Is the passive a unified universal phenomenon? The claim derived from this volume is that the passive, if not universal, has become unified according to function. Language as a means of communication needs the passive, or passive-like constructions, and sooner or later develops them based on other voices (impersonal active, middle, reflexive), specific semantic meanings such as adversativity, or tense-aspect categories (stative,perfect, preterit).

Certain contributors review the passives in various languages and language groups, including languages rarely discussed. Another group of contributors takes a novel theoretical approach toward passivization within a broad typological perspective. Among the languages discussed are Vedic, Irish, Mandarin Chinese, Thai, Lithuanian, Mordvin, and Nganasan, next to almost all European languages. Various theoretical frameworks such as Optimality Theory, Modern Structuralist Approaches, Role and Reference Grammar, Cognitive Semantics, Distributed Morphology, and Case Grammar have been applied by the different authors.

Table of contents

Contributor's addresses vii–viii Abbreviations ix–x Introduction: Passivization and typology: Form vs. function - a confined survey into the research status quo Werner Abraham 1–27 Active–passive and reflexives Passives in Lithuanian (in comparison with Russian) Emma Š. Geniušienė 29–61 Passive and middle in Indo-European: Reconstructing the early Vedic passive paradigm Leonid Kulikov 62–81 Triggers - aspectual, semantic, and discourse-pragmatic: case studies Pragmatic nature of Mandarin passive-like constructions Marja Peltomaa 83–114 Development of thùuk passive marker in Thai Amara Prasithrathsint 115–131 The passives of Modern Irish Brian Nolan 132–164 The passive in Erzya-Mordvin folklore Merja Salo 165–190 Grammatical voice and tense-aspect in Slavic Junichi Toyota and Melisa Mustafović 191–212 Passive in Nganasan Larisa Leisiö 213–230 Actor demotion 'Agent defocusing' revisited: Passive and impersonal constructions in some European languages Andrea Sansò 232–273 Relations between Actor-demoting devices in Lithuanian: Dedicated to Emma Geniusiene Björn Wiemer 274–309 Grammaticalization in long-term diachrony The rise and grammaticalization paths of Latin fieri and facere as passive auxiliaries Michela Cennamo 311–336 Grammatical relations in passive clauses: A diachronic perspective T. Givón 337–350 Argument structure and case Two types of detransitive constructions in the dialects of Japanese Kan Sasaki and Akie Yamazaki 352–372 Passive and argument structure Tor A. Åfarlí 373–382 Case-driven agree, EPP, and passive in Turkish Balkız Öztürk 383–402 A unique feature of the direct passive in Japanese Kenichi Ariji 403–440 Actor demotion Passive as a feature-suppression operation Dalina Kallulli 442–460 Event semantics - Aspectual and semantic triggers The compositional nature of the passive: Syntactic vs. event semantic triggers. "Argument Hypothesis" vs. "Aspect Hypothesis" Werner Abraham 462–501 The impersonal passive: voice suspended under aspectual conditions Werner Abraham and Elisabeth Leiss 502–517 Simple preterit and composite perfect tense: The role of the adjectival passive Monika Rathert 518–543 Author index 544–547 Subject index 548–553