A Typological Approach to the Passive in Thai

A TYPOLOGICAL analysis of passive types in Thai. A typological system of passives in Thai APPROACH TO THE is proposed. It comprises eight actual 1 PASSIVE IN THAI types of passive, which are distinguished from one another by these features: Amara Prasithrathsintl [true], [neutral], [direct], [basic], and [synthetic].

Abstract 1. Introduction

Based on the generalization and The purpose of this study is to approach classification of passives in the world's passives typologically and to classify languages put forward by Givan (1979), the passive in Thai into types. Siewierska (1984), and Keenan (1990) this study recapitulates the universal One of the reasons why 1 have attempted types of passive. Twenty types of to analyze passives typologically is that passive are proposed. They are grouped there has been a great deal of confusion into ten pairs of contrastive types; as to how to analyze passives, chiefly namely, passive vs. ergative, true because different models of grammar passive vs. pseudo-passive, direct vs. treat passives differently; for example, indirect passive, sentential vs. lexical as to whether passives are structurally passive, personal vs . impersonal related to acti ves; i.e., whether they are pas~ive, plain vs. reflexive passive, derived transformationally from their neu ra J vs. adversative or favorable active counterpart or are derived pas· ve, basic vs. non-basic passive, independently. Among those who synthetic vs. periphrastic passive, maintain that passives are related to passive with patient vs. passive actives by syntactic rules are Chomsky with non-patient subject. It is found that (1965, 1973), Fillmore (1968, 1971), five of these pairs are applicable to the and Emonds ( 1976). Those who contend that actives and passives are syntactically independent but related by 1 The content of this paper is based on a part lexical rules are, for example, Shopen of the research report on "Controversial (1972), Bresnan ( 1978), and Starosta constructions in Thai Grammar: Relative (1988). Yet, there are some who hold clause constructions, complement clause that some passive clauses are derived constructions, serial constructions, and transformationally and other passive passive constructions". The study was funded by the National Research Council clauses lexically, for example, Wasow of Thailand and conducted by Pranee 1977, Lightfoot 1979, and Bennett1980 Kullavanijaya, Kingkam Thepkamjana, and (cited in Siewierska 1984:7). myself in 2003. I was responsible for the part on passive constructions. In the process Another reason why a typological of revising and improving this paper, I was approach to passives is adopted here is very grateful to Pranee Kullavanijaya for her that it is very likely to yield solutions to constructive comments and suggestions. the problem of identifying and 2 Associate Professor, Department of Lin• classifying passives, which can serve as guistics, Faculty of Arts, Chulalongkorn a basis for further analysis. In many University earlier analyses, passives were defined

Downloaded from Brill.com10/09/2021 05:22:18PM via free access Manusya: Journal of Humanities (Special Issue No.6 2003) differently according to differe nt verb is an activity verb, e.g., John was criteria. This resulted in the conclusion slapped. Passives that do not have these that some languages have passives but characteristics are complex, or non• others do not. Thai is a good example basic, passives. Based on several of such a language. Indeed, several criteria, such as the presence of an agent, linguists maintain that Thai does not types of that can be passi vized, have passives. However, many others, aspectual differences, and degree of myself included argue that it does. My subject affectedness, Keenan made view is that passives are diverse and do generalizations about the distribution not have a uniform pattern. of all the world's passives, which are summarized as follows: 2. Universality of passives G-1 Some lang uages have no Functionally speaking, passives serve pass1ves. the same function in the world's G-2 If a language has passives, it languages. According to Keenan ( 1990: has ones characterized as basic; 243-244), passives may be considered moreover, it may have only foregrounding constructions, which basic passives. topicalize or foreground an element. In G-2.1 If a language has John was slapped, John is presented as passives with agent topical, unlike in Mary slapped John. phrases, then it has Other foregrounding devices are them without agent topicalizations or left-dislocation (e.g. phrases. Beans I like). Passives are different from G-2.2 If a language has topicalized constructions in that they passives of stative can eliminate the subject of the active verbs (e.g. lack, have, or relegate it to the status of an oblique etc.), then it has NP (as in John was slapped by Mary). passives of activity verbs. Based on evidence from a large number G-2.3 If a language has of languages around the world, Keenan passives of intransitive ( 1990: 241) argues that "no language verbs then it has forms passive sentences by assigning a passives of transitive characteristic to an active, or by verbs (e.g. in inserting a sentence-level particle in an Japanese). active, or by inverting the subject and . G-3 Languages with basic passives the auxiliary of an active. Rather, commonly have more than one passives are formed by deriving verb formally distinct passive phrases in certain ways." construction. G-4 If a language has passives, it has Keenan divides ·all passives into two ones which can be used to cover major types: basic and non-basic or the perfective range of complex passives. The term "basic meaning. passives", refers to passives that have G-5 If a language has two or more three characteristics: 1) They have no basic passives, they are likely agent; 2) the passivized verb is a to differ semantically with transitive verb; and 3) the passivized respect to the aspect ranges they cover.

