Voice: voice
| Values: | Act | Ifoc | Lfoc | Pass |
Voice is typically a feature of verbs. It may also occur with other parts of speech (nouns, adjectives, adverbs), depending on whether borderline word forms such as gerunds and participles are classified as verbs or as the other category.
For Indo-European speakers, voice means mainly the active-passive distinction. In other languages, other shades of verb meaning are categorized as voice.
Act: active or actor-focus voice
The subject of the verb is the doer of the action (agent), the object is affected by the action (patient). This label is also used for the actor-focus voice of Austronesian languages.
Examples
- [bgs] Igambak to asa duton ka bintana. “The dog jumped out the window.”
Pass: passive or patient-focus voice
The subject of the verb is affected by the action (patient). The doer (agent) is either unexpressed or it appears as an oblique dependent or an object of the verb. This label is also used for the patient-focus voice of Austronesian languages.
Examples
- [bgs] Igtawar ni Maria to bata. “Maria called the child.”
Lfoc: location-focus voice
The subject of the verb indicates location or direction, while the doer and the undergoer/theme are coded as objects.
Examples
- [bgs] Pamulaan ni Nena ni tana e kasila. “Nena will plant sweet potatoes in this land.”
Ifoc: instrument-focus voice
The subject of the verb indicates the instrument, while the doer and the undergoer/theme are coded as objects.
Examples
- [bgs] Sam, abrihi no to bintana!. “Sam, open the door!”
Voice in other languages: [abq] [am] [arr] [axm] [az] [bej] [bg] [bgs] [bor] [ceb] [cs] [ctn] [el] [eme] [en] [fi] [fr] [gn] [gor] [gub] [ha] [hu] [hy] [hyw] [jaa] [ka] [kbc] [ky] [myu] [naq] [oge] [ota] [pay] [pi] [ps] [qpm] [qtd] [quc] [ru] [ruc] [sv] [tl] [tpn] [tr] [tt] [u] [uk] [urb] [urj] [xcl] [xmf]