Re: Passive and active....

* Barry Garcia (Barry_Garcia@monterey.edu) [991227 08:24]:
/snippage/
> So, how do all of your languages handle active and passive voice, if at
> all?
I still haven't got the complete picture on voice and valence in ta:ruven,
and too much happened during my christmas-vacation (the usual, eating and
sleeping and dozing off alot) for me to look closer into it. However I'm
assembling various findings on verbs at:
    http://home.nvg.ntnu.no/~taliesin/taruven/sketches/verbs2.html

Anyway: here's what I currently know (I've used OSV order just to mess
with yer heads, muhahaha!):

sïon = thing (inanimate)
gav = doc (animate)
'ran: = break (transitive)
-aþ = word is patient in clause
-en = plural

Active, unmarked:
  sïonaþ gav 'ran: "the dog breaks the thing"
Passive, <-aál>:
  sïonaþ 'ran:aál "the thing is broken"
  sïonaþ gav 'ran:aál "the thing is broken by the dog"
    (agent/subject may be mentioned)
Poetic passive, <y->:
  sïonaþ y'ran: "'they' break the thing'"[1]
    ('they' can be everything from Big Brother to 'the way it is')
Reflexive, <-'ux>:[2]
  sïon 'ran:'ux "the thing breaks itself"
    (must be an animate thing. Maybe a Disney-teapot or sumthin')
Reciprocal, <-tca>:
  gaven 'ran:tca "the dogs break each other"
  gav 'ran:tca "the dogs break each other"
    (if (single) agent not marked for plural, interpreted as plural)
  gav sïon 'ran:tca "the dog and the thing break each other"
    (several agents possible through implicit conjunction)
Reflexive-reciprocal, <-s'u>:[2]
  gaven 'ran:s'u "the dogs break themselves and each other"
    (same notes as for reciprocal)
Experiencer-causative, <-ac>:
  gavel 'ran:ac... "the dog do the breaking so that..."
    (basically adds a 'that', interpretation varies)
Object incorporation:
  gav 'ran:sïon "the dog thing-breaks"
    (verb+patient/object, "stale" incorporations also known as verb-noun
    construction)

No good examples on the causativizer and the detransitivizer, other may
still be lurking.

[1] Ahem, "lifted" from Akan :)
[2] The actual form of the affix might be dialectal, more data required


tal.
--
Teflon Brain 2000(tm) - Excuse of the Future!