العربية
中国
Français
Deutsch
Ελληνική
हिन्दी
Italiano
日本語
Português
Русский
EspañolDEPONENT VERB
In linguistics, a 'deponent verb' is a verb that is active in meaning but takes its form from a different voice, most commonly the middle or passive.
''This list is not exhaustive.''
★ Greek has middle-voice deponents (some of which are very common) and some passive-voice deponents. An example in Greek is ερχομαι (''erchomai'', ''I come'' or ''I go''), middle/passive in form but active in translation.
★ Latin had passive-voice deponents, such as ''loqui'' ('to speak'), ''pati'' ('to endure') and ''sequi'' ('to follow'). Additionally, four Latin verbs (''audere'', to dare; ''gaudere'', to rejoice; ''solere'', to be accustomed; and ''fidere'', to trust) are called ''semi-deponent'', because though they look passive in the perfect tenses, they are semantically active in all tenses.
★ Swedish has a few passive-voice deponents, although interestingly, its closely related neighbour languages Danish and Norwegian mostly use active corresponding forms. Indeed, Norwegian shows the opposite trend: like in English, active verbs are sometimes used with a passive sense, such as in "boka solgte 1000 eksemplarer" ("the book sold 1000 copies").
★ In Japanese, at first sight it might seem as though the passive voice can be used to increase the degree of politeness in a sentence, thereby establishing the existence of deponent verbs. However, it is merely by coincidence that the passive suffix corresponds exactly to a method of expressing politeness; Inoue Fumio's ''Nihongo Wocchingu'' notes that grammar texts dating from the Heian era list the four uses of the auxiliary ''-ru/-reru'' (which has become ''-reru/-rareru'' in modern Japanese) as indicating intransitivity, the potential mood (as distinct from the tentative mood), the passive voice, and honorifics.
Some verbs are deponent universally, but other verbs are deponent only in certain tenses, or use deponent forms from different voices in different tenses. For example, the Greek verb ἀναβαίνω (''anabaino'') uses active forms in the imperfect active and aorist active, but in the future active it shows the middle form ἀναβήσομαι (''anabesomai''). The future active form might be predicted to be
★ ἀναβήσω (''anabeso''), but this form does not occur, because the verb is deponent in the future tense. The future forms that do occur have the same meaning and translation value that the active forms would have if they occurred.
Koine Greek has a few verbs which have very different meanings in the active and middle/passive forms. For example, ('hapto') means "I catch fire," whereas its middle form ('haptomai') means "I touch." Because is much more common in usage, beginners often learn this form first and are tempted to assume that it is a deponent. Also, scholars have recently begun to debate whether deponency actually exists in Ancient Greek, or if it has been incorrectly assumed based on its existence in Latin. Verbs which are assumed to be deponent might simply always be used in the middle voice with middle meanings. As an example, the verb (to come or go) could be understood to be in the middle voice, as one always brings themself with when they come or go.[1]
★ Swedish ''andas'' ("breathe", deponent), Danish and Norwegian Bokmål ''ånde'' ("breathe", non-deponent).
★ Swedish ''hoppas'' ("hope", deponent), Danish ''håbe'', Norwegian Bokmål ''håpe'' ("hope", non-deponent).
★ Defective verb
★ See the Surrey Deponency website for a cross-linguistic survey of deponent phenomena
★ Greek example αναβησομαι (''anabesomai'') taken from the principal parts table in the appendix to ''Basics of Biblical Greek Grammar'', William D. Mounce.
1. Long, Gary. ''Grammatical Concepts 101 for Biblical Greek.'' Hendrickson Publishers. 2006. ISBN 1-56563-406-3
| Contents |
| Languages with deponent verbs |
| Deponency and tense |
| Peculiar issues in Greek |
| Examples |
| See also |
| Sources |
| References |
Languages with deponent verbs
''This list is not exhaustive.''
★ Greek has middle-voice deponents (some of which are very common) and some passive-voice deponents. An example in Greek is ερχομαι (''erchomai'', ''I come'' or ''I go''), middle/passive in form but active in translation.
★ Latin had passive-voice deponents, such as ''loqui'' ('to speak'), ''pati'' ('to endure') and ''sequi'' ('to follow'). Additionally, four Latin verbs (''audere'', to dare; ''gaudere'', to rejoice; ''solere'', to be accustomed; and ''fidere'', to trust) are called ''semi-deponent'', because though they look passive in the perfect tenses, they are semantically active in all tenses.
★ Swedish has a few passive-voice deponents, although interestingly, its closely related neighbour languages Danish and Norwegian mostly use active corresponding forms. Indeed, Norwegian shows the opposite trend: like in English, active verbs are sometimes used with a passive sense, such as in "boka solgte 1000 eksemplarer" ("the book sold 1000 copies").
★ In Japanese, at first sight it might seem as though the passive voice can be used to increase the degree of politeness in a sentence, thereby establishing the existence of deponent verbs. However, it is merely by coincidence that the passive suffix corresponds exactly to a method of expressing politeness; Inoue Fumio's ''Nihongo Wocchingu'' notes that grammar texts dating from the Heian era list the four uses of the auxiliary ''-ru/-reru'' (which has become ''-reru/-rareru'' in modern Japanese) as indicating intransitivity, the potential mood (as distinct from the tentative mood), the passive voice, and honorifics.
Deponency and tense
Some verbs are deponent universally, but other verbs are deponent only in certain tenses, or use deponent forms from different voices in different tenses. For example, the Greek verb ἀναβαίνω (''anabaino'') uses active forms in the imperfect active and aorist active, but in the future active it shows the middle form ἀναβήσομαι (''anabesomai''). The future active form might be predicted to be
★ ἀναβήσω (''anabeso''), but this form does not occur, because the verb is deponent in the future tense. The future forms that do occur have the same meaning and translation value that the active forms would have if they occurred.
Peculiar issues in Greek
Koine Greek has a few verbs which have very different meanings in the active and middle/passive forms. For example, ('hapto') means "I catch fire," whereas its middle form ('haptomai') means "I touch." Because is much more common in usage, beginners often learn this form first and are tempted to assume that it is a deponent. Also, scholars have recently begun to debate whether deponency actually exists in Ancient Greek, or if it has been incorrectly assumed based on its existence in Latin. Verbs which are assumed to be deponent might simply always be used in the middle voice with middle meanings. As an example, the verb (to come or go) could be understood to be in the middle voice, as one always brings themself with when they come or go.[1]
Examples
★ Swedish ''andas'' ("breathe", deponent), Danish and Norwegian Bokmål ''ånde'' ("breathe", non-deponent).
★ Swedish ''hoppas'' ("hope", deponent), Danish ''håbe'', Norwegian Bokmål ''håpe'' ("hope", non-deponent).
See also
★ Defective verb
★ See the Surrey Deponency website for a cross-linguistic survey of deponent phenomena
Sources
★ Greek example αναβησομαι (''anabesomai'') taken from the principal parts table in the appendix to ''Basics of Biblical Greek Grammar'', William D. Mounce.
References
1. Long, Gary. ''Grammatical Concepts 101 for Biblical Greek.'' Hendrickson Publishers. 2006. ISBN 1-56563-406-3
This article provided by Wikipedia. To edit the contents of this article, click here for original source.
psst.. try this: add to faves
