What is possibly meant by "middle voice" is a case where the actor is not a "real" actor, for instance, HA-BASAR HIT-BA$EL BA-SIR, literally meaning 'the meat cooked itself in the pot'.
There is no question that WA-YIT-XAL of 2 Samuel 13:6, is 'and he made himself ill'. If )AMNON entirely faked and pretended (HIT-XAZAH), or if he aided the show with a draught of castor oil is not revealed to us, and is beyond mere grammar.
Isaac Fried, Boston University
On Apr 1, 2009, at 2:38 PM, Richard Benton wrote:
Not all can be interpreted as reflexive. One clear passive is Qoh 8:10 $kx. A common use of the Hitpael is "act like" something, such as xlh in 2 Sam 13:5-6. I wouldn't say that this would be a reflexive, but maybe more of a middle sense.
I believe Russian has some -sya verbs that could not be translated as reflexive.
For a definition of "middle" I refer to Suzanne Kemmer's (1993), "The middle voice."
Richard Benton
Vadim Cherny wrote:
IMO, all instances of hitpael in Hebrew are reflexive: doing something to someone or, more specifically, to cause someone to cause something. That is the only plausible interpretation of the suffix ht = hh, two casuatives (double hiphil, so to say)._______________________________________________
That sense of reflective action is obfuscated in translation because equivalent English words lack the sense of reflexion, but I venture that careful examination shows such sense for every hitpael.
Vadim Cherny
Isaac Fried wrote:
In present day Hebrew the BINYAN of HITPAEL is often used for mutual action, for example, HIT-XABQ-U, 'they embraced, XBQ, each other'. Is there an instance of similar usage in the Hebrew bible?
Isaac Fried, Boston University
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