The antipassive voice is a verb voice found mostly in ergative languages. For English usage of verbs see the wiki article English verbs. In Grammar, the voice (also called gender or diathesis of a verb describes the relationship between the action (or state that the verb expresses and the participants identified An ergative-absolutive Language (or simply ergative language is a language that treats the argument (" subject " of an Intransitive Like the passive voice, the antipassive decreases the verb's valency by one. In Grammar, the voice (also called gender or diathesis of a verb describes the relationship between the action (or state that the verb expresses and the participants identified In Linguistics, verb valency or valence refers to the number of arguments controlled by a verbal predicate.
The antipassive works on transitive verbs by deleting the object (marked with the absolutive case) and changing the agent from ergative to absolutive. In Syntax, a transitive verb is a Verb that requires both a subject and one or more objects Some examples of sentences with transitive verbs An object in Grammar is a Sentence element and part of the sentence predicate. In Ergative-absolutive languages the absolutive ( abbreviated ABS) is the Grammatical case used to mark both the subject of an The ergative case is the Grammatical case that identifies the subject of a Transitive verb in Ergative-absolutive languages In such languages
- "Mary-ERG eats pie-ABS. " → "Mary-ABS eats. "
- "He-ERG is telling the truth-ABS. " → "He-ABS is talking. "
As with passive voice, the deleted argument can be re-introduced as an optional complement or oblique argument. A syntactic verb argument, in Linguistics, is a Phrase that appears in a relationship with the Verb in a Clause.
- "Mary-ERG eats pie-ABS. " → "Mary-ABS eats from the pie. "
Antipassives frequently convey aspectual or modal information, and may cast the clause as imperfective, inceptive, or potential. In Linguistics, the grammatical aspect of a Verb defines the temporal flow (or lack thereof in the described event or state Grammatical mood is one of a set of distinctive Verb forms that are used to signal modality. The imperfective aspect is a Grammatical aspect. It refers to an action that is viewed from a particular viewpoint as ongoing habitual repeated or generally containing internal
The purpose of antipassive construction is often to make certain arguments available as pivots for relativization, coordination of sentences or similar constructions. The syntactic pivot is the Verb argument around which sentences "revolve" in a given Language. A relative clause is a Subordinate clause that modifies a Noun. For example in Dyirbal the omitted argument in conjoined sentences must be in absolutive case. Dyirbal (also Djirubal) is an Australian Aboriginal language spoken in northeast Queensland by about 5 speakers of the Dyirbal tribe In Ergative-absolutive languages the absolutive ( abbreviated ABS) is the Grammatical case used to mark both the subject of an Thus, the following sentence is ungrammatical:
- *bayi yaɽa bani-nʲu balan dʲugumbil buɽa-n
- M-ABS man-ABS come-NFUT F-ABS woman-ABS see-NFUT
- 'The man came and saw the woman'
In the conjoined sentence the omitted argument (the man) would have to be in ergative case, being the agent of a transitive verb (to see). The ergative case is the Grammatical case that identifies the subject of a Transitive verb in Ergative-absolutive languages In such languages This is not allowed in Dyirbal. In order to make this sentence grammatical, the antipassive, which promotes the original ergative to absolutive - and puts the former absolutive (the woman) into dative case -, has to be used:
- bayi yaɽa bani-nʲu bagun dʲugumbil-gu buɽal-ŋa-nʲu
- M-ABS man-ABS come-NFUT F-DAT woman-DAT see-APASS-NFUT
- 'The man came and saw the woman'
Examples from Basque
Basque has an antipassive voice, which puts the agent into the absolutive case, but does not delete the absolutive object. Basque ( native name: euskara) is the Language spoken by the Basque people who inhabit the Pyrenees in North-Central Spain This leads to the agent and object being in the same case.
- Gauza miragarriak ikusi ditut (nik)
- thing wonderful-PL-ABS see-PERF have-PRES-PL-I (I-ERG)
- I have seen wonderful things.
when transformed using the antipassive voice, becomes:
- Gauza miragarriak ikusirik nago / ikusia naiz
- thing wonderful-PL-ABS see-PERF-STAT am / see-PERF-ACT am
- I am seen wonderful things
External links
- What is Antipassive Voice? at SIL
- Antipassive voice bibliography at Ethnologue
- "Asymmetries between Passivization and Antipassivization in the Tarramiutut Subdialect of Inuktitut" by Matthew Beach (MS-Word file)
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