "be dumbfounded." It falls in the category of mental process
and is comparable to FOBEOMAI/EFOBHQHN (which has a causative active
FOBEW with the sense of "srike terror into, rout"). When used
transitively with a causal agent external to the patient, we can
understand EKPLHSSW as active and EKPLHSSOMAI as passive, but the
intransitive middle has the sense "come into a state of shock" and it
indicates the subject's response rather than his/her subjection to
external action. MHKUNW is also active causative but rare, as its
common form MHKUNOMAI is the intransitive middle with the sense
"lengthen" (1x only in the GNT of grain stalks growing longer in the
field, Mark 4:27).
(2) Why would anyone call them passives?
(a) they are thinking in terms of morphology only, not semantics;
(b) they are probably thinking in terms of English verbal usage rather
than Greek verbal usage -- perhaps they are even thinking of "I am
amazed" in terms of the subject as a patient affected by an external
agency or instrumentality rather than as a copula ("am") with a
participle functioning simply as an adjective indicating a state;
(c) they are thinking in terms of the traditional description of such
verbs as "deponent" or (since this verb does have a little-used active
form -- it appears 13x in the GNT but not once in the active voice)
they are using a description that is common in lexica as in BDAG for
this verb: "passive with active meaning." The problem with that
phraseology is that it really means to acknowledge the active role of
the subject, although the verb takes no object and is intransitive;
it would be better to use the term "agentive."
(d) The greater number of grammars and lexica and especially the
parsing-guides describing voice-usage written in English formulate
their categories and rules in terms of a conception of English verb
usage that is unnuanced and more fundamentally in terms of how a Greek
verb should be translated into English. The consequence of that
practice is that users of such grammar, lexica, and parsing guides
acquire the gloss they want for translating into English and don't
think about the working of the Greek verb.
> Here is my question: What is the biggest, most
> critical distinguishing characteristic(s) that
> separates a Middle from a Passive? I suppose that at
> times the distinguishing characteristic is a bit foggy
> for some words, but could you find unambiguous
> examples (at least 3 PLEASE!) that would help me
> understand how to distinguish a Middle from a Passive?
(1) Morphology doesn't resolve the question: LOUETAI can be either
middle ("he bathes") or passive ("he is being bathed -- by someone").
So morphological endings are not the deciding factor in distinguishing
a middle from a passive. So also EGEIRETAI, which can be of a
spontaneous process of "waking up" (middle) or passive "being
awakened" -- or "rising" (intransitive" or "being raised" (transitive
passive) from the dead. I think it's significant that Greek doesn't
distinguish the usages except to add an indication of an agent
(usually hUPO + gen.) or an instrument (ususally a dat.) to clarify
that the subject is a patient acted upon by some external factor.
(2) Fundamentally transitive verbs are most likely to have only active
and passive usage. One good example is GENNAW, "father, beget,
engender": this verb appears 97x in the GNT, 53x active, 20x middle,
24x passive: there's no question that all the middle forms of this
verb are to be understood in a passive sense. Similarly TIKTW, "give
birth," appears 18x in the GNT, 13x active, 3x middle, 2x passive. The
middle forms are future but all of these are transitive and show hUION
as the object. It's true, of course, that several active verbs have
middle futures. APOKTEINW/APOKTENNW appears 74x in the GNT: 60x
active, 13x passive, 1x middle: the one middle form APOKTENNESQAI
(Rev. 6:11) is clearly passive semantically. To commit suicide is
APOKTEINEIN hEAUTON.
(3) One should understand that QH forms, like MAI/SAI/TAI,MHN/SO/TO
forms, may be either middle or passive semantically; one must decide
in individual cases whether the usage is transitive and passive in
meaning or intransitive and middle in meaning. Take note of the
"passive" forms of hORAW: WFQHN, etc.: WFQHN is clearly middle in the
sense "make oneself seen, appear" -- usually with a dative. Some might
want to claim that this really is passive -- even categorize it as a
"permissive passive." I rather think the fact that the dative of the
person who sees is used rather than the genitive with hUPO is an
indicator that the initiative in WFQHN instances lies with the subject.
(4) Transitive verbs may have middle forms that are indirect reflexive
(e.g. TO PWS KOLASWNTAI AUTOUS, "how they should punish them" Acts
4:21) or that are passive in meaning (e.g. 2 Pet. 2:9 OIDEN KURIOS
EUSEBEIS EK PEIRASMOU hRUESQAI, ADIKOUS DE EIS hHMERAN KRISEWS
KOLAZOMENOUS THREIN "keep the unrighteous to be punished for the day
of judgment."
(5) There are certainly plenty of instances wherein the determination
whether the usage is middle or passive is arguable. If in doubt, one
really needs to look at a good lexicon that offers a nuanced account
of usage.
> I'll worry about the ambiguous words later <:o)--
Me too.
The most recent attempt I've made at sorting out these issues is in a
B-Greek post last month (October 16):
[B-Greek] A new stab at voice Tue Oct 16 12:14:55 EDT 2007
http://lists.ibiblio.org/pipermail/b-greek/2007-October/044551.html
OR
http://tinyurl.com/2yoc3f
Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Retired)
1989 Grindstaff Road/Burnsville, NC 28714/(828) 675-4243
cwconrad at ioa.com or cwconrad2 at mac.com
WWW: http://www.ioa.com/~cwconrad/
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