Part of
Impersonal Constructions: A cross-linguistic perspectiveEdited by Andrej L. Malchukov and Anna Siewierska
[Studies in Language Companion Series 124] 2011
► pp. 229–254
Edited by Andrej L. Malchukov and Anna Siewierska
[Studies in Language Companion Series 124] 2011
► pp. 229–254
Passive to anticausative through impersonalization
The case of Vedic and Indo-European
Vedic Sanskrit and other Indo-European languages attest a typologically remarkable change of passives to anticausatives. This semantic development is attested, foremost, for passives of several verbs of perception and knowledge (knowledge transfer) obviously, according to the scenario ‘Y is seen (known etc.) by smb.’ → ‘Y is seen (known etc.) [by smb.]’ → ’Y is seen (known etc.) [by generic passive agent]’ → ‘Y is visible (famous, etc.)’. A special variety of this development is instantiated by the passive of a verb of speech, ucyate ‘Y is pronounced’ → ‘Y [e.g. speech, musical instrument] sounds’. In addition, passive to anticausative transfer is attested for a small subgroup of verbs of caused motion. While in this latter case the rise of anticausative usages may be due to conceptualizing simple transitives as causatives (throw = ‘emake fall, make fly’, etc.), in cases of verbs of perception and knowledge we observe the rise of the anticausative usages through the stage which is called ‘impersonalization’ in Siewierska 1984 and explained in terms of ‘objectivization of knowledge’, i.e. knowledge without a knowing subject. In connection with these verbs, I will briefly discuss the relationships between ‘agentless’, ‘impersonalized’ and ‘impersonal’ passives. Keywords: passive; anticausative; impersonalization; impersonal passive; verbs of perception; objectivization; Vedic; Indo-European
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[no author supplied]
2022. Series preface. In Alignment and Alignment Change in the Indo-European Family, ► pp. vii ff.
[no author supplied]
2022. List of abbreviations. In Alignment and Alignment Change in the Indo-European Family, ► pp. xi ff.
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2022. Copyright Page. In Alignment and Alignment Change in the Indo-European Family, ► pp. iv ff.
[no author supplied]
2022. List of figures. In Alignment and Alignment Change in the Indo-European Family, ► pp. viii ff.
[no author supplied]
2022. List of tables. In Alignment and Alignment Change in the Indo-European Family, ► pp. ix ff.
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