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Voice in English and Spanish in a typological perspective

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Voice in English and Spanish in a typological perspective

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    1. Voice English & Spanish 1 Voice in English and Spanish in a typological perspective Anna Siewierska & Dik Bakker (Lancaster University)

    2. Voice English & Spanish 2 Voice Voice is primarily concerned with the way event participants are involved in actions, and with the communicative value, or discourse relevance pertaining to the event participants from the nature of this involvement (Shibatani 2006:219)

    3. Voice English & Spanish 3 Major manifestations Major manifestations of voice Active vs. Passive Reflexive Middle Antipassive Inverse Events involving two participants which reflect some atypical distribution of properties

    4. Voice English & Spanish 4 The passive A widely discussed construction in linguistic theory cross-linguistically Interesting from a comparative English vs. Spanish perspective Interacts with many other aspects of grammar

    5. Voice English & Spanish 5 Passive: canonical: Siewierska (2005) A construction has been classified as passive if it displays the following characteristics It contrasts with another construction, the active The subject of the active corresponds to an oblique phrase or is not overtly expressed The subject of the passive if there is one, corresponds to the direct object of the active The construction is pragmatically restricted relative to the active The construction displays some special morphological marking of the verb

    6. Voice English & Spanish 6 WALS : 373 lgs; 162 vs. 211

    7. Voice English & Spanish 7 Geographical distribution Not universal; less than half of the languages in the data base Frequent in Africa and Eurasia Very common in Europe Occur in all Germanic and Romance languages

    8. Voice English & Spanish 8 Passive in English & Spanish English: be- passive, get-passive The book was written by Ian McEwan. The boys got expelled. Spanish: ser-passive, se-passive Las gallinas fueron matadas por Miguel. Se cumplieron las promesas. Se fusiló a los prisioneros

    9. Voice English & Spanish 9 The estar construction A stative adjectival construction, not a passive La puerta estaba quebrada the door be:past:imperf:3sg broken `The door was broken’ English be-passive may be ambiguous between a passive and a stative adjectival reading

    10. Voice English & Spanish 10 Disambiguating the readings The door was broken by the thieves. The door was broken deliberately. The door was very broken/ heavy. The door seemed broken/ heavy. *The door seemed broken by thieves.

    11. Voice English & Spanish 11 Use of passive: English English be- passive: frequency of use depends on text type English get-passive: essentially confined to the spoken language: tied to socio-linguistic factors, class, dialect, age

    12. Voice English & Spanish 12 Be-passive; register Biber et al 1999:476

    13. Voice English & Spanish 13 Get vs. Be & social class: American English

    14. Voice English & Spanish 14 Get in earlier stages of English Negative attitude to get not expressed till 1788 (Waterval 1984:7) 1870 I am by no means certain… that the whole of this amendatory program will get itself performed to equal satisfaction. 1877 One of the most costly, splendid, and elaborate structures in the world got itself built.

    15. Voice English & Spanish 15 Use of passive: Spanish Ser-passives used less frequently than the English be-passive; frequency of use is on the increase Butt & Benjamin (2004:402) characteristic of the written language but does occur in speech Se-passive Frequent in speech and writing and in all text types

    16. Voice English & Spanish 16 Classifying passives Nature of verbal marking Presence and type of subject Type of verb Expression of agent Type of agent

    17. Voice English & Spanish 17 Type of verbal marking Synthetic vs. Periphrastic Synthetic: cross-linguistically dominant Periphrastic: mainly Indo-European, also Dravidian, Hamito-Semitic, Sinno-Tibetan, Amerindian (South) English: periphrastic passive be and get Spanish: periphrastic passive ser and atypical synthetic passive se; clitic or particle not

    18. Voice English & Spanish 18 Affix on verbal stem Swahili a. Hamisi a-li-pika chakula Hamisi 3sg-past-cook food `Hamisi cooked the/some food.’ b. Chakula ki-li-pika-wa na Hamisi food 3sg-past-cook-pass by Hamisi `The food was cooked by Hamisi.’

