<div dir="ltr">Dear All,<div>with reference to Martin's email of 22.03.'21 which opened this thread I would like to quote the following para (from my article in the <i>Oxf. Res.Encycl.of Ling.</i> , OUP (updated May 2019) on 'Morphol. Units. Word'   doi: <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780199384655.013.543">http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780199384655.013.543</a>: <<Edith Morawcsik (LINGTYP 11.11.’17) rightly states that «we can work with any definition of "word" in crosslinguistic research and then see if that definition is useful or not ―i.e., whether it does or does not yield typological correlate». This is a sound pragmatic approach: any definition is ‘per se’ arbitrary and conventional, neither true nor false but operational or useless, i.e., either it applies or does not apply to the phenomena under scrutiny (see in the ‘wordhood’ debate Gil’s similar statement (15.11.’17): «My understanding of comparative concepts is that they don't "exist" or "fail to exist", but rather they turn out to be "more useful" or "less useful" to us ».>></div><div><br></div><div>Best,</div><div>Paolo</div><div><br></div><div><div><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_signature" data-smartmail="gmail_signature"><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr">prof. dr. Paolo Ramat<div><div> Università di Pavia (retired)</div><div>Istituto Universitario Studi Superiori (IUSS Pavia) (retired)</div><div>Accademia dei Lincei, Socio corrispondente<br><div>'Academia Europaea'</div><div>'Societas Linguistica Europaea', Honorary Member</div></div></div><div>piazzetta Arduino 11 - I 27100 Pavia</div><div>##39 0382 27027</div><div>347 044 98 44</div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div><br></div></div><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">Il giorno dom 4 apr 2021 alle ore 14:41 Martin Haspelmath <<a href="mailto:martin_haspelmath@eva.mpg.de">martin_haspelmath@eva.mpg.de</a>> ha scritto:<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex">
  
    
  
  <div>
    Many thanks for pointing out the relevance of this old paper, Randy!<br>
    <br>
    Heath nicely contrasts his own functional and particularist approach
    with Postal's categorial universalist position.<br>
    <br>
    Postal (1977) says that he "takes it as a major goal of grammatical
    theory to make available a restricted set of universal rules which
    ... play a role in the grammars of individual languages. This is the
    opposite of the position represented by the slogan <i>describe each
      language in its own terms</i>."
    <br>
    <br>
    By contrast, Heath says that he favours an "approach that
    presupposes painstaking formal/functional analysis of particular
    languages and is thus the opposite of the position represented by
    the slogan <i>describe each language in universal terms</i>"
    (1978: 89).<br>
    <br>
    Heath's paper is thus an interesting precursor to Dryer's seminal
    (1997) paper on the non-universality of syntactic roles
    ("grammatical relations").<br>
    <br>
    Best,<br>
    Martin<br>
    <br>
    <br>
    <div>Am 04.04.21 um 04:24 schrieb Randy J.
      LaPolla:<br>
    </div>
    <blockquote type="cite">
      
      Hi All,
      <div>I am just catching up on this list after some time,
        but in reference to the debate about passive and the question
        generally about how to compare constructions across languages,
        I’d jjust like to mention that Jeffery Heath once again was way
        ahead of the curve in a 1978 article in BLS arguing for
        functional universals:</div>
      <div><a href="https://escholarship.org/uc/item/2259z70z" target="_blank">https://escholarship.org/uc/item/2259z70z</a></div>
      <div><br>
      </div>
      <div>Although couched in an argument about Relation
        Grammar (remember that?) he goes into a discussion of how to
        compare passives and antipassives across languages, and has some
        interesting things to say.</div>
      <div><br>
      </div>
      <div>Randy<br>
        <div>
          <div dir="auto" style="color:rgb(0,0,0);letter-spacing:normal;text-align:start;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px;text-decoration:none">
            <div dir="auto" style="color:rgb(0,0,0);letter-spacing:normal;text-align:start;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px;text-decoration:none">
              <div dir="auto" style="color:rgb(0,0,0);letter-spacing:normal;text-align:start;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px;text-decoration:none">
                <div dir="auto" style="color:rgb(0,0,0);letter-spacing:normal;text-align:start;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px;text-decoration:none">
                  <div dir="auto" style="text-align:start;text-indent:0px">
                    <div style="text-align:start;text-indent:0px">
                      <div style="text-align:start;text-indent:0px">
                        <div style="text-align:start;text-indent:0px">
                          <div style="text-align:start;text-indent:0px">
                            <div style="text-align:start;text-indent:0px">
                              <div style="text-align:start;text-indent:0px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;font-size:15px"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:rgb(34,34,34);background-color:white">-----</span></span>
                                <div style="overflow-wrap: break-word;"><span style="border-collapse:separate;text-align:-webkit-auto;border-spacing:0px">
                                    <div style="overflow-wrap: break-word;"><span style="border-collapse:separate;text-align:-webkit-auto;border-spacing:0px"><span style="border-collapse:separate;text-align:-webkit-auto;border-spacing:0px">
                                          <div style="overflow-wrap: break-word;">
                                            <div style="color:rgb(0,0,0);letter-spacing:normal;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px;text-decoration:none"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:rgb(34,34,34);background-color:white"><b>Randy J.
