Nadav Asraf (Harvard University)
In a recent thought-provoking article (Horrocks 2020), the author has claimed that despite the importance accorded to the indirect-reflexive function of the middle voice in grammatical description and pedagogical instruction, “the supposedly straightforward indirect-reflexive sense of a transitive middle is rare, being restricted to a relatively small set of semantically linked verbs” (13) and that “morphology, not for the first time, has taken precedence over syntax and semantics in the sense that the existence of marginally distinct middle morphology has been taken, incorrectly, to imply the existence of a functionally distinct middle voice” (15).
In answer to these radical claims, which have been based solely on Plato’s Republic book 1, the proposed talk will describe the usage of the indirect-reflexive function in Homer and in Attic as well as the grammatical changes from Homeric to Attic Greek.
For Homer it will be shown that despite recurrent claims that the indirect-reflexive function is being misused and abused for the sake of metrical needs, this function, albeit on the whole optional and in free variation with the matching active, is still very much alive in Homer, being used for the expression of grammatical fine distinctions and artistic nuances. The metrical misuse of this function, even though in some cases it can be shown to take place before our very eyes, is marginal at best. These two behavior patterns combine to indicate the robustness of the indirect-reflexive function in Homer.
For Attic Horrocks’ claims will be investigated via a corpus study of the indirect-reflexive function in Aristophanes. Aristophanes’ commitment to comic realism in the linguistic portrayal of the characters on stage as well as his penchant for linguistic invention and innovation will provide a background for investigating whether the indirect-reflexive function indeed diminishes from Archaic times or still continues to flourish and be a vital part of (artistic portrayal of) language.
The proposed talk will finish with a bird’s-eye view of the development of the indirect-reflexive function from PIE (corroborated by Vedic Sanskrit), through Homeric and Attic Greek, until the eventual disappearing of the function in later Greek.