    19. Voice English & Spanish 19 Type of periphrastic passives Type of Auxiliaries cross-linguistically: be (Urdu, Quechua), become (German, Hindi, Latvian) go (Italian, Gaelic, Bengali) receive/get (Welsh, Tzeltal, German) suffer/undergo (Thai,Cambodian, Burmese, Tamil Kannada), come (Italian, Kurdish, Kashmiri English and Spanish: be English: get

    20. Voice English & Spanish 20 Origin of passive marking Auxiliary verbs Personal pronoun Reflexive marker Se-passive Get-passive (indirectly)

    21. Voice English & Spanish 21 Reflexive origin of se-passive Reflexive Juan se lava `Juan washes himself.’ Ambiguous Se curaron los brujos cured:3pl the:pl sorcerers `The sorcerers cured themselves. The sorcerers were cured.’ Passive

    22. Voice English & Spanish 22 Reflexive element of get passive She got herself elected president. You better be careful or you’ll get yourself killed. Even the best boxes get themselves knocked out.

    23. Voice English & Spanish 23 Causative-reflexive origin of get-passive Get `obtain’ develops a sense of `receive’ Development of a locative sense He got the horse to the barn Development of a causative sense with verbal complements He got her to go into the house Extension of active to passive verbal complemet She got him to be admitted. Detransitivization of causative + be –passive Via reflexivization She got him to be admitted. She got herself to be admitted. From reflexive causative to inchoative She got to be admitted. She got admitted.

    24. Voice English & Spanish 24 Cross-linguistic distribution Non-reflexive passives are far more common than reflexive ones Reflexive passives: Indo-European: Slavic (sja- sie) Romance (se, si), Germanic (s, sich) Semitic Athabascan, Uto-Aztecan, Carib Australian

    25. Voice English & Spanish 25 Presence & type of subject Presence of overt subject Semantic role of subject Semantic properties of subject

    26. Voice English & Spanish 26 Presence of subject Passives with an overt lexical or pronominal subject are called personal or promotional (personal) those which lack such subjects are called impersonal or demotional. Personal passives are more common cross-linguistically than impersonal ones In English both the be- and get-passive is personal In Spanish the ser-passive is necessarily personal, the se-passive comes in two guises, personal and impersonal

    27. Voice English & Spanish 27 Personal se passives Las pirámides se contruyeron hace the pyramids build:past:3pl ago muchos anos many years Se cumplieron las promesas. fulfil:past:3pl the promises Lexical NP does not occur with direct object marking Lexical NP triggers agreement on the verb

    28. Voice English & Spanish 28 Impersonal se passives Se fusiló a los prisioneros shoot:3sg the:pl prisoners Se compra relojes aqui buy:pres:3sg clocks here Lexical NP occurs with direct object marking “a” (when relevant) Lexical NP does not trigger agreement with the verb

    29. Voice English & Spanish 29 Se-passive in varieties of Spanish Personal se- passives are more common in Iberian Spanish than in Latin-American Spanish

    30. Voice English & Spanish 30 Semantic role of subject in pp Accessibility to subject The semantic role hierarchy agent > patient > recipient > beneficiary > accompaniment > instrument > location Cross-linguistically passive subjects are most commonly restricted to patients Spanish ser-passive and se-passive are typical in being restricted to patients English be-passive is open to recipients and beneficiaries as is also the get-passive English be-passive is open to prepositional objects

    31. Voice English & Spanish 31 Recipient and Beneficiary subjects John was given a present. Mark was presented the award for best first year chef. Mrs Jones got offered a three weeks’ holiday on the Bahamas because she was the ten thousandth visitor of our cinema. *Ella fue enviada una carta Le fue enviada una carta

    32. Voice English & Spanish 32 How strange is English? No other Indo-European language can passivize recipients or benefactives Passivization of recipients and benefactives is possible in many Bantu languages a few Western and Central Malayo-Polynesian sporadically in Amerindian languages Japanese

    33. Voice English & Spanish 33 Indonesian Orang itu meng-irimi wanita itu seputjuk surat man the tr- send woman the a letter `The man sent the woman a letter.’ Wanita itu di-kirimi sebuah surat oleh orang itu woman the pass-send a letter by man the `The woman was sent a letter by the man.’

    34. Voice English & Spanish 34 Passivizing of recipients a. He handed the letter to the president. The letter was handed to the president. The president was handed the letter. b. He handed the president the letter. *The letter was handed the president to.

    35. Voice English & Spanish 35 Dative shift as input to passive She sent the flowers to her grandmother. She sent her grandmother the flowers. Her grandmother was sent the flowers. She donated the money to charity. *She donated charity the money. *Charity was donated the money.

