Voice: voice
| Values: | Act | Cau | CauPass | 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
- Ես ջարդում եմ նրա օղիները/Es ǰardowm em nra òġinerë “I am breaking his vodka bottles.”
- չէինք ցանկանում տղաներին կորցնել/čēink’ c’ankanowm tġanerin korc’nel “we didn’t want to lose the boys.”
- ճշմարտությունը հավերժ չես թաքցնի/č̣šmartowt’yownë haverž čes t’ak’c’ni “You can’t hide the truth forever.”
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 -վ-/-v- (for exceptions see below).
Examples
- Ընկերության ներկայացուցչի վերաքննիչ բողոքները մերժվել են/Ënkerowt’yan nerkayac’owc’či verak’nnič boġok’nerë meržvel en “The company’s representative’s appeals have been dismissed.”,
- վարկային պայմանագրերը կնքվել են/varkayin paymanagrerë knk’vel en “the loan agreements have been concluded”,
- Դարավոր խոպան հողերը ջուր են ստացել, ծածկվել բամբակի ու բրնձի դաշտերով/Daravor xopan hoġerë ǰowr en stac’el, çaçkvel bambaki ow brnji dašterov “The centuries-old barren lands were irrigated and became covered with cotton and rice fields.”
Mid: middle voice
The middle voice is situated between active and passive. It also covers reflexive uses, traditionally described as mediopassive (for reciprocal verbs, see below); in this case, the verbs and their lemmas are marked with the passive suffix -վ-/-v-.
Note that there is a small set of middle voice verbs marked with the passive suffix -վ- (so-called passivized middle verbs). These forms are morphologically very close to the passive, do not have morphologically related non-marked counterparts and are tagged Voice=Mid. If there is a morphologically related unmarked counterpart, then the two verbs are represented by different lemmas (e.g. վերաբերվել Mid “treat, be about”, but _վերաբերել_ Act` “refer to”).
Examples
- Վախենում ենք ապրելուց:/Vaxenowm enk’ aprelowc’. “We are afraid of living.”
- սկսեց հագնվել/sksec’ hagnvel “he/she started getting dressed”
- հարձակվել են պահակների վրա/harjakvel en pahakneri vra “they attacked the guards”
- աշխատանքը մարդուն օգնում է հաշտվել սուրացող ժամանակի հետ/ašxatank’ë mardown ògnowm ē haštvel sowrac’oġ žamanaki het “Work helps a person come to terms with the swift passage of time”
Cau: causative voice
In Armenian, the causative voice is a feature of verbs. In causative constructions, the subject is the entity that causes another participant to perform the action denoted by the base verb. Causatives are generally translated into English using verbs cause, make, have, let, allow.
Synthetic causatives are formed with the suffix -ցն-/-cʼn-. It is quite productive and can be used also for deriving a transitive verb from an intransitive or middle verb. In this case, the resulting verb is analyzed as active (Voice=Act) rather than causative (e.g. կորցնել/korc’nel “lose”, թաքցնել/t’ak’c’nel “hide”).
Armenian also has a periphrastic causative construction in which the auxiliary տալ/tal (in various tenses and moods) combines with the infinitive of the content verb. Only the auxiliary is annotated with Voice=Cau; the infinitive retains its own voice annotation.
Examples
- Սովորում են սովորեցնելու
Cauհամար: /_Sovorowm en sovorec’nelow hamar_ “They learn in order to teach”, - Ինքն էլ չուզեց հիշեցնել
Cau:_ Ink’n ēl čowzec’ hišec’nel. “He/She didn’t want to remind them either.”, - վազել
MidտալCau/vazel tal make someone run”, - հասկանալ
ActտալCau/haskanal tal “lit: make someone understand”, - հասկացնել
Cau/haskac’nel “lit: make someone understand”, - հասկացնել
CauտալCau/haskac’nel tal “lit: make someone make someone understand”.
CauPass: derived causative: passive forms
The value CauPass is reserved for the passive forms of causative verbs. Passives derived from transitive verbs using the productive suffix -վ-/-v- often function as mediopassive (intransitive) verbs. In such cases, the form with -վ-/-v- constitutes a distinct lemma, e.g., մաշել/mašel “to wear out (trans.)” - մաշվել/mašvel “to wear out (intrans.)”, հարթել/hart’el “to smooth” - հարթվել/hart’vel “to become smooth”, հալել/halel “to melt (trans.)” - հալվել/halvel “to melt (intrans.)”. Consequently, to express a true, agentive passive meaning for these verbs, the passive is formed from the corresponding causative verb.
Examples
- ջինսե տաբատները մաշեցվում են հատուկ մեթոդով/ǰinse tabatnerë mašec’vowm en hatowk met’odov “denim pants are distressed using a special method”
- Երևանին հիշեցվել, հիշեցվում և դեռ հիշեցվելու է, որ ինքը կստանա ավելին, եթե ավելին անի/Erewanin hišec’vel, hišec’vowm ew deṙ hišec’velow ē, or ink’ë kstana avelin, et’e avelin ani “Yerevan has been reminded, is being reminded, and will continue to be reminded that it will get more if it does more”
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 -վ-/-v-. However, the set of verb roots that can form reciprocals is limited.
Examples
- Պետրոսը և Մերին գրկախառնվեցին/Petrosë ew Merin grkaxaṙnvec’in “Peter and Mary hugged 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]