Verb – Present medio-passive singular

ObjectivesLearning objectives

• How active, middle, and passive voice differ
• The morphology and syntax of the present medio-passive sg

VocabularyVocabulary

NoteGeneral Greek: Active, middle, and passive voice

All the verbs you have learned thus far have been in active voice (abbreviated act), e.g. ἐσθίω with an ω on the end. This lesson introduces new verb forms in a different voice, namely medio-passive voice (abbreviated med-psv). Instead of the -ω ending, the 1st person medio-passive forms have the ending -ομαι, e.g. γεύομαι ‘taste.’ Voice has traditionally referred to how the grammatical subject participates in the action described by the verb. In a sentence like James is eating the coin, James is the grammatical subject. Since the verb is eating is in active voice, it is referring to something that James is actively doing, namely eating something he should not be eating. The active verb ἐσθίει would translate is eating into Greek, and it would convey the same idea – whoever was the subject of ἐσθίει would be actively engaged in eating. According to this perspective, active voice has a subject that is active in the action of the verb, middle voice (abbreviated mid) has a subject that is affected by the action but may also perform it, and passive voice (abbreviated psv) has a subject that is passive in the action of the verb. Notice, the passive voice does not change the event, but it does signal a change in the role of the subject. In The coin is being eaten by James, the grammatical subject is no longer James, but it is the coin. When changing a sentence from active to passive, the participants still play the same roles in the event, but they are organized differently in the syntax. While the coin was the object in the active sentence, it becomes the subject in the passive sentence. Such a sentence is called passive voice because the new grammatical subject (namely the coin) plays a passive, rather than an active, role within the event.

Greek has a medio-passive voice which combines middle and passive meanings. Voice is discussed in much more detail in Syntax B (where we discuss some of the problems with the description we have just provided), but we here preliminarily note that medio-passive verbs like γεύομαι ‘taste’ usually involve the subject being affected by the event in some way. Although the subject is normally actively doing something in the event of tasting, such an event also refers to a sensory experience outside of the subject’s control; thus, Greek uses the medio-passive verb form for this kind of event.

MorphologyMorphology: Verb – Present medio-passive singular

• The 1st and 3rd person forms have -αι at the very end.
• Note the iota subscript under the η in the 2nd person.
• The theme vowel (the 1st vowel of the ending) is the same in the act and med-psv:
• The 1st person has an o-class theme vowel (κράζ-ω, ἔρχ-ομαι).
• The 2nd and 3rd persons have e-class theme vowels (2nd: κράζ-εις and ἔρχ-ῃ, 3rd: κράζ-ει, ἔρχ-εται).

SyntaxSyntax: Middle and passive voice and word order

In previous lessons, we said that the basic word order in Greek can be either SV or VS (see Syntax A for more on basic word order). Across different languages and in Greek itself, verbs in middle or passive voice have a greater tendency to be in VS order. Because of this and because VS is a possible basic order in Greek, the sentences in the Biblingo app with middle or passive voice verbs (including medio-passive) are written with VS order. (You can still give SV as the answer, and it will be counted as correct.)