                                                  LaPolla, PhD FAHA</b> (羅</span><span style="color:rgb(34,34,34);background-color:white;font-size:13px"><font face="Song">仁地</font></span><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:rgb(34,34,34);background-color:white">)</span></div>
                                            <div style="overflow-wrap: break-word;"><span style="background-color:white"><font size="2" face="Arial,
                                                  sans-serif" color="#222222">Professor
                                                  of Linguistics,
                                                  with courtesy appointment
                                                  in Chinese, School of
                                                  Humanities </font></span></div>
                                            <div style="color:rgb(0,0,0);letter-spacing:normal;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px;text-decoration:none"><span style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:Arial,sans-serif;font-size:13.3333px;background-color:rgb(255,255,255)">Nanyang
                                                Technological University</span></div>
                                            <div style="color:rgb(0,0,0);letter-spacing:normal;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px;text-decoration:none"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;font-size:15px"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:rgb(34,34,34)"><span style="background-color:white">HSS-03-45,
                                                    48 Nanyang Avenue </span></span></span><span style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:Arial,sans-serif;font-size:13.3333px;background-color:rgb(255,255,255);text-align:-webkit-auto">| </span><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;font-size:15px"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:rgb(34,34,34)"><span style="background-color:white">Singapore
                                                    639818</span></span></span></div>
                                            <div style="color:rgb(0,0,0);letter-spacing:normal;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px;text-decoration:none"><span style="text-align:-webkit-auto;background-color:white;color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:Arial,sans-serif;font-size:10pt"><a href="http://randylapolla.info/" target="_blank">http://randylapolla.info/</a></span></div>
                                            <div style="color:rgb(0,0,0);letter-spacing:normal;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px;text-decoration:none"><span style="text-align:-webkit-auto;background-color:white;color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:Arial,sans-serif;font-size:10pt">(<a href="http://personal.ntu.edu.sg/randylapolla" target="_blank">personal.ntu.edu.sg/randylapolla</a>)</span></div>
                                            <div style="color:rgb(0,0,0);letter-spacing:normal;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px;text-decoration:none"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;font-size:15px"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:rgb(34,34,34)"><span style="background-color:white">Most
                                                    recent books:</span></span></span></div>
                                            <div style="color:rgb(0,0,0);letter-spacing:normal;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px;text-decoration:none"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;font-size:15px"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:rgb(34,34,34)"><span style="background-color:white"><i>The
                                                      Sino-Tibetan
                                                      Languages, 2nd
                                                      Edition (</i>2017)</span></span></span></div>
                                            <div style="color:rgb(0,0,0);letter-spacing:normal;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px;text-decoration:none"><span style="background-color:white"><font size="2" face="Arial,
                                                  sans-serif" color="#222222"><a href="https://www.routledge.com/The-Sino-Tibetan-Languages-2nd-Edition/LaPolla-Thurgood/p/book/9781138783324" target="_blank">https://www.routledge.com/The-Sino-Tibetan-Languages-2nd-Edition/LaPolla-Thurgood/p/book/9781138783324</a></font></span></div>
                                            <div style="color:rgb(0,0,0);letter-spacing:normal;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px;text-decoration:none"><span style="background-color:white"><font size="2" face="Arial,
                                                  sans-serif" color="#222222"><i>Sino-Tibetan
                                                    Linguistics </i>(2018)</font></span></div>
                                            <div style="color:rgb(0,0,0);letter-spacing:normal;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px;text-decoration:none">
                                              <div style="overflow-wrap: break-word;"><span style="background-color:white"><font size="2" face="Arial,
                                                    sans-serif" color="#222222"><a href="https://www.routledge.com/Sino-Tibetan-Linguistics/LaPolla/p/book/9780415577397" style="color:rgb(149,79,114)" target="_blank">https://www.routledge.com/Sino-Tibetan-Linguistics/LaPolla/p/book/9780415577397</a></font></span></div>
                                            </div>
                                          </div>
                                        </span></span></div>
                                  </span></div>
                              </div>
                            </div>
                          </div>
