Re: Passive and active....

> From: Barry Garcia
>
> dbell@graywizard.net writes:
> >In addition to active, passive and antipassive voices, amman iar also has
> >ambient, applicative, causative, reflexive and reciprocal voices.
>
> Very interesting David.I had never heard of the antipassive until your
> email.What exactly do the ambient and causative voices mean?
AMBIENT:
The ambient voice demotes the S-function argument of an intransitive
predicate.  The demoted argument may not be expressed leaving no arguments,
i.e.. the context is universal rather than particular, thus

active: enal arunarth - It is hot. Here the 'it' is a pronominal anaphoric
reference to something specific which is hot, but
ambient: lasarunarth - (It) is hot. This is a non-specific reference.  The
'it' in the English gloss is a surface element only, required because
English does not allow a subjectless clause.  There is no 'it' of which the
predication is made.

CAUSATIVE:
In amman iar, grammatical voice is the mechanism used to modify the valency
or argument structure of the predicate.  since causative constructions add
an agentive argument to a predicate, they are implemented within the voice
system, thus

active:    eleth eni vegil ruvar - The sword broke.
causative: ir aegnoranne eleth ani vegil erennuvar - Aegnor broke the sword.

Unlike the English causative, the lexeme ruvo=break, cannot be used
causatively in active voice.  Thus both of the following English sentences
are grammatical:

The sword broke.
Aegnor broke the sword.

but, in the corresponding amman iar pair, only the first is well-formed:

eleth eni vegil ruvar - The sword broke
*ir aegnoranne eleth ani vegil erruvar - Aegnor broke the sword.

> I haven't thought about the other focuses and if and how they could be
> passive or active, but I would bet it is possible. Some probably tend to
> be passive in nature (such as the beneficial focus). I suspect that if I
> tinker with the markers, I can accomplish active or passive with the
> focuses.
I have a great deal of difficulty keeping up with the traffic on this list,
so I read it very selectively.  I probably missed your description of focus
in Saalangal, but would be very interested to hear it.  If you've already
posted such to the list, no need to repeat it here, just send it off-list.

Thanks
David