Another passive that isn’t one
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Helga Gese
Abstract
This article adresses the semantics of the so-called haben-passive, i.e. the stative reading of sentences like Er hat den Arm verbunden (‘He has his arm bandaged’). In line with recent research on haben-passives (Rothstein 2007; Businger this volume), I assume that these involve adjectivization of the participle. I will argue that participles in haben-passives share two main semantic properties with participles in German adjectival passives (sein-passives): (i) the semantic underspecification of the property denoted by the participle (ii) the generic interpretation of the event introduced by the verbal baseI propose an adjectival zero-affix that accounts for these semantic properties. The conclusion will be that adjectivization of the participle, in adjectival sein-passives as well as in haben-passives, has a specific semantic impact: it serves to create a property – the property of belonging to a contextually mediated ad hoc category based on the verbal event kind.
Abstract
This article adresses the semantics of the so-called haben-passive, i.e. the stative reading of sentences like Er hat den Arm verbunden (‘He has his arm bandaged’). In line with recent research on haben-passives (Rothstein 2007; Businger this volume), I assume that these involve adjectivization of the participle. I will argue that participles in haben-passives share two main semantic properties with participles in German adjectival passives (sein-passives): (i) the semantic underspecification of the property denoted by the participle (ii) the generic interpretation of the event introduced by the verbal baseI propose an adjectival zero-affix that accounts for these semantic properties. The conclusion will be that adjectivization of the participle, in adjectival sein-passives as well as in haben-passives, has a specific semantic impact: it serves to create a property – the property of belonging to a contextually mediated ad hoc category based on the verbal event kind.
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
