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Conspiring motivations for causative and passive isomorphism:

Data from Xibe
  • and

Abstract

In many languages a single morphological category exists that expresses both causative and passive functions. Such “causative/passive isomorphism” appears anomalous from the point of view of much work in linguistic typology in that a causative is often considered a “valence increasing” construction, while passive is a “valence decreasing” construction. Nevertheless causative/passive isomorphism is fairly common and can prove stable over multiple generations of language change. In this paper we show how an analytic causative construction can become a morphological permissive causative, and finally take on the functions of canonical passive constructions. This path is motivated by well-documented processes of metaphorical extension, reanalysis and grammaticalization. We illustrate this development with data from Xibe (Sibe), a Tungusic language spoken in Northwestern China.

Abstract

In many languages a single morphological category exists that expresses both causative and passive functions. Such “causative/passive isomorphism” appears anomalous from the point of view of much work in linguistic typology in that a causative is often considered a “valence increasing” construction, while passive is a “valence decreasing” construction. Nevertheless causative/passive isomorphism is fairly common and can prove stable over multiple generations of language change. In this paper we show how an analytic causative construction can become a morphological permissive causative, and finally take on the functions of canonical passive constructions. This path is motivated by well-documented processes of metaphorical extension, reanalysis and grammaticalization. We illustrate this development with data from Xibe (Sibe), a Tungusic language spoken in Northwestern China.

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. List of contributors vii
  4. Preface ix
  5. Introduction xi
  6. I. Verbal Categories and Processes in Categorizations
  7. The tense-aspect system of Khorchin Mongolian 3
  8. Locational and directional relations and tense and aspect marking in Chalkan, a South Siberian Turkic language 67
  9. Conspiring motivations for causative and passive isomorphism: 91
  10. II. Syntactic Functions and Case-Marking
  11. Spatial semantics, case and relator nouns in Evenki 111
  12. A survey of alignment features in the Greater Hindukush with special references to Indo-Aryan 133
  13. Between predicative and attributive possession in Bashkir 175
  14. III. Clause Combining and Discourse
  15. Areal features of copula sentences in Karaim as spoken in Lithuania 205
  16. Non-past copular markers in Turkish 221
  17. On the distribution of the contrastive-concessive discourse connectives ama ‘but/yet’ and fakat ‘but’ in written Turkish 251
  18. Anaphora in Ossetic correlatives and the typology of clause combining 275
  19. Kinds of evidentiality in German complement clauses 311
  20. Evidentiality in Dzungar Tuvan 339
  21. IV. Historical Issues
  22. On the evolution of Russian subject reference 381
  23. The development of negation in the Transeurasian languages 401
  24. List of Index 421
On Diversity and Complexity of Languages Spoken in Europe and North and Central Asia
This chapter is in the book On Diversity and Complexity of Languages Spoken in Europe and North and Central Asia
https://doi.org/10.1075/slcs.164.03jan

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. List of contributors vii
  4. Preface ix
  5. Introduction xi
  6. I. Verbal Categories and Processes in Categorizations
  7. The tense-aspect system of Khorchin Mongolian 3
  8. Locational and directional relations and tense and aspect marking in Chalkan, a South Siberian Turkic language 67
  9. Conspiring motivations for causative and passive isomorphism: 91
  10. II. Syntactic Functions and Case-Marking
  11. Spatial semantics, case and relator nouns in Evenki 111
  12. A survey of alignment features in the Greater Hindukush with special references to Indo-Aryan 133
  13. Between predicative and attributive possession in Bashkir 175
  14. III. Clause Combining and Discourse
  15. Areal features of copula sentences in Karaim as spoken in Lithuania 205
  16. Non-past copular markers in Turkish 221
  17. On the distribution of the contrastive-concessive discourse connectives ama ‘but/yet’ and fakat ‘but’ in written Turkish 251
  18. Anaphora in Ossetic correlatives and the typology of clause combining 275
  19. Kinds of evidentiality in German complement clauses 311
  20. Evidentiality in Dzungar Tuvan 339
  21. IV. Historical Issues
  22. On the evolution of Russian subject reference 381
  23. The development of negation in the Transeurasian languages 401
  24. List of Index 421
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