Mediopassive morphoparadigms

MAubrey
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Re: Mediopassive morphoparadigms

Post by MAubrey »

BenAskins wrote:Would it be reasonable to conclude that the two participles from James 1:6 discussed above (ἀνεμιζομένῳ / ῥιπιζομένῳ) could be considered as "Spontaneous Process Middles" [Rutger Allan] (or possibly Suzanne Kemmer's "Spontaneous Event Middle")?

Or might a "Body Motion Middle" be more appropriate, signifying the change in posture of the inanimate sea wave as being "wind-driven" and "wind-tossed"?
Body Motion Middles should be limited to verbs that explicitly lexicalize actual changes in posture (e.g. got up) or volitional motion of a participant (e.g. go/come).
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BenAskins
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Re: Mediopassive morphoparadigms

Post by BenAskins »

MAubrey wrote:
BenAskins wrote:Would it be reasonable to conclude that the two participles from James 1:6 discussed above (ἀνεμιζομένῳ / ῥιπιζομένῳ) could be considered as "Spontaneous Process Middles" [Rutger Allan] (or possibly Suzanne Kemmer's "Spontaneous Event Middle")?

Or might a "Body Motion Middle" be more appropriate, signifying the change in posture of the inanimate sea wave as being "wind-driven" and "wind-tossed"?
Body Motion Middles should be limited to verbs that explicitly lexicalize actual changes in posture (e.g. got up) or volitional motion of a participant (e.g. go/come).
It's my understanding that some body motion verbs may be non-volitional (such as κινέομαι, cf. Allan, The Middle Voice in Ancient Greek, p. 80), but that such limited exceptions simply demonstrate a relationship between body motion and spontaneous process middles (hence my question). I think (by process of elimination, at least) only a spontaneous middle makes sense in this instance. Thank you for your help.
Ben Askins
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Stephen Carlson
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Re: Mediopassive morphoparadigms

Post by Stephen Carlson »

BenAskins wrote:Would it be reasonable to conclude that the two participles from James 1:6 discussed above (ἀνεμιζομένῳ / ῥιπιζομένῳ) could be considered as "Spontaneous Process Middles" [Rutger Allan] (or possibly Suzanne Kemmer's "Spontaneous Event Middle")?

Or might a "Body Motion Middle" be more appropriate, signifying the change in posture of the inanimate sea wave as being "wind-driven" and "wind-tossed"?
What's wrong with the Passive category of Allan's, since the waves are being affected by an external force of the wind?
Stephen C. Carlson, Ph.D.
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cwconrad
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Re: Mediopassive morphoparadigms

Post by cwconrad »

Stephen Carlson wrote:
BenAskins wrote:Would it be reasonable to conclude that the two participles from James 1:6 discussed above (ἀνεμιζομένῳ / ῥιπιζομένῳ) could be considered as "Spontaneous Process Middles" [Rutger Allan] (or possibly Suzanne Kemmer's "Spontaneous Event Middle")?

Or might a "Body Motion Middle" be more appropriate, signifying the change in posture of the inanimate sea wave as being "wind-driven" and "wind-tossed"?
What's wrong with the Passive category of Allan's, since the waves are being affected by an external force of the wind?
I recall that we once had a discussion of whether ταραχθῇ in Jn 5:8 ὅταν ταραχθῇ τὸ ὕδωρ ιs middle or passive. ταράσσομαι very commonly appears in contexts of emotional turmoil.

I think that the passive and the spontaneous process are not so sharply distinguished; the significant factor, I think, is whether the process seems to be initiated or to initiate itself from within. σαπῆναι "go bad/rot" or θέρεσθαι "become warm/warm up" may be viewed from the perspective of modern physics as processes initiated by a cause or agent external to the subject, but as perceived the process takes place within the subject. I think this is a reason why Greek (and PIE) originally had only the two fundamental morphological categories (default, subject-affected). Allan (pp. 60-61) lists as subcategories of spontaneous process: physiological processes, inorganic processes, changes in physical properties, appearing and disappearing, verbs of happening and occurring. It's worth noting too that much of our language of spontaneous process, even if we know something about physical and chemical factors in play, is formulated in terms of the subject's participation in the action: "the wind sweeps over the plain" or "the fruit is rotting on the trees" or "The grapes are ripening." Allan has noted too that in Homeric Greek the -θη- forms were being used only with verbs in the subcategories of spontaneous process and passive, but that these forms later spread to other middle subcategories.
οὔτοι ἀπ’ ἀρχῆς πάντα θεοὶ θνητοῖς ὑπέδειξαν,
ἀλλὰ χρόνῳ ζητέοντες ἐφευρίσκουσιν ἄμεινον. (Xenophanes, Fragment 16)

Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Retired)
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