Is the passive a unified universal phenomenon? The claim derived from this volume is that the passive, if not universal, has become unified according to function. Language as a means of communication needs the passive, or passive-like constructions, and sooner or later develops them based on other voices (impersonal active, middle, reflexive), specific semantic meanings such as adversativity, or tense-aspect categories (stative,perfect, preterit). Certain contributors review the passives in various languages and language groups, including languages rarely discussed. Another group of contributors takes a novel theoretical approach toward passivization within a broad typological perspective. Among the languages discussed are Vedic, Irish, Mandarin Chinese, Thai, Lithuanian, Mordvin, and Nganasan, next to almost all European languages. Various theoretical frameworks such as Optimality Theory, Modern Structuralist Approaches, Role and Reference Grammar, Cognitive Semantics, Distributed Morphology, and Case Grammar have been applied by the different authors. Introduction : Passivization And Typology : Form Vs. Function -- A Confined Survey Into The Research Status Quo / Werner Abraham -- Passives In Lithuanian (in Comparison With Russian) / Emma Geniusiene -- Passive And Middle In Indo-european : Reconstructing The Early Vedic Passive Paradigm / Leonid Kulikov -- Pragmatic Nature Of Mandarin Passive-like Constructions / Marja Peltomaa -- Development Of The Thuuk Passive Marker In Thai / Amara Prasithrathsint -- The Passives Of Modern Irish / Brian Nolan -- The Passive In Erzya Mordvin Folklore / Merja Salo -- Grammatical Voice And Tense-aspect In Slavic / Junichi Toyota And Melisa Mustafