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
- հայելիին մէջ տեսաւ անոր ժպիտը/hayeliin mēǰ tesaw anor žpitë “he/she saw his/her smile in the mirror”,
- քրքիջ մը որ կարծես ապակիները կը դողացնէր/kʼrkʼiǰ më or karçes apakinerë kë doġacʼnēr “laughter that seemed to shake the windowpanes”,
- ժամանակ ենք վատնած/žamanak enkʼ vatnaç “we have wasted time”.
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.
In Western Armenian, the passive voice is formed either by adding the passive suffix -ու-/-ow- before the verbal endings or by replacing the infinitival ending -ել/-el with -իլ/-il; the latter is an archaic pattern inherited from Classical Armenian (for exceptions see below). The finite and non-finite forms of verbs are labeled Voice=Pass in the passive constructions.
Examples
- տեսուչը հեռացուած է պաշտօնէն/tesowčë heṙacʼowaç ē paštònēn “The inspector has been dismissed from his post”,
- բնակարաններ չեն շինուիր/bnakaranner čen šinowir “Apartments are not being built”,
- արգիլուած է իրենց Պատրիարքարան մտնալ/ argilowaç ē irencʼ Patriarkʼaran mtnal “they are forbidden to enter the Patriarchate”,
- սեփական շահերէն թելադրուած է/sepʼakan šaherēn tʼeladrowaç ē “it is motivated by personal interests”.
Mid: middle voice
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 -ու-/-ow-.
Note that there is a small set of middle voice verbs marked with the the verbal ending -իլ/-il or passive suffix -ու- (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 (կորսուիլ/korsowil “to get lost, to disappear”).
Examples
- ինքնիրեն կը խորհրդածէր/inkʼniren kë xorhrdaçēr “he/she was thinking to himself/herself”,
- ճիգ ըրած է տօնական հագուիլ/č̣ig ëraç ē tònakan hagowil “he/she made an effort to dress up / to dress festively”,
- Հայաստանը խոցելի վիճակի մէջ կը գտնուի/Hayastanë xocʼeli vič̣aki mēǰ kë gtnowi “Armenia is (lit. finds itself) in a vulnerable position”.
Cau: causative voice
In Western 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-. This suffix 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
- պիտի կարենամ կարդացնել/piti karenam kardacʼnel “I will be able to make (someone) read”,
- կը յիշեցնէ մեզի/ kë yišecʼnē mezi “it reminds us”,
- ընել տուեր է/ënel tower ē “he/she has had it done”,
- իբրեւ ճշմարտութիւն հաւտացնել տալ/ibrew č̣šmartowtʼiwn hawtacʼnel tal “to make (someone) believe (something) to be true”,
- հասկնալ
ActտալCau/hasknal tal “lit: make someone understand”, - հասկցնել
Cau/haskc’nel “lit: make someone understand”, - հասկցնել
CauտալCau/haskc’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. Passive forms of transitive verbs, formed either with the productive suffix -ու-/-ow-, or by replacing the infinitival ending -ել/-el with -իլ/-il, often function as mediopassive (intransitive) verbs. In such cases, the passive form constitutes a distinct lemma, e.g., մաշել/mašel “to wear out (trans.)” - մաշիլ/mašil “to wear out (intrans.), to become worn”, հարթել/hart’el “to smooth” - հարթիլ/hart’il “to become smooth”, հալել/halel “to melt (trans.)” - հալիլ/halil “to melt (intrans.)”. Consequently, to express a true, agentive passive meaning for these verbs, the passive is formed from the corresponding causative verb.
Examples
- Ճինսէ տապատները կը մաշեցուին յատուկ եղանակով/Č̣insē tapatnerë kë mašecʼowin yatowk eġanakov “denim pants are distressed using a special method”
- ոսկերչական իրերու հալեցուիլը/oskerčakan irerow halecʼowilë “the melting down of jewelry”
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-/-ow-. However, the set of verb roots that can form reciprocals is limited.
Examples
- Գաղտնի ու անձայն պսակուեցան/Gaġtni ow anjayn psakowecʼan “They got married (lit. married each other) secretly and quietly”,
- պայմանաւորուեցանք/paymanaworowecʼankʼ “we came to an agreement (with each other)”.
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]