Participles -- Two Questions

Greek Learning Greek
1

I am starting the long road of learning participles, and I already have two questions:

  1. In Mastronarde’s Unit 26, he states that participles are found in the present, future, and aorist. Since the imperfect uses the present stem, will I be seeing any participles in the imperfect?

  2. I am having some confusion with μι verbs. The bottom of page 218 states this,

“c. μι-verb participles. In μι-verbs the participial suffix is added directly to the tense
stem, which already ends in a vowel. Full declensional patterns for participles of
these kinds are given in Appendix C: Paradigms.
Most of the masc./neut. forms are declined like γέρων, γίγας, χαρίεις.
Euphonic changes in the fem. produce stems ending in -ᾱσ-, -εισ-, -ουσ-, or -ῡσ-.
The accent of athematic participles is persistent on the final vowel of the stem.
δίδωμι pres. act. διδούς, διδοῦσα, διδόν
m./n. stem διδόντ-; dat. pl. διδοῦσι(ν)
aor. act. δούς, δοῦσα, δόν
m./n. stem δόντ-; dat. pl. δοῦσι(ν)”

For the masculine of δίδωμ, how do you get from διδόντ to διδούς? Where does the sigma at the end come from?

2

  1. No, but there are the perfect active and middle/passive participles.

  2. I think it is διδο-ντ-ς → διδούς (cf.r Smyth 753). The sigma is added to form the nominative.

3

It may be useful to consider the present stem to be the imperfect stem because that’s what it is. Certainly the “present” participle is the imperfect participle and when it is used instead of the aorist participle the meaning is imperfect/habitual.

4
  1. I think it is διδο-ντ-ς → διδούς (cf.r Smyth 753). The sigma is added to form the nominative.

Yes, to be more precise: *διδοντς>*διδονς>διδούς

Sigma added to participial stem διδοντ–; dental drops out from the ντς cluster; nu assimilates with compensatory lengthening (cp. πᾶς<*πανς<*παντς)

5

If I may add to this question, I am trying to figure out what the masculine singular dative of δύω is. I know what the aorist is from page 219, but I am trying to see if I can understand the process of adding endings and figure out when to assimilate and when not to. I could not find the present participle of δύω , so I searched the web and found the participle of λύω. The masculine singular dative is λύοντι.. Would the masculine singular participle of δύω be δύοντι?

6

The present participle active is δύων (regular) and so the dative masculine singular would be δύοντι. See example from the Historia Plantarum of Theophrastus in LSJ δύω:

οὐκ ἐν ἴσῳ βάθει πάντα δύοντες τῆς θαλάσσης

7

You would find it helpful if you reviewed how to form present participles. Then you would not need to search the web for answers.

1 a on p 216 shows how to construct present active participles.

"a. ω-verb active participles in -ων, -ουσᾰ, -ον. In the present active, future active, and strong aorist active, the participial stem is formed by adding ντ to the tense stem plus the theme vowel ο.

The masc./neut. participial stem thus ends in -οντ-, and the declension is like that of γέρων (Unit 14.3b).

Euphonic changes produce a fem. stem ending in -ουσ-.

Participles are adjectives, and so their accent is persistent, not recessive.

For present and future active participles, the accent is persistent on the final
syllable of the tense stem.
…
In present or future stems with -έω contraction, the ε of the stem contracts with
the theme vowel, ο, to form ου, except in the nom. sing. masc., where -έων produces -ῶν. "

Look at the declension of γέρων on page 118 and you will see that the dative is “γέροντι”. So that should give you all the information you need. Study the tables on p 217 and learn the paradigms there.

Its good that you want to understand how the endings have arisen but you really need to learn by heart the paradigms.

As a postscript to Phalakros’ helpful post you should be aware (if you already know please ignore this - but someone reading his post might not) that the * means they are not forms which are actually attested but are proposed as a means of explaining how existing forms how come into being. If there is more elegant way of saying this no doubt P. will provide it.

8

I believe that Mastronarde is talking about δύω “enter, sink”, not δύω “cause to sink”, and the present participle for that is nearly always (or always?) from δύνω in Attic. ἡλίῳ δύνοντι if you read your Xenophon.

9

Lukas: You may be wondering when a stem ending in a vowel (e.g. λύ-ω, παιδεύ-ω, τιμά-ω) contracts with the ending. If the stem ends in upsilon or iota, there is no contraction.

As bedwere & Seneca say, the masc dat sing ptcp of δύω=δύοντι. There are transitive forms (pres δύνω, aor. ἔδυσα) and intransitive (pres δύομαι, aor. ἔδυν). The masc dat sing ptcps of those are: δύνω: δύνοντι, ἔδυσα: δύσαντι, δύομαι: δυομένῳ, ἔδυν: δύντι.

the * means they are not forms which are actually attested but are proposed as a means of explaining how existing forms how come into being.

Α good thing to clarify. Thank you. “>” means developed into, “<“ developed from and * indicates a reconstructed form.

10

I believe that this is just a typo for “transitive forms (pres δύω, aor. ἔδυσα)”. δύνω (and δύομαι) are the intransitive forms. The same holds across the compounds.

11

Υes, sorry. it’s usu. trans: pres δύω aor ἔδυσα; intrans: pres δύνω, δύομαι aor ἔδυν

12

So on page 219, one example I have is τίθημι. The masculine ends up being τίθεις. So I want to check if I have the process right:

  1. τίθημι drops the μι and changes the η to an ε for some reason.
  2. Τιθε adds the ντ and then the ς for the nominative masculine ending. The dental drops out, the ν assimilates, and I get τίθεις.. Is that how the masculine works?

I am a little less clear about the feminine.

  1. τίθημι drops the μι and changes the η to an ε for some reason.
  2. But then how do I get to the θεῖσα? Am I still working with an ντ?
13

(A) τιθείς

Yes, you have it right (except for the accent).

Athematic (-μι) verbs have both long and short stems (e.g. the long grade τιθη- vs. the short grade τιθε-). The ptcp uses the short stem. In fact, any verb-stem ending in a long vowel will usually shorten in the active ptcp. This is because the active ptcp is formed with the suffix ντ, a consonant cluster beginning with a resonant (μ ν ρ λ). Long vowels shorten before resonant-initial consonant clusters (this is called Osthoff’s Law). E.g. the aor pass ptcp πεισθέντες<*πεισθήντες (η shortens to ε before ντ).

(B) τιθεῖσα

You’re actually working with ντ and the semivowel yod (y) [see this thread for a little more detail on yod: http://discourse.textkit.com/t/topic/17490/8]

The feminine ptcp is formed with the suffix -yα (short alpha): *τιθεντyα. Tau + yod sometimes results in sigma, so *τιθεντyα>*τιθενσα. The nu drops out with compensatory lengthening: *τιθεντyα>*τιθενσα>τιθεῖσα.

Cp. πᾶσα<*πανσα<*παντyα

14

If I may ask about the intransitive aorist, and hopefully this is my last one, how does the textbook come up with δύς from ἔδυν? If I use a theme vowel, I get ἐδυνοντς. The active would switch to ἐδυνων. Maybe the υ made everything assimilate to δύς? If it did, shouldn’t it have a circumflex accent like we do when vowels contract? /shrug

15

The aorist ἔδυν is a root aorist, meaning the verbal stem is identical to the unelaborated root (δυ-). The ptcps are formed in the same way as τιθείς, τιθεῖσα:

masc: *δυντ-ς>*δυνς>δύς
fem: *δυντ-ya>*δυνσα>δῦσα

Ask as many questions as you’d like. There are several people around here who can answer them.

16

εὐχαριστῶ πολύ!

17

I am having confusion over the first aorist middle endings. It seems that page 218 tells me to use a sigma tense marker followed by an alpha followed by the ending. With middle passives, it seems that page 219 is telling me not to use the sigma.

So Part II, exercise tells me to write down the dat. s. f. aor. mid. of μάχομαι.

  1. The aorist is εμαχεσάμην.
  2. I remove the augment to get μαχεσάμην.
  3. I thought I would also remove the tense marker to get μαχε for the stem.
  4. Then I add the middle/passive ending to get μαχεαμενη

The answer book reads μαχεσαμένη.

I am confused as to when to add a sigma with the weak aorist and when not to. Can somebody list the steps that I need to go through to get a weak aorist participle ending with the middlle/passive?

18

Mastronarde on p 219 says:

“2. Middle/Passive Participles. All middle/passive or middle participles have the suffix -μενος, -μένη, -μενον.
…
It is added to the tense stem plus the tense vowel α to form the weak aorist participle.”

ἐ-μαχεσ-άμην —> μαχεσ-ά ------>μαχεσ-ά-μενος

Dont confuse weak and strong aorists and active and middle/passive voices.

19

What about ἀγγέλλω? The weak aorist middle is ἀγγειλάμενος,. Originally I was thinking that the sigma was added to the aorist stem as a separate step. Now I am thinking that I just rely on what the principal part is as to whether to add a sigma or not?

20

So what is the weak aorist of ἀγγέλλω?

Remove the augment and add ά to the tense stem.

ἤ-γγειλα ----> ἀγγειλ-ά -----> ἀγγειλ- ά -μενος

I think your problem is you think in terms of adding σ to the present stem but you dont add it to anything, its either there in the tense stem or it isn’t.

Look at page 155:

"The weak aorist stem commonly consists of a simple form of the verb stem with sigma added, whence it is also sometimes called the sigmatic aorist. In some forms, however, the sigma has disappeared, or its presence has caused some modification in the verb stem.

present … stem + -σ- … aorist stem

ἀγγέλλω … ἀγγελ- + -σ- … ἀγγειλ-