Re: Triggers and Voice

Barry Garcia:
-----<snip>-----
> Why i asked the question is, in Tagalog, i've read that the actor focus
> works something like active voice, and the object focus works something
> like passive voice, but not quite.
Actor and patient focus do indeed work like active and passive voice
respectively. But only to the extent that they promote the actor and
patient as subject/topic/focus. Their main difference is that the
valency of the verb in a voice system changes but does not in a trigger
system. So they are indeed not quite active and passive voices.

I'll try with examples to illustrate what I mean...

In English we have:

   ACTIVE
   "The bird ate the roach."           AGENT = subject
                                       PATIENT = object

   PASSIVE
   "The roach was eaten by the bird."  PATIENT = subject
                                       AGENT = oblique

Notice how the valency of the verb "to eat" differs. In the active
statement, the active verb form "ate" requires two arguments -- it
is transitive. On the other hand, the passive verb form "was eaten"
requires only one argument -- it is intransitive. The agent in the
passive form is an oblique argument, not a core argument.

In Tagalog we have:

   ACTOR FOCUS
   "Kumain ng  ipis  ang  ibon."       AGENT = focus
    eat:AT GEN roach TRIG bird         PATIENT = oblique

   PATIENT FOCUS
   "Kinain ng  ibon ang  ipis."        PATIENT = focus
    eat:PT GEN bird TRIG roach         AGENT = oblique

Notice how the valency has not changed in the Tagalog forms. In
both forms, the argument that is not in focus is an oblique
argument marked by a genitive marker.

Hope that helps.

-kristian- 8)

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