Chapter published in:
Antipassive: Typology, diachrony, and related constructions
Edited by Katarzyna Janic and Alena Witzlack-Makarevich
[Typological Studies in Language 130] 2021
► pp. 483–514

Chapter 15
Indirect antipassive in Circassian

| Institute of Slavic Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences | Russian State University for the Humanities
| Higher School of Economics | Russian Language Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences

The article focuses on antipassive formation in Adyghe and Kabardian (Circassian < West Caucasian), polysynthetic languages with ergative alignment of basic morphosyntax. The Circassian antipassive is typologically unusual in several respects. First, it is derived not only from transitive, but also from intransitive verbs: in these cases, it eliminates the indirect object. Thus, antipassive in Circassian targets an object argument, but not necessarily the direct object, contradicting the general ergative patterning. Second, the Circassian antipassive is expressed by the change of the root-final vowel, which complicates the determination of the direction of the valency change. Third, although the Circassian antipassive mainly fulfils the semantic functions typologically associated with antipassives, sometimes the syntactic type of the argument (i.e. nominal vs. clause) is relevant for the choice of the valency frame as well.

Keywords: Circassian languages, polysynthesis, intransitive verbs, lability, applicatives
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Typologically relevant features of Circassian languages
  • 3.The morphology of the Circassian antipassive
    • 3.1Marked antipassive
    • 3.2Unmarked antipassive
    • 3.3The issue of directionality and formal marking
  • 4.Antipassive and the verbal lexicon
  • 5.Syntax, semantics and pragmatics of antipassivization in Circassian
  • 6.Typological outlook and conclusions
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • Abbreviations
  • References
Published online: 23 March 2021
https://doi.org/10.1075/tsl.130.15ark
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