Skip to main content
Presented to you through Paradigm Publishing Services

John Benjamins Publishing Company

book: Middle Voice
Book
Licensed
Unlicensed Requires Authentication

Middle Voice

A comparative study in the syntax-semantics interface of German
Language: English
Published/Copyright: 2002

About this book

This book offers a completely new analysis of the syntax and semantics of transitive reflexive sentences in German, which is embedded in the major phenomenon of the middle voice in Indo-European languages. It integrates the interpretation of non-argument reflexives into a modified version of recent theories of binding. The ambiguity of the reflexive pronoun is derived at the interface between syntax and semantics and does not rely on additional lexical or syntactic rules of argument suppression and argument promotion. This shift towards the semantic interpretation of syntactic arguments enables the author to offer a unified analysis of the middle, the anticausative and the reflexive interpretations. Furthermore, the crucial distinction between structural and oblique case forms is discussed and it is illustrated how specific properties of middle constructions such as adverbial modification or subject responsibility can be related to the generic interpretation of middle constructions.

Reviews

Andrew McIntyre, University of Leipzig on Linguist List Vol 14-260, 2003:
My overall evaluation is positive. The book reads easily. The book is necessary reading for everyone interested in reflexivity, middle voice, middle constructions and German grammar.

  • Publicly Available
    Download PDF
  • Publicly Available
    Download PDF
  • Publicly Available
    Download PDF
  • Publicly Available
    Download PDF
  • Requires Authentication Unlicensed
    Licensed
    Download PDF
  • Requires Authentication Unlicensed
    Licensed
    Download PDF
  • Requires Authentication Unlicensed
    Licensed
    Download PDF
  • Requires Authentication Unlicensed
    Licensed
    Download PDF
  • Requires Authentication Unlicensed
    Licensed
    Download PDF
  • Requires Authentication Unlicensed
    Licensed
    Download PDF
  • Requires Authentication Unlicensed
    Licensed
    Download PDF
  • Requires Authentication Unlicensed
    Licensed
    Download PDF
  • Requires Authentication Unlicensed
    Licensed
    Download PDF
  • Requires Authentication Unlicensed
    Licensed
    Download PDF

Publishing information
Pages and Images/Illustrations in book
eBook published on:
October 21, 2008
eBook ISBN:
9789027297556
Pages and Images/Illustrations in book
Main content:
337
This book is in the series
Downloaded on 27.4.2026 from https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1075/la.50/html?lang=en
Scroll to top button