    36. Voice English & Spanish 36 Other semantic roles English has so-called prepositional passives Occur as early as the 1300 They are grammatical only if the NP is affected, a potential patient The table has been written on. The bed has been slept in. *The town was arrived at. *The wall has been collapsed against.

    37. Voice English & Spanish 37 Not only affect And my brother simply cannot be diasgreed with. Such a dress can’t be sat down in. A ledge of rock which cannot be got at. There the mistakes were, in their houses, prevading their lives having to be sat with at every meal and slept with every night.

    38. Voice English & Spanish 38 Role prominence ….I presume that Winnie’s trunk had been unpacked on arrival Miss Pope looked a little out out of conuntenance. A. Routine, she said. “We live strictly by routine. The girls are unpacked for on arrival and their things put away in the way I expect them to be kept. B. Routine, she said. “We live strictly by routine. The dormitory supervisors unpacked the trunks for the girls on arrival and put their things away in the way I expect them to be kept.

    39. Voice English & Spanish 39 Clear adjuncts do not passivize Presence of a direct object *The table has been written a letter on. ??This table has been written many letters on. ???This pen has been written many letters with.

    40. Voice English & Spanish 40 But (Riddle & Sheintuch 1983) Every time I sit down I get bumped on the head with a sign and get dumped confetti on. Don’t worry, I won’t get put things on. I disagree. I don’t think anyone is above being poked fun at. The direct object is non-specific

    41. Voice English & Spanish 41 Lower down the SRH Kinyarawanda: instrumental subject Ikarámu iraandik-iish-w-a ibaarúwa n'ûmugóre.` pen write-INSTR-PASS-ASP letter by woman.` `The pen is being written a letter with by the woman.'

    42. Voice English & Spanish 42 Lower down the SRH Olutsootso: locative subject Esie en-deeraanga eBi-taBo mu-shi-iro I 1sg-bring cl8-book loc cl7-market `I bring the books in the market.’ Mu-shi-iro mu-leeruung-w-a-mwo loc-cl7-market loc-bring-pass-asp-loc eBi-taBo neende esie cl8-book by I `In the market is brought the books by me.’

    43. Voice English & Spanish 43 Semantic properties Definiteness, animacy, humanness, person In both the English and Spanish periphrastic passives the subject is virtually always definite; There are no animacy restrictions on the subject of the be-passive and ser-passive The get passive is virtually exclusively used with subjects that are human;

    44. Voice English & Spanish 44 Definiteness English be; Ransom (1979)

    45. Voice English & Spanish 45 Animacy: English be: Ransom (1979)

    46. Voice English & Spanish 46 Human subjects of get passive There was a bit of shooting and Tim got hit. Though he knew no more about military science and tactics than any other desk officer, he managed to get transferred to the combat forces. Having lost the chairmanship of the Technical Education Board, Sidney failed to get re-elected.

    47. Voice English & Spanish 47 Non-human subjects with get If non-human subjects occur they are possessed items, typically inalienably From Brown, LOB and Nijmegen corpora We came to live their after our house got burned. The carpet is loose there and my heel got caught. His hand got bitten off. Did they know how wealth from over-large estates gets misused?

    48. Voice English & Spanish 48 Get & be: human vs. non-human Contemporary American English (Herold 1986)

    49. Voice English & Spanish 49 Subjects of se-personal passives indefinite and even non-referential and generally inanimate (Hidalgo 1994:176) Se alquilan apartamentos rent:3spl apartments if animate then non-referential or indefinite Se necesitan traductores need:3pl transaltors Se ven muchos turistas en la playa seen:3pl lot tourist on the beach

    50. Voice English & Spanish 50 Se impersonal passives Direct objects of se-impersonal passives are often human and animate Se fusiló a los prisioneros shoot:3sg the:pl prisoners Se busca a Julio Cortázar see:3sg

    51. Voice English & Spanish 51 Animacy in personal vs. impersonal se Non-human nature of subjects in se personal passive Avoidance of ambiguity between a passive and a reflexive reading

    52. Voice English & Spanish 52 Other semantic properties English get-passive Responsibility of the subject How did he get (himself) killed? How was he (*himself) killed? Jane deliberately got arrested. Jane deliberately was arrested. Adversative or beneficial effect on subject Mary got promoted/sacked. Neutral are hardly acceptable A house can be/*get built of bricks, mud or clay.