                        </div>
                      </div>
                    </div>
                  </div>
                </div>
              </div>
              <br>
            </div>
            <br>
          </div>
          <br>
          <br>
        </div>
        <div><br>
          <blockquote type="cite">
            <div>On 24 Mar 2021, at 6:51 PM, Martin Haspelmath
              <<a href="mailto:martin_haspelmath@eva.mpg.de" target="_blank">martin_haspelmath@eva.mpg.de</a>>
              wrote:</div>
            <br>
            <div><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-weight:normal;letter-spacing:normal;text-align:start;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px;text-decoration:none;float:none;display:inline">Thanks, Bill – I agree with all
                this. Indeed, the choice of terminology is not
                straightforward and involves many considerations. We
                don't want our technical terms to be polysemous, but we
                tend to balk at too many new terms (I've had reviewers
                commenting negatively on my submissions because of my
                neologisms).</span><br style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-weight:normal;letter-spacing:normal;text-align:start;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px;text-decoration:none">
              <br style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-weight:normal;letter-spacing:normal;text-align:start;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px;text-decoration:none">
              <span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-weight:normal;letter-spacing:normal;text-align:start;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px;text-decoration:none;float:none;display:inline">But I wanted to mention that I
                recently formulated a universal that requires the
                definition of "passive" that I proposed earlier (in
                terms of verb coding):</span><br style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-weight:normal;letter-spacing:normal;text-align:start;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px;text-decoration:none">
              <br style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-weight:normal;letter-spacing:normal;text-align:start;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px;text-decoration:none">
              <span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-weight:normal;letter-spacing:normal;text-align:start;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px;text-decoration:none;float:none;display:inline">"Universal 13</span><br style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-weight:normal;letter-spacing:normal;text-align:start;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px;text-decoration:none">
              <span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-weight:normal;letter-spacing:normal;text-align:start;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px;text-decoration:none;float:none;display:inline">If a passive alternation is
                sensitive to givenness, then the passive alternant tends
                to be used when the original A is not given information
                and/or the original P is not new information."
                (Haspelmath 2021: 155)</span><br style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-weight:normal;letter-spacing:normal;text-align:start;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px;text-decoration:none">
              <br style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-weight:normal;letter-spacing:normal;text-align:start;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px;text-decoration:none">
              <a href="https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/ling-2020-0252/html" style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-weight:normal;letter-spacing:normal;text-align:start;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px" target="_blank">https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/ling-2020-0252/html</a><br style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-weight:normal;letter-spacing:normal;text-align:start;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px;text-decoration:none">
              <br style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-weight:normal;letter-spacing:normal;text-align:start;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px;text-decoration:none">
              <span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-weight:normal;letter-spacing:normal;text-align:start;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px;text-decoration:none;float:none;display:inline">If "passive" is defined
                functionally (as in Givón 1994), then this tendency
                needs to be formulated quite differently. I'm not saying
                that this is impossible, and I'm not even quite sure
                that the universal is true. But what I like about
                Universal 13 is that it is simply a special instance of
                a far more general universal (the role-reference
                association universal, Haspelmath 2021: 125), which also
                subsumes differential object marking and many other
                generalizations.</span><br style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-weight:normal;letter-spacing:normal;text-align:start;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px;text-decoration:none">
              <br style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-weight:normal;letter-spacing:normal;text-align:start;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px;text-decoration:none">
