Kmetko - medial function of the middle voice

[Matthew Longhorn]

I have recently been reading through a thesis by Susan Kmetko on the middle voice. I am intrigued by their claims of a medial sense of the middle voice. This isn’t something I recall engaging with in other studies and find it interesting but also am a bit wary of it as it seems new to me

I have given examples below of her summaries on these points. Has anyone come across this medial view before and have any thoughts on it? Similarly, do you know of any works that have further developed the discussion on middle voice with this medial view?

In the previous chapters, the syntactic function of middle-form verbs (both oppositional and media tantum) was examined as it appeared in context in First Thessalonians or Second Corinthians. This function was then compared to three descriptors of middle function. 1These criteria are presented once more for reference:
1. The grammatical middle function in which the subject is essentially the direct or indirect object of the verb, acting on, for or by itself.
2. The linguistic notion of subject-affectedness with different manifestations as described by Rutger Allan.
3. The linguistic concept of internal diathesis posited by Benveniste and developed by Eberhard as medial function, indicating that the subject is actively engaged within the encompassing process of the verb

.

These three descriptors of the middle voice emphasise different aspects of middle function. The grammatical descriptors focus on the subject as agent, i.e. how and why it acts in a particular manner. The principle of subject-affectedness emphasises the impact of the action on the subject, while the medial notion is concerned with the process in and of which the subject partakes. This does not require a specific type of effect to be articulated; rather it implies an interactive, interdependent experience, thus often pointing to relational situations. These three perspectives are not mutually exclusive, but rather complementary; taken together, they have enabled the middle function of the samples of middle verbs in this investigation to be recognised.

https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/T ... 58f7abe000

[Matthew Longhorn]

I found that she did a video on Daily Dose of Greek for anyone who wants to see it.

http://dailydoseofgreek.com/special-edi ... lnTqtt16Rw

[Stirling Bartholomew]

Have you looked at the b-greek archives? Carl Conrad has much to say about this which is well worth reading.

[Matthew Longhorn]

No, I hadn’t actually. Will do that this weekend, thanks for the pointer

[Matthew Longhorn]

Hi Stirling. I have had a trawl through the posts and cannot find anything specifically dealing with the medial function of the middle that Kmetko is promoting.
I am comfortable with the subject affected categories and distinctions, but not the medial function yet. Have you got a suggestion as to posts that cover this?

[Stirling Bartholomew]

You found nothing on "medial function"?

https://pages.wustl.edu/files/pages/imc ... cgrkvc.pdf

https://pages.wustl.edu/cwconrad/ancient-greek-voice

https://faculty.gordon.edu/hu/bi/ted_hi ... oice01.pdf

[Matthew Longhorn]

You found nothing on "medial function"?

I looked through the forum archives like you suggested and couldn't locate it - the term medial gives 9 results of which 6 are from this topic and the other 3 are not about the same thing.

I haven't spent loads of time searching the internet - I wanted to hear people's thoughts who have read on it if they wanted to share.

Has anyone come across this medial view before and have any thoughts on it? Similarly, do you know of any works that have further developed the discussion on middle voice with this medial view?

I can either launch myself into searching for papers and reading on something that may or may not be useful or hope for a steer from folks who have engaged in the subject first

I am also wanting to focus on explicit discussion of the concept of mediality as Kmetko frames it. She clearly identifies it as worthy of discussion alongside the concept of subject affectedness. I recognise that there may be bits and pieces of other papers that reference something similar, but this was the first sustained discussion that I have come across as far as I can remember

Thanks for the papers though. I will try to read through over the weekend.

[Stirling Bartholomew]

concept of mediality as Kmetko frames it.

That question is very narrowly defined. Who will know about how Kmetko frames it until they read Kmetko. Somewhat of a hopeless quest.

[Matthew Longhorn]

Thanks.

[Paul-Nitz]

I found that she did a video on Daily Dose of Greek for anyone who wants to see it.

http://dailydoseofgreek.com/special-edi ... lnTqtt16Rw

This is a fabulous video. It's all a person needs to know.
She comes so close to saying "there are only two voices in Greek," but I suppose that was too much to ask.