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<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";
color:#1F497D'>In certain languages, like German and Zulu, intransitive verbs
can be passivized, producing forms which literally mean ‘it was danced’;
‘it is worked’, where the ‘it’ is a dummy subject. (Idiomatically
translated: ‘there was dancing;’ ‘people are working’).
Could this not be a similar phenomenon? If so, then the direct translation of (4)
would be more like ‘to them it was attacked’, with a non-argument ‘pro’
subject. (In the German construction, the dummy subject is an overt pronoun ‘es’,
but in Zulu it is an empty pronoun, agreeing with the impersonal form of the
verb, marked by the verbal prefix ‘ku-‘.)<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";
color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";
color:#1F497D'>Regards<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";
color:#1F497D'>Andrew<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";
color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal><b><span lang=EN-US style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:
"Tahoma","sans-serif"'>From:</span></b><span lang=EN-US style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'> Lexical-Functional Grammar List
[mailto:lfg@listserv.linguistlist.org] <b>On Behalf Of </b>Fatemeh Nemati<br>
<b>Sent:</b> 26 August 2010 08:42 PM<br>
<b>To:</b> LFG@LISTSERV.LINGUISTLIST.ORG<br>
<b>Subject:</b> a challenging passive in Persian<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal>Dear all, <br>
<br>
First of all, I want to thank George Aaron Broadwell and Andrew Koontz-Garboden
for their kind feedback regarding my inquiry on passive vs. inchoative
constructions. <br>
Now my second inquiry on passives in Persian: <br>
I have come across a kind of passive construction in Persian that involves
Indirect Objects and want to know if you have come across this phenomenon
(given that the existence of passive constructions in Persian is questioned by
some researches (Moyne 1974, Vahedi-Langrudi)). <br>
In canonical type of passive, the agent with the grammatical function subject
gets suppressed and the patient functioning as the direct object is linked to
the the Subject function. This type is attested and described in Persian, as in
many other languages (1-2). What is interesting is that passivization applies
to structures lacking a direct object. These sentences in both active and
passive voice are of the configuration illustrated in (3-4). <br>
<br>
1.ACTIVE<br>
SUBJ OBJ V<br>
<u>sina </u> <u>xane-i</u> <u>saxt</u>.<br>
Sina house-a built<br>
Sina built a house. <br>
<br>
<br>
2. PASSIVE<br>
SUBJ V<br>
<u>xane-i</u> <u>saxte Sod</u><br>
house-a built become<br>
A house was built. <br>
<br>
<br>
3. ACTIVE:<br>
SUBJ
IO V<br>
<u>doSman</u> <u>be anha</u>
hamle kard<br>
enemy to they
attack did<br>
<br>
The enemy attacked them. <br>
<br>
4. PASSIVE<br>
IO V<br>
<u>be anha</u> <u>hamle Sod</u><br>
to they attack become<br>
They were attacked. <br>
<br>
As it can be observed, the agent is suppressed, but as for the Indirect Object
functioning as the subject, one can not claim such a thing, because according
to the grammar of Persian, a propositional phrase can not function as a
subject. A fact about Persian is that it is a pro-drop language, but positing
the existence of a small "pro" in the place of the Subject would not
be a solution because it ends up in violating the coherence condition, as there
will be an extra function which is not designated by the passive verb. As for
agreement on the verb, the verb takes an unmarked third person agreement; it
does not show agreement with the pronoun contained in the IO, which is the
affected entity from a semantic point of view. I am curious to know if
there is any other language that shows these properties where a sentence
containing an Indirect Object is passivized, the subject is suppressed, the
indirect object remains intact and finally in ends up in a subject-less
sentence. <br>
The construction, however, is different from impersonal constructions which are
similar to passives. Persian impersonals have a pronoun as the subject which is
referentially non-specific. <br>
<br>
All the best, <br>
Fatemeh<o:p></o:p></p>
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