    53. Voice English & Spanish 53 Adversative passives in other languages Thai, Cambodian, Japanese Suk thùuk rot chon Sook pass car collide `Sook was hit by the car.’ Daang thùuk Sudda Ch??n Dang pass Suda invite `Dang was invited by Suda (but he did not want to be invited.’

    54. Voice English & Spanish 54 Type of verb: transitivity Personal passives: transitive or ditransitive Impersonal passives: transitive and intransitive Se trabaja mucho aqui work:pres:3sg a lot here Se vive bien en America live:pres:3sg well in America

    55. Voice English & Spanish 55 Type of verb: semantics English be- passive: few lexical exceptions English get passive: necessarily dynamic verbs The captain was/*got feared by the whole crew. The writer was/*got seen walking out of the building. Spanish ser-passive: quite a few exceptions Spanish se-passive: widely applicable

    56. Voice English & Spanish 56 Tense, aspect, modality distinctions Plain – perfective Reflexive – imperfective: generic Plain: specific events Reflexive: recurrent states of affairs, deontic/potential modality No se camina a solas de noche en esa zona `One does not walk alone at night in this area/ One should not walk alone at night in this area.’

    57. Voice English & Spanish 57 Expression of agent Can the agent be overtly expressed? Are there any semantic restrictions on the agent, e.g. in terms of semantic role or animacy or person?

    58. Voice English & Spanish 58 Overt agent: cross-linguistically Passives without an overt agent are cross-linguistically more common than those with allow for the overt expression of the agent In those languages which do allow agents frequency of agent expression varies Nikolaeva (1999) Ostyak (43%) Keresztes (1998) Vogul (27%) Yamamoto (1984) Japanese journalese (20%); fiction (35%) English Svartvik (20%)

    59. Voice English & Spanish 59 Agents in periphrastic passives Be-passive Typically agentless but agent can be expressed, by In English overt expression of agent is tied to text type 20% to 4% academic prose > high fiction > low fiction > sports commentary > conversation Ser-passive Feature an overt agent marked by por more commonly than the English be-passive (Hidalgo 1994:180); 56% of the ser-passives in his texts are agent preserving Is it a passive or an inverse?

    60. Voice English & Spanish 60 The inverse analysis Direct vs. Inverse The direct voice is used if the agent is more topical or ontologically salient than the patient, and the inverse if the patient is more topical or ontologically salient than the agent. Traditionally the more salient or topical participant is called the proximate and the less salient or topical one the obviative

    61. Voice English & Spanish 61 Inverse in Algonkian Plains Cree (Wolfart 1973:25) a. sekih-ew napew antim-wa scare-dir man:prox dog-obv `The man scares the dog.' b. sekih-ik napew-a antim scare-inv man-obv dog:prox `The man scares the dog.'

    62. Voice English & Spanish 62 Extension of inverse (Givon 1994) Active: The agent is more topical than the patient but the patient retains considerable topicality. Inverse The patient is more topical than the agent but the agent retains considerable topicality. Passive The patient is more topical than the agent and the agent is extremely non-topical (suppressed, demoted).

    63. Voice English & Spanish 63 Overt agent in reflexive passives Get passive: only sporadic instances with overt agent Some authors claim that the agent if present is necessarily non-individuated. I might have got hit by a truck if it wasn’t for you. Maria goes all out as a Druid princess who gets to-timed by a Roman big shot. but In “The Poor Sailor” set to a libretto by Jean Cocteau, a kind of Grand Guignol by the sea, a sailor returns, unrecognised, and gets done in by his wife.

    64. Voice English & Spanish 64 Overt agent in reflexive passive Se passive No overt agent Cross-linguistically reflexive passives may have an agent

    65. Voice English & Spanish 65 Russian Devocka myla pol girl wash floor `The girl was washing the floor.' Pol myl-sja devockoj floor wash-refl girl:instr `The floor was being washed by the girl.'

    66. Voice English & Spanish 66 Old Italian Modern Italian does not permit an overt agent phrase in the reflexive passive but Old Italian did (Sanso 2006) Diachronic changes: overt agent; late 13th to 19th 14.3%, 7.08%, 4.9% 5.2% 1,01%

    67. Voice English & Spanish 67 Properties of agent Be and ser passives Actors rather than agents Agent – human instigators, effectors Actor – any subject argument of a transitive verb

    68. Voice English & Spanish 68 Passive actors Mary was kicked by the little boy. Mary was amused by the clown. Mary was noticed by the camera. Mary was frightened by the noise. Mary was overcome by drowsiness.

    69. Voice English & Spanish 69 Person considerations There are languages in which passive agents cannot be 1st or 2nd person Tiwa (Allen & Frantz 1978), Lummi (Jelinek & Demers 1983), Quiche (Mondloch 1978), Bella Colla (Forrest 1994) Both English and Spanish exhibit a strong dispreference for 1st and 2nd person agents

    70. Voice English & Spanish 70 Agents in reflexive passives Get passives Implied agent is human If overt (very rare) it tends to be non-individualised. He got run over by a drunken driver. ? He got run over by the man next door. Se passives Implied agent is necessarily human *Se rebuznó/ transcurrió brayed elapsed Se impersonal passive Implied agent is generalized human, including the speaker

    71. Voice English & Spanish 71 The uses of the passive Three domains (Givon 1984) Topicalization (fronting) Agent defocusing (impersonalization) Detransitivization (spontanaiety)

    72. Voice English & Spanish 72 Topicality of agent & patient Active: The agent is more topical than the patient but the patient retains considerable topicality. Passive The patient is more topical than the agent and the agent is extremely non-topical (suppressed, demoted).

    73. Voice English & Spanish 73 Patient topic The Glass Coach, in case you're disappointed, not made of glass but called Glass Coach because it has these very large windows and it's been customarily used by royal brides and then bridegrooms for many years. Here it must be said, that according to the custom of most legal gentlemen occupying chambers in densely populated law buildings, there were several keys to my door. One was kept by a woman residing in the attic, which person weekly scrubbed and daily swept and dusted my apartments. Another was kept by Turkey, for convenience sake. The third I sometimes carried in my own pocket. The fourth I new not who had.

    74. Voice English & Spanish 74 Topicalization Personal passives: topicalization of a patient, recipient etc. via subjectivization Not a necessary property if subjects in a language are not obligatorily preverbal Competition from other topicalization or fronting strategies In English: little competition In Spanish: considerably more competition

    75. Voice English & Spanish 75 Fronting in English Topicalization Left-dislocation

    76. Voice English & Spanish 76 Topicalization Have you thought of going to London? No, London I hadn't considered actually. Did you have hockey? No tennis n basketball we played. One was kept by a woman residing in the attic, which person weekly scrubbed and daily swept and dusted my apartments. Another was kept by Turkey, for convenience sake. The third I sometimes carried in my own pocket. The fourth I new not who had.

    77. Voice English & Spanish 77 Left-dislocation (1) Gelukens (1992); used to introduce usually irrecoverable, discourse new (but possibly inferrable) referents and a proposition concerning it. Used in interaction to highlight a referent. Prince (1997) Simplifying LDs Posit LDs Amnestying LDs

    78. Voice English & Spanish 78 Simplifying LDs Simplifying LDs, serve to simply the discourse processing of Discourse-new entities by removing them from a syntactic position disfavoured for discourse new entities and creating a separate processing unit for them. LD’s of subjects Conversation

    79. Voice English & Spanish 79 Simplifying LDs At the bottom of Clifton Street, two of the houses on there, they took theatricals in as well you see. And all my neighbour’s friends children, they were all at school. We stayed in and actually at that time, the Berlin wall, it was built.

    80. Voice English & Spanish 80 Poset LDs: part/whole Trigger or are part of a partially ordered set (poset); referents are typically recoverable She had an idea for a project. She’s going to use three groups of mice. (i) One she’ll feed them mouse chow… (ii) Another, she’ll feed them veggies. (iii) And the third she’ll feed junk food. Non-subjects and subjects Speech and writing

    81. Voice English & Spanish 81 Amnestying Topicalization is warranted on discourse grounds but not grammatical grounds, e.g. the extraction site is a relative clause Resumptive pronoun topicalization My first book, I paid half of each trick to the person who gave it to me. You bought Antilla? No, this is Alice Freed’s copy. My copy of Antilla, I don’t know who has it.

    82. Voice English & Spanish 82 Another type Unexpected Subject LD (Manetta 2007) Serves to simplify the discourse processing of entities which the hearer does not expect in subject position due to the structure of the preceding discourse by removing these NPs and creating a separate processing unit He didn’t need the money…He said, I want you to buy it, cause I know you’ll keep it open. My dad talked to the guy. And the guy who owned it, he got a loan.

