Re: Is this a passive?

Estel Telcontar wrote:

>I have a morpheme in mind for one of my languages, and I'm wondering if
>it counts as a passive.
[dot dot dot]

>if the original
>subject is still expressed, it is expressed as a direct object, not as
>an oblique.
  The term "inverse" might apply here. Describing Morphosyntax has some
good examples of how inverse works with proximate/obviative systems (that
is, if I remember that right).
  Rhean has a spookily similar option for its passive, but I haven't used
it very much. The passive in Rhean is an adjective in form:

dövmek - (to) hit v.
dövmibza - (having been) hit aj.

Frat yan dövme. - (my) brother hits me.
Dövmibza c'em. - I am hit. (c'em = I am)

  But you cannot use the agent with "by" as you can in English. The closest
Rhean equivalent to "by" is |nap| and it *only* indicates an instrument
(often shown in English as "with"). So if you were to say |nap fratom
dövmibza c'em|, it means you were hit "by/with your brother" in that
someone picked him up and swung him at you.
  An agent can be shown in the passive by using a preposition |zize| which
comes from the verb |zizek| "suffer the actions of, be affected by".
Because the object of this preposition was originally the object of the
verb |zizek|, it takes the accusative case. Many prepositions can be
omitted if the context is clear, so you end up with an agent marked only by
the accusative case:

(zize) Fratin dövmibza c'em.
("by") brothers-ACC hit-PASS be:1SG
I am hit by my brothers[1]

  This is considered old-fashioned usage though; modern Rhean strongly
prefers active voice when there is an agent.

M

[1] |frat| in the singular accusative is still |frat|, so I used the plural
to show this better.

Reply