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Voice English
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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.