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How do things get done

On non-canonical passives in Finnish
  • Fredrik Heinat and Satu Manninen
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Non-Canonical Passives
This chapter is in the book Non-Canonical Passives

Abstract

In this paper, we argue that, in addition to non-agreeing passives, Finnish has even an agreeing passive. The agreeing passive shows similar behaviour to non-canonical passives in other languages, such as get-passives in English. The agreeing passive differs from ordinary copular constructions in various ways, most importantly in the availability of an event-interpretation. Agreeing and non-agreeing passives have similar structure in the tense and vP domains; the differences between them can be attributed to differences in the selecting heads. Agreeing passives differ from copular constructions in that the latter lack a vP. The selecting heads are, however, the same in the two constructions.

Abstract

In this paper, we argue that, in addition to non-agreeing passives, Finnish has even an agreeing passive. The agreeing passive shows similar behaviour to non-canonical passives in other languages, such as get-passives in English. The agreeing passive differs from ordinary copular constructions in various ways, most importantly in the availability of an event-interpretation. Agreeing and non-agreeing passives have similar structure in the tense and vP domains; the differences between them can be attributed to differences in the selecting heads. Agreeing passives differ from copular constructions in that the latter lack a vP. The selecting heads are, however, the same in the two constructions.

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