diateesis

Diateesis is a linguistic concept referring to the grammatical voice of a verb, indicating the relationship between the action of the verb and the participants. In essence, it describes whether the subject of a sentence is performing the action, receiving the action, or is somehow involved in the action. The most common diatheses are active, passive, and middle voice.

The active voice is used when the subject of the verb performs the action. For example, in the sentence "The dog chased the ball," the subject "dog" is actively performing the action of chasing. This is the most common voice in many languages.

The passive voice is employed when the subject of the verb is the recipient of the action, rather than the performer. In the sentence "The ball was chased by the dog," the subject "ball" is receiving the action of being chased. The performer of the action, the dog, may be mentioned in a prepositional phrase or omitted entirely.

The middle voice, less common in English but significant in languages like Ancient Greek, occupies an intermediate position. It suggests that the subject is involved in or benefits from the action, but not necessarily performing it directly in the same way as the active voice. An example might be "He washed himself," where the subject "He" is both performing the action and is the recipient of the action.

The specific forms and prevalence of diatheses vary significantly across different languages. Understanding diateesis helps in analyzing sentence structure and the nuances of meaning conveyed by verbs.