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Is Kashmiri passive really a passive?

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The present paper explores passives in Kashmiri, a Northwestern Dardic language of the Indo-Aryan family. Though Kashmiri has some special features like V-2 phenomenon, pronominal clitics etc. it has an analytic passive construction like its Indo-Aryan counterparts. The internal argument surfaces as the subject of the passive, where the participial/infinitival verbal form -nI is added to the verb root followed by a periphrastic auxiliary yun ‘to come’ in perfective form. The agent of the action is in the form of athi or zaryi (by/through) and is preferably omitted. This optionality casts a doubt on its status – whether it is an adjunct or an argument. The promotion of the internal argument to the subject position is another key issue. The present paper investigates the above issues and claims that the Kashmiri passive construction is also a kind of ACTIVE-Passive and not really passive as in English. It is argued that in Kashmiri passives, the underlying subject remains an active subject and the underlying object does not become the surface subject. To prove this claim, some tests based on anaphora binding, pronominal co-reference, control, etc. are applied.

  • Affiliations: 1: Central Institute of Indian Languages Mysore

References

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  31. Robson, Roy Anthony
    1972 On the generation of passive constructions in English. Unpublished doctoral thesis, University of Texas, Austin, USA.
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  32. Roeper, Thomas
    1987 Implicit Arguments and the Head-Complement Relation. Linguistic Inquiry 18(2): 267–310.
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  33. Rosen, Carol . & Wali
    , Kashi.1989. Twin passives, inversion, and multistratalism in Marathi. Natural Language and Linguistic Theory 7(1): 1–50. doi: 10.1007/BF00141346
     https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00141346 [Google Scholar]
  34. Shibatani, Masayoshi
    1985 Passives and related constructions: A prototype analysis. Language 61: 821–848. doi: 10.2307/414491
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    1984  Passive: A Comparative Linguistic Analysis . Croom Helm: New Hampshire.
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  36. 1988 The passive in Slavic languages. In M. Shibatani (Ed.), Passive and voice (pp. 243–289). Amsterdam, Netherlands: John Benjamins.10.1075/tsl.16.09sie
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    1994 Passives and inverse constructions. In Voice and Inversion , T. Givón (ed.). 47–63. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.10.1075/tsl.28.05tho
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    2000  Checking Theory and Grammatical Functions in Universal Grammar . New York: Oxford University Press.
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  39. Wali, Kashi . & Koul, Omkar Nath
    1994 Kashmiri clitics: The role of the case and CASE. Linguistics 32: 969–994. doi: 10.1515/ling.1994.32.6.969
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    1997  Kashmiri: A Cognitive-Descriptive Grammar . London: Routledge.
     [Google Scholar]
  41. Wunderlich, Dieter
    2012 Operations on argument structure. In Handbook of Semantics , Claudia Maienborn et al. (ed.), Vol. 3. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.10.1515/9783110253382.2224
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References

