Medium (grammar)
The medium , also mediopassive , is an old Indo-European genus verbi (also diathesis ), between active and passive . It expresses that an action has an immediate effect on the actor.
In terms of linguistic history , the medium is older than the passive and also to be seen as its forerunner. The latter can be clearly recognized by the fact that in ancient languages that know the medium, many conjugation forms of the medium correspond to those of the passive voice. Because a formally separate passive voice is not accepted in the Indo-European original language ; instead, there was the medium that denoted intransiveness (lat. abdor , 'I am hidden' or 'I lie hidden'), as well as reciprocity (lat. abduntur , 'they hide each other' ) and, furthermore, that the subject of the sentence is also a direct or indirect object (Latin abdor 'I hide myself' or 'I hide myself' - the latter meaning, that of interest, is no longer recognizable in Latin, however).
In our closer cultural area, ancient Greek still has all conjugation forms ( tenses and modes ) that occur in active and passive, also in the medium.
Also in the conjugation of the verbs in Sanskrit there are in the categories, the three genera verbi, the active ( Parasmaipada ) ("he sees"), medium ( Atmanepada ) ("he sees himself / he is seen") and passive (" he is seen ”), which, however, is usually represented by the medium (also in an impersonal form:“ It should be gone ”= polite form for“ Go please! ”).
Among other things, the meaning of the medium corresponds to the reflexive verbs : hurry up, remember, get lost. It is also used to express an intention in the interests of the subject : to earn something for oneself. The action or change of an event also happens to the subject of the sentence: “The tree is falling.” If the verbs are used reflexively, the subject becomes the object of an action: “ I am washing myself ”.
In Latin and Greek there is the verb class of the so-called Deponentien , which only exist in the grammatical form of the passive, e.g. B. mirari 'wonder', 'admire'. This is due to an original medium. See also the active translation of Tempora mutantur .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Rosemarie Lühr: Type of event and change of diathesis in Indo-European. In: H. Craig Melchert (Ed.): The Indo-European Verb Proceedings of the Conference of the Society for Indo-European Studies, Los Angeles September 13-15, 2010. pp. 213-224 ( Memento of the original January 21 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ^ Daniel Schnorbusch: Diathesen, PSV syntax accompanying sheets. Winter semester 2012/2013, 6th cover sheet, University of Munich, pp. 31–38
