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I have become hilariously well-known for my opposition to the terms 'deponent' and now even 'passive' in terms of ancient Greek verbs. I wake up in the middle of the night to correct people.
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But today I want to go on a little rant to explain *why* you should stop talking about 'deponents' or 'passive form with active meaning".
Our example today comes from BDAG's entry for κατακλίνω. "(b) pass. in act. sense", by which they mean, when a person is lying down.
Our example today comes from BDAG's entry for κατακλίνω. "(b) pass. in act. sense", by which they mean, when a person is lying down.
Every time you continue to adopt the language of "passive" or "passive with active meaning", you reinforce a conception of Greek's voice system that is predicated on an Active<>Passive dichotomy that maps to English (inter alias linguas).
It doesn't reflect Greek's voice system, which is Active<>Middle. If you aren't up to speed on this, you can start with my summary here, and you can read Kemmer, Allen, and R. Aubrey.
Greek's voice system has a 'bundle' of usages that are all tied up in the middle 'space'. κλίνομαι is one of the verbs that occupies one of those spaces - "Change in Body Position"-type verbs.
English conceptualises this as 'active', but Greek does not - it conceptualises this notion as 'middle'. Not passive, middle.
The active form of this verb, κλίνω, as with many similar verbs, denotes a causative & externalised action - causing someone else to lie down.
The active form of this verb, κλίνω, as with many similar verbs, denotes a causative & externalised action - causing someone else to lie down.
There *is* no passive _form_ in Greek. The -(θ)η- forms represent a second type of middle. They appear to have originated expressing middles involving a change-of-state, and then gradually have subsumed other types of middles, beginning with those categories semantically 'close'.
The way we speak about these things matters for learners. I still have to teach learners to 'interpret' the passive/deponent language of other resources, but at least within my own sphere I no longer talk about passive-forms, nor deponent meanings.
That also means that going forward my (poor) students are going to get rapped on the knuckles (metaphorically) for this kind of language. It reinforces a poor, and wrong, understanding of Greek verbal dynamics.
You should stop it too.
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You should stop it too.
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