Talk:Deponent verb

message: This article deserves a section on the history or etymology of deponents. Shinobu (talk) 19:49, 17 November 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: Yes. If they come from some evolution of PIE, it should be explained. --Error (talk) 16:04, 26 March 2021 (UTC)
thread_title:  History? 

message: Most of us learn about deponent verbs when we study Latin, or at least I did.   But what about the other languages in the Indo-European family of languages?  Does Sanskrit have deponent verbs?   Dexter Nextnumber (talk) 03:00, 14 February 2010 (UTC)
replies: text: Yes. People not knowing such basic facts probably shouldn't make fun of people who know what they are talking about, like you so rudely did above. --Ioscius ∞ 16:30, 18 April 2010 (UTC)
thread_title:  Deponent verbs in Sanskrit? 

message: Has there been any progress lately in figuring out whether the Etruscan language had deponent verbs?   Dexter Nextnumber (talk) 03:05, 14 February 2010 (UTC)
thread_title:  Deponent verbs in Etruscan? 

message: Why are these Norwegian verbs on the list? The fact that their active voice form has a meaning as well seems to deny them deponency as verbs. 65.191.36.167 (talk) 02:32, 12 August 2012 (UTC)
thread_title:  Kjenner 

message: I'd imagine it's often an anglism. --83.84.137.22 (talk) 05:53, 25 November 2012 (UTC)
replies: text: It's not a deponent verb as such, but it's a good example of a verb having both "active" and "middle" meanings.  In Romance languages, a verb is often converted into pseudo-reflexive form to mark such a shift in meaning: "vendre" vs. "se vendre" etc. AnonMoos (talk) 11:36, 25 November 2012 (UTC)
thread_title:  "a book sold copies" is a poor example 

message: In what way is the Swedish verb "födas" a deponent verb? It clearly has a passive meaning (be born) and the active "föda" (give birth to) exists. To me, it seems it fails every test for being deponent.83.254.140.88 (talk) 08:34, 15 October 2017 (UTC)
thread_title:  "Födas" as a deponent verb 

message: Are all the verbs in French, Spanish etc that form the perfect tense with "be" instead of "have" using a (semi)-deponent form? They seem to fit the "semi-deponent" (active form in the present, passive form in the perfect) definition at the very least. Walshie79 (talk) 00:09, 16 March 2021 (UTC)
replies: text: Traditionally, intransitive verbs form the perfect with TO BE while transitive verbs used TO HAVE.  English formerly did this also (for example "Christ is risen", "He is come" etc).  It's hard for me to see how these verbs are "passive" in any meaningful sense (the grammatical subject has exactly the same semantic role in "he came" as in "he is come").  A deponent verb in French would be more like a verb which never occurred in the non-reflexive (i.e. without "se" etc). AnonMoos (talk) 00:31, 16 March 2021 (UTC)
replies: text:  I think you are wrong about Spanish. If I am understanding you right, you are confusing  with . --Error (talk) 16:07, 26 March 2021 (UTC)

text: Unaccusative verbs might be active-less. Universal-Interessierterde (talk (de)) 22:43, 15 January 2024 (UTC)
thread_title: Perfect tense with "be" verb

message: The Danish section claims that Danish has fewer deponents than Norwegian. According to wiktionary it's unclear: Danish: 20, Norwegian Bokmål: 13, Norwegian Nynorsk: 91. SprogTeknologiske Ordbase / STO Morphological Dictionary Danish has 54 unique deponent verbs. I'm considering removing the comparison and simply state that Danish has 54 deponent verbs according to STO.
The list "the only common ones are" seems dubious to me and feels like an opinion piece. The phrase "vi ses" is certainly extremely common, and known also by young persons.
(talk) 15:47, 5 April 2023 (UTC)
replies: text: Go ahead! It seems a good suggestion. Kanjuzi (talk) 15:58, 5 April 2023 (UTC)
thread_title: Danish section

message: According to ChapGPT, deponent verbs in Old English include:
"willan" (to will, desire): The passive form "willan" was used to express active will or desire.
"þurfan" (to need): The passive form "þurfan" was used to express active necessity or need.
"dugan" (to be useful): The passive form "dugan" was used to express active usefulness or benefit.
Can someone verify that? Stjohn1970 (talk) 01:40, 14 August 2023 (UTC)
replies: text: Old English simply did not have "synthetic" (inflectional) passives, except perhaps for one form of the verb which has come down into early modern English as "hight" (i.e. to be called or be named). AnonMoos (talk) 22:24, 14 August 2023 (UTC)
thread_title:  Old English