Cover not available
Part of
Perspectives on Linguistic Structure and Context: Studies in honor of Knud Lambrecht
Edited by Stacey Katz Bourns and Lindsy L. Myers
[Pragmatics & Beyond New Series 244] 2014
► pp. 17–38

Non-promotional passives and unspecified subject constructions

Navigating the typological Kuiper Belt

The passive construction, one of the most scrutinized across varying theoretical and typological perspectives, sometimes gives rise to disagreements among linguists about the membership of particular cases. “Non-promotional” passives are a key example: they lack overt subjects but govern accusative objects and may be categorized as either passives or impersonal actives with null unspecified human subjects. Based on Irish, Polish, Ukrainian, Icelandic, and Pomo data, we argue that disagreements stem from two sources: (a) linguists’ differing theorizations of “passive,” including their tacit commitments to the importance of distinct constructional features for a theory of language; and (b) differing native speaker judgments, which reveal two distinct and persistent analyses of this configuration, arising from the syntactic ambiguity of verb forms with null surface subjects.

Published online: 5 March 2014
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/pbns.244.02con
References (34)
Árnadóttir, Hlíf, Thórhallur Eythórsson, and Einar Freyr Sigurðsson
2011 “The Passive of Reflexive Verbs in Icelandic.” In Nordlyd 37: Relating to Reflexives ed. by T. Strahan, 39–97. CASTL, Tromsø. [URL] DOI logo
Bird, Alexander, and Emma Tobin
2012 ”Natural Kinds,” In The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Winter 2012 Edition), ed. by Edward N. Zalta. [URL].Google Scholar
Blevins, James P
2003 “Passives and Impersonals,” Journal of Linguistics 39: 473–520. DOI logo.Google Scholar
Comrie, Bernard
2004 “English and Russian Passives Revisited.” Segundo Seminario de Voz, Cambio de Valencia y Formación de Palabras , Dpto de Linguística, Universidad de Sonora.Google Scholar
1989  Language Universals and Linguistic Typology . Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Corbett, Greville
2005 “The Canonical Approach in Typology.” In Linguistic Diversity and Language Theories , ed. by Z. Frazyngier, A. Hodges, and D. Rood, 25–49. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Deal, Amy R., and Mary C. O’Connor
2010 “The Perspectival Basis of Fluid-S Case-marking in Northern Pomo.” In Proceedings of SULA V: Semantics of Under-Represented Languages of the Americas ed. by S. Lima, 173–188. University of Massachusetts Occasional Papers 41.Google Scholar
Fillmore, Charles J
1988 “The Mechanisms of ‘Construction Grammar.’” In Proceedings of the Fourteenth Annual Meeting of the Berkeley Linguistic Society , Berkeley, CA, 35–55.Google Scholar
Givón, Talmy
2006 “Grammatical Relations in Passive Clauses: a Diachronic Perspective.” In Passivization and Typology: Form and Function. Typological Studies in Language 68, ed. by W. Abraham and L. Leisiö, 337–350. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Haspelmath, Martin
1990 “The Grammaticization of Passive Morphology.” Studies in Language 14: 25–72. DOI logo.Google Scholar
2010 “Framework-free Grammatical Theory.” In The Oxford Handbook of Grammatical Analysis , ed. by Bernd Heine and Heiko Narrog, 341–365. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Keenan, Edward, and Matthew Dryer
2007 “Passive in the World’s Languages.” In Language Typology and Syntactic Description , vol. I, 2nd edition, ed. by T. Shopen, 325–361. Cambridge University Press.DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Keenan, Edward
1985 “Passive in the World’s Languages.” In Language Typology and Syntactic Description , vol. I, 1st edition, ed. by T. Shopen, 243–281. Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Kibort, Anna
2004 “Passive and Passive-like Constructions in English and Polish: a Contrastive Study with Particular Reference to Impersonal Constructions.” Ph.D. diss., University of Cambridge.Google Scholar
Kiparsky, Paul
2013 “Towards a Null Theory of the Passive.” Lingua 125: 7–33. DOI logo.Google Scholar
Lambrecht, Knud
1994  Information Structure and Sentence Form . Cambridge Studies in Linguistics 71. Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Maling, Joan
1993 “Unpassives of Unaccusatives.” Unpublished ms., Brandeis University.Google Scholar
2006 “From Passive to Active: Syntactic Change in Progress in Icelandic.” In Demoting the Agent. Passive and other Voice-related Phenomena , ed. by Benjamin Lyngfelt, and Torgrim Solstad, 197–223. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Maling, Joan and Sigríður Sigurjónsdóttir
2002 “The New Impersonal Construction in Icelandic.” Journal of Comparative Germanic Linguistics 5: 97–142. DOI logo.Google Scholar
McCloskey, James
2007 “The Grammar of Autonomy in Irish.” Natural Language and Linguistic Theory 25: 825–857. DOI logo.Google Scholar
Mithun, Marianne
2008 “Does Passivization Require a Subject Category?” In Case and Grammatical Relations: Studies in Honor of Bernard Comrie , ed. by Greville Corbett and Michael Noonan, 211–240. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Noonan, Michael
1994 “A Tale of Two Passives in Irish.” In Voice: Form and Function , ed. by Paul Hopper, and Barbara Fox, 279–312. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
O’Connor, Mary Catherine
1980 “Some uses of case-marking in Northern Pomo.” In Proceedings of the 1980 Hokan Languages Workshop, ed. by J. Redden, 23–32. Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois University.Google Scholar
1985 “Bound Anaphora in Northern Pomo.” In Proceedings of the 1984–85 Hokan Languages Workshop , ed. by J. Redden, 59–69. Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois University.Google Scholar
1992  Topics in Northern Pomo grammar . Outstanding Dissertations in Linguistics. Garland Press.Google Scholar
1993 “Disjoint Reference and Pragmatic Inference: Anaphora and Switch Reference in Northern Pomo.” In The Role of Theory in Language Description , ed. by W.A. Foley, 215–242. Trends in Linguistics: Studies and Monographs No. 69. W. Winter, Series Editor. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Ó Sé, Diarmaid
2006 “Agent Phrases with the Autonomous Verb in Modern Irish.” Ériu 56: 85–115. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Plank, Frans
1993 “Peculiarities of Passives of Reflexives in German.” Studies in Language 17: 135–67. DOI logo.Google Scholar
Schäfer, Florian
2012 “The passive of reflexive verbs and its implications for theories of binding and case.” Journal of Comparative Germanic Linguistics 15:213–268. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Shibatani, Masayoshi
1985 “Passives and Related Constructions: A Prototype Analysis.” Language 61 (4):821–848. DOI logo.Google Scholar
Siewierska, Anna, and Dik Bakker
2012 “Passive Agents: Prototypical vs. Canonical Passives.” In Canonical Morphology and Syntax , ed. by D. Brown, M. Chumakina, and G. Corbett, 151–189. Oxford: Oxford University Press. DOI logo.Google Scholar
Sigurðsson, Halldór Ármann
1989 “Verbal Syntax and Case in Icelandic.” Ph.D. diss., Lund University. Published by the Linguistic Institute, University of Iceland.Google Scholar
Sobin, Nicholas
1985 “Case Assignment in Ukrainian Morphological Passive Constructions.” Linguistic Inquiry 16 (4):649–662.Google Scholar
Thráinsson, Höskuldur
2007  The Syntax of Icelandic . Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logo.Google Scholar