Universal #1563

Legacy number: 1563

 Number  1559
 Original  Verb-initial languages always have a passive voice and it is almost always marked in the verbal morphology (rather than by a serial verb construction as in Chinese, for example).
 Standardized  IF word order is verb-initial, THEN there will be passive voice which is almost always marked in the verbal morphology.
 Formula  verb-initial ⇒ passive voice
 Keywords  order, verb-initial, diathesis, passive
 Domain  inflection, syntax
 Type  implication
 Status  achronic
 Quality  absolute
 Basis  unknown
 Source  unpublished statements of Keenan’s, reproduced in D. Payne 1990: 15

← Back to Universals Archive

Discussion
Counterexamples
Tzeltal, Mayan (both Mayan)- passives are constructed from the active verb ‘receive’ followed by a nominalized form of the “passivized” verb (Keenan 1978: 300, D. Payne 1990: 15).
Notes
Cf. claims ##1532 and 1533 about subject-final languages, which are all of VOS order, according to Keenan’s survey (#1516): All subject-final languages have passive forms of verbs. ‘Passive’ is generally marked in the verbal morphology in subject-final languages.
Comment
Frans Plank · 3 Aug 2006
Cf. claims <a class="innerLink" href="browse.php?entry_id=1532"><img src="../img/entry.gif" border="0"> and <a class="innerLink" href="browse.php?entry_id=1533"><img src="../img/entry.gif" border="0"> about subject-final languages, which are all of VOS order, according to Keenan's survey (<a class="innerLink" href="browse.php?entry_id=1516"><img src="../img/entry.gif" border="0">):
All subject-final languages have passive forms of verbs.
"Passive" is generally marked in the verbal morphology in subject-final languages.