Re: [tied] Re: Middle Voice

On Mon, 13 Jun 2005 10:18:21 +0000, tgpedersen
<tgpedersen@...> wrote:

>
>> Interesting and intriguing is Miguel Carrasquer Vidal's posting on
>> PIE morphology some years ago.
>> In his scenario the endings are built on the dative of persons not
>> reflecting the subject as seen by the fact that -m never occurs in
>> the first, -r never in the second persons.
>>
>> Trying to conceive this scenario I see it as an ethic dative
>> referring the attention of the action to a person different from
>> the subject involved in the colloquial process: "I follow – for your
>> information – a wolf", "you follow – I notice – a wolf".
>>
>> Is this conception sensible for explaining mitigation of the
>> subject's influence in a low-activity process starting the whole
>> development towards an agent passive?
>>
>
>I think Miguel was inspired by the 'allocutive' forms of Basque verbs;
>am I right, Miguel?

Well, I was inspired by the dative forms of the Basque verb
(of which the transitive allocutive forms are a further
elaboration).

In Sinhalese, the middle is expressed by a special verbal
form, and the subject is in the dative:

mam& vatur& bivva (I+NOM water drank+ACTIVE)
mat.& vatur& pevuna (I+DAT water drank+MIDDLE)

In the second phrase, the subject is not in control ("I
accidentally swallowed water").

=======================
Miguel Carrasquer Vidal
mcv@...