Impersonal Constructions

A cross-linguistic perspective

Editors

Andrej L. Malchukov | Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Institute for Linguistic Studies, St. Petersburg & Johannes Gutenberg University, Mainz

Anna Siewierska | University of Lancaster

Hardbound – Available

ISBN 9789027205919 | EUR 105.00 | USD 158.00

e-Book –

ISBN 9789027287168 | EUR 105.00 | USD 158.00

This volume offers a much needed typological perspective on impersonal constructions, which are here viewed broadly as constructions lacking a referential subject. The contributions to this volume deal with all types of impersonality, namely constructions featuring nonagentive subjects, including those with experiential predicates (A-impersonals), presentational constructions with a notional subject deficient in topicality (T-impersonals), and constructions with a notional subject lacking in referential properties (R-impersonals), i.e. both meteo-constructions and man-constructions. The typological discussion benefits from a good coverage of impersonality in European languages, but also includes considerations of several African, American, South-East Asian, Australian, and Oceanic languages. The variation in the cross-linguistic realization of impersonality and the diachronic pathways leading to and from impersonality documented in this volume point to a novel perspective on impersonals as transitional structures or an intermediate stage of a more basic diachronic change be it from transitive to intransitive, or from active to passive, or participant-to event-centered construction.

[Studies in Language Companion Series, 124] 2011. ix, 641 pp.

Publishing status: Available
Published online on 1 July 2011

https://doi.org/10.1075/slcs.124

Table of Contents

List of contributors | pp. vii–x

Introduction

Andrej L. Malchukov and Anna Siewierska | pp. 1–16

Part I. Impersonal constructions: Typological and theoretical aspects

Towards a typology of impersonal constructions: A semantic map approach

Andrej L. Malchukov and Akio Ogawa | pp. 17–54

Overlap and complementarity in reference impersonals: Man-constructions vs. third person plural-impersonals in the languages of Europe

Anna Siewierska | pp. 57–90

Verbs of motion: Impersonal passivization between unaccusativity and unergativity

Werner Abraham | pp. 91–126

On the distribution of subject properties in formulaic presentationals of Germanic and Romance: A diachronic-typological approach

Volker Gast and Florian Haas | pp. 127–166

Part II. Impersonal constructions: Diachronic studies

Impersonal constructions and accusative subjects in Late Latin

Michela Cennamo | pp. 167–188

From passive to impersonal: A case study from Italian and its implications

Anna Giacalone Ramat and Andrea Sansó | pp. 189–228

Passive to anticausative through impersonalization: The case of Vedic and Indo-European

Leonid Kulikov | pp. 229–254

Part III. Cross-linguistic variation in Impersonal constructions: Case studies

The Maa (Eastern Nilotic) Impersonal construction

Doris L. Payne | pp. 255–284

Impersonal constructions in Jóola-Banjal

Alain Christian Bassène and Denis Creissels | pp. 285–306

Impersonal configurations and theticity: The case of meteorological predications in Afroasiatic

Amina Mettouchi and Mauro Tosco | pp. 307–322

Revisiting impersonal constructions in Modern Hebrew: Discourse-based perspectives

Ruth A. Berman | pp. 323–356

The elephant in the room: The impersonal -ne/-te construction in Polish

Anna Kibort | pp. 357–394

Meteorological verbs in Uralic languages – are there any impersonal structures to be found

Merja Salo | pp. 395–438

Impersonal constructions in Ket

Edward J. Vajda, Andrey Nefedov and Andrej L. Malchukov | pp. 439–458

Impersonal verbs in Central Alaskan Yupik (Eskimoan)

Osahito Miyaoka | pp. 459–488

Impersonals in Innu

Lynn Drapeau | pp. 489–516

A diachronic study of the impersonal passive in Ainu

Anna Bugaeva | pp. 517–546

Referential impersonal constructions in Mandarin

Yi Yan and Anna Siewierska | pp. 547–580

Impersonal constructions in some Oceanic languages

Claire Moyse-Faurie | pp. 581–606

Impersonal constructions in Umpithamu and the Lamalamic languages

Jean-Christophe Verstraete | pp. 607–626

Author index | pp. 627–632

Language index | pp. 633–636

Language index | pp. 637–642

“The book is undoubtedly a welcome and useful contribution to language typology. Impersonal constructions have not been subject to a detailed and comprehensive cross-linguistic analysis before, and this volume successfully fills this gap. The editors can be praised for having been able to establish a good balance between descriptive and theoretical studies, as well as between synchronic and diachronic perspectives. The cross-linguistic coverage of the volume is almost comprehensive, with a slight bias towards Africa and Eurasia and a regrettable lack of Papuan and South and Meso American languages. Inclusion of several papers dealing with whole language families or areas instead of individual languages, thus addressing issues of intra-genetic and areal typology, is also an example to be followed.”

Peter M. Arkadiev, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow on Linguist List 23.1803, 2012

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This list is based on CrossRef data as of 2 november 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.

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