2

Downloaded from Brill.com10/09/2021 05:22:18PM via free access A Typological Approach to the Passive in Thai

G-6 The subject of a passive VP is . Ayutthaya, and early Bangkok periods. never understood to be less (Prasithrathsint 2004). affected by the action than when it is presented as the The fact that Thai has both basic and of an active transitive non-basic passives and that it has more verb. than one formally distinct passive G-7 Distinct passives in a language construction supports the statements in may vary according to the G-2 and G-3. degree of affectedness of the subject and whether it is Concerning G-4 and G-5, that passives positively or negatively in Thai seem to be compatible with affected (e.g. in Thai, perfective aspect may be regarded as Vietnamese, Chinese), though supporting the generalizations. this variation seems less widely However, such a claim needs further distributed than that of aspect. investigation. (See the discussion G-8 If a language can passivize following (24) and (25) in 4.7 .) transitive verb phrases taking sentential objects then it can G-6 may need proof from a test of native passivize ones taking lexical speakers' reaction. However, based on noun phrase objects. my observation, native speakers of Thai G-9 If a language presents basic seem to passivize a transitive active passives, then it always sentence or depassivize a passive passivizes 'give', 'show', etc. in sentence quite freely. This seems to such a way that the derived imply that the object of an active subject is the Patient of the sentence and the subject of its passive active verb. Passives in which counterpart are equivalent in terms of the Recipient is the subject may the degree of its being affected by the or may not exist (e.g. in French action of the verb. such a sentence as Le livre a e1i donned Pierre. 'The book The findings about passives in Thai also was given to Pierre' is gram• provide evidence supporting G-7 and G- matical, but *Pierre a ete" 9. Indeed, Thai has adversative, favor• donne le livre. 'Pierre was able, and neutral passives. Unlike in given the book' is ungram• French, in Thai both the passive with matical.) the Patient subject and that with the (Keenan 1990: 247-277) Recipient subject exist. The latter is classified as the indirect passive. (See It is interesting to note that studies of 4.3) passives in Thai and other Tai languages provide evidence that seems to confirm With reference to G-8, the passive with many of Keenan's generalizations. For a sentential subject is less common than instance, G- 1, which states that some the passive with a noun phrase subject. languages have no passives, is The fact that Thai has only the latter confirmed by the fact that some Tai type of passive supports the statement languages, such as Ahem Tai, and in G-8. Phutai do not have passives. This is also true of the Thai used in the Sukhothai,

3

Downloaded from Brill.com10/09/2021 05:22:18PM via free access Manusya: Journal of Humanities (Special Issue No.6 2003)

3. Definition of passive and word to the passive passiviiation sentence. (4) It may or may not contain Given (1979: 187) defines passiv• an agent. ization from a functional point of view (5) It may differ in form and as "the process by which a non-agent is meaning from other types of passive in the same promoted into the role of main topic of the sentence. And to the extent that language. the language possesses coding proper• ties which identify main topics as As will be seen, the above definition subjects and distinguishes them from covers all the types of passives topics, then this promotion may also described in the following sections. involve subjectivalization." 4. Types of passives in the Based on a comparative analysis of world's languages passives in many different languages, Siewierska (1984) defines passive Based on Given ( 1979), Siewierska constructions as those which have the (1984), and Keenan (1990), I classify following characteristics: passives universally into 20 types, which are grouped into 10 pairs. The a) the subject of the passive features that distinguish the two types clause is a direct object in in each pair are a dichotomy of the corresponding active; contrastive features. It should be noted b) the subject of the active that these features are not mutually clause is expressed in the exclusive. For instance, basic passives passive in the form of an can also be synthetic, neutral, personal, agentive adjunct or is left plain, etc. Here, I arrange all the pairs unexpressed; of features on the basis of their role in c) the verb is marked passive. classifying languages into types (Siewierska 1984: 2-3) concerning passives. The features that affect more languages are more general In this paper, "passive" is also defined than those that affect fewer languages. by a combination of characteristics. A The ten dichotomies of features are passive construction is a construction ordered from the most general to the that has all of the following most specific as follows. characteristics: l. Passive vs. ergative (passive-like (1) Its grammatical subject constructions) corresponds to the object 2. True passive vs. pseudo-passive in its active counterpart. 3. Direct passive vs. indirect passive (2) Its main verb is an 4. Sentential passive vs. lexical intransitive verb derived passive from a transitive verb in 5. Personal vs. impersonal passives the active counterpart. 6. Plain passive vs. reflexive passive (3) It is marked by adding an 7. Neutral passive vs. adversative or affix to the main verb or a favorable passives 8. Basic vs. non-basic passives

