Open AccessPerfect, middle voice and Indoeuropean verbal endings
Author(s) -
Francisco Rodríguez Adrados
Publication year - 1981
Publication title -
emérita/emerita
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.116
H-Index - 4
eISSN - 1988-8384
pISSN - 0013-6662
DOI - 10.3989/emerita.1981.v49.i1.802
Subject(s) - linguistics , psychology , communication , philosophy
A review of new theories on the origin of perfect and middle voice. The author criticizes theories explaining the origin of perfect from nominal forms and attributing to thematic vowel an original value of middle voice. On the contrary, perfect as well as middle voice originated from forms older than these categories and independent from them. This is precisely the case of the thematic vowel. The author believes this is only a part of the general development of Indo-European verb which stems from a monothematic system toward a polythematic one. Actually, perfect and middle voice belong to the oldest stage in this process. This is a further step on the base of ideas exposed by the author in his Evolución y estructura del verbo indoeuropeo and other works