    83. Voice English & Spanish 83 LDs in South Philadelphia Corpus

    84. Voice English & Spanish 84 LD & Top vs. passive LDs and Topicalizations are not good alternatives to the passive Most LD’s (simplifying) front subjects LDs and Topicalizations of objects virtually always feature pronominal subjects (agents); pronominal agents are extremely rare in the passive; passive agents if overt convey new information (Biber et al 1999:941 in 90%) The LD objects are typically not given (only 38% are given) and tend to persist in discourse (65%), while passive subjects are typically given but do not persist in discourse The objects of topicalizations are typically given (75%) but only 28% persist in discourse; they are generally contrastive.

    85. Voice English & Spanish 85 Fronting of Objects in Spanish OVS/OV-s: Topicalization: fronting of an object without a clitic: focus-fronting O clVS O cl V-s Left-dislocation: fronting with clitic doubling

    86. Voice English & Spanish 86 ?Focus/frontingTopicalization Tres guerras necesitó Roma para vencer three wars needed Rome to defeat a Cartago, que al final quedó…. to Cartago, which at last !Buen descanso ganó su pobre marido! good rest earned her poor husband.

    87. Voice English & Spanish 87 Left-dislocation LDs: Downing (1997:157) the most frequent function is to introduce inferrable entities and to refer anaphorically or exophorically to given ones La radio no la suelo escuchar the radio I don’t usually listen to it Eso ya lo veremos that we shall see it La nota grotesca la ponen la hilandera the note grotesque it put:3pl the spinner (and … the scribe

    88. Voice English & Spanish 88 LD vs. Passive Ser vs. Se personal (not impersonal) passive Fronted element of se passive is low in topicality (agent not expressed) Ser passive: fronted element is high in topicality and agent typically new LDs are much more likely alternatives to the ser-passive in Spanish since the object may be given and the subject represent new information El esperpentismo lo ha inventado Goya `Travesty in art was invented by Goya.’

    89. Voice English & Spanish 89 Subject postposing vs. passive But VOS is also possible. VOS more common than OVS Pinedo (1997) VOS (21%) and VSO (47%) are more common than OVS (17) Esta vez lo acompañaba Reyes, … `On this occasion he was accompanied by Reye,.. Les empujaba la curiosidad y la duda `They were spurred on by curiosity and doubt.’ Me arruina la agricultura `I am ruined by agriculture.’

    90. Voice English & Spanish 90 Impersonalization No overt subject No agent; no specific agent: a generalized human agent; a loosely specified human agent Major function of the passive Individualism is prized, egotism is not. Under Cromwell, lace was dismissed as ungodly - at least for the lower and middle classes.

    91. Voice English & Spanish 91 Other impersonalizing strategies Generalised nouns: people, humans, French on, German man, Italian uno Nonspecific uses of person forms (free or bound): 1pl, 2sg, 3sg, 3pl Special verbal forms, impersonal, reflexives, infinitival

    92. Voice English & Spanish 92 Special impersonal verbal forms Polish W szkole Piotrowi czesto dokuczano. In school Peter:dat often make fun:imper `At school, Peter was often made fun of.’

    93. Voice English & Spanish 93 Special impersonal verbal forms Estonian a. Poisid kaklesid oues boys fight:past:3pl outside `The boys are fighting outside.' b. Oues kakeldi outside fight:past:imp `People are fighting outside.’ /There is fighting outside.

    94. Voice English & Spanish 94 English & Spanish: impersonalization Infinitival constructions One/ uno 1st pl = we / verbal form 2sg = you/ verbal form 3pl = they/ verbal form People/

    95. Voice English & Spanish 95 Infinitival impersonals Es difícil [ solucionar este problema] is difficult to-solve this problem `It is diffiult to solve this problem’.

    96. Voice English & Spanish 96 One/uno Cuando uno prepara algo importante (uno) pone mucha atención en los detalles. `When one prepares something important, (one) puts much attention on the details.’

    97. Voice English & Spanish 97 1pl We know the average local temperature is rising. We’ve mapped the entire genome. Esto es America, ponemos el pais por delante del partido, señaló.

