Verb – Thematic aorist/Efagon middle

ObjectivesLearning objectives

• The morphology of the Efagon middle
• The reflexive semantics of the middle voice

VocabularyVocabulary

MorphologyMorphology: Verb – Thematic aorist/Efagon middle

• Remember: Efagon forms begin with the augment, have a changed stem, and use Eluon endings (see 11.1.3.1)
• Efagon mid endings are the same as med-psv Eluon (see 22.2.3.1)
• The only morphological difference between mid Efagon and med-psv Eluon is the stem, e.g. ἐγενόμην (Efagon) vs ἐγινόμην (Eluon)

• Only a handful of verbs have mid Efagon forms, most are particle verbs of γίνομαι or μι verbs
• In the μι verbs the reduplication of the Luo stem disappears, and the endings attach without a theme vowel

SemanticsSemantics: Verb – Middle (1 – Reflexive)

Verb – Middle: all 4 parts on one page →Also in Lesson 24.1, Lesson 31.1, Lesson 33.2

When we introduced non-active voices (see 7.1.3), we noted that there was a three-way distinction: middle, medio-passive, and passive. The Aorist distinguishes between middle and passive, but Luo and Eluon do not, so the Efagon middle is our first true middle form. One interpretation that is often considered to be the basic meaning of the middle is the reflexive. A reflexive interpretation means that the one who performs the action of the verb performs that action on him or herself. Reflexive interpretations normally arise with transitive verbs in active voice, and the middle then specifies that the subject is also the object (or more precisely, the subject has the same role in the sentence as the original object). We can see this in a verb like ἐνδύω ‘dress someone.’ When used in the middle, it has a reflexive interpretation, i.e. ‘dress yourself’: