Re: passive ergative?

Hi!

Jeff Rollin writes:
> A throwaway comment on a Wikipedia page about grammatical voice said
> something like "ergative languages often have a passive voice as well
> as an antipassive", but didn't give any examples.
>
> Does anyone know of an erg lang that has a passive in addition to (or
> instead of) an antipassive, and what the difference between the two
> is?
I will have to cite the same lang twice today :-).  Kalaallisut is an
example here: it is ergative and has both antipassive and passive
constructions.

The difference of normal vs. passive is basically the same as in
English active vs. passive, namely a demotion of the A argument to an
oblique argument.  The verb becomes intransitive.  The antipassive
demotes the P argument:

              Abs/Erg               Nom/Acc
              A      P              A       P
normal:       X.ERG  Y.ABS          X.NOM   Y.ACC
passive:      Y.ABS  X.Oblique      Y.NOM   X.Oblique
antipassive:  X.ABS  Y.Oblique

**Henrik