Voice and transitivity with perception verbs in Ancient Greek

The paper surveys the development of the voice system with perception verbs in Ancient Greek. Most such verbs start out as either activa or media tantum in Homeric Greek and feature voice opposition in later prose. I argue that with former activa tantum this reflects an increasing tendency to share constructional features of transitive verbs, with the mediopassive or passive encoding the passive diathesis, while former media tantum develop active causative counterparts over time. Among the verbs surveyed, horáō/eîdon ‘see’ stands out as the only verb that evolves to completely conform to the pattern of change-of-state verbs (transitive prototype). Verbs that indicate touch show a complex development, which reflects the distinction between touch as a perception modality or as a contact event.