Re: Re : THEORY : voices

Irina Rempt wrote:
>
> On Sat, 1 May 1999, From Http://Members.Aol.Com/Lassailly/Tunuframe.Html wrote:
>
> (somehow I don't believe that that's your name :-)
>
> > antipassive :
> > to sell = the sellsman sells cars = active
> > to be sold = the cars are sold = passive
> > to sell = the cars sell well = antipassive
>
> Ah! At last an explanation that I can understand. Thanks!
That's not actually antipassive.  That's actually middle voice.
Antipassive doesn't exist in nominative languages.  The antipassive is
basically the ergative equivalent of the passive.  The passive turns the
patient of a transitive verb into the subject of an intransitive verb
(he-AGENT sells cars-PAT --> cars-SUBJ sells (he-OBL); where OBL means
"oblique", different languages use different cases or constructions).
The antipassive turns the agent of a transitive verb into the subject of
an intransitive verb (he-AGENT sells cars-PAT --> he-SUBJ sells
(cars-OBL)); it can be used to allow transitive verbs with no expressed
object, just as passive allows transitive verbs with no expressed
subject.

--
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was hanged." - Irish proverb
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