Voice: voice
| Values: | Act | Antip | Bfoc | Cau | Dir | Inv | Lfoc | Mid | Pass | Rcp |
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
- [cs] Napadli jsme nepřítele. “We attacked the enemy” (the active participle napadli can be used to form either past tense or conditional mood; here it forms the past tense.)
- [grc] λύει τὸν ἵππον μου (luei ton hippon mou) “he frees my horse”
- [hu] mos “wash”
- [tr] Barış Filiz’i öptü. “Barış kissed Filiz.”
- [tl] Naglilinis siya ng bahay. “He/she cleans a/the house.”
- [yii] Waguɖaŋgu guda:ga wawa:l. “The man saw the dog.” (lit. man-ERG dog.ABS see.ACT-PAST)
Mid: middle voice
Between active and passive, needed e.g. in Ancient Greek or Sanskrit. The subject is both doer and undergoer in a sense: he is acting upon himself.
Examples
- [grc] λύομαι τὸν ἵππον (luomai ton hippon) “I free (my own) horse”
(source)
Rcp: reciprocal voice
In a plural subject, all members are doers and undergoers, acting upon each other.
Examples
- [tr] Filiz ve Barış öpüştüler. “Filiz and Barış kissed.”
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
- [cs] Jsme napadeni nepřítelem. “We are attacked by the enemy” (the passive participle napadeni is used to form passive in all tenses; here it forms the present passive.)
- [tl] Nililinis niya ang bahay. “He/she cleans the house.”
Antip: antipassive voice
In ergative-absolutive languages, the absolutive P argument is demoted to an oblique dependent and the ergative A argument takes the absolutive form, thus transforming a transitive clause into intransitive.
Examples
- [yii] Wagu:ɖa gudaganda wawa:ɖiɲu. “The man saw the dog.” (lit. man.ABS dog-DAT see-ANTIP-PAST)
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
- [tl] Aalisan ng babae ng bigas ang sako para sa bata. “A/the woman will take some rice out of the sack for a/the child.”
Bfoc: beneficiary-focus voice
The subject of the verb indicates the beneficiary, while the doer and the undergoer/theme are coded as objects.
Examples
- [tl] Ipagaalis ng babae ng bigas sa sako ang bata. “A/the woman will take some rice out of a/the sack for the child.”
Dir: direct voice
Used in direct-inverse voice systems, e.g. in Algonquian languages of North America. Direct means that the argument that is higher in salience hierarchy is the subject. Example hierarchy: human 1st person – 2nd – 3rd – non-human animate – inanimate.
Examples
- [crk] Niwīcihānānak. “We help them.” (ni-wīcih-ā-nān-ak lit. 1PL[subj]-help-DIR-3[obj]-PL[obj])
Inv: inverse voice
Used in direct-inverse voice systems, e.g. in Algonquian languages of North America. Inverse voice marking means that the argument lower in the hierarchy functions as subject.
Examples
- [crk] Niwīcihikonānak. “They help us.” (ni-wīcih-iko-nān-ak lit. 1PL[subj]-help-INV-3[obj]-PL[obj])
Cau: causative voice
Causative forms of verbs are classified as a voice category because, when compared to the basic active form, they change the number of participants and their mapping on semantic roles. (See, e.g., the documentation of the METU Sabanci treebank (page 26).) Note that this is a feature of verbs. There are languages that have also the causative case of nouns.
Examples
- [hu] mosat “make somebody wash”
- [tr] karıştırıyor “is confusing” (= is causing somebody to be confused)
Voice in other languages: [abq] [am] [arr] [bej] [bg] [ceb] [cs] [el] [eme] [en] [fi] [fr] [gn] [gub] [hu] [hy] [jaa] [ka] [ky] [myu] [qpm] [qtd] [quc] [ru] [sv] [tl] [tpn] [tr] [tt] [u] [uk] [urb] [urj] [xcl]