Passive as a feature-suppression operation
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Dalina Kallulli
Abstract
The major goal of this article is to examine some properties of the passive crosslinguistically and the ensuing ramifications for a universal theory of the passive. Building on my previous work (Kallulli 2006a, b), this article argues for a uniform derivation of the passive and the anticausative construction. The main claim is that passives and anticausatives differ only with respect to the respective building blocks that enter syntactic computation but both arise through the same operation, namely suppression of a feature in v. Passive constructions across languages can be made compatible by relegating the differences to simple combinatorial properties of verb and prepositional types and their interactions with other event functors/aspectual operators, which are in turn encoded differently morphologically across languages.
Abstract
The major goal of this article is to examine some properties of the passive crosslinguistically and the ensuing ramifications for a universal theory of the passive. Building on my previous work (Kallulli 2006a, b), this article argues for a uniform derivation of the passive and the anticausative construction. The main claim is that passives and anticausatives differ only with respect to the respective building blocks that enter syntactic computation but both arise through the same operation, namely suppression of a feature in v. Passive constructions across languages can be made compatible by relegating the differences to simple combinatorial properties of verb and prepositional types and their interactions with other event functors/aspectual operators, which are in turn encoded differently morphologically across languages.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Contributor's addresses vii
- Abbreviations ix
- Introduction: Passivization and typology 1
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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
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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
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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
