Cover not available

In: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

Get fulltext from our e-platform
JBE logo with link
PDF logo with download linkDownload Book PDF
authorization required

Non-promotional passives and unspecified subject constructions

Navigating the typological Kuiper Belt

Published online: 5 March 2014
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/pbns.244.02con
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.
References (34)
References
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]
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 logo with link to Google Scholar
Blevins, James P. 2003. “Passives and Impersonals,” Journal of Linguistics 39: 473–520. .Google Scholar logo with link to 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 logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1989. Language Universals and Linguistic Typology . Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar logo with link to 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. Google Scholar logo with link to Google 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 logo with link to 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 logo with link to 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. Google Scholar logo with link to 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 logo with link to 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.Google Scholar logo with link to Google 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 logo with link to 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 logo with link to Google Scholar
Kiparsky, Paul. 2013. “Towards a Null Theory of the Passive.” Lingua 125: 7–33. .Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lambrecht, Knud. 1994. Information Structure and Sentence Form . Cambridge Studies in Linguistics 71. Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Maling, Joan. 1993. “Unpassives of Unaccusatives.” Unpublished ms., Brandeis University.Google Scholar logo with link to 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. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Maling, Joan and Sigríður Sigurjónsdóttir. 2002. “The New Impersonal Construction in Icelandic.” Journal of Comparative Germanic Linguistics 5: 97–142. .Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
McCloskey, James. 2007. “The Grammar of Autonomy in Irish.” Natural Language and Linguistic Theory 25: 825–857. .Google Scholar logo with link to 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. Google Scholar logo with link to Google 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. Google Scholar logo with link to Google 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 logo with link to 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 logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1992. Topics in Northern Pomo grammar . Outstanding Dissertations in Linguistics. Garland Press.Google Scholar logo with link to 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.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ó Sé, Diarmaid. 2006. “Agent Phrases with the Autonomous Verb in Modern Irish.” Ériu 56: 85–115. Google Scholar logo with link to 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. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Shibatani, Masayoshi. 1985. “Passives and Related Constructions: A Prototype Analysis.” Language 61 (4):821–848. .Google Scholar logo with link to 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. .Google Scholar logo with link to 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 logo with link to Google Scholar
Sobin, Nicholas. 1985. “Case Assignment in Ukrainian Morphological Passive Constructions.” Linguistic Inquiry 16 (4):649–662.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Thráinsson, Höskuldur. 2007. The Syntax of Icelandic . Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. .Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cited by (1)

Cited by one other publication

Плунгян, В. А. & А. Д. Подгорная
2024. Корпусное исследование конкуренции конструкций с функцией «понижения агенса» в славянских языках. Studia Slavica Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae 67:1-2 ► pp. 115 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 28 november 2025. 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.

Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue