Re: Voices

Yann wrote:

<<
Hi! I was wondering if you knew any other voices besides active, passive,
middle and antipassive voice. And, can I call the reflexive form of a verb
the reflexive voice?
>>
Quite frankly, I'd like to see "voice" defined.  Everything that's been discussed
has been a mechanism in a language that somehow changes the valency
of a verb (I think only causatives haven't been mentioned yet, of the most
common ones).  How *all* these different things could be called "voices" is
something that strikes me as odd.

Anyway, you mentioned "passive" and "antipassive" above.  There's also
"ambipassive", used in a duative-unitive system.  Each of these, though,
is the same mechanism that achieves the same goal--the only thing that's
different is the type of system it's used in (the first, nominative-accusative;
the second, ergative-absolutive; the third, duative-unitive [or transitive-
intransitive, if you prefer]).  You can't have all three of these in a language
unless you have a split system.  Thus, an antipassive is different from English's
"eat", where you could have:

I eat an apple.
I eat.

The second is *not* the antipassive version of the first.

So, I'd answer the question you end with the same as others have: Sure, call it
the reflexive voice.  Why not?

And my question: Is there any sound definition of "voice"?  Here's what SIL's
glossary of linguistic terms says:

http://www.sil.org/linguistics/GlossaryOfLinguisticTerms/WhatIsVoice.htm

Incidentally, it says that what you'd call the reflexive voice is actually the
middle voice.  Here's its definition:

http://www.sil.org/linguistics/GlossaryOfLinguisticTerms/WhatIsMiddleVoice.htm

That's certainly very different from saying, "The soup that eats like a meal."  (I
believe that was from a Campbell's Chunky Soup commercial.)  It's not the soup
that eats itself like a meal, nor is it the soup that's eaten for its own benefit.  It's
a soup that one eats as if it were a meal, or that is similar in quantity (and quality?)
to a meal.

So anybody want to jump in here and say what "voice" exactly is?

-David