Part of
Non-Canonical PassivesEdited by Artemis Alexiadou and Florian Schäfer
[Linguistik Aktuell/Linguistics Today 205] 2013
► pp. 281–296
In this study, I examine two indirect passive constructions in Japanese. Indirect passives are also known as “affective” passives since a participant in the encoded event is somehow affected. The two indirect passives discussed here crucially differ in the way the participant is affected. It is generally affected negatively with the rare-passive (hence, the “adversative” passive). In contrast, it is always affected positively with the morau-passive (hence, the “benefactive” passive). On the basis of this difference, I scrutinize the very notion of adversity and examine how the sense of adversity comes about for the rare-passive. I then discuss why adversity never arises for the morau-passive, and a benefactive reading instead obtains.