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Antipassive: Typology, diachrony, and related constructions
Edited by Katarzyna Janic and Alena Witzlack-Makarevich
[Typological Studies in Language 130] 2021
► pp. 427–446

Chapter 13
Antipassive derivations in Sino-Tibetan/Trans-Himalayan and their sources

| CNRS-CRLAO-INALCO

This paper presents an overview of antipassive constructions in the Sino-Tibetan/Trans-Himalayan family. It shows that all of these constructions are relatively recent developments, and originate from three distinct historical sources, including the incorporation of generic nouns, the verbalization of action nominalizations and reflexive/middle markers. All productive antipassive constructions in the family are found in languages with polypersonal indexation and ergative case marking.

Keywords: antipassive, denominal verbs, nominalization, grammaticalization, middle voice, incorporation, Gyalrongic, Kiranti, West-Himalayish, Old Chinese, Dulong-Rawang
Article outline
  • Introduction
  • 1.Antipassive and indefinite objects
    • 1.1Agent-preserving lability
    • 1.2Indefinite/generic objects
    • 1.3Light verb construction
    • 1.4Noun incorporation
  • 2.Incorporation of generic noun / indefinite element
  • 3.Action nominalization + denominal verbalization
  • 4.Reflexive/Middle
    • 4.1Kiranti
    • 4.2Dulong-Rawang
    • 4.3Kuki-Chin
    • 4.4West Himalayish
    • 4.5Old Chinese
  • 5.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • Abbreviations
  • References
Published online: 23 March 2021
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/tsl.130.13jac
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