VOICE
: Valence changing Morphology
Voice: the way in which a
language expresses the relationship between a verb and NP which are associated
with it.
Active and passive: two
sentences can differ in voice and yet have the same basic meaning.
Verbs are classified
according to the number of noun phrases they require to complete a sentence.
The number is called the valency of
the verb.
Give
as
in The sales girl gave Jane a parcel.
Would have a valency of three.
Passive belongs to a class
of phenomena which are referred to generally as VOICE, that is, derivational
morphology which changes the valence of a verb, the semantic roles of its
complements, or both.
Languages vary in terms of how much
variety they allow in the mapping from semantic roles to grammatical relations.
In some languages, the mapping is very straightforward—agents are always
subjects, patients are always direct objects, and so forth. Such languages do
not have passives or other types of voice. So, don’t expect to find passives or
other examples of voice in every language. But, the following are some of the
more common types that occur.
DATIVE PASSIVE
In many languages, there is a way of
upgrading an indirect object to direct object, which is sometimes called DATIVE
PASSIVE. For example, in English, It is a way of upgrading an indirect object
to a direct object.
(16) a. I wrote the letter to my brother.
b. I wrote my brother the letter.
In
(16a), ‘letter’ is the direct object and ‘to my brother’ is the indirect
object, as we might expect. Notice that the direct object is an NP and the
indirect object is a PP using the preposition ‘to’. In (16b), things are
different. The recipient ‘my brother’ is an NP, while the theme, ‘letter’, is
the object of the preposition which is used for a variety of obliques. The most
reasonable hypothesis is that direct object of (16b) is the recipient, ‘my
brother’.
There are passive clauses that
correspond to both clauses in (16); the passive (17a) corresponding to (16a)
has ‘the letter’ as subject, while the passive (17b) corresponding to (16b) has
‘my brother’ as subject.
(17) a. The letter was written to my brother.
b.
My brother was written the letter.
In other words, passive
treats ‘my brother’ in (16b) as if it is the direct object, even though it is
the recipient.
Because of the prevalence of dative shift
in the world’s languages, many linguists analyze the following pair of English
sentences to be an example of dative shift, even though there is no overt
morphology on the verb.
(18) a. Mary gave a kiss to John.
b. Mary gave John a kiss.
Specifically,
this analysis regards John in (18b) as a syntactic direct object, even though
it is the recipient. This is somewhat different from the traditional analysis,
which considers John in (18b) to be indirect object, following, what one might
expect on the basis of semantics.
We won’t try to settle the issue for English
here. But, there are two points to be made: (1) It’s not uncommon to find the
same data analyzed in more than one way.(2) It is legitimate to propose an
analysis in which a direct object is a recipient. That is, when we analyze
voice, we should pay attention to the grammatical characteristics of the
various constituents in the clause. When we do, we may arrive at an analysis
that we would not expect based solely on meaning.
BENEFACTIVES
AND APPLICATIVES
Benefactive : N or NP that
refers to person or animal who benefits, or is meant to benefit from the action
of the verb.
Some languages provide ways of changing
obliques to direct or indirect objects. For example:
(19) My wife prepares food for
many poor families.
In (19), ‘many poor
families’ is syntactically a benefactive, with the preposition ‘for’. In (20), ‘cook’ is direct object and
‘market’ is a locative oblique.
(20) The woman sent the cook to
market.
Such verb forms involving an oblique promoted
to objecthood are sometimes called APPLICATIVES.
REFLEXIVES
AND RECIPROCALS
Most languages use some
special device when the subject and object of a verb refer to the same
person(s) or thing(s). that is, a special device is used to express situations
that are REFLEXIVE (acting on oneself) or RECIPROCAL (acting on each other).
(21) a. I see myself
in the mirror every morning.
b.
You will find yourself in a
dimly-lighted room.
c.
They were beating themselves
with freshly-cut branches.
(22) a. Now that it was getting light, we began to
see each other.
b.
I think you will find each other
to be very attractive.
c.
They were beating each other
with freshly-cut branches.
Many languages have a
special verb form, called a REFLEXIVE VOICE, which indicates that the subject and direct object refer to the
same person or thing.
(23) Reflexive
He/she is helping
him/herself.
(24) Nonreflexive
He/she is helping
him/her (i.e., someone else).
An
important thing to note here is that the reflexive verb is intransitive in
form, even though the meaning (at least from one perspective) is still
transitive.
CAUSATIVES
Causative
verb: a verb which shows that someone or something brings about or causes on
action or a state.
Example:
Peter killed the rabbit.
In
some languages there is a verbal suffix meaning roughly ‘to cause’ which
derives CAUSATIVE verbs; these have more complements than the verbs they are
derived from.
(25) Hasan
died.
Ali
killed Hasan (caused Hasan to die).
Just
as with reflexives, all languages have a way of expressing causation, but not
all do it with special morphology. Many simply have one or more verbs meaning
‘cause’ which take embedded clauses as their direct objects. This is true in
English, for example:
(26) a. John ate supper.
b.
His mother made/had [John eat supper].
c.
His mother caused/forced [John to eat supper]
NOUN
INCORPORATION
Some
languages have a way of combining nouns with verbs called NOUN INCORPORATION or
OBJECT INCORPORATION. Typically, a verb is combined with a noun that represents
its direct object, as in (27b)
(27) a. The friends set the net.
b.
The friends set the nets (lit., were net-setting).
The
formal analysis of passive
Including semantic roles in
lexical entries
Recall why we want to include semantic
roles in the lexical entries for verbs. Two verbs may have the same compliments
(the same strict subcateforization), but different semantic roles, such as in
the pairs of verbs below.
(47) subject direct object indirect object
Walk Agent
Break patient
Make Agent Patient
See Experiencer theme
Give Agent Theme recipient
Tell Agent Theme Addressee
Or, a verb such as break may be either intransitive or
transitive, but the semantic role of the subject will be different.
(48) Subject Direct
Object
Break Patient
Break Agent Patient
Lexical
entries for passives
(53) The
driver was murdered
The AP may or may not
contain a PP. in (54) PP is interpreted as the Agent of the verb.
(54) The
driver was murdered (by George)
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