Voice: voice
| Values: | Act | Cau | Mid | Pass | Rcp |
Voice is a feature of verbs that helps to map the traditional syntactic functions, such as subject and object, to semantic roles, such as agent and patient. See also the related feature subcategorization.
Act: active voice
Prototypically, the subject of the verb is the doer of the action (agent), the object is affected by the action (patient).
By default, the finite and non-finite forms of verbs are labeled Voice=Act, except for the cases when they are labeled Voice=Pass, Voice=Mid or Voice=Cau (see below).
Examples
- խօզըն ջօհար ե՞րբ ճանչէ/xòzën ǰòhar erb č̣ančē “When does a pig ever recognize a jewel?”,
- գարի լուացած ցամաքեցուր/gari lowac’aç c’amak’ec’owr “Dry the washed barley” (but, Գարին ցամքեցաւ
Mid“The barley dried upMid”), - զբիբսն զօրացուցանէ/zbibsn zòrac’owc’anē “(it) strengthens the pupils” (but, յաղթէ զթագաւորն եւ զօրանայ
Mid“He defeats the king and grows strongMid”).
Pass: passive voice
The subject of the verb is affected by the action (patient). The doer (agent) is either a non-obligatory oblique phrase of the verb or not overtly expressed.
The finite and non-finite forms of verbs are labeled Voice=Pass in the passive constructions. In this case, the verbs are marked with the passive suffix -ու- (-ւ-, -վ-)/-ow- (-w-, -v-) (for exceptions see below).
Note that in Middle Armenian, the passive meaning may sometimes lack a distinct morphological marker (particularly in the resultative participle), as in Classical Armenian. In such cases, passivity is inferred from the verb’s valency and syntactic context, including the presence of an oblique agent when overtly expressed.
In Middle Armenian, the suffix -վ/-ու (-v/-ow) begins to be used to form passive and mediopassive verbs, although its use is not yet consistent. The language frequently retains the Classical Armenian pattern, in which voice distinctions are expressed through the thematic vowel in the present-tense conjugation paradigm: the e-thematic conjugation is associated with active verbs, while the i-thematic conjugation is associated with passive and mediopassive verbs.
To preserve this distinction in Middle Armenian UD annotation, the thematic vowel is reflected in the lemma. Thus, active verbs are lemmatized with the infinitive ending -ել (-el), whereas mediopassive verbs are lemmatized with -իլ (-il).
Passive verb forms, however, are assigned the lemma of the corresponding active verb, and their passive voice is indicated by the morphological feature Voice=Pass.
Examples
- Եւ թէ ուտուի’ աղեցն զեն է/Ew t’ē owtowi’ aġec’n zen ē “If eaten, it is harmful to the intestines”,
- Եկեղեցին բարձր էր եւ լայն, Անսիւն շինած էր ‘ւ անգերան/Ekeġec’in barjr ēr ew layn, Ansiwn šinaç ēr ‘w angeran “The church was high and wide, built without columns and beams”,
- Վասն սըրբոց առաքելոցն, Որ ի քենէ են ձեռնադրած/Vasn sërboc’ aṙak’eloc’n, Or i k’enē en jeṙnadraç “For the holy apostles, Who were ordained by you”.
Mid: middle voice
The middle voice is situated between active and passive. It is also used for the reflexive verbs, traditionally called mediopassive (for reciprocal verbs see below).
In Middle Armenian, the suffix -ու- (-ւ-, -վ-)/-ow- (-w-, -v-) begins to be used to form passive and mediopassive verbs, although its use is not yet consistent. The language frequently retains the Classical Armenian pattern, in which voice distinctions are expressed through the vowel in the ending of present-tense conjugation paradigm: the ե/e-conjugation is associated with active verbs, while the ի/i-conjugation is associated with passive and mediopassive verbs.
To preserve this distinction in Middle Armenian UD annotation, the thematic vowel is reflected in the lemma. Thus, active verbs are lemmatized with the infinitive ending -ել (-el), whereas mediopassive verbs are lemmatized with -իլ (-il).
Passive verb forms, however, are assigned the lemma of the corresponding active verb, and their passive voice is indicated by the morphological feature Voice=Pass.
Examples
- Ոնց որ լուսն լուսանայր, բարձրանայի բունս մտնուի/Onc’ or lowsn lowsanayr, barjranayi bowns mtnowi “Just as it would dawn, I would rise and enter my nest”,
- Թէ իրմով լուացուին շատ քուն տա անել/T’ē irmov lowac’owin, šat k’own ta anel “If they wash themselves with it, it induces much sleep”,
- Որթն բացւեալ է տնկոյս/Ort’n bac’weal ē tnkoys “The vine of this sapling has blossomed”,
- սոքայ եխպայրք էին բաժանված/sok’ay expayrk’ ēin bažanvaç “They were separated brothers”.
Cau: causative voice
In Middle Armenian, causative voice is a feature of verbs. In causative constructions, the subject is the entity that “causes” the action. It is generally translated into English as ‘cause/make/have/let/allow’ someone to perform the action described by the base verb.
The causative in Middle Armenian is expressed either by the Classical Armenian suffix -ուցան-/-owc’an- or by its phonologically altered newer variant -ցըն- (-ցն-)/-c’ën- (-c’n-). These markers are quite productive and may also derive transitive verbs from intransitive (middle-voice) verbs. Such verbs are tagged Voice=Act, not Voice=Cau, as they function as ordinary lexical transitive verbs rather than as causative constructions (e.g. սատակեցուցանել/satakec’owc’anel “to kill, to annihilate” (from սատկիլ/satkil “to die”), շողցնել/šoġc’nel “to heat, to warm” (from շողնալ/šoġnal “to get warm”)).
In addition, the auxiliary տալ/tal (in various tenses and moods) combines with the infinitive of the content verb to form a causative construction. Only the auxiliary is annotated with Voice=Cau; the infinitive retains its own voice annotation.
Examples
- Եւ թէ ուտեցնես
Cauայլ օգտէ/Ew t’ē owtec’nes ayl ògtē “And if you make (him/her) eat, it will be even more beneficial”, - զկաթն կու պակսեցնէ
Act/zkat’n kow paksec’nē “It reduces the milk”, - զմեղապարտսն մէն տայ
CauսպաննելAct/zmeġapartsn mēn tay spannel “He only has the criminals killed”.
Rcp: reciprocal voice
A reciprocal verb describes an event in which two agents (or groups of agents) perform the same action upon each other. The reciprocal is expressed by the passive suffix -ու- (-ւ-, -վ-)/-ow- (-w-, -v-). However, the set of verb roots that can form reciprocals is limited.
Examples
- …որ ունին զկապողութեան ուժն, եւ ունին զլուծման ուժն, եւ յիրար խառնուեցան/or ownin zkapoġowt’ean owžn, ew ownin zlowçman owžn, ew yirar xaṙnowec’an “…which possess the power of binding and the power of dissolving, and which mixed with each other”.
Voice in other languages: [abq] [am] [arr] [axm] [az] [bej] [bg] [bor] [ceb] [cs] [ctn] [el] [eme] [en] [fi] [fr] [gn] [gor] [gub] [ha] [hu] [hy] [jaa] [ka] [kbc] [ky] [myu] [naq] [oge] [ota] [pay] [ps] [qpm] [qtd] [quc] [ru] [ruc] [sv] [tl] [tpn] [tr] [tt] [u] [uk] [urb] [urj] [xcl] [xmf]