    98. Voice English & Spanish 98 2sg En este pais todos sabemos … cuál es el peaje que tienes que pagar para que te dejen en paz `In this country we all know… what price you have to pay in order for them to leave you in peace.’ You can get there by train. You have to take the train at Lancaster and get off at Windermere.

    99. Voice English & Spanish 99 2sg : Puerto Rico: overt tu Si, pero hubo gente que regresaron a los Estados Unidos, con diez mil, quince mil, y veinte mil dólares. Porque tú no gastas nada O sea, si tú te quedas en la barraca Tú no tienes que pagar desayuno, ni almuerzo, ni comida Tú no tienes que pagar ropa, ni laundry, nada, o sea `Because you spend nothing. In other words if you stay in the barracks, you don’t have to pay for breakfast, lunch, food, you don’t have to pay for clothing, laundry nothing.’

    100. Voice English & Spanish 100 Pronoun vs. verbal marking: Cameron (1997)

    101. Voice English & Spanish 101 3pl Dijeron en la radio que iba a llover. `They said on the radio that it was going to rain.’ En Paris conducen como los mil demonios.’ `In Paris they drive like a thousand devils.’

    102. Voice English & Spanish 102 Different types of impersonal 3pl Quasi-existential Specific Vague Inferred Corporate Quasi-Universal

    103. Voice English & Spanish 103 Quasi existential Specific Llaman a la puerta calling-3pl at the door They/someone is calling at the door. Vague Han encontrado una motocicleta en el patio `They’ve found a motorbike in the courtyard.’ Inferred They’ve stolen my bag!

    104. Voice English & Spanish 104 Corporate Occurs with predicates which presuppose a designated group carrying out the activity in question, e.g. deliver the mail, give leave, raise taxes etc. This very good orderly got local leave after he’d done his stint up country ‘cos he’d made such a good job of it, they gave him local leave.

    105. Voice English & Spanish 105 Universal All types of predicates; depends on a locative expression In Spain, they speak Spanish.

    106. Voice English & Spanish 106 Impersonal 3rd pl: only agr a. llaman a la puerta calling-3pl at the door They/someone is calling at the door. b. Ellos llaman a la puerta they calling:3pl at the door `They/*someone are calling at the door.‘

    107. Voice English & Spanish 107 Differences English vs. Spanish “!Que me matan!” Asi clamaba una liebre infeliz que se miraba en las garras un águila altanera. `“That they kill me”!. So lamented an unhappy hare that found itself in the claws of a haughty eagle.’

    108. Voice English & Spanish 108 Known individual Italian Cinque (1988: 543) Prima hanno telefonato: mi pareva earlier have:3pl telephoned; me seemed tua sorella your sister `Someone/*they telephoned earlier. It was you sister.’

    109. Voice English & Spanish 109 3pl best alternative to passive Excludes speaker One/uno, 1pl, 2sg includes speaker The be-passive and ser-passive are most vague with respect to the identity of the agent Pragmatically neutral (?) Register differences English decidedly colloquial Spanish?

    110. Voice English & Spanish 110 3rd pl vs. passive - What was the worst trouble you ever got into? - At school? - At school. - Oh, I got suspended for half a day. - Um (...), how'd you get punished? - They suspended me. Oh, they suspended you, that's right.

    111. Voice English & Spanish 111 3pl impersonal & universality Eurasia: I-E: Romace, Slavic, Germanic, Baltic, Greek, Kashmiri, Persian, Sinhala; Fino-Ugric: Hungarian, Finnish, Turkic: Turkish; Basque; Dravidian: Tamil Africa: AA: Arabic, Hebrew, Godie, Mupun; NK: Babungo, Nkore- Kiga, Fonge, Koromfe, NS: Kunama, Mundani, Ngiti New Guinea: Amele, Kobon Oceania: Tawala, Paamese, lgs of New Caledonia Australia: Marunguku America: Copala Trique, Tetelcingo Nahuatl NOT in Japanese, Thai, Mandarin, Cantonese, Vietnamese, Colloq. Sinhala

    112. Voice English & Spanish 112 Detransitivization Passives based on transitive verbs are syntactically intransitive No direct object Evidence via case marking Evidence via agreement marking Evidence via word order The intransitivity of passives best seen in languages which have ergative case or agreement marking The transitive subject (A) is distinguished from the intransitive subject( S)

    113. Voice English & Spanish 113 S, A & P

    114. Voice English & Spanish 114 Nominative vs. accusative

    115. Voice English & Spanish 115 Ergative/Absolutive

    116. Voice English & Spanish 116 Greenlandic Eskimo Anut-ip aran-q taku- vaa man-erg woman-abs see-IND:3sg:3sg `The man saw the woman.' Aran-q anuti-mit taku-tuu/niqur-puq woman-abs man-ablative see-PASS-IND:3sg `The woman was seen by the man.'

