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On Passives of Passives

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2026

Julie Anne Legate*
Affiliation:
University of Pennsylvania
Faruk Akkuş*
Affiliation:
University of Pennsylvania
Milena Šereikaitė
Affiliation:
University of Pennsylvania
Don Ringe*
Affiliation:
University of Pennsylvania

Abstract

Perlmutter and Postal (1977 and subsequent) argued that passives cannot passivize. Three prima facie counterexamples have come to light, found in Turkish, Lithuanian, and Sanskrit. We reexamine these three cases and demonstrate that rather than counterexemplifying Perlmutter and Postal's generalization, these confirm it. The Turkish construction is an impersonal of a passive, the Lithuanian is an evidential of a passive, and the Sanskrit is an unaccusative with an instrumental case-marked theme. We provide a syntactic analysis of both the Turkish impersonal and the Lithuanian evidential. Finally, we develop an analysis of the passive that captures the generalization that passives cannot passivize.

Information

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © 2020 Linguistic Society of America

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