              <span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-weight:normal;letter-spacing:normal;text-align:start;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px;text-decoration:none;float:none;display:inline">Best,</span><br style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-weight:normal;letter-spacing:normal;text-align:start;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px;text-decoration:none">
              <span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-weight:normal;letter-spacing:normal;text-align:start;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px;text-decoration:none;float:none;display:inline">Martin</span><br style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-weight:normal;letter-spacing:normal;text-align:start;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px;text-decoration:none">
              <br style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-weight:normal;letter-spacing:normal;text-align:start;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px;text-decoration:none">
              <div style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-weight:normal;letter-spacing:normal;text-align:start;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px;text-decoration:none">Am 23.03.21 um 19:56 schrieb
                William Croft:<br>
              </div>
              <blockquote type="cite" style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-weight:normal;letter-spacing:normal;text-align:start;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px;text-decoration:none">
                <div style="font-family:Calibri,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:12pt">Dear all,
                  <div><br>
                  </div>
                  <div>   I'm afraid I will extend this
                    discussion a bit longer...The fundamental issue is
                    that in defining comparative concepts, one has to
                    draw sharp boundaries on gradual diachronic
                    processes that lead to synchronic continua of
                    typological diversity. And then one has to choose
                    terms for comparative concepts that in many cases
                    were devised for non-typological theories based on a
                    small, genetically and geographically narrow set of
                    languages (Western European, East Asian, Middle
                    Eastern, South Asian, to name some prominent
                    grammatical traditions). There is no ideal solution,
                    even among those who fully agree with the above
                    statements.</div>
                  <div><br>
                  </div>
                  <div>   To elaborate a little bit: Martin's
                    intuition about "passive", and the intuitions of
                    many about defining a "construction", is that there
                    should be dedicated morphosyntax for the function of
                    the "construction". There was already an objection
                    to this intuition in this thread, saying that
                    multifunctional "passive" morphemes should not be
                    excluded. More generally, a dedicated construction
                    is a late stage in the constructionalization
                    process. The first step is recruiting another
                    construction, that is, recruiting a morphosyntactic
                    form used for some related function. Then the
                    recruited construction is gradually adapted to its
                    new function, diverging from the form used for the
                    original function.</div>
                  <div><br>
                  </div>
                  <div>   Recruitment is the basic strategy
                    that starts the process towards a "dedicated"
                    construction for a particular function. It's a
                    gradual process. Any choice to delimit a comparative
                    concept beyond the initial recruitment is arbitrary.
                    The definition of a "passive" construction (in my
                    terms) in terms of any form used to express the
                    function is actually the least arbitrary choice --
                    except that functions (conceptual space) also form a
                    continuum, so dividing that continuum is also
                    arbitrary. But it's necessary for practical reasons,
                    so we can talk about the phenomena we're studying.
                    This is what language is about.</div>
                  <div><br>
                  </div>
                  <div>   And language is also about using
                    shared terms in a community. A typological theory
                    of, say, grammatical voice could invent entirely new
                    terms because the "legacy terms" are not
                    typological. But it's not like non-typological
                    theories have a single agreed-upon definition of
                    "passive", or "subject", or pretty much any other
                    important theoretical concept. So recruiting the
                    terms for a typological theory and defining them
                    differently is not abnormal, though if it's too
                    different then a new term may be better. (We may
                    disagree in particular cases.) And in some cases
                    there is continuity between the functional analysis
                    proposed by non-typologists and the functional
                    comparative concept that is useful for typology.</div>
                  <div><br>
                  </div>
                  <div>   I think there's another reason that
                    typologists broadened traditional terms to the
                    construction, rather than just the strategy for the
                    construction typical of Western European languages.
