Date: Wed, 11 Apr 2001 12:09:43 +0200
Subject: Re: Medium


Cologne 11-Apr-2001

"P. Johnston" schrieb Tue, 10 Apr 2001 10:06:06 -0700 (PDT):

>
> I'm not a superb linguist, and my Sanskrit is pretty
> bad (read: non-existent), but I've managed to consult
> the linguist friend I'm teaching Heidegger about the
> middle verb in Sanskrit.  Sanskrit is a much older
> language, and what he says about it reflects what I
> earlier mentioned about the middle verb in
> proto-Indo-European (in addition to being very similar
> in other respects to what you said).  Perhaps the
> Greek literature and its grammar are too late to have
> preserved the meaning of the middle voice.
>
> >   The "classic" (because repeated ad nauseam in
> > grammar books) example of a middle-voice verb in
> > Sanskrit is yajate "perform a sacrifice for
> > oneself" vs. yajati "perform a sacrifice for
> > another".  To give a longer definition,
> > borrowed from Dr. Andrew Sihler's _New Comparative
> > Greek and Latin Grammar_, "The middle was used for
> > actions in which the subject was intimately
> > concerned -- what one did to oneself (the reflexive
> > middle); for oneself; with one's own possessions;
> > what one felt oneself, and so on.  Thus both Vedic
> > yajati (active) and yajate (middle) mean 'worships,
> > venerates, performs a rite': the active forms would
> > be used of a priest, or of a deity cast in the role
> > of mediator; the middle would be used of the
> > worshipper himself.  The distinction is easily
> > observed from Greek usage as well.  In both Greek
> > and Indo-Iranian, however, the contrast between
> > active and middle is often subtle if not
> > altogether absent."
> >  The basic verbal forms of those verbs which are
> > called _syntactically_ "middle" (i.e. those in
> > which the experiencer of an action is the
> > intransitive subject of the verb, as in "the window
> > shattered" (="the window was shattered"), "the
> > rice is cooking" (="the rice is being cooked"),
> > "the leaves are burning" (="the leaves are being
> > burned"), "the pail fills with water" (="the pail
> > is being filled with water")) were typically in
> > middle voice in early Indo-European languages.
>
> I don't have time to explore this, but I imagine it
> would well cohere with the sense of the medium as
> encompassing in _Gelassenheit_
>
> Paul

Paul and Jan,
At least Zuntz and Sihler seem to pretty much agree on the meaning of
the medium voice in Greek. There is something evocative in the notion of
a middle or medium voice 'between' subject and object, but it seems to
crumble under closer scrutiny, I think mainly because we of necessity
think of these formal aspects of grammar in terms of verbs having
'subjects', 'objects', 'indirect objects', i.e. in terms based on the
metaphysics of _hypokeimenon_.

It is probably better to learn to listen to language for signs that it
does not obey grammar. With regard to Gelassenheit, for instance, in the
environs of Heidegger's thinking we have to hear the prefix 'Ge-' as a
gathering, and the 'lassen' as a letting-be: a gathering of letting-be.
('Releasement' is way off.)

Two natural examples from everyday German:
"Ich lasse mir etwas sagen." - "I am prepared to listen."
"Ich lasse mir etwas zeigen." - "I ask to be shown something."

The letting (lassen) here is in the form of a preparedness
(Bereitwilligkeit) or a questioning (Fragen), which are both kinds of
openness-toward. Lassen (let, allow) is close to 'zulassen' (allow,
permit, admit, let in) and related to 'entlassen' (let go, release,
dismiss). The core of this happening is a letting.

We are let into the dimension of openness and belong to it. We are its
inlays. Having been let in and belonging thus, we can, in turn, let
beings encounter and be open for their showing and hiding, the strife of
decrypting and encrypting.
And having been let in with others and belonging together there in the
open, we are always already in dispute with each other about how things
show themselves.

Michael
_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-  artefact text and translation _-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_
_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_- made by art  _-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_
http://www.webcom.com/artefact/ _-_-_-_-_-_- artefact-AT-webcom.com
_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_ Dr Michael Eldred -_-_-
_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_





     --- from list heidegger-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu ---