Abstract
This paper explores the variation between non-past (present and future) synthetic and periphrastic passive verb forms in the Gothic Gospels in an effort to evaluate the possibility that the availability of functionally identical forms of the passive was exploited by the translators of the Gothic Bible as a way of manipulating the stylistic composition of the Gothic text. Based on the evidence of the Gothic translation of the Gospels, although the Gothic synthetic passive constructions do mostly occur in stylistically special environments, the existence of other clearly verifiable competing motivations makes the stylistic motivations difficult to verify. It is concluded that the distribution of forms is largely determined by factors such as literalism as the main translation technique as well as contrasts between the synthetic and periphrastic ‘be’ passives in terms of the actionality of the former and stativity of the latter.
Highlights
Luke 7:48 qaþuh þan du izai: afletanda þus frawaurhteis þeinos ‘And he said to her: your sins are forgiven to you’ is a short verse with a single passive and no semantic parallelism. Since in rendering it the translator insists on the same synthetic form in spite of the resultative sense of the Greek perfect, it is conceivable that the synthetic passive is primarily motivated stylistically by the elevated tone of pledging forgiveness in direct address
If the Greek perfect was the source of Gothic afletanda similar to afletanda in Luke 7:47 and 48, it is possible that the synthetic passive was primarily motivated on stylistic grounds, as well as being syntactically convenient. (Otherwise, one would expect a Greek perfect to be rendered with a Gothic stative/ resultative periphrastic passive.) It must be noted, that in Mark 2:5 and 2:9 Robinson and Pierpont (2005: 72) and Nestle et al (2012: 108) give the presentpassive ἀφίενταί ‘are forgiven’ as a variant form, which is a straightforward match for the actional Gothic synthetic form
Mark 16:4 afwalwiþs ist sa stains ‘The stone is rolled away’ attests a periphrastic stative passive, which predictably translates the Greek perfect (medio)passive ἀποκεκύλισται ‘has been rolled away’, capturing its resultative sense
Summary
Similar to the examples in 6–10, both Greek forms are monolectic, the difference in the Gothic translation is that the first one is rendered with a periphrastic passive, while the second one is given a synthetic form. I examine the variation between (non-past) synthetic and periphrastic passive forms in the Gothic translation of the Gospels in the order they are printed in Streitberg’s (2000) edition of the Gothic texts (Matthew, John, Luke, Mark).
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