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middlevoice

Middle voice is a grammatical voice found in several language families in which the subject of a verb participates in the action as both the doer and the affected participant, or benefits from the action. It is distinct from active, where the subject directly acts on an external object, and from passive, where the subject is on the receiving end of an action performed by someone else. In middle constructions, the action often has a reflexive, benefactive, or resultative interpretation.

In many languages the middle has its own morphology or set of forms. Ancient Greek uses a

Semantically, middle subjects often perform actions on themselves or for their own benefit (I bathe myself),

Scholars debate whether the middle constitutes a separate grammatical category or a functional subtype of the

dedicated
middle
voice
with
specific
endings;
Sanskrit
distinguishes
two
systems
of
conjugation,
with
ātmanepāda
(the
middle)
contrasting
with
parāsmāpadā
(the
external/active).
In
other
languages,
middle
meanings
arise
through
reflexive
pronouns,
periphrastic
constructions,
or
deponent
verbs
whose
forms
look
passive
but
carry
active
meaning.
Some
languages
treat
the
middle
as
a
kind
of
antipassive
or
as
a
matter
of
semantics
rather
than
distinct
morphology.
or
the
action
affects
the
subject
in
a
way
that
is
not
easily
captured
by
a
straightforward
active
sentence.
The
middle
can
signal
a
stative
result,
a
reciprocal
relation,
or
a
general
within-subject
statement.
In
languages
without
a
separate
middle,
these
meanings
may
be
expressed
by
reflexive
pronouns,
light
verbs,
or
lexicalized
middle
verbs.
passive.
It
is
regularly
discussed
in
historical
and
typological
studies
of
voice
systems,
and
it
remains
a
key
feature
in
many
ancient
and
some
modern
languages.