Thomas Wier wrote:
I have read all your Phaleran posts with great interest; it's quite a
fascinating language, but so completely different from Kash that comparison
is almost pointless!
>Phaleran voices are, like all voices, basically ways for the language
>to reflect different levels of emphasis of one grammatical role (agent,
>patient, instrument, etc.) over another by changing the valence of the
>verb.
Kash has no passive voice (aside from the "accidental" or caka- form, which
corresponds to what we call the "paranoid passive"-- 'John got hit/cut etc';
'the food got dirty', but many other uses). Emphasis/focus depends mainly
on word order (there are nominal cases, so ambiguity is avoided) and
probably intonation; also on stylistics-- just as in Engl., one tries to
avoid sentence after sentence with the same structure.
> Syaseillu eoi gethasyonni
> PL.child.ERG 3SgObj see.TR.3PlPfRe.S
> 'The children looked at him/her'
Ana.la ne i.tingas(.sa)
child.PL 3s-DAT 3p.look at.(past-- can be/usu. is omitted)
'The children looked at him/her'
Verbs of perception take Human obj. in the dative; anim/non-human and neut.
in the acc.) so: anala yan itingas 'looked at it (e.g. an animal)'; anala
yu itingas 'looked at it (neut.)-- _yu_ also usu. omitted.
>PASSIVE and ANTIPASSIVE
>
>The passive is used to subordinate agents of transitive verbs so as
>to emphasize their patients. The antipassive is just the reverse of this:
>it subordinates the patient of transitive verbs to emphasize the agent
>of the action.
> Passive:
> Eo [syaseinto] gethabronni
> 3SgS [PL.child.INST] see.DETR.3PlPfRe.S
> 'He/She was looked at [by the children]'
Ne itingas anala. (I think in this case, 'the children' is old information;
it could be translated active or passive)
More emphatic and more "passive" in feeling: Ine itingas anala (heavy
stress on ine) '_He/She_ was looked at by the children' or even "it was
he/she whom the children looked at'
> Antipassive
> Syasei [eotwo] gethabronni
> PL.child-ABS [3SgDat] see.DETR.3PlPfRe.S
> 'The children looked [at him/her]'
Anala itingas ~ itingas anala. '...looked at (him/her/it)
The Kash would say, you've simply deleted the object because it's
clear/known from context.
Mightn't a better antipassive ex. be "he was eating" or "she was singing"?
In any case, not distinguised in Kash:
ya.nahan uku 3sg.eat uku 'he's eating uku'
yunda-yunda yanahan 'he eats constantly'
yarinju <aposimim> 'she's singing "Our ship"
yarinju ri yutroshin 'she's singing in the bathroom'
>Note that some verbs may still express the distinction between a control
>meaning ("look at") and a noncontrol one ("see") by using the dative in the
>noncontrol construction
True of some Kash verbs, but no longer productive; the average speaker is
probably only dimly aware that _tihas [tixas]_ 'glimpse', _tikas_ 'see' and
_tingas_ 'look at' are related.
> Passive:
> Eo [syaseiwo] gethabronni.
> 3SgS [PL.child.DAT] see.DETR.3PlPfRe.S
> 'He/She was seen [by the children]' (not: 'was looked at')
ne/ine itikas (anala).
> Antipassive:
> Syaseiwo [eotwo] gethabronni
> PL.child.DAT [3SgDat] see.DETR.3PlPfRe.S
> 'The children saw.' (not: 'looked')
anala itikas ~ itikas anala. Note: anale (dat.) cakatikas 'the children
saw (i.e. understood in a flash of insight)' vs. anala (nom.) cakatikas 'the
children popped into view, suddenly appeared'.
>REFLEXIVE, RECIPROCATIVE, and MIDDLE
> Reflexive:
> Syaseillu eoni gethaminni
> PL.child.ERG 3Pl-ProxO see.MID.3PlPfRe.S
> 'The children looked at themselves.'
anala nile.tu itingas (nile 3pl.Dat. -tu reflexive)
> Reciprocative:
> Syaseillu gethaminni
> PL.child.ERG see.MID.3PlPfRe.S
> 'The children looked at each other'
anala liya-liya itingas (liya 'other'; not inflected for case because it is
functioning here as a verbal modifier, "respectively, mutually") (Though I'm
not sure of this one...it might want _niletu_: anala niletu liya-liya
itingas-- because otherwise it could mean 'one after another, the children
looked at [something]')
> Middle:
> Syasei gethaminni
> PL.child-ABS see.MID.3PlPfRe.S
> 'The children got looked at/became looked at/let themselves be looked
at'
Hmmm. Not sure this is possible. Maybe: anale (dat.) itingas 'the
children were looked at/watched' but lit. 'they (~someone) looked at the
children' Most agentless passives go in the 3rd plur, by convention.