[Lingtyp] Transitive verbs with both active and passive readings

[Lidia Federica Mazzitelli]

Dear Sergey

I have found examples of almost the same phenomenon in some dialects of
Kara (New Ireland, Papua New Guinea). There, the intransitive form of the
transitive predicate may have both passive and active meaning.
Kara Nonopai
1a. A raatai a=yot-a popo
       Art man 3sg.s=lift.up-TR art baby
1b. A popo fo yo-yot
       art baby perf red-lift.up
      The baby was lift up
(The absence of subject indexing is due to the perfect marker for, which
doesn't allow subject indexing in the 3sg)

I will be presenting a poster about it at the SLE, if you're interested!

Best, Lidia

Il gio 27 lug 2023, 12:29 Sergey Loesov <sergeloesov at gmail.com> ha scritto:

> 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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