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Originally Posted by Casiopea Food, film, and job are inanimate; they cannot like, enjoy, or hate |
That is one reason why I chose them, because that is exactly what I am saying about read. The book too is inanimate and cannot read.
If it is acceptable for an unseen actor to do the reading, can't an unseen actor also do the liking, enjoying, and hating?
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In mediopassive voice it's the object that's promoted, not the subject. In other words, promote the object ball and the result is a mediopassive-voice reading. (Note, the symbol ? means semantically awkward):
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This is the other reason for my choice of examples In your previous post you said it didn't matter because (according to Fagan) "the verb read in English is lexically derived (See bottom of page 58 and top of page 59 here.)" to avoid the semantic awkwardness of 'reads'.
If that is true for 'reads' is must also be true for like, enjoy, hate, or any other mental activity. There is no semantic problem with inanimate objects that can't do any of these things, because the verb is purely lexical.
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In mediopassive voice it's the object that's promoted, not the subject.
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Why can't the dog be the object being caught? 'Catch' acts on the dog, so the dog is the object of the unstated actor catching it. It looks awkward I agree - but it is meant to.
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the book is experienced by an agent left unstated.
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In my examples, the food is experienced by an agent left unstated, and so are the film, and the job. They are liked, enjoyed, and hated by unstated actors in the same way that the book is read by an an unstated actor.
I suspect that what is happening here is that you have seen 'the book reads well/easily' so often that you accept 'read' as a state, and
as something that happens to the book.
Nothing happens to the book, which is why it is not the same as 'clothes wash easily' or 'glass breaks easily' where the clothes and the glass receive an action.
As mediopassive is essentially a passive voice this is important - an action has to be recieved for it to be passive. Something has to happen to the object.
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Mediopassive: ?The vegetables hate easily. <Awkward because the vegetables are the ones doing the hating.>
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How does that differ from "the book reads well"? You seem to be saying that it doesn't work because someone has to do the hating. That is true because 'hate' is a mental activity - and so is 'read'. Someone has to do the reading - but this doesn't matter in mediopassive because the unstated actor does it.
You seem to be switching mediopassive and middle at random...
On a general note, you are going to great lengths to explain mediopassive, but my objection is with 'read' (or any other mental/sensory verb) not with the existence of mediopassive.