Proceedings Of The West Coast Conference On Formal Linguistics, Volume 19, (2000). pp. 71-82.
Language:
English
Abstract:
Although Hmong has two passive-like constructions, neither of them conforms to implicational universals of passives proposed by Edward L. Keenan (1985). (1) Both constructions preferentially include an overt agent, & omission of the agent leads to ambiguity between patient/experiencer & causee readings of the promoted noun phrase (NP). (2) The construction type lawv raug nws kaw lawv 'they got locked up by him/her' preferentially includes a pronoun coindexed with the promoted NP; the presence of the resumptive pronoun makes the overt agent obligatory. (3) Although the construction type tus tub no yog Neeb tu 'this boy was raised by Neng' uses the copula as auxiliary & disallows a resumptive pronoun, the agent NP in both (2) & (3) retains a significant property of subjecthood: modification by subject-oriented adverbs, eg txhob-txwm 'deliberately'. The promoted NP, however, satisfies subjecthood properties of word order & scope. It is argued that these Hmong data are unproblematic in the construction template framework of Ellen Prince (1996). 12 References. J. Hitchcock