4

Downloaded from Brill.com10/09/2021 05:22:18PM via free access A Typological Approach to the Passive in Thai

9. Synthetic vs. periphrastic passives It should be remarked that ( 1) is passive• 10. Passives with patient subjects vs. like semantically. However, the verb passives with non-patient subjects /balga-n/ 'hit' is an unmarked transitive and there is no other marker in the 4.1 Passive vs. ergative (passive• sentence like a passive sentence in like constructions) accusative languages. In contrast, the verb /balgal-nga-nyu/ in (2) is fully Evidence from typological research marked, so that the sentence becomes shows that passives are normally found opposite to (1) in terms of semantic in accusative languages as opposed to roles. It is active-like semantically but ergative languages. In accusative labeled as "anti-passive" in ergative languages, active sentences, in which languages. the subject is Agent, are unmarked, and passive sentences, in which the subject 4.2 True passive vs. pseudo• is Patient, are marked. On the other passive hand, in ergative languages, constructions with Patient subjects are An important marker of a "true passive" unmarked. They are known as is that the main verb is derived from a "ergative" constructions. Their counter• transitive verb. If it is derived from an part is the "anti-passive" construction, intransitive verb, the construction will in which the subject is Agent, and it is be labeled as a "pseudo-passive". In marked. other words, a pseudo-passive is a passive-like construction in which the Based solely on the semantic criterion, verb is derived from an intransitive verb, any linguist might consider an ergative as the verbs /pay/ 'go', and /~'Jk/ 'leave' construction to be passive. However, in (3) and (4). most linguists seem to take into consideration grammatical markers and (3) khaw thu'uk pay consider ergative to be unlike passive. he PASS go Examples (1) and (2) are Dyirbal prachum thccn hua-mia ergative and anti-passive, respectively. meeting instead boss laay khraiJ (1) yara jugumbi-ru several time man-ABS woman-ERG (Thai) balga-n 'He has been made to attend hit-TRAN meetings on behalf of his boss (Dyirbal) several times.' 'The man was hit by the woman.' (4) khaw doon ~'Jk caak he PASS leave from (2) yara jugumbil-gu niatchakaan phd tham man-ABS woman-OAT public service because do balgal-nga-nyu khwaam-phit hit-ANTIPASS wrong (Dyirbal) (Thai) 'The woman hit the man.' 'He was made to resign from being a civil servant because he had done wrong.'

5

Downloaded from Brill.com10/09/2021 05:22:18PM via free access Manusya: Journal of Humanities (Special issue No.6 2003)

4.3 Direct passive vs. indirect Some linguists divide passives into two passive types based on whethe r they are sentences or lexical items. All the Direct passives are passives in which examples shown earlier are passive there is a direct relationship between the sentences. verb and the subject of the passive sentence in terms of affectedness. In Lexical passives, on the other hand, are contrast, indirect passives are passives not sentence constructions, but words, in which there is no relations hip such as broken in a broken glass, between the subject of the passive damaged in a damaged car, interested sentence and the verb, such as (5) and in The audience interested in this topic (6). can attend my lecture on Monday, etc. These words with "passive meanings" (5) taroo ga doroboo m may be called "participial passive" Taroo NOM thief AGT (Beedham 2001 ) or "adjectival passive zitensha o nusum-are-ta participle" (Yumoto 1991 ). bike ACC steal-PASS-PAST (Japanese) Another kind of lexical passive was 'Taroo was affected by his proposed by Irube (1984); namely, bike being stolen by a thief.' adjectives ending with "-able" which (Siewierska 1984: 155) have "passive" meanings; for example, debatable ('that can be debated'), (6) chan thuuk phi'an yfp naiJsii forgivable ('that can be forgiven'), I PASS friend pick book separable ('that can be separated'), pay dooy may b:bk countable ('that can be counted'), go by not tell perceivable ('that can be perceived'). (Thai) "I was affected by my friend's It may be important to note that most taking that book without linguists who deal with passives in telling me. ' various languages in the world focus on passive sentences and tend to ignore As can be seen in Examples (5) and (6), lexical passives. In this paper, I also the Patient of the verb 'steal' and ' pick' concentrate only on passive sentences. is ' bike' and ' book' , respectively. However, they are not subjects. This 4.5 Personal vs. impersonal makes the sentences different from passives direct passives. However, since the sentences are marked by a passive Personal passives have subjects with marker: /rare/ in Japanese, and /thuuk/ clear meanings. They are more common in Thai, they can be regarded as than impersonal passives. All the passives, but are labeled as "indirect examples of passives given earlier are passives" here. personal passives. On the other hand, impersonal passives are subjectless or 4.4 Sentential passive vs. lexical have subjects with obscure meanings pa·ssive (such as "on" in French). Berman (1979) labels them as "verb-first" or

