Solving the puzzle of the Lithuanian passive

Collection:
Mokslo publikacijos / Scientific publications
Document Type:
Knygos dalis / Part of the book
Language:
Anglų kalba / English
Title:
Solving the puzzle of the Lithuanian passive
Authors:
In the Book:
Voice and argument structure in Baltic / edited by Axel Holvoet, Nicole Nau. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company, 2015. P. 323-365
Keywords:
LT
Malta; Lietuva (Lithuania); Žodžių kaityba / Inflection.
Summary / Abstract:

LTReikšminiai žodžiai: Akivaizdumas; Beasmenės konstrukcijos; Dabartinės lietuvių kalbos tekstynas; Lietuvių kalbos pasyvas; Neveikiamosios rūšies dalyviai; Corpus of Contemporary Lithuanian; Evidentiality; Impersonal constructions; Lithuanian; Lithuanian passive; Passive participants.

ENThis article deals with Lithuanian constructions containing non-agreeing passive participial forms ending in -ma/-ta which traditionally are regarded as impersonal passives. Some types of -ma/-ta constructions violate the Unaccusative Hypothesis, as they can be derived from unaccusatives, personal passives and even a couple of meteorological verbs. In our article we investigate whether Lithuanian -ma/-ta constructions could be more plausibly analysed as morphosyntactic impersonals, as suggested by Blevins (2003). Our analysis shows that while some -mal-ta constructions meet the conditions for morphosyntactic impersonals, others can be analysed as personal passives with non-canonical subjects, whereas constructions with -ma/-ta forms of intransitive unergative predicates are ambiguous between an impersonal passive and an active impersonal interpretation. We also argue that evidential constructions with -ma/-ta participles are neither passives nor impersonals, but active evidentials with overt genitival subjects. [From the publication]

Subject:
Kalbotyra / Linguistics
Related Publications:
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https://www.lituanistika.lt/content/65516
Updated:
2018-04-04 23:58:21
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