                    The point was to find (implicational etc.)
                    universals that hold across all languages. So
                    excluding many languages that don't use a particular
                    strategy from the category in question is not
                    helpful for that purpose.</div>
                  <div><br>
                  </div>
                  <div>   I don't expect we'll all agree on the
                    choice of terms. For "relative clause construction",
                    I have restricted the definition to modification by
                    action concepts; so modification by property
                    concepts is excluded. There are also theoretical
                    considerations. For instance, I believe that
                    grammatical voice is about the interplay between the
                    relative salience/topicality of participants and
                    their semantic (force-dynamic) interactions in an
                    event. From that point of view, constructions in the
                    functional domain of voice should be defined in
                    terms of relative topicality of participants and by
                    their force-dynamic interactions in the event.</div>
                  <div><br>
                  </div>
                  <div>   I just added the (draft) Glossary to
                    the (draft) chapters of "Morphosyntax" that I have
                    posted on my webpage (<a href="http://www.unm.edu/~wcroft/WACpubs.html" target="_blank">http://www.unm.edu/~wcroft/WACpubs.html</a>),
                    to give an idea of how I have constructed
                    comparative concepts for many constructions.</div>
                  <div><br>
                  </div>
                  <div>Bill</div>
                  <br>
                </div>
                <hr style="display:inline-block;width:1508.22px">
                <div id="gmail-m_7287069001521198611divRplyFwdMsg" dir="ltr"><font style="font-size:11pt" face="Calibri,
                    sans-serif"><b>From:</b><span> </span>Lingtyp<span> </span><a href="mailto:lingtyp-bounces@listserv.linguistlist.org" target="_blank"><lingtyp-bounces@listserv.linguistlist.org></a><span> </span>on behalf of
                    Bohnemeyer, Juergen<span> </span><a href="mailto:jb77@buffalo.edu" target="_blank"><jb77@buffalo.edu></a><br>
                    <b>Sent:</b><span> </span>Tuesday,
                    March 23, 2021 8:30 AM<br>
                    <b>To:</b><span> </span>Martin
                    Haspelmath<span> </span><a href="mailto:martin_haspelmath@eva.mpg.de" target="_blank"><martin_haspelmath@eva.mpg.de></a><br>
                    <b>Cc:</b><span> </span><a href="mailto:LINGTYP@listserv.linguistlist.org" target="_blank">LINGTYP@listserv.linguistlist.org</a><span> </span><a href="mailto:LINGTYP@listserv.linguistlist.org" target="_blank"><LINGTYP@listserv.linguistlist.org></a><br>
                    <b>Subject:</b><span> </span>Re:
                    [Lingtyp] Double-marked passive</font>
                  <div> </div>
                </div>
                <div><font size="2"><span style="font-size:11pt">
                      <div> <span> </span>[EXTERNAL]<br>
                        <br>
                        Martin, I don’t want to extend this discussion
                        beyond its best-by date, but the example you
                        cite...<br>
                        <br>
                        > So the reason I would opt for the
                        form-based definition of "passive" (as opposed
                        to the function-based definitions favoured by
                        Bohnemeyer and Givón-Croft) is that the term
                        "passive" is generally used for a strategy, in
                        actual usage. It would be very odd to say that a
                        sentence with a fronted object and focused
                        subject like German "Den Mann hat der LÖWE
                        gesehen" (= 'The man was seen by the LION') is a
                        passive construction.<br>
                        <br>
                        … would not meet the definition of ‘demotion’ I
                        was assuming in my definition of ‘passive':<br>
                        <br>
                        > A passive is a construction that combines
                        with a causative description and whose semantic
                        impact is the demotion of the causer while
                        retaining the causative meaning.<br>
                        <br>
                        I would define ‘demotion’ such that the
                        definition presupposes a default assignment of
                        the highest-ranked semantic role to the subject
                        or pivot (the highest-ranked syntactic argument
                        position). Demotion is then an operation that
                        blocks this default assignment. In your example,
                        the highest-ranked role is the experiencer, and
                        it is assigned to the syntactic subject, so
                        there’s no passive construction involved by my
                        definition.<br>
                        <br>
                        Via this definition of ‘demotion’, which
                        involves a mix of semantic and syntactic
                        properties (it is a form-meaning mapping
                        property), the definition of ‘passive’ acquires
                        enough syntactic anchoring to clearly target