6

Downloaded from Brill.com10/09/2021 05:22:18PM via free access A Typological Approach to the Passive in Thai

"missing-person constructions", as (7)• (11 ) Adan y Eva se (10) below. Adam and Eve REFL expulsaron del (7) otobUse-e bin-il-di . expel-PAST-3 PL of-the bus-OAT board-PASS-PAST Eden (Turkish) Eden 'The bus was boarded'. (Spanish) (/otobUse-e/ 'bus' is not subject 'Adam and Eve were thrown because it is in the Dative case) out of Eden.'

(8) er wordt door de (12) Nel medio evo si there become by the in-the middle age REFL jongens gefloten bruciavano boys whistle-PAST PART. burn-IMPERF-3 PL (Dutch) le streghe 'There is whistling by the boys.' the witch (Italian) (9) bur-ej povali-lo 'In the middle ages witches storm-INST knock over-PAST were burned.' derev-o tree-ACC. (13) 0 Nickos skoto-eike (Russian) Nick kill-REFL-3 S-PAST 'The tree was knocked over apo tus exerus by the storm.' by the enemy (Greek) (1 0) on vendit Ia maison 'Nick was killed by the enemy.' one sold the house (From Siewierska 1984: 165-166) (French) 'The house was sold.' 4.7 Synthetic vs. periphrastic (From Siewierska 1984:94-95, passives and Berman 1979: 3) Passives may be divided into two types: 4.6 Plain vs. reflexive passives synthetic and periphrastic, according to how they are marked Reflexive passives are marked by a reflexive pronoun, which functions as Synthetic passives are marked by a prefi x or a suffix to the main verb. affixation to the verb, which turns an They are commonly found in European active verb into a passive form. These languages, as (1 1)-(13). Passives that passives are labeled "strict morpho• are not marked by a reflexive pronoun logical passives" by Keenan ( 1990: are plain passives. 251). Examples (14b) and (15b) are synthetic passives. The passive verbs are derived from their active counter• parts by affixation (1 4a, 15a).

7

Downloaded from Brill.com10/09/2021 05:22:18PM via free access Manusya: Journal of Humanities (Special Issue No.6 2003)

( 14a) cal pa 7 mpon (16) The project was finished. wind open door (Sre) ( 17) The book was written by a 'The wind opened the door.' Nobel Prize winner.

(14b) mpon g~pa? m~ cal (18) Hans wurde von door PASS-open by wind Hans become by 'The door was opened by the seinem Vater bestraft wind.' his father punished (German) (15a) ha-saba gidel 'Hans was punished by his the-grandfather brought up father.' et ha-yeled DO the-child (19) Ahmed koste sod (Hebrew) Ahmed killed become 'The grandfather brought up (Persian) the child.' 'Ahmed was killed.' (From Keenan 1990: 257) (15b) ha-yeled gudal the-child was brought up Periphrastic passives with a verb al yedei ha-saba meaning 'get, receive' on hands the-grandfather (Hebrew) In Welsh, passives are formed by adding 'The child was brought up by the verb 'get', as in (20). the grandfather.' (20) cafodd Wyn ei rybuddio On the other hand, periphrastic passives get Wyn his warning are marked by certain words added in gan lfor active constructions, turning them into by Ifor passive ones. Such words are normally (Welsh) verbs that may be grouped into four 'Wyn was warned by lfor.' types: 1) verbs meaning 'be, become', (Keenan 1990: 259) 2) verbs meaning 'get, receive', 3) verbs meaning 'go, come', 4) verbs meaning In English, the verb 'get' may replace 'suffer, touch, undergo'. the verb 'be' in a passive sentence; e.g., he got kicked, but its occurrence is Periphrastic passives with a verb limited to certain verbs and certain meaning 'be, become' situations. Similarly, in Thai the verb /day-rap/ 'receive' may also mark a English passives are periphrastic with passive; e.g., /khaw day-rap t£1]-taiJ/ 'He the verb 'to be', as in (16), (17). German was appointed.' However, its and Persian make use of the verb occurrence is also limited-the verb meaning 'become', as in (18), and (19), /day-rap/ occurs only with a verb that respectively. has a favorable meaning. (See 4.8.)

8

Downloaded from Brill.com10/09/2021 05:22:18PM via free access A Typological Approach to the Passive in Thai

Periphrastic passives with a verb (24) baan nli saalJ maa meaning 'go, come' house this build come haa-slp pii l£Ew According to Siewierska (1984), fifty year already periphrasti c passives with a verb teE yaiJ duu meaning 'go', or 'come' are less com• but still look mon than those with other verbs. The suay- I) aam maak verb 'go' or 'come' has lost its lexical pretty-beautiful very meaning and become a passive marker, 'This house was built fifty years as can be seen in (21) and (22), which ago but still looks beautiful.' are periphrastic passives in Hindi marked by the verb 'go'. Note that (21) is a (25) w6:n nli man personal passive and that (22) is an ring this engage impersonal one. phuyll) maa laay woman come several Example (23) is a periphrastic passive knon l£Ew marked by the verb 'come' in Italian. person already 'This ring has been worn by (21) murgi mari gayee several women during their chicken killed went engagement.' (Hindi) 'The chicken was ki lled.' In my opinion, (24) and (25) could be (Keenan 1990: 260) analyzed as unmarked passives if we base the analysis on s~mantic criteria. (22 larko se soyee nahi gayee The word /maal 'come' in these sen• boys by slept not went tences cannot be regarded as a passive (Hindi) marker because it can be omitted. 'It was not slept by the boys.' H0wever, it seems to convey the (Siewierska 1984: 105) meaning of perfective aspect and makes the sentences more intelligible. The (23) Ia barca viene claim that the passive is highly compat• the boat come ible with perfecti ve aspect has been affondata suggested in some studies, such as sink-PAST-PART Kulikov (2004), and Toyota & Mus• (Italian) tafovic (2004). However, in order to 'The boat is (being) sunk.' confirm such a relationship, more (Siewierska 1984: 134) specific investigations need to be car• ried out in more languages, including Pranee Kullavanij aya (p.c.) points out Thai. that in Thai the verb /maal 'to come' is normally found in intransitive sentences Periphrastic passives with a verb with a passive meaning, such as (24) and meaning 'suffer, touch, undergo' (25), and asks whether s uch constructions should be regarded as periphrastic passives marked by 'come'. This type of periphrastic passive is commonly found in Southeast Asian languages. The verb that is added to

9

Downloaded from Brill.com10/09/2021 05:22:18PM via free access Manusya: Journal of Humanities (Special issue No.6 2003) mark the passive normally means either favorable or unfavorable something like 'undergo an unfavorable meanings of the verbs or the sentences. experience', and the passive construc• European languages have this type of tion that is derived is adversative. passive. However, in certain languages Examples include the verb /doonl in in Asia, including Thai, passives can Thai, /trew/ in Khmer, and /bi/ in have specialized meanings in terms of Vietnamese, as in Examples (26H28). favorable or unfavorable, especially It is also discovered that in Malaysia, from the point of view of the speaker. the verb /kenai 'touch, undergo' has Examples (26)-(29) shown in the become a passive marker in the same previous section are adversative line, as in (29) (See Prasithrathsint passives in some Southeast Asian 2001.) languages. Example (30) is a favorable passive in Thai marked by the word (26) khaw doon tii /day-rap/. he/she undergo beat (Thai) (30) Somchai day-rap liak 'He/she was beaten.' Somchai receive elect pen khana-b::ldii (27) no b! danh be dean he/she undergo beat (Thai) (Vietnamese) 'Somchai was elected Dean 'He/she was beaten.' The verb /day-rap/ 'receive' normally

(2g) ki: tr:JW w~y occurs with verbs that have favorable he/she undergo beat meanings, such as those meaning 'elect, (Khmer) appoint, give (by the king), admire, 'He was beaten.' praise, invite, etc.'

(29) budak jahat itu 4.9 Basic vs. non-basic passives boy naughty the kena pukul Basic passives are defined here undergo beat according to Keenan (1990: 247) as (Malay) passives which have these three 'The naughty boy was beaten.' characteristics: 1) There is no agent, 2) the main verb (in its non-passive form) As can be seen, the features is transitive, and 3) the main verb "periphrastic" vs. ''synthetic" are based expresses an activity, taking agent on syntactic criteria. In contrast, the subjects and patient objects. Other features "neutral" and "adversative" in passives that do not have these the Section 4.8 below are based on characteristics are non-basic passives. semantic criteria. Basic passives are more widespread across the world's languages than non• 4.8 Neutral passive vs. basic ones. Examples (31) and (32) are adversative or favorable passives basic passives.

