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Antipassives

From:Ian Spackman <ianspackman@...>
Date:Thursday, July 17, 2003, 12:58
How common are antipassives?

I'm sure I once read (whether it's true or false) that passives approach
universality (presumably in nominative languages).  Is this true?  Does the
same hold for antipassives in ergative languages?

The reason I ask is that I don't have an antipassive in Holic, and nor do I
see a likely way to construct one.  Any former antipassive would have been
lost in the Old Holic period, and I can't see how a replacement would have
arisen.  So the question is, is this a problem?

Or, I suppose: is there a reason that (anti)passives are especially useful
that hasn't occurred to me?

Ian

Replies

Christophe Grandsire <christophe.grandsire@...>
Ian Spackman <ianspackman@...>