Re: Strange voices

Pablo Flores wrote:


> 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!
>
Your sentence (quoting from memory)--
    mat (P)  slept-on  cat (Obl.)

and some of the other exs. struck me as very Philippine, where almost any
constituent in the sentence can receive focus, indicated by the proper verb
affix (and the subject marker, which you don't have; word order or case
marking would work as well).