Passives in most languages of the world are neutral; i.e., they are not limited to

10

Downloaded from Brill.com10/09/2021 05:22:18PM via free access A Typological Approach to the Passive in Thai

(31) My book was stolen. (37) pag-kamang ku (32) Twenty bodies have been PASS (INST)-get I (AGT) discovered. ya lata sa tubig adti SUBJ can DO water on Passives with patient subjects vs. balkan passives with non-patient subjects porch (Kalakan) Passives may vary according to the role 'The can will be got water with of the subject. Normally, the subject of by me on the porch.' a passive sentence is the Patient or (Keenan 1990: 279-280) Objective case relation. However, the subjects of some passive sentences are 5. Types of Passive in Thai in other case relations, such as (33)-(35). Based on the categorical criteria used (33) This bed (LOCATIVE) has in classifying passives and certain been slept in. passive-like constructions in the world's languages into 10 pairs shown in (34) Mary (DATIVE) was given Section 4, I classified passive and flowers by John. passive-like constructions in Thai into types. 3 Table 1 shows that only 6 (35) The ruined castle walls criteria are applicable to Thai. The rest (LOCATIVE ) were crept do not apply because Thai does not have over by ivy. those types of passive.

This type of passive is also referred to The six categories that are applicable as " prepositi onal passive" (e.g., to Thai are: Couper-Kuhlen 1979, Gwang-Yoon 2000). In English, the occurrence of the 1) true passive vs. pseudo-passive passive with non-patient subjects is 2) direct passive vs. indirect passives · limited. In some other languages, the 3) sentential passive vs. lexical non-patient subject can be Instrumental, passives as in (36) and (37). However, it is not 4) synthetic passive vs. periphrastic marked by a preposition. passives 5) neutral passive vs. adversative or (36) nanasan-dRasoa favorable passives washed with-(INST) by 6) basic passive vs. non-basic passives Rasoa ny lamba ny savony the clothes the soap 3 The data used in the analysis were a large (Malagasy) number of concordances taken from an elec• 'The soap was washed the tronic corpus of Thai supplied by the De• clothes with by Rasoa.' partment of , Chulalongkorn University and from current usage of Thai in newspapers and magazines. The total length of the texts from which data were taken was approximately three millions words.

11

Downloaded from Brill.com10/09/2021 05:22:18PM via free access Manusya: Journal of Humanities (Special Issue No.6 2003)

In this paper I take only five categories broadest features to the narrowest, as into consideration, excluding the follows: dichotomy of sentential vs. lexical passives because I aim to focus on 1) [+true], [-true] (true passive vs. sentence structure rather than word pseudo-passive) structure. In order to see how all the 2) [+neutral], [-neutral] (neutral vs. criteria interact and what the system of adversative or favorable passives) all the actual passives in Thai is like, I 3) [+direct], [-direct] (direct vs. apply a componential analysis to the indirect passives) classification. Note that all the 4) [+basic], [-basic] (basic vs. non• dichotomies are reinterpreted as a basic passives) system of binary features shown by the 5) [+synthetic], [-synthetic] + and - signs and rearranged from the (synthetic vs. periphrastic passives)

Table 1 Criteria applicable to classification of passives in Thai

Criteria used in classifying passives in the world's languages ApJ

Passive vs. ergative True passive vs. pseudo-passive X Direct passive vs. indirect passive X Sentential passive vs. lexical passive X Personal passive vs. impersonal passive Plain passive vs. reflexive passive Synthetic passive vs. periphrastic passive X Neutral passive vs. adversative passive X Basic passive vs. non-basic passive X Passives with patient subjects vs. passives with non-patient subjects

The system of passives in Thai is shown in Figure 1.

Thai passives

[+true] ./------~ 7 [+neutral] [-neutral] [+neutral)

[+basic------] [-basic] [+ba~sic] [-basic] [+~rl [+~yn][+sFrl [+~rl 1 0 2 3 0 4 0 5 0 0

Figure 1 Typological system of passive in Thai

12

Downloaded from Brill.com10/09/2021 05:22:18PM via free access A Typological Approach to the Passive in Thai

As can be seen in Figure l, there are 16 'This building was built by an possible types of passive based on the American architect.' combinations of features under the [+true] category. However, in actuality, Type 3: The [+direct, +neutral, there exist only 7 types of true passive -basic, -synthetic] passive (numbered as 1-7 in Figure 1) and one type of pseudo-passive (Number 8) in This type of direct and neutral passive Thai. The rest marked by 0 do not exist. is different from Type 2 in only one feature: it is not synthetic. The passive Type 1: The [+direct, +neutral, marker is not attached to the verb, but +basic, +synthetic] passive is a verb itself and is part of the whole sentence. Note that even though it has This is the most common form of passive the same form as the marker in Type 1 in Thai. Even though it is considered a and Type 2-/thuuk/, I treat it as a new form, having emerged in the separate item. Also, the agent is not language because of English influence, preceded by the preposition 'by' but it is used widely and has become more functions as the subject NP of the acceptable among Thai grammarians embedded clause- /khwaam-rik now than it was a few decades ago. The botbaiJI in (40). structure of this type of passive is marked by the lack of an agent phrase (40) khwaam-Cil) thuuk and the passive marker /thuuk-/, which truth PASS functions like a prefix to the main verb. khwaam-ra'k botbalJ Also, the meaning of the passive love conceal sentence is neutral, such as (38). 'Truth is concealed by love. '

