Antipassive constructions
An antipassive construction involves a verbal construction with an obligatory agent combining with a verb that is semantically transitive, but syntactically intransitive due to the demotion of the P argument of the matching active transitive construction.1 The demotion of the object may be realised by one of the following two types:
a) oblique argument subtype: what appeared in the P function in the transitive pattern appears in an oblique form (oblique case and/or with an adposition) instead of in its typical form;
b) implicit argument subtype: the former P function cannot be expressed at all.
Antipassive constructions are the most common in ergative languages, as an alternative to the ergative construction: the part of the sentence that appears in ergative form in an ergative construction appears in absolutive case in an antipassive construction, while the part of the sentence that appears in absolutive form in an ergative construction appears instead in oblique form or not at all in an antipassive construction.
At the same time, antipassive constructions are attested in nominative-accusative languages, as well as languages with other case systems. The minimal criteria for antipassivity are as follows:
1. The antipassive construction can be easily associated with a less marked bivalent construction such as (active) transitives;
2. The P argument of the (active) transitive construction is demoted (and appears in an oblique form or not at all);
3. Antipassivization has an identifiable marker;
4. The antipassive construction is intransitive (with its only obligatory argument having the S function).
The marker of antipassivity can be specific (used only for deriving the antipassive form of the verb) or a there can be a syncretic derivational morpheme that has other functions as well.2 In some languages, multiple such morphemes exist, sometimes even appearing simultaneously. In other languages, the only sign of an antipassive construction is the change in verbal agreement.
In some languages antipassive is fully productive (an antipassive construction can be formed from any transitive verb), while in others it may be only partially so (limited to transitive verbs of a certain type or meaning) or not productive at all (limited to a closed class of transitive verbs to which no new elements are added). The degree of productivity of this construction should be noted only in the commentary. We are not concerned with the grammatical environments or functions in which the antipassive is used either, since languages differ greatly in this respect.
Types:
NoAntipass: The language does not have antipassive constructions.
AntipassObq: Antipassive constructions feature the P argument of the transitive pattern in an oblique form (oblique case and/or with an adposition).
AntipassImpl: Antipassive constructions do not feature the P argument of the transitive pattern at all.
NoAntipassAgr: Antipassive constructions do not feature any kind of agreement on the verb.
AntipassAgrA: In an antipassive construction, the verb uses the same strategy to mark agreement with the S argument as it would do it with the A argument in the associated transitive construction.3
AntipassAgrAElse: In an antipassive construction, the verb uses a different strategy to mark agreement with the S argument than the way it would mark agreement with the A argument in the associated transitive construction.
The values AntipassObq and AntipassImpl may each appear alongside any of the other parameter values listed, separated by a plus sign (+).
1: This should not be confused with the passive construction, in which it is the agent that is demoted. For a detailed discussion of the S, A, P functions see e.g. the parameter Marking of function with nouns A/S/P.
2: These functions may include “detransitivizing” a verb, making it reflexive or reciprocal, or marking its tense, aspect, or mood.
3: This is only possible if agreement with the A argument exists in the associated transitive construction. If this value applies, examples should be provided in the commentary.