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CHAPTER II.

CONJUGATION OF THE VERB.

§ I. Differences of Voice.

285 A VERB (îμa) is a word which contains a predication of time, with reference to one or other of the three primary positions: and these primary positions are expressed by objective cases of the primitive pronouns. Thus we have didw-μ, "a giving by me," "I give;" Sidw-Ti, "a giving by him," "he gives;" Sido-μev, a giving by us," "we give;" Sido-vT, "a giving by them,' they give;" Sido-paι, "a giving on or of me," "I am given;" Sido-Tai, "a giving of or on him," "he is given." δίδοται,

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286 When the inflexions represent different pronominal elements, these differences are called the first, second, and third persons of the verb; and, as in the declensions, they appear in three numbers, singular, dual, and plural.

287 When the inflexions represent different cases of the pronominal elements, these differences are called voices. According to the inflexions there are only two voices, the active (pôμa èvepγητικόν) and the passive (ῥῆμα παθητικόν): but the active form may denote (a) that the action passes on (transit) to an object, in which case it is called a transitive verb; as didwμ äρтоv, “I give bread;" or (b) that the action does not pass beyond the agent, in which case it is called intransitive or neuter; as Tpéxw, "I run," or "there is a running by me." And the passive form may denote (c) that the action refers to and terminates with the person implied in the inflexion, in which case it is properly and strictly called passive; as TÚTтоμаι, "I am beaten ;" or (d) that it is caused to be done for the agent, in which case it is called middle; as didáσkoμаι παῖδα, "I get a boy taught for myself;" or (e) that, although it really terminates with the agent, it appears as his act, in which case it is called deponent, and in this class we have both transitive

and intransitive verbs; thus we may say, alo@ávoμaι Kтúπov, “I perceive a noise," i. e. "I am impressed with the perception of it;" and ȧpivovμaι, "I arrive," i.e. "I cause myself to come." The discussion of these different usages of the verb belongs to Syntax, and more properly to the idioms or peculiarities of the Greek language.

§ II. Differences of Tense or Time.

288 But besides these differences of inflexion, there are affections of the uninflected form, which are not less important.

289 By a prefix, affix, or both, to the uninflected form, it becomes capable of predicating differences of time or tense. Thus,

(a) The prefix or augment è- (a residuary or apocopized form of e-va, à-va, signifying "distance" or "negation," above, 114) always implies time past or non-existent time.

(b) The affix - (a residuary form of oa ka, signifying "proximity") always implies future or coming and approximating time.

(c) When the form has the augment ẻ- as well as the affix o-, it implies that the act spoken of was future and is past, or that it took place within limits which require to be defined; it is therefore called the aorist or indefinite tense: though, in fact, all augmented tenses are indefinite, as will be shown in the Syntax.

(d) When the root-syllable is reduplicated, or prefixed in a weaker shape, the form predicates present or continuous time, and, with the augment, an imperfect or continued action in past time.

(e) When σ- is affixed in addition to the reduplication prefixed (which, of course, is still farther weakened by this elongation of the word), the form implies perfect time, or a past action continued in itself or its effects up to the present time.

(f) When this perfect receives an augment, it expresses the completion of an action in reference to some past time, and the tense is called plu-perfect or plusquam-perfectum.

(g) When we have an augment alone without reduplication or affix, the form implies transitory or momentary action completed in

past time; and from the resemblance in signification between this and the tense which implies that an action was future and is past, the form is called the second aorist. With regard to this second aorist, it is to be observed that the passive form is not distinguished by a change in the inflexions of the person-ending, but by a pronominal insertion, analogous to that which discriminates the caseendings of the noun, and which must be carefully distinguished from the affix -oa-, which marks approximate actions in the future tense, although it is ultimately the same element. For dw-ow= δώσω dú-σo-μ signifies, "there will be a giving by me ;" and e-dw-v= e-do-μ means, "there was a solitary act of giving by me:" but è-dó-On-v=ẻ-dó-[Oya-μ] implies, "there was a solitary act of giving in relation to me" (i. e. it took place in the line from position 2 to position 1, above, 77). So that the pronominal element belongs to the verb-root in the first aorist active, and to the person-ending in the passive aorist. Of this passive aorist there are two forms, the On being occasionally softened or weakened into ŋ.

η.

(h) By a subsequent extension, when the original significance of this insertion was no longer felt, it was arbitrarily used to make a distinction between middle and passive, even in forms which already exhibited differences of inflexion in the person-endings; and thus arose a passive future in -θήσομαι, as δοθήσομαι, “ I shall be given."

