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.
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.[2] 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.[3]
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[4] 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.