Re: [tied] The Middle Voice.

At 4/19/01 11:27 PM +0000, <dvj1uk@...> wrote:

>--- In cybalist@..., "Piotr Gasiorowski" <gpiotr@...> wrote:
> > English does have verbs with middle meanings. "I shave, I dress
>(up)", for example, or, with a different functional shade "We
>kissed". The main functions of the mediopassive voice were
> >
> > passive "I am dressed (by someone else)"
> > reflexive "I dress (myself)"
> > reciprocal "We dress each other"
> >
>
>I have always understood that the true middle voice in English was
>found in sentences such as-
>This word translates badly into German.
>The tune plays badly on a violin. etc

I though these were signs of ergativity in English, not of middle voice. Am
I wrong?

Andrei