  1. Bach, Emmon
    1980 In defense of passive. Linguistics and Philosophy 3: 297–341. doi: 10.1007/BF00401689
     https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00401689 [Google Scholar]
  2. Baker, Mark , Kyle Johnson & Ian Roberts
    1989 Passive arguments raised. Linguistic Inquiry 20: 219–252.
     [Google Scholar]
  3. Bhatt, Rajesh & Pancheva, Roumanya
    2006  Implicit arguments. In The Blackwell Companion to Syntax , vol. II, 554–584. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell.
     [Google Scholar]
  4. Bresnan, Joan
    1982 The passive in lexical theory. In J. Bresnan (Ed.), The mental representation of grammatical relations (pp. 3–86). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
     [Google Scholar]
  5. Chandra, Pritha & Sahoo, Anindita
    2013 Passives in south asian languages. Acta Linguistica Asiatica 3: 9–27. doi: 10.4312/ala.3.1.9‑28
     https://doi.org/10.4312/ala.3.1.9-28 [Google Scholar]
  6. Chomsky, Noam
    1957  Syntactic Structures . The Hague: Mouton.
     [Google Scholar]
  7. 1965  Aspects of the Theory of Syntax . The MIT Press: Cambridge, Mass.
     [Google Scholar]
  8. Croft, Willam
    1994 Voice: Beyond control and affectedness. In P. J. Hopper & B. A. Fox (Eds.), Voice: Form and function (pp. 89–117). Amsterdam: John Benjamin10.1075/tsl.27.06cro
     https://doi.org/10.1075/tsl.27.06cro [Google Scholar]
  9. Davison, Alice
    1982 On the form and meaning of Hindi passive sentences. Lingua 58(1–2): 149–179. doi: 10.1016/0024‑3841(82)90061‑4
     https://doi.org/10.1016/0024-3841(82)90061-4 [Google Scholar]
  10. Freidin, Robert
    1975 The analysis of passives, Language 51: 384–405. doi: 10.2307/412862
     https://doi.org/10.2307/412862 [Google Scholar]
  11. Givón, Talmy
    1990  Syntax. A Functional Typological Introduction-II . Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
     [Google Scholar]
  12. (ed.) 1994  Voice and Inversion . Amsterdam/Philadelphia: Benjamins. doi: 10.1075/tsl.28
     https://doi.org/10.1075/tsl.28 [Google Scholar]
  13. Grimshaw, Jane
    1990  Argument Structure . Cambridge: MIT Press.
     [Google Scholar]
  14. Haspelmath, Martin
    1990 The grammaticalization of passive morphology. Studies in Language 14: 25–72. doi: 10.1075/sl.14.1.03has
     https://doi.org/10.1075/sl.14.1.03has [Google Scholar]
  15. Hasegawa, Kinsuke
    1968 The passive construction in English. Language 44: 230–243. doi: 10.2307/411620
     https://doi.org/10.2307/411620 [Google Scholar]
  16. Hook, Peter Edwin
    1979 Hindi Structures: Intermediate Level. Michigan Papers on South and South-East Asia 16, Center for South and South-East Asian Studies , University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan.
     [Google Scholar]
  17. Jackendoff, Ray, S
    1969. An Interpretive Theory of Negation. Foundation of Language 5(2): 218–241.
     [Google Scholar]
  18. Kachru, Yamuna
    1980  Aspects of Hindi-Grammar . New Delhi: Manohar Publications.
     [Google Scholar]
  19. Keenan, Edward
    1976 Towards a universal definition of ‘subject.’ In Subject and Topic , Charles N. Li (ed.), 303–34. New York: Academic Press.
     [Google Scholar]
  20. Keenan, Edward L . & Dryer, Matthew S
    2007 Passive in the world’s languages. In Language Typology and Syntactic Description . Vol. I: Clause Structure , Timothy Shopen (ed.), 325–361. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge.
     [Google Scholar]
  21. Kiparsky, Paul
    2012 Towards a null theory of passives. Lingua. Nov . 2012.
     [Google Scholar]
  22. Klaiman, Miriam. H
    1991  Grammatical Voice . Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
     [Google Scholar]
  23. Lakoff, George
    1974 Interview in H. Parret (Ed.), Discussing language , pp. 178–179. The Hague, Netherlands: Mouton.
     [Google Scholar]
  24. Mahajan, Anoop
    1994 Active passives. In Proceedings of the Thirteenth West Coast Conference on Formal Linguistics , R. Aronovich , W. Byrne , S. Preuss & M. Senturia (eds). Stanford University: CSLI Publications.
     [Google Scholar]
  25. Mohanan, Tara
    1994  Argument Structure in Hindi . Stanford: CSLI Publications.
     [Google Scholar]
  26. Pandharipande, Rajeshwari
    1981 Transitivity in Hindi. 11(2): 161–179. University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.
     [Google Scholar]
  27. Perlmutter, David M . & Postal, Paul M
    1984 The I-advancement exclusiveness law. In Studies in Relational Grammar 2 , David M. Perlmutter & Carol Rosen (eds), 81–125. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
     [Google Scholar]
  28. Ramchand, Gillian
    2008  Verb Meaning and the Lexicon: A First Phase Syntax . Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. doi: 10.1017/CBO9780511486319
     https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511486319 [Google Scholar]
  29. 2011 Licensing of instrumental case in Hindi/Urdu in Causatives. Working Papers on Language & Linguistics 38 . Tromsø University: Septentrio Acdemic Publishing.
     [Google Scholar]
  30. Richa
    2011  Hindi Verb Classes and Their Argument Structure Alternations . UK: Cambridge Scholars Publishers.
     [Google Scholar]
  31. Robson, Roy Anthony
    1972 On the generation of passive constructions in English. Unpublished doctoral thesis, University of Texas, Austin, USA.
     [Google Scholar]
  32. Roeper, Thomas
    1987 Implicit Arguments and the Head-Complement Relation. Linguistic Inquiry 18(2): 267–310.
     [Google Scholar]
  33. Rosen, Carol . & Wali
    , Kashi.1989. Twin passives, inversion, and multistratalism in Marathi. Natural Language and Linguistic Theory 7(1): 1–50. doi: 10.1007/BF00141346
     https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00141346 [Google Scholar]
  34. Shibatani, Masayoshi
    1985 Passives and related constructions: A prototype analysis. Language 61: 821–848. doi: 10.2307/414491
     https://doi.org/10.2307/414491 [Google Scholar]
  35. Siewierska, Anna
    1984  Passive: A Comparative Linguistic Analysis . Croom Helm: New Hampshire.
     [Google Scholar]
  36. 1988 The passive in Slavic languages. In M. Shibatani (Ed.), Passive and voice (pp. 243–289). Amsterdam, Netherlands: John Benjamins.10.1075/tsl.16.09sie
     https://doi.org/10.1075/tsl.16.09sie [Google Scholar]
  37. Thompson, Chand
    1994 Passives and inverse constructions. In Voice and Inversion , T. Givón (ed.). 47–63. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.10.1075/tsl.28.05tho
     https://doi.org/10.1075/tsl.28.05tho [Google Scholar]
  38. Ura, Hiroyuki
    2000  Checking Theory and Grammatical Functions in Universal Grammar . New York: Oxford University Press.
     [Google Scholar]
  39. Wali, Kashi . & Koul, Omkar Nath
    1994 Kashmiri clitics: The role of the case and CASE. Linguistics 32: 969–994. doi: 10.1515/ling.1994.32.6.969
     https://doi.org/10.1515/ling.1994.32.6.969 [Google Scholar]
  40. Wali, Kashi & Koul, Omkar Nath
    1997  Kashmiri: A Cognitive-Descriptive Grammar . London: Routledge.
     [Google Scholar]
  41. Wunderlich, Dieter
    2012 Operations on argument structure. In Handbook of Semantics , Claudia Maienborn et al. (ed.), Vol. 3. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.10.1515/9783110253382.2224
     https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110253382.2224 [Google Scholar]
  42. Ziff, Paul
    1966 The Nonsynonymy of Active and Passive Sentences. The Philosophical Review 75: 226–232. doi: 10.2307/2183085
     https://doi.org/10.2307/2183085 [Google Scholar]

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