290 The following examples will suffice to exhibit the process of formation which has been described.

A.

Present tense (χρόνος ἐνεστώς).

Reduplication of the root.

Si-Sw-μ, "I am giving."

δί-δο-μαι, “ I am being given.”

From this, by augment, the imperfect tense (xpрóvos πаρaτα

τικός).

é-didw-v, "I was giving."
é-didó-μŋv, “I was being given."

B.

Future tense (uéλλwv).

Affix of σ- sometimes represented by K.
δώσω = δώ-σο-μι, “ I shall give.”

δώ-σομαι, “ I shall give myself.”

From this, by augment, the first aorist (dópioтos πPŴTOS).
e-dw-xa for é-du-oa-μi, "I gave."
ẻ-dw-кá-μŋv, “I gave myself."

C.

Perfect tense (παρακείμενος).

Reduplication + affix.

Sé-Sw-кa[-μ], "I have given."

δέδομαι (from δεδώκα-μαι), “ I have been given.

From this, by augment, the plusquam-perfectum or pluperfect (ὑπερσυντελικός).

é-dedu-ket-v, "I had given."

ἐ-δεδό-μην (from ἐδεδωκά-μην), “ I had been given.”

The perfect also admits of a future of the form B, which is then called the paulo-post futurum (ó μer' ¿λiyov μéλλwv xpóvos). This is more common in the passive than in the active. It will be observed that the affix σa = кa, which is appended to tenses B and C, sometimes appears as the hard -, sometimes as the soft o-, and sometimes vanishes altogether, as in the perfect passive. This is due to the nature of the guttural, which, as we have seen, can pass through the sibilant to the mere aspirate, and so vanish (above, 107; below, 302, B, 2, (a)).

These are all the regular formations. They present themselves in pairs of simple and augmented tenses, the former expressing definite, the latter indefinite, relations of time. But besides these, we have, as we have seen, the secondary aorist (aópiσtos deútepos) and its peculiar passive formation, which are of course limited to the expression of indefinite time.

291

D.

Second aorist (αόριστος δεύτερος).

Augment without affix or reduplication.
e-dw-v, "I gave."

With compound person-ending.

é-dó-Oŋv, “I was given."

The shortened form, in -n only, does not appear when the verb-form ends in o or e, but is common enough when the root ends in a or a consonant. It is to be noticed that although the

aorists in -On and -ny are alike derived from the second aorist active, custom has given to the aorist in -Oŋv the name of the first aorist passive, while that in -ŋv is called the second aorist passive.

The improper, or secondary future passive, is formed from the passive aorist, contrary to all analogy, by the substitutions of -θήσομαι for -θην οι -ήσομαι for -ην. Thus we have

So-Oncoμaι, "I shall be given."

§ III. Differences of Mood.

292 Besides these formations, which are devoted to the expression of various relations of tense and voice, the accurate syntax of the Greek language has taken into use, for the expression of modal relations, forms of the future and aorist which bear the same analogy to the regular forms in -o-, that the usual genitive of the second declension does to its original form; namely, the analogy of -to to -oo. This new future and aorist are called the subjunctive and optative moods (ἐγκλίσεις ὑποτακτικὴ καὶ εὐκτική), and the tenses which we have hitherto discussed are said to belong to the indicative mood (ἔγκλισις ὁριστική).

293 By an affection of the person-endings only, which are either omitted or made more emphatic-according to the analogy of the vocative case of nouns-the indicative mood is converted into what is called the imperative mood (ἔγκλισις προστακτική).

294 When the third person plural in -v- of an indicative tense becomes the vehicle of a set of case-endings, the verb is said to become an active participle (μétoxos), as partaking of the nature of the noun and verb (above, 61). The crude verb, similarly inflected with the suffix -μevo-, becomes a passive participle. The aorist in -On-v, -n-v makes its participle in -vт. It is scarcely necessary to observe that the augment is always omitted in the participle, though the reduplication is retained. In addition to the participle, the verb is capable of a nominal inflexion when the termination -Téos (from -TéFos) or -Tós is appended to the root in the form which it assumes in the first aorist passive. Thus from πλέκ-ω, ἐ-πλέχθην, we have the verbals πλεκτέος and πλεκτός; from φιλέω, ἐ-φιλήθην, the verbal φιλη-τέος; from χέω, root xef, ἐχ-ύ-θην, χυ-τός; τείνω, root τα-, ἐ-τά-θην, τα-τέος. It seems probable

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