6. Voice and voice alternations
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Patricia Cabredo Hofherr
Abstract
In the transition from Latin to Early Romance the synthetic passive forms were lost, followed by a restructuring of the voice system. The reinterpretation of originally perfective passive forms as imperfective passive resulted in a periphrastic be-passive that was ambiguous between an imperfective and a perfective reading. This ambiguity favoured the rise of innovated passive auxiliaries that grammaticalised from verbs such as venire ‘come’, fieri ‘become’, facere ‘do’, or stare ‘stand’. In parallel, Romance languages generalised argument reduction processes using the weakened reflexive se/si (from Latin sibi) and developed pronominal agent-backgrounding strategies, based on third person plural and second person singular personal pronouns, the numeral one and the noun homo ‘man’.
Abstract
In the transition from Latin to Early Romance the synthetic passive forms were lost, followed by a restructuring of the voice system. The reinterpretation of originally perfective passive forms as imperfective passive resulted in a periphrastic be-passive that was ambiguous between an imperfective and a perfective reading. This ambiguity favoured the rise of innovated passive auxiliaries that grammaticalised from verbs such as venire ‘come’, fieri ‘become’, facere ‘do’, or stare ‘stand’. In parallel, Romance languages generalised argument reduction processes using the weakened reflexive se/si (from Latin sibi) and developed pronominal agent-backgrounding strategies, based on third person plural and second person singular personal pronouns, the numeral one and the noun homo ‘man’.
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter I
- Manuals of Romance Linguistics V
- Table of Contents VII
- Abbreviations XI
- 1. Introduction 1
-
The verbal domain
- 2. Subjects 27
- 3. Objects 89
- 4. Argument structure and argument structure alternations 154
- 5. Clitic pronouns 183
- 6. Voice and voice alternations 230
- 7. Auxiliaries 272
- 8. Causative and perception verbs 299
- 9. Copular and existential constructions 332
-
The clausal and sentential domains
- 10. Infinitival clauses 369
- 11. Tense, aspect, mood 397
- 12. Negation and polarity 449
- 13. Dislocations and framings 472
- 14. Focus Fronting 502
- 15. Cleft constructions 536
- 16. Interrogatives 569
- 17. Exclamatives, imperatives, optatives 603
- 18. Coordination and correlatives 647
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The nominal domain
- 19. Gender and number 691
- 20. Determination and quantification 727
- 21. Adjectival and genitival modification 771
- 22. Relative clauses 804
-
Typological aspects
- 23. Syntheticity and Analyticity 839
- 24. Basic constituent orders 887
- List of Contributors 933
- Index 941
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter I
- Manuals of Romance Linguistics V
- Table of Contents VII
- Abbreviations XI
- 1. Introduction 1
-
The verbal domain
- 2. Subjects 27
- 3. Objects 89
- 4. Argument structure and argument structure alternations 154
- 5. Clitic pronouns 183
- 6. Voice and voice alternations 230
- 7. Auxiliaries 272
- 8. Causative and perception verbs 299
- 9. Copular and existential constructions 332
-
The clausal and sentential domains
- 10. Infinitival clauses 369
- 11. Tense, aspect, mood 397
- 12. Negation and polarity 449
- 13. Dislocations and framings 472
- 14. Focus Fronting 502
- 15. Cleft constructions 536
- 16. Interrogatives 569
- 17. Exclamatives, imperatives, optatives 603
- 18. Coordination and correlatives 647
-
The nominal domain
- 19. Gender and number 691
- 20. Determination and quantification 727
- 21. Adjectival and genitival modification 771
- 22. Relative clauses 804
-
Typological aspects
- 23. Syntheticity and Analyticity 839
- 24. Basic constituent orders 887
- List of Contributors 933
- Index 941
