Noncanonical Passives: A Typology of Voices in an Impoverished Universal Grammar

Abstract

Noncanonical passives crosslinguistically exhaust the space of possible variation, supporting an approach whereby Universal Grammar is underspecified for the characteristics of voice and the properties of any particular construction are learned through experience. Languages considered include Passamaquoddy and Oji-Cree (Algonquian); Dutch and Icelandic (Germanic); Ukrainian (Slavic); Welsh and Irish (Celtic); Hindi (Indo-Aryan); Acehnese, Indonesian, and Manggarai (Malayo-Polynesian); Sason Arabic (Arabic); Bemba and Kirundi (Bantu); Lithuanian (Baltic); Turkish (Turkic); and Mandarin (Sinitic).