(38) cotmaay thuuk-sorJ Type 4: The [+direct, -neutral, letter PASS-send +basic, -synthetic] passive pay l£ew go already This type of direct and basic passive is 'The letter was sent/ has been not neutral and not synthetic. It is sent.' normally marked by the verb /doon/ 'undergo (an unfavorable experience)', Type 2: The [+direct, +neutral, which marks adversity, as in (41) or -basic, +synthetic] passive /da y-rip/ 'receive (something favorable)' , as in (42). This type of passive differs from Type l in only one feature; i.e., it has an agent (41) maa doon tii 4 phrase, as in (39). dog PASS beat 'The dog was beaten. ' (39) aakhaan laiJ nii building CLS this thuuk-saag dooy 4 In this sentence, /doon/ may be replaced PASS-build by by /thuuk/. Then the meaning would sathaapanik ameerikan become more neutral. So I do not consider architect American /thuuk/ as a marker in this category.

13

Downloaded from Brill.com10/09/2021 05:22:18PM via free access Manusya: Journal of Humanities (Special Issue No.6 2003)

(42) khaw diiy-rcfp teiJtaiJ (45) khaw doon kha n baan he PASS appoint he PASS search house pen prathaan b~~risat 'He was affected by his house be chair company being searched.' 'He was appointed chair of the company.' Type 7: The [-direct, -neutral, - basic, -synthetic] passive Type 5: The [+direct, -neutral, -basic, -synthetic] passive This type of passive is almost the same as Type 6, but differs from it in that it This type of passive is similar to Type has an agent, as in (46). 4, but differs from it in only one characteristic: it has an agent, as in (43). (46) phian thu'uk coon khamooy friend PASS thief steal (43) maa doon ph5~ tii Ij;}n dog PASS father beat money 'The dog was beaten by Father.' '(my) friend was affected by his (adversative passive) money being stolen by a thief.'

It must be remarked here that the /day• (47) khaw doon tamruat rap/ passive, which is always favorable, he PASS police is not found with an agent, in the same khan baan pattern as (43). search house 'He was affected by his house Type 6: The [-direct, -neutral, being searched by the police.' +basic, -synthetic] passive Type 8: The pseudo-passive This type of basic passive is indirect, non-neutral, and non-synthetic. It is The pseudo-passive in Thai is similar to marked by the non-patient subject, as a passive-having the same marker, but in (44) and (45). Only adversative its main verb is not derived from a passives are found to belong to this type. transitive verb, as in (48), marked by (Also see detail in 4.8). /thuuk/ and (49) marked by /doonl. (See also examples in Section 4.9) (44) phian thu'uk5 khamooy IJ;)n friend PASS steal money (48) suda thu'uk maa '(my) friend was affected by his Suda PASS come money being stolen.' samphaat wan-phrung-nii interview tomorrow 5 Even though the meaning of the /thuuk/ 'Suda is made to come for an passive marker tends to be neutral in today interview tomorrow.' usage, in Type 6 and Type 7, which are in• direct passives, the original meaning of /thuuk/ ('undergo an unfavorable experi• ence) seems to be preserved. In this case, I consider it here an adversative indirect pas• sive marker.

14

Downloaded from Brill.com10/09/2021 05:22:18PM via free access A Typological Approach to the Passive in Thai

(49) chan doon pay Typologically speaking, Thai has 10 l PASS go categories of passive. They can be IJaan-teiJIJaan saam hon grouped into 5 pairs: ( 1) basic and non• party-wedding three time basic passives; (2) direct and indirect nay dian nfi passives; (3) neutral and non-neutral In month this passives; (4) synthetic and periphrastic 'I have been made to go to three passives; and (5) true passive and wedding parties this month.' pseudo-passive. From these, only seven true types of passives and one pseudo 6. Conclusion type that actually exist in Thai are found. They are marked by four markers: 1) In the preceding pages, I have attempted /thuuk-/, the neutral syn-thetic passive to show a typological classification of marker; 2) /thuuk, an auxiliary marking Thai passives by applying the universal a non-basic periphras-tic passive; 3) characteristics of "passives" drawn /doon/, an adversative passive marker, from previous studies and analyses of and 4) /day-rap/, a favorable passive passives in the world's languages. The marker. All seven true types of passive result yields quite a neat system of 7 and their markers can be seen easily in types of passive and a pseudo-passive the following matrix. in Thai.

