Overview

Is the passive a unified universal phenomenon? The claim derived from this volume is that the passive, if not universal, has become unified according to function. Language as a means of communication needs the passive, or passive-like constructions, and sooner or later develops them based on other voices (impersonal active, middle, reflexive), specific semantic meanings such as adversativity, or tense-aspect categories (stative,perfect, preterit). Certain contributors review the passives in various languages and language groups, including languages rarely discussed. Another group of contributors takes a novel theoretical approach toward passivization within a broad typological perspective. Among the languages discussed are Vedic, Irish, Mandarin Chinese, Thai, Lithuanian, Mordvin, and Nganasan, next to almost all European languages. Various theoretical frameworks such as Optimality Theory, Modern Structuralist Approaches, Role and Reference Grammar, Cognitive Semantics, Distributed Morphology, and Case Grammar have been applied by the different authors.

Full Product Details

Author:   Werner Abraham (University of Vienna) ,  Larisa Leisiö (University of Helsinki)
Publisher:   John Benjamins Publishing Co
Imprint:   John Benjamins Publishing Co
Volume:   68
Weight:   1.105kg
ISBN:  

9789027229809

ISBN 10:   9027229805
Pages:   553
Publication Date:   20 September 2006
Audience:   Professional and scholarly ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   Awaiting stock  
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Table of Contents

1. Contributor's addresses; 2. Abbreviations; 3. Introduction: Passivization and typology: Form vs. function - a confined survey into the research status quo (by Abraham, Werner); 4. Active-passive and reflexives; 5. Passives in Lithuanian (in comparison with Russian) (by Geniusiene, Emma S.); 6. Passive and middle in Indo-European: Reconstructing the early Vedic passive paradigm (by Kulikov, Leonid); 7. Triggers - aspectual, semantic, and discourse-pragmatic: case studies; 8. Pragmatic nature of Mandarin passive-like constructions (by Peltomaa, Marja); 9. Development of thuuk passive marker in Thai (by Prasithrathsint, Amara); 10. The passives of Modern Irish (by Nolan, Brian); 11. The passive in Erzya-Mordvin folklore (by Salo, Merja); 12. Grammatical voice and tense-aspect in Slavic (by Toyota, Jun-ichi); 13. Passive in Nganasan (by Leisio, Larisa); 14. Actor demotion; 15. 'Agent defocusing' revisited: Passive and impersonal constructions in some European languages (by Sanso, Andrea); 16. Relations between Actor-demoting devices in Lithuanian: Dedicated to Emma Geniusiene (by Wiemer, Bjorn); 17. Grammaticalization in long-term diachrony; 18. The rise and grammaticalization paths of Latin fieri and facere as passive auxiliaries (by Cennamo, Michela); 19. Grammatical relations in passive clauses: A diachronic perspective (by Givon, T.); 20. Argument structure and case; 21. Two types of detransitive constructions in the dialects of Japanese (by Sasaki, Kan); 22. Passive and argument structure (by Afarli, Tor A.); 23. Case-driven agree, EPP, and passive in Turkish (by Ozturk, Balkiz); 24. A unique feature of the direct passive in Japanese (by Ariji, Kenichi); 25. Actor demotion; 26. Passive as a feature-suppression operation (by Kallulli, Dalina); 27. Event semantics - Aspectual and semantic triggers; 28. The compositional nature of the passive: Syntactic vs. event semantic triggers. Argument Hypothesis vs. Aspect Hypothesis (by Abraham, Werner); 29. The impersonal passive: voice suspended under aspectual conditions (by Abraham, Werner); 30. Simple preterit and composite perfect tense: The role of the adjectival passive (by Rathert, Monika); 31. Author index; 32. Subject index

Reviews

Der Band wird linguistisch gut Eingearbeitete und vor allem Typologen ansprechen. Die vertretenen Sprachen ergeben, soweit wie uberseebar ist, ein viel vollstandigeres Bild zur Passivkonstruktion als in bisher erschienenen Werken zum Thema. Bemerkenswert is auch, dass die Einleitung (aus der hand Abrahams) sich nicht mit der Aufzahlung der einzelne Beitrage und ihrer Kurzwiedergabe begnugt, sondern ein sehr weites Spektrum an Beobachtungen und theoretisch dimensionierten Loesungen zum Thema bestreicht - gewiss originell und zu Nachahmung emfehlbar. -- Konstantin Krasukhin, Moskau, in Linguistische Berichte 213, 2008

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