Re: Strange voices

Replying to several posts at once...

Christophe asks:
> > Does it mean that unlike English, in Terbian transitive verbs are
> > mandatorily transitive? (i.e. you cannot just omit the object)
Well, yes, you can omit the full object, but there's an
object prefix that you still have to keep. Note that verbs
that take an Agent-Subject are not necessarily transitive,
though.

Christophe:
> > I think it is an antipassive, but I'm not sure, since antipassive fits
> > better in ergative contexts. Daniel?
The name "antipassive" popped up in my head immediately,
but you're right that it sounds like a voice in an ergative
system, and besides, a voice that is mainly a syntactical
device -- while this voice gives a definite semantic twist.

Daniel:
> I thought it looked somewhat like an
> anti-passive as well, but not quite, since it -- as Pablo says --
> focuses on the predicate in some way.
> ... is "bite" transformed into an adjective of some kind? Like
> "be the one who bites", and then it's a stative verb, and thus
> takes a P subject?
That's it! That's definitely it. That's what I was trying to
convey -- the subject suddenly becomes something whose state
is described by the verb (i. e. a Patient), and the verb can
therefore be reinterpreted as a stative expression. Thanks a lot!

Now I *need* to go find suitable excuses for using this voice. :)


--Pablo Flores
  http://www.angelfire.com/scifi2/nyh/index.html
  "Your freedom justifies our war."
    (Niccolò Macchiavelli -- slightly paraphrased.)

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