Passives and near-passives in Balto-Slavic
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James E. Lavine
Abstract
This paper claims that variation regarding the appearance of accusative case on the Theme argument of passive and passive-like predicates in Ukrainian, Polish, and Lithuanian is a function of the arrangement of a predicate’s voice property and transitivity property in the functional domain of vP. Accusative survives passivization (and related constructions) only when v-voice, which is concerned with the projection of an external argument, and v-cause, which identifies a causative sub-event and serves as an accusative probe, appear “unbundled” in the sense of Pylkkänen’s (2008) Voice Bundling Parameter, thereby linking structural accusative to the structure of the event. In such “split-vP” languages, accusative appears regardless of the specification of voice as active or passive.
Abstract
This paper claims that variation regarding the appearance of accusative case on the Theme argument of passive and passive-like predicates in Ukrainian, Polish, and Lithuanian is a function of the arrangement of a predicate’s voice property and transitivity property in the functional domain of vP. Accusative survives passivization (and related constructions) only when v-voice, which is concerned with the projection of an external argument, and v-cause, which identifies a causative sub-event and serves as an accusative probe, appear “unbundled” in the sense of Pylkkänen’s (2008) Voice Bundling Parameter, thereby linking structural accusative to the structure of the event. In such “split-vP” languages, accusative appears regardless of the specification of voice as active or passive.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Non-canonical passives 1
- Adjectival passives and adjectival participles in English 21
- The get -passive at the intersection of get and the passive 43
- Three “competing” auxiliaries of a non-canonical passive 63
- Variations in non-canonical passives 95
- How much bekommen is there in the German bekommen passive? 115
- Haben -statives in German 141
- Another passive that isn’t one 163
- Passives and near-passives in Balto-Slavic 185
- How do things get done 213
- Anticausativizing a causative verb 235
- On the syntax-semantics of passives in Persian 261
- Two indirect passive constructions in Japanese 281
- Få and its passive complement 297
- The Danish reportive passive as a non-canonical passive 315
- (Non-)canonical passives and reflexives 337
- Index 359
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Non-canonical passives 1
- Adjectival passives and adjectival participles in English 21
- The get -passive at the intersection of get and the passive 43
- Three “competing” auxiliaries of a non-canonical passive 63
- Variations in non-canonical passives 95
- How much bekommen is there in the German bekommen passive? 115
- Haben -statives in German 141
- Another passive that isn’t one 163
- Passives and near-passives in Balto-Slavic 185
- How do things get done 213
- Anticausativizing a causative verb 235
- On the syntax-semantics of passives in Persian 261
- Two indirect passive constructions in Japanese 281
- Få and its passive complement 297
- The Danish reportive passive as a non-canonical passive 315
- (Non-)canonical passives and reflexives 337
- Index 359
