Re: Antipassive

Mangiat wrote:
> what are the purposes of the antipassive in an erg./abs. language?
1.  Unknown/unstated object, for instance: he-abs eat-antipassive-past =
"he ate"; he-abs eat-past = "he was eaten"; he-erg eat-past apple-abs =
"he ate the apple".  Incidentally, in one of my first conlangs, I
accidentally invented an antipassive.  In this lang, any verb could be
transitive or intransitive, for instance, the same verb could mean die
or kill, depending on if there was an object.  If the object wasn't
used, I had a "no object" particle for that, and this was before I'd
ever even heard of ergativity!  :-)
2.  Focus, for instance, he-abs eat-antipassive-past apple-oblique = "he
ate the apple", but with the focus being on the eater, related to number
3:
3.  Concord, he-abs sit.down-past and eat-antipassive apple-obl = "he
sat down and ate the apple"; similar to the way we'd say "he sat down
and was shot", if you used the active, "he sat down and shot", then the
subject would be the one doing the action, rather than having it done to
him.

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