Files F & G Flashcards
Voice
The term used to describe the grammatical system concerned with the correspondences or ‘mapping’ between thematic roles and grammatical relations, especially the subject.
Active voice
Voice category where the agent is expressed as the subject.
Most common/basic voice category.
Passivization
An operation that restructures the mapping relations between thematic roles and grammatical relations.
‘Downgrading’ the element that would otherwise have been the subject (the agent) and (usually) upgrading the element that would have otherwise been the direct object - in reference to the relational hierarchy. (Sub>dir obj>indir obj>oblique)
Typically resulting in the upgraded argument being more prominent and topical.
Detransitivizing operation
Another name for passivization (and antipassivization) operations as they typically demote the subject to an oblique, essentially leaving a one argument verb, reducing the transitivity.
The five properties for the most basic type of passive are:
- It contrasts with another construction, the active.
- The subject of the active corresponds either to the non-obligatory oblique in the passive, or is not overtly expressed.
- The subject of the passive corresponds to the direct object in the active.
- The construction is pragmatically restricted relative to the active, in that it is used in fewer situations.
- The construction displays some morphological marking on the verb.
Pragmatics
How language is used to convey information
Pragmatic vs. Syntactic Consequences
Pragmatic: Results in the upgraded argument being more prominent and topical.
Syntactic: Upgraded argument now has access to a wider range of syntactic processes as subject than at it’s previous NP status.
Periphrastic Strategy
The use of an auxiliary verb together with some form of the detransitivized main verb to signal the passive.
The auxiliary verb can be:
- a verb of becoming or being
- a verb of receiving
- a verb of motion
- a verb of experiencing
Ex: I ATE the sandwich. vs The sandwich WAS EATEN by me.
Morphological Strategy
The use of an affix on the verb to signal passivization.
What are the two types of passivization strategies?
Periphrastic and Morphological
Some languages, like Korean, have both strategies
Potential markings for demoted agents include:
- An agentive pre/postposition
- A pre/postposition typically used for locations or sources
- The dative markers
- Instrumental or other oblique case
- The genitive case
- Not all languages mark the demoted argument. It can be signaled by positioning within the construction.*
- Indonesian and Hawaiian are the only languages that appear to have a special preposition for marking demoted arguments.*
Impersonal passives
Passive constructions in which no argument is upgraded following downgrading the agent. Instead, the subject is an expletive (a non-referring element).
These are most commonly constructed from intransitive verbs - generally unergatives.
Foregrounding passives
These highlight the non-agent argument by upgrading it to the more prominent subject position, where it can be identified as topic.
Function of the standard English passive.
Backgrounding passives
These passives have at their core function the removal of the agent argument from the most prominent in the clause.
Impersonal passives are of this type.
Pseudo-passive
Passive patterns in which the subject corresponds to the object of a preposition (an oblique) in the matching active structure.
It is often suggested that pseudo-passives are formed with the help of a reanalysis process that ‘fuses’ the verb and the preposition, creating a transitive verb to which the passivization operation can then apply.
Indirect passives
A type of passive in Japanese where the experiences occurs as the subject. There is no corresponding active sentence construction for this.
Sometimes they are referred to as adversity passives due to the reading that the subject is ‘adversely’ affected by the situation described in the sentence.
Antipassivization
An operation, in ergative languages, that applies to a transitive verb to downgrade the argument that would otherwise be the direct object by converting it into an oblique. This serves the purpose of making the ergative marked argument into an absolutive marked argument (at the top of the hierarchy) to wider the access to syntactic operations.
Direct object –> oblique
Subject of Trans verb –> Subject of Intrans Verb
Additionally, a semantic effect may be manifested in the interpretation of the verb, which may be perfective in the ergative and imperfective in the antipassive construction.
(true) middle voice
A construction that stands midway between the active and passive. Middles are taken to be structure in which the referent of the subject both instigates and is affected by the action denoted by the verb.
(English) middle voice
A pattern in English which have theme subjects and an unstated agent that is distinct from the theme. These differ from standard passives as they have no passive morphology and do not permit an oblique agent.
**Different than unaccusatives in English that have an identical structure. These do not express specific events but rather “middles” express generic properties and tendencies.
Inverse-Direct voice
A voice system that reverses the normal mapping between thematic roles and grammatical relations.
Direct: subject = agent and direct object = theme
Inverse: subject = theme and direct object = agent
**Based on animacy and/or person hierarchy
Symmetrical voice
A system in which there are competing transitive forms, one presenting the agent argument as syntactically prominent (the agentive voice) and the other making the theme argument syntactically prominent (the patientive voice).
Two defining features:
- Neither the agent nor the theme is oblique in either voice pattern.
- Neither voice is derived from the other; both typically have their own defining morphology.
Verbal focus
A system that uses a SERIES of verbal affixes to indicate the thematic role of a ‘focused’ argument.
Ex: Tagalog
Relative clause
A clause type that modifies a noun by providing information about its referents - typically restricting the pool of potential referents.
The noun that is modified by a relative clause is often called the ‘head,’ is outside of the clause.
Prenominal
When the relative clause precedes the head noun
Postnominal
When the relative clause follows the head noun
Head-external relative clauses
When the head of the relative clause appears outside the relative clause.
Head-internal relative clause
An occurrence in a NP-V language that allows the head to appear inside of the relative clause.
Resumptive pronoun
A resumptive pronoun is a “place holder” that is placed within the clause that matches the qualities of the head noun.
For a head-external relative clause to be well formed, it must contain either a ‘gap’ (empty position) or a resumptive pronoun that matches the head noun.
Relativized position
The part of the relative clause corresponding to the pronoun or gap that is matched with the head noun.
Relativized
The term used to describe the head noun once it’s been removed from the relative clause.
Relative pronoun
A pronoun such as who or which at the beginning of a relative clause, where it provides an intermediate link between the external head and the gap.
**Allowed by, but optional, in English, as well as the use of the complementizer that.
Correlative clause
A special type of construction in which the modifier clause is not structurally attached to the head that it modifies - instead, it attaches to the clause containing the item that it is to be modified.
The Accessibility Hierarchy for Relativization
—> Resumptive Pronoun Strategy
DO>IO>OBL>GEN>OBJ of comparison
Hierarchy effect for resumptive pronoun
If a particular relation in the hierarchy requires relativization via the pronoun Strategy, LOWER relations will be relativized using the pronoun strategy, not the gap strategy.
Relativization in Ergative language
Relativization (via gap strategy) can only happen to nouns that are marked as absolutive. For an ergative marked nominal to be the head of a relative clause, you must first apply antipassivization, and then relativize (via gap).
Considered to be the single most reliable test for syntactic ergativity.
Relativization in a language with symmetrical voice
Relativization can be done for the agent or theme within the agentive or patientive voice, respectively. However, you cannot relativize an argument outside of the voice that provides it with prominence.