    117. Voice English & Spanish 117 Quiche a.X- ø- u- ramij lee chee lee achih ASP-3sgO-3sgA-cut the tree the man `The man cut the tree.‘ b. X- ø- ramij-x lee chee r-umal ASP-3sgS-cut-pass the tree by lee achih the man `The tree was cut by the man.’

    118. Voice English & Spanish 118 Spanish Bare plurals in postverbal position P, S and S derived via the se-passive Julia invitó a participantes de Mexico `Julia invited participants from Mexico.’ Vinieron participantes de Mexico came:3pl participants from Mexico `Participants from Mexico came.’ Se invitaron participantes de Mexico came:3pl participants from Mexico `Participants from Mexico were invited.’

    119. Voice English & Spanish 119 Semantic transitivity Passives are also less semantically transitive than actives Semantic transitivity is a matter of degree (Hopper & Thompson 1980) high > medium > low High transitivity Two participants, prototypical agent (human, volitional, intentional) and prototypical patient (physically affected) involved in a realized event (positive, completed, present/past, declarative). Passive: typically one overt participant

    120. Voice English & Spanish 120 Other detransitivizing constructions Reflexives decrease in the number of separate arguments (not of arguments) Anticausatives Decrease in the number of arguments The wind broke the branch. The branch broke. Spontaneous (uncontrolled) Polish Odbilo mi sie hit:neut:3sg I:dat refl `I hiccupped.’

    121. Voice English & Spanish 121 The most important function Topicalization Impersonalization Detransitivization Shibatani (1985): impersonalization (agent defocusing)

    122. Voice English & Spanish 122 The passive prototype: Shibatani (1985:837) Primary pragmatic function: agent defocusing Semantic properties: Semantic valence: predicate (agent, patient) Subject: affected Syntactic properties Encoding: agent ? Ø patient ? subject

    123. Voice English & Spanish 123 The passive & grammaticalization How grammaticalized are the respective passive constructions in Spanish and English?

    124. Voice English & Spanish 124 Grammaticalization The emergence of grammatical material from lexical material or more grammatical from less grammatical Typically morpheme or element based; the development of individual morphemes or grams (Lehmann 1985,1995; Bybee et al. 1994) along the following phonological, morpho-syntactic and functional dimensions

    125. Voice English & Spanish 125 The grammaticalization clines Phonological change P: Attrition: reduction > erosion > loss S: Fusion: Free > clitic > affix > zero Morpho-syntactic change P. obligatorification > fossilization > morphological loss S. rigidification [word order] Semantic functional change P. extension of semantic range > loss of function S. idiomaticization: compositional & analyzable > noncompositional & analyzable > unanalyzable

    126. Voice English & Spanish 126 What do we look at? The morphology of the predicate Periphrastic marking Degree of semantic bleeching of the auxiliary, e.g. Polish zostac vs. byc Synthetic marking Degree of synthesis clitic > agglutinative affix > fused affix The nature and marking of the passive agent the presence or properties of the agent phrase as a whole the properties of agent marker itself The nature of the passive subject

    127. Voice English & Spanish 127 References Cameron, Richard (1997). Accessibility theory in a variable syntax of Spanish. Journal of Pragmatics 28: 29-67. Downing, Angela (1994). The discourse-pragamtic functions of left-dislocations in Spanish. Paper presented at the 6th International Conference of Functional Grammar. York 25th August 1994.

    128. Voice English & Spanish 128 References Geluykens, Ronald (1992). From discourse process to grammatical construction. On left-dislocations in English. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Gregory, Michelle L. & Laura A. Michaelis (2001). Topicalization and left-dislocation: a functional opposition revisited. Journal of Pragmatics 33: 1665-1706. Prince, Ellen (1997). On the functions of Left-dislocations in English Discourse. In: Akio Kamio (ed.), Directions in Functional Linguistics. Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 117-143.

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