In linguistics, a deponent verb is a verb that is active in meaning but takes its form from a different voice, most commonly the middle or passive.[1] A deponent verb has no active forms.
This list may not be exhaustive.
See main article: Ancient Greek verbs and Koine Greek grammar. Ancient Greek has middle-voice deponents (some of which are very common) and some passive-voice deponents. An example in classical Greek is Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: ἔρχομαι ('I come' or 'I go'), middle/passive in form but translated into English using the active voice (since English has no middle voice).
Some 'active' verbs will take middle-form futures, such as how Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: ἀκούω ('I hear') becomes Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: ἀκούσομαι ('I will hear'), rather than the regular adding of a sigma (like Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: παύω ('I stop') becoming Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: παύσω ('I will stop')). These are still translated into English as active. For these verbs, there is no future middle, but the future passive is unaffected.
Koine Greek has a few verbs which have very different meanings in the active and middle/passive forms. For example, Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: [[wikt:ἅπτω|ἁπτω]] means "I set fire to", whereas its middle form Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: ἁπτομαι means "I touch". Because Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: ἁπτομαι is much more common in usage, beginners often learn this form first and are tempted to assume that it is a deponent.
Although deponents have long been considered to be a category by Greek scholars, there has been a sustained challenge to the notion of deponency by recent scholars.[2] They argue that the "middle-preference" verbs in Greek should be translated within the middle voice, and as a consequence that our understanding of the middle voice should be shaped by these verbs. In other words the "deponent" verbs take only the middle endings because the semantic domain of these verbs communicates a middle idea.[3]
Latin deponent verbs can belong to any conjugation. Their form (except in the present and future participle) is that of a passive verb, but the meaning is active. Usually a deponent verb has no corresponding active form, although there are a few, such as Latin: vertō 'I turn (transitive)' and Latin: vertor 'I turn (intransitive)' which have both active and deponent forms.
Examples are Latin: hortārī ('to exhort'), Latin: verērī ('to fear'), Latin: loquī ('to speak'), Latin: blandīrī ('to flatter'), and many more.[4] The forms regularly follow those of the passive of normal verbs:
| Active | Passive | Deponent | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Latin: amō | Latin: amor | Latin: hortor | |
| Latin: amāvī | Latin: amātus sum | Latin: hortātus sum |
Additionally, four Latin verbs (Latin: audēre, Latin: gaudēre, Latin: solēre, and Latin: fīdere) are called semi-deponent, because though they look passive in their perfect forms, they are semantically active in all forms.[5]
Conversely, Latin also has some verbs that are active in form but passive in meaning. Latin: fio was used as the passive of Latin: facio . In the perfect forms (perfect, pluperfect, and future perfect), this was a compound verb just like the passive voice of regular verbs (Latin: factus sum).
Old Irish has a substantial number of deponent verbs, some of them very common, such as Irish, Old (to 900);: do·muinethar and Irish, Old (to 900);: cuirethar . The -Vr ending was the regular passive or impersonal ending.
The pattern was not continued into the modern languages and all such verbforms were ultimately replaced by 'normal' forms. The -Vr ending still is the regular passive or impersonal ending in the later language, as in the eg Modern Scottish Gaelic passive/impersonal Gaelic; Scottish Gaelic: cluinnear . The verb Gaelic; Scottish Gaelic: cluinn has its origin in the deponent Old Irish Irish, Old (to 900);: ro·cluinethar .
Sanskrit has active, middle and passive voices. As the passive is a secondary formation (based on a different stem with middle endings), all deponent verbs take middle-voice forms, such as Sanskrit: सच॑ते .
Traditional grammar distinguishes three classes of verbs:, and . Thus, (plural of) might be considered a deponent verb.
Swedish has a few passive-voice deponents, although its closely related neighbour languages Danish and Norwegian mostly use active corresponding forms. Indeed, Norwegian shows the opposite trend: like in English, active verbs are sometimes used with a passive or middle sense, such as in Swedish: boka solgte 1000 eksemplarer . Swedish: -s is the normal passive ending in the Scandinavian languages.
A handful of Swedish deponent verbs are specifically used for reciprocal or continuous meanings. These verbs typically have non-deponent counterparts.
Norwegian has several common deponents which use the Norwegian: -es passive ending in the active voice, instead of the usual Norwegian: -er active ending (and retains the Norwegian: -es in the infinitive, where most verbs end solely in Norwegian: -e):
The past tense is indicated by Norwegian: -d- or Norwegian: -t-, e.g. Norwegian: kjentes, lyktes, syntes, trivdes.
Modern Danish has 54 unique deponent verbs[6] which work basically like in the other Scandinavian languages; the most common ones are:
Some other verbs do have an active form but also a deponent one with a different meaning or usage, e.g.:
Finally, some verbs are passive in Danish, but would be translated with active verbs in most other languages, e.g.:
Some verbs are deponent in all tenses, but other verbs are deponent only in certain tenses. For example, the Greek verb Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: ἀναβαίνω (anabainō) 'I go up' uses active forms in the imperfect active and aorist active, but in the future active it shows the middle form Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: ἀναβήσομαι (anabēsomai) 'I will go up'.
Latin has a few semi-deponent verbs, which have active forms in the present, future, and imperfect tenses, but are deponent in the perfect system.
Book: Baerman . Matthew . Greville G. Corbett . Dunstan Brown . Andrew Hippisley . Surrey Typological Database on Deponency. . 2006a . University of Surrey . 10.15126/SMG.15/1.
Book: Baerman . Matthew . Greville G. Corbett . Dunstan Brown . Andrew Hippisley . Surrey Cross-linguistic Database on Deponency. . 2006b . University of Surrey . 10.15126/SMG.15/2.
Book: Baerman . Matthew . Greville G. Corbett . Dunstan Brown . Andrew Hippisley . 3. Deponency and morphological mismatches . (Proceedings of the British Academy 145) . 2007 . Oxford University Press and British Academy . Oxford . 9780197264102.