[Lingtyp] Transitive verbs with both active and passive readings

[Randy J. LaPolla]

Hi Sergey,
Y. R. Chao argued that as Mandarin Chinese verbs have no inherent direction of action, a corollary of the topic-comment (not subject predicate) structure of clauses, Mandarin Chinese has no voice distinction (Mandarin Primer, 1948: 35, with his Romanisation replaced by Pinyin and glosses added):

“An important corollary to this [topic-comment structure-RJL] is that the direction of action in verbs is to be inferred from the context. Thus, in talking about feeding poultry, Jı̄ bù chı̄ le [chicken NEG eat PFV] means 'The chickens are not eating any more,' but as a reply to a host offering more chicken, the same sentence would mean '(As for) chicken, (I) am not going to eat any more.' Again, Liǎng-ge rén zuò yı̄-bǎ yı̌zi [two CL people sit one-CL chair]' Two people sit on one chair' : Yı̄-bǎ yı̌zi zuò liǎng-ge rén [one-CL chair sit two-CL people] 'One chair seats two people.' In short, there is no distinction of voice in Chinese verbs." 

Hope this helps.

All the best,
Randy
——
Professor Randy J. LaPolla（罗仁地), PhD FAHA 
Center for Language Sciences
Institute for Advanced Studies in Humanities and Social Sciences
Beijing Normal University at Zhuhai
A302, Muduo Building, #18 Jinfeng Road, Zhuhai City, Guangdong, China

https://randylapolla.info <https://randylapolla.info/>
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> On 27 Jul 2023, at 5:28 PM, Sergey Loesov <sergeloesov at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> Dear colleagues,
> 
> Do you know of languages that have past-tense forms of transitive verbs with both active and passive readings? In particular, languages in which the same token can appear as both active and passive, depending on the context?
> 
> This seems to be the case in the unwritten language Modern Western Aramaic, spoken in the Syrian Anti-Lebanon/Kalamoun. Thus, ifṯeḥ (a Perfect-Resultative verb form) may mean ‘he (has) opened’ and ‘he has been opened/he is opened.’
> 
>  
> Thank you very much,
> 
>  
> Sergey
> 
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