Passive in Nganasan

In this paper, the passive constructions in Nganasan will be discussed froma semanticfunctional point of view. Nganasan (also called Tavgi and Tavgi-Samoyed) is one of the Northern Samoyed languages belonging to the Uralic language family. Nganasan is an essentially agglutinative accusative SOV language.

In Nganasan, there is a derivational verbal suffix which turns transitive verbs into passive ones. The structural object of the transitive verb becomes the subject of the corresponding passive construction. The formation of passive verbs is quite productive. The discussion will concentrate on the aspectual and modal properties of the passive verb constructions, the semantics of subjects, and the discourse functions of these constructions.

Along with the passive verbal constructions, there are passive constructions based on participles. An analysis of Nganasan participial passive constructions will be provided and the criteria for the use of a particular participle will be discussed. In the conclusion, the main function of the Nganasan passive will be formulated.

An analysis of syntactic and discourse functions of Nganasan passive verb constructions and the criteria of the participle choice in the participial passive constructions constitute a new input in the research of Nganasan syntax.