Pragmatic nature of Mandarin passive-like constructions
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Marja Peltomaa
Abstract
This paper examines the Mandarin bei-construction, which is one of the passive structures typical to many East Asian and South-East Asian languages. The relationship of these passives to the more familiar Indo-European passives has been a topic of much discussion. Huang (forth.:37) suggests that the Indo-European type of languages use passive morphology, which directly alters the argument structure of the active, while East Asian languages use embedding of an active clause or a VP under a ‘get’-like predicate. One of the defining factors of the Indo-European type of passives is the demotion of the Agent (or the suppression of the external argument). Huang (forth.:40) notes, however, that because of the complex structure, the Agent is not demoted in East Asian passives such as the Mandarin bei-passive and the Japanese nipassive. Yet, unlike Huang, I argue that the Mandarin bei-passive is a simple structure and that lack of Agent demotion does not follow from complementation. I suggest that the obligatory Agent demotion in Indo-European passives is the consequence of the thematic hierarchy reflected in the subject-object hierarchy in the basic sentence structure. In Mandarin on the other hand, semantic roles and argumenthood are not the main factors determining the assignment of participant roles in syntax, but pragmatic roles contest with semantic roles. I show that different passive constructions, such as the bei-construction, and different focusing constructions, such as the ba-construction, are components of a voice-like system in Mandarin. I call the these constructions together topic constructions. In many respects, they resemble the focus constructions in languages such as Tagalog. The framework used for the analysis is the Role and Reference Grammar (RRG) and the starting point is the fact that Mandarin is a topic-prominent language lacking purely syntactic relations.
Abstract
This paper examines the Mandarin bei-construction, which is one of the passive structures typical to many East Asian and South-East Asian languages. The relationship of these passives to the more familiar Indo-European passives has been a topic of much discussion. Huang (forth.:37) suggests that the Indo-European type of languages use passive morphology, which directly alters the argument structure of the active, while East Asian languages use embedding of an active clause or a VP under a ‘get’-like predicate. One of the defining factors of the Indo-European type of passives is the demotion of the Agent (or the suppression of the external argument). Huang (forth.:40) notes, however, that because of the complex structure, the Agent is not demoted in East Asian passives such as the Mandarin bei-passive and the Japanese nipassive. Yet, unlike Huang, I argue that the Mandarin bei-passive is a simple structure and that lack of Agent demotion does not follow from complementation. I suggest that the obligatory Agent demotion in Indo-European passives is the consequence of the thematic hierarchy reflected in the subject-object hierarchy in the basic sentence structure. In Mandarin on the other hand, semantic roles and argumenthood are not the main factors determining the assignment of participant roles in syntax, but pragmatic roles contest with semantic roles. I show that different passive constructions, such as the bei-construction, and different focusing constructions, such as the ba-construction, are components of a voice-like system in Mandarin. I call the these constructions together topic constructions. In many respects, they resemble the focus constructions in languages such as Tagalog. The framework used for the analysis is the Role and Reference Grammar (RRG) and the starting point is the fact that Mandarin is a topic-prominent language lacking purely syntactic relations.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Contributor's addresses vii
- Abbreviations ix
- Introduction: Passivization and typology 1
-
Active–passive and reflexives
- Passives in Lithuanian (in comparison with Russian) 29
- Passive and middle in Indo-European 62
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Triggers — aspectual, semantic, and discourse-pragmatic: case studies
- Pragmatic nature of Mandarin passive-like constructions 83
- Development of thùuk passive marker in Thai 115
- The passives of Modern Irish 132
- The passive in Erzya-Mordvin folklore 165
- Grammatical voice and tense-aspect in Slavic 191
- Passive in Nganasan 213
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Actor demotion
- 'Agent defocusing' revisited 232
- Relations between Actor-demoting devices in Lithuanian 274
-
Grammaticalization in long-term diachrony
- The rise and grammaticalization paths of Latin fieri and facere as passive auxiliaries 311
- Grammatical relations in passive clauses 337
-
Argument structure and case
- Two types of detransitive constructions in the dialects of Japanese 352
- Passive and argument structure 373
- Case-driven agree, EPP, and passive in Turkish 383
- A unique feature of the direct passive in Japanese 403
-
Actor demotion
- Passive as a feature-suppression operation 442
-
Event semantics — Aspectual and semantic triggers
- The compositional nature of the passive 462
- The impersonal passive 502
- Simple preterit and composite perfect tense 518
- Author index 544
- Subject index 548
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Contributor's addresses vii
- Abbreviations ix
- Introduction: Passivization and typology 1
-
Active–passive and reflexives
- Passives in Lithuanian (in comparison with Russian) 29
- Passive and middle in Indo-European 62
-
Triggers — aspectual, semantic, and discourse-pragmatic: case studies
- Pragmatic nature of Mandarin passive-like constructions 83
- Development of thùuk passive marker in Thai 115
- The passives of Modern Irish 132
- The passive in Erzya-Mordvin folklore 165
- Grammatical voice and tense-aspect in Slavic 191
- Passive in Nganasan 213
-
Actor demotion
- 'Agent defocusing' revisited 232
- Relations between Actor-demoting devices in Lithuanian 274
-
Grammaticalization in long-term diachrony
- The rise and grammaticalization paths of Latin fieri and facere as passive auxiliaries 311
- Grammatical relations in passive clauses 337
-
Argument structure and case
- Two types of detransitive constructions in the dialects of Japanese 352
- Passive and argument structure 373
- Case-driven agree, EPP, and passive in Turkish 383
- A unique feature of the direct passive in Japanese 403
-
Actor demotion
- Passive as a feature-suppression operation 442
-
Event semantics — Aspectual and semantic triggers
- The compositional nature of the passive 462
- The impersonal passive 502
- Simple preterit and composite perfect tense 518
- Author index 544
- Subject index 548