                        ‘strategies’, as opposed to mere meanings, while
                        still avoiding the apparent pitfalls of
                        including a purely formal property such as
                        verb-coding in the definition.<br>
                        <br>
                        Best — Juergen<br>
                        <br>
                        --<br>
                        Juergen Bohnemeyer (He/Him)<br>
                        Professor, Department of Linguistics<br>
                        University at Buffalo<br>
                        <br>
                        Office: 642 Baldy Hall, UB North Campus<br>
                        Mailing address: 609 Baldy Hall, Buffalo, NY
                        14260<br>
                        Phone: (716) 645 0127<br>
                        Fax: (716) 645 3825<br>
                        Email:<span> </span><a href="mailto:jb77@buffalo.edu" target="_blank">jb77@buffalo.edu</a><br>
                        Web:<span> </span><a href="http://www.acsu.buffalo.edu/~jb77/" target="_blank">http://www.acsu.buffalo.edu/~jb77/</a><br>
                        <br>
                        Office hours will be held by Zoom. Email me to
                        schedule a call at any time. I will in addition
                        hold Tu/Th 4-5pm open specifically for remote
                        office hours.<br>
                        <br>
                        There’s A Crack In Everything - That’s How The
                        Light Gets In<br>
                        (Leonard Cohen)<br>
                        <br>
                        _______________________________________________<br>
                        Lingtyp mailing list<br>
                        <a href="mailto:Lingtyp@listserv.linguistlist.org" target="_blank">Lingtyp@listserv.linguistlist.org</a><br>
                        <a href="http://listserv.linguistlist.org/mailman/listinfo/lingtyp" target="_blank">http://listserv.linguistlist.org/mailman/listinfo/lingtyp</a><br>
                      </div>
                    </span></font></div>
              </blockquote>
              <br style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-weight:normal;letter-spacing:normal;text-align:start;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px;text-decoration:none">
              <pre cols="72" style="font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-weight:normal;letter-spacing:normal;text-align:start;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;word-spacing:0px;text-decoration:none">-- 
Martin Haspelmath
Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology
Deutscher Platz 6
D-04103 Leipzig
<a href="https://www.shh.mpg.de/employees/42385/25522" target="_blank">https://www.shh.mpg.de/employees/42385/25522</a></pre>
              <span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-weight:normal;letter-spacing:normal;text-align:start;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px;text-decoration:none;float:none;display:inline">_______________________________________________</span><br style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-weight:normal;letter-spacing:normal;text-align:start;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px;text-decoration:none">
              <span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-weight:normal;letter-spacing:normal;text-align:start;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px;text-decoration:none;float:none;display:inline">Lingtyp mailing list</span><br style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-weight:normal;letter-spacing:normal;text-align:start;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px;text-decoration:none">
              <a href="mailto:Lingtyp@listserv.linguistlist.org" style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-weight:normal;letter-spacing:normal;text-align:start;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px" target="_blank">Lingtyp@listserv.linguistlist.org</a><br style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-weight:normal;letter-spacing:normal;text-align:start;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px;text-decoration:none">
              <a href="http://listserv.linguistlist.org/mailman/listinfo/lingtyp" style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-weight:normal;letter-spacing:normal;text-align:start;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px" target="_blank">http://listserv.linguistlist.org/mailman/listinfo/lingtyp</a></div>
          </blockquote>
        </div>
        <br>
      </div>
      <br>
      <fieldset></fieldset>
      <pre>_______________________________________________
Lingtyp mailing list
<a href="mailto:Lingtyp@listserv.linguistlist.org" target="_blank">Lingtyp@listserv.linguistlist.org</a>
<a href="http://listserv.linguistlist.org/mailman/listinfo/lingtyp" target="_blank">http://listserv.linguistlist.org/mailman/listinfo/lingtyp</a>
</pre>
    </blockquote>
    <br>
    <pre cols="72">-- 
Martin Haspelmath
Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology
Deutscher Platz 6
D-04103 Leipzig
<a href="https://www.shh.mpg.de/employees/42385/25522" target="_blank">https://www.shh.mpg.de/employees/42385/25522</a></pre>
  </div>

_______________________________________________<br>
Lingtyp mailing list<br>
<a href="mailto:Lingtyp@listserv.linguistlist.org" target="_blank">Lingtyp@listserv.linguistlist.org</a><br>
<a href="http://listserv.linguistlist.org/mailman/listinfo/lingtyp" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">http://listserv.linguistlist.org/mailman/listinfo/lingtyp</a><br>
</blockquote></div>