LINGUIST List 11.1559

Sun Jul 16 2000

Qs: Antipassive, Existential Constructions

Editor for this issue: Karen Milligan <karenlinguistlist.org>

Directory

1. Marie-Lucie Tarpent, the meaning of Antipassive
2. YukaMakita, Existential constructions (Icelandic/Swedish)

Some time ago I ran into a book which quoted an article in which I 
used the term Antipassive. The author took me to task for giving a 
description that was too vague. I had not thought I needed to 
stress the definition of the term as if I had invented it. However, 
other things I have read or heard since lead me to believe that this 
term is indeed not well known or understood. Antipassive forms 
and constructions are most often found together with the Ergative, 
another concept that is not generally familiar. I would like to get 
some feedback on this issue, especially what linguists would 
consider accurate definitions of the term Antipassive. I will post a 
summary if applicable.

Marie-Lucie Tarpent
Mount Saint Vincent University
Halifax, N.S. B3M 2J6 Canada
marie-lucie.tarpentmsvu.ca

Dear Linguists,

I'm Yuka Makita, a graduate student at Nagoya University, Japan.
I'm interested in a comparative and a diachronic study of existential 
constructions. 
And, now, I'd like some native speakers of Icelandic and Swedish to 
make grammatical judgement of some existential constructions. 
If you can help my work, please e-mail me <YukaMakitaaol.com>.

Thanks in advance,

*****
Yuka Makita
E-mail: YukaMakitaaol.com