A descriptive account of agentless constructions in Sylheti: passive, impersonal, and anticausative
| Main author: | Thaut, E. Marie |
|---|---|
| Other authors: | Koumbarou, AndrianaBaratashvili, Zurab |
| Format: | Journal Article |
| Online access: |
Click here to view record |
| id |
eprints-33390 |
|---|---|
| recordtype |
eprints |
| institution |
SOAS, University of London |
| collection |
SOAS Research Online |
| language |
English |
| language_search |
English |
| description |
We identify three constructions in Sylheti which license the non-mention of an agent argument or do not allow the realisation of one. We describe a passive construction, which allows the realisation of an agent followed by the converbial instrumental dia ‘by’, formed with the addition of a nominalizing suffix -a to the verbal root and the tensed passive auxiliary o- ‘become’. The second construction is an impersonal passive with the passive auxiliary za- ‘go’, which does not allow the realisation of an agent argument and gives rise to possibilitative readings. Further, za- also acts as a light verb realised with verbal stems which can take a single argument interpreted as the ‘undergoer’ of the action, achieving an anticausative reading; this construction does not allow the realisation of an agent but does allow the realisation of the cause of the event such as a natural force marked with the agentive/instrumental -e. To describe these three constructions, this paper also provides a brief sketch of the distributional patterns of two Sylheti case markers, namely -e, which surfaces on both agents and instruments, and -re, which attaches to themes/patients, as well as recipients. |
| format |
Journal Article |
| author |
Thaut, E. Marie |
| author_facet |
Thaut, E. Marie Koumbarou, Andriana Baratashvili, Zurab |
| authorStr |
Thaut, E. Marie |
| author_letter |
Thaut, E. Marie |
| author2 |
Koumbarou, Andriana Baratashvili, Zurab |
| author2Str |
Koumbarou, Andriana Baratashvili, Zurab |
| title |
A descriptive account of agentless constructions in Sylheti: passive, impersonal, and anticausative |
| publisher |
SOAS: The Hans Rausing Endangered Languages Project |
| publishDate |
2020 |
| url |
https://eprints.soas.ac.uk/33390/
|