Re: Antipassive

> From: BP Jonsson
>
>
> >>I'm not keen on scrapping the topic marking by word order, but it seems
> >>that I don't really need both strict transitivity tagging *and* an
> >>antipassive form of the verb.
> >
> >No need to scrap topic marking word order, amman iar has both.
> Since your
> >transitivity tags function as valence decreasing operators, it would seem
> >to me that you would only need an antipassive voice if you language needs
> >to distinguish between the following operations:
> >
> >John kissed Mary -> Mary was kissed [by John] (Passive)
>
> _Maraendj Djanardj-al iskezd-aesj  _
> Mary John-ERG kiss-PAST
>
> >John kissed Mary -> John kissed, [Mary] (Antipassive)
>
> _Djanardj-al iskezd-aesj Maraendj  _
>
> so it seems these can be distinguished by word order and case marking!
That's not quite what I had in mind.  How would you distinguish the two
intransitive forms?  For example, in amman iar you would have:

active -- John kissed Mary.
          i chananne eleth ini mariel erdemiraen.

\t i   chananne        eleth             in
\m i   chan =an   -e   el-        -eth   in
\g the John =masc -[A] assertive- -past  agt.to.pat
\p det nam  =gnd  -erg mood-      -tense ptp
\x the John            did               agt.to.pat

\t i   mariel    erdemiraen
\m i   mar  =iel er-  tendo =mir     -ae      -n
\g the Mary =fem do-  touch =special -agt/pat -actn/proc
\p det nam  =gnd agt- v     =sfx     -val     -vc
\x the Mary      kiss

passive -- Mary was kissed.
           eleth ini mariel intemiraen.

\t eleth             in         i   mariel
\m el-        -eth   in         i   mar  =iel
\g assertive- -past  agt.to.pat the Mary =fem
\p mood-      -tense ptp        det nam  =gnd
\x did               agt.to.pat the Mary

\t intemiraen
\m in-      tendo =mir     -ae      -n
\g passive- touch =special -agt/pat -actn/proc
\p voice-   v     =sfx     -val     -vc
\x be kissed

antipassive -- John kissed.
               i chananne ervaltemiraen eleth

\t i   chananne
\m i   chan =an   -e
\g the John =masc -[A]
\p det nam  =gnd  -erg
\x the John

\t ervaltemiraen
\m er-  val-   tendo =mir     -ae      -n
\g do-  antip- touch =special -agt/pat -actn/proc
\p agt- voice- v     =sfx     -val     -vc
\x kiss

\t eleth
\m el-        -eth
\g assertive- -past
\p mood-      -tense
\x did

 Stay curious,
David

David E. Bell
The Gray Wizard
www.graywizard.net

Wisdom begins in wonder.

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