Table 2 Matrix of types of passive in Thai and their markers

Direct neutral basic synthetic true Type 1 + + + + + Type2 + + - + + Type 3 + + - - + Type4 + - + - + TypeS + - - - + Type6 - - + - + Type7 - - - - + Type 8 -

t5

Downloaded from Brill.com10/09/2021 05:22:18PM via free access Manusya: Journal of Humanities (Special Issue No.6 2003)

References Givon, Talmy. 1979. On Understanding Grammar. New York: Academic Beedham, Christopher. 2001. Participial Press.Gwang-Yoon, Goh. 200 I. The passive and aspect in Russian. Word 52 advent of the prepositional passive: An (1), 79-94. innovation of Middle English? English Bennett, P.A. 1980. English passives: A Studies, 82 (3), 203-217. study in syntactic change and relational I rube, Kaneharu. 1984. Argument structure grammar. Lingua 51.1, 101-114. and the out-prefixation. English Berman, Ruth A. 1979. Form and function: Linguistics I, I 05-122. Passives, middles, and impersonals in Keenan, Edward. 1990. Passive in the modern Hebrew. Berkley Linguistic world's languages. Chapter 5 in Society 5, 1-27. Language Typology and Syntactic Bresnan, J.W. 1978. A realistic Description-Clause Structure, edited transformational grammar. In by Timothy Shopen. Cambridge: Linguistic Theory and Psychological Cambridge University Press. Reality, edited by M. Ha11e, J. Bresan Kulikov, Leonid. Passive, Middle, and and G. Mi11er. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT perfect in Indo-European: Evidence Press. from Vedic. Paper presented at the Chomsky, Noam. 1965. Aspects of Theory Workshop on Passive within the 20''' of . Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Scandinavian Conference of Press. Linguistics, January 7-9m 2004, Chomsky, Noam. 1973. Conditions on University of Helsinki, Finland. transformations. In A Festschrift for Lightfoot, David W. 1979. Principles of Morris Halle, edited by S. Anderson Diachronic Syntax. London: Cam• and P. Kiparsky. New York: Holt, bridge University Press. Rinehart and Winston. Prasithrathsint, Amara. 1985. Change in the Couper-Kuhlen, Elizabeth. 1979. The passive constructions in written Thai prepositional passive in English: a during the Bangkok period. Ph.D. semantic-syntactic analysis, with dissertation, University of Hawaii. lexicon of prepos itional verbs. Prasithrathsint, Amara. 1988. Change in the Tubingen: Niemeyer. Passive Constructions in Standard Thai Emonds, Joseph. 1976. A Transformational from 1802 to 1982. Language Sciences Approach to English Syntax. New 10 (2). York: Academic Press. Prasithrathsint, Amara. 2001. The Fi 11 more, Charles J. 1968. The case for case. adversative passive marker as a Universals in Linguistic Theory, edited prominent areal feature of Southeast by Emmon Bach and Robert T. Harms, Asian languages. Paper presented at 1-88. New York: Holt, Rinehart and the SEALS XI, 16-18 May, 2001, Winston .. Bangkok. To be published in the Fillmore, Charles J. 1971. Some problems in Proceedings entitled Papers from the case grammar. Working Papers in 11'" Annual Meeting of the Southeast Linguistics 10, Ohio State University, Asian Linguistic Society. 245-265. Prasithrathsint, Amara. 2004. Development Gwang-Yoon, Goh. 2000. The Synchrony of the /thuuk/ passive marker in Thai. and Diachrony of the English Pre• Paper presented at the Workshop on positional Passive. Ph.D. dissertation Passive within the 20'" Scandinavian Ohio State University. ' Conference of Linguistics, January 7- 9m 2004, Un iversity of Helsinki, Finland. Siewierska, Anna. 1984. The Passive: A Comparative Linguistic Analysis. Australia: Croom Helm Ltd.

16

Downloaded from Brill.com10/09/2021 05:22:18PM via free access A Typological Approach to the Passive in Thai

Shopen, Timothy. 1972. A Generative theory of Ellipsis. Ph.D dissertation, University of California, Ann Arbor, Michigan: University Microfilms. Starosta, Stanley. 1988. The Case f or Lexicase. London: Pinter Publishers Ltd. Toyota, Junichi and Melisa Mustafovic. Passive and Aspect: Evidence from Slavic. Paper presented at the Workshop on Passive within the 2()'h Scandinavian Conference of Linguistics, January 7-9m 2004, University of Helsinki, Finland. Wasow, T. 1977. Transformations and the lexicon. In Formal Syntax, edited by P.Culicover, T. Was ow and A. Akmajian. New York: Academic Press, 327-360. Yumoto, Yoko. 199 1. The role of aspectual features in morpho logy. English Linguistics 8, 104-133.

17

Downloaded from Brill.com10/09/2021 05:22:18PM via free access