Four types of passives in Japanese and their cross-linguistic implications

Abstract

This paper examines how the variety of so-called “passive constructions” can be viewed in terms of subject demotion and object promotion. I propose that four types of passives may logically exist due to possible combinations of the two independent operations: (i) both subject demotion and object promotion occur; (ii) only subject demotion occurs; (iii) only object promotion occurs; and (iv) neither subject demotion nor object promotion occurs but passive morphology is involved, demonstrating that they are all attested in Japanese. I argue that free Merge allows the Japanese passive morpheme (r)are to be externally merged with main V, little v, or [V-v] that is also created by External Merge, yielding V-(r)are, v-(r)are, and [V-v]-(r)are, respectively, with the result that the external θ-role is absorbed in V-(r)are, accusative Case is absorbed in v-(r)are, and both of them are absorbed in [V-v]-(r)are. I also show that (r)are can occur as a main verb, inducing neither subject demotion nor object promotion, but the passive sense may be expressed via assignment of an affectee θ-role to the surface subject. The analysis proposed here opens up new possibilities for unifying ways of generating the so-called non-canonical passives observed in various languages.