Re: Re : THEORY : voices

Dans un courrier dat=E9 du 04/05/99 20:37:36  , Irina heeft geschreven :

<< Ah! At last an explanation that I can understand. Thanks!
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    Irina >>

Er... actually, it's a "wrong" explanation. You may also have read of (magic=
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"focus" : that's the same issue basically, although I will be told not withi=
n=20
a few minutes, I bet ;-). The trouble is when discussing of "focus", we tend=20
to... focus on "intransitive", "transitive" and "ditransitive" categories of=20
verbs only and never think over "transformative" and "perfective" categories=20
of verbs. The reason is that European languages usually do not mark the=20
difference between transitive and transformative verbs (not auxiliaries) so=20
we think of "ongoing states" instead of "transformed items".
But I guess "to sell (as a car does)" and Romance or Slavic reflexive ("se=20
vendre", "kupiti se") give a hint of how the different "core" actors of one=20
"verb" may become "subjects" of that verb in turn and can each gain their ow=
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"voice". Rabitting on again, think of Japanese :
mi-eru : to appear (intransitive ? antipassive ? attributive ?)
mi-ru : to see (transitive)
mi-seru : to show (ditransitive)
mi-saseru : to have someone see (transformative or factitive)
mi-rareru : to be seen (passive)
mi-serareru : to be shown (ditransitive passive ?)=20
(there are tens of other such verbs but writing it a hundred times may=20
finally make this one remarked :).
BTW, if you pointed that line of my post, I think the few other lines about=20
"sailing" are much more interesting because they show how so-called actors o=
f=20
"non-core" cases may actually become subjects of one verb through different=20
"active" and "passive" voices.
The problem is that noone usually cares because to notice it you need to=20
analyse each verb as a down-to-earth activity with a set of usual "actors"=20
such as tools, fuel, organs, product, message, etc... That kind of analysis=20
is not lofty enough, I guess.
But I did it. And I have found around 45 such actors of latent prospective=20
cases and 1 such actor of retrospective case which is never subject of the=20
verb. Sometime these actors appear integrated in agent nouns and substantive=
s=20
(for instance "-or" in "operator") but others are hidden ones, like "the=20
auxiliary instrument" (like bow and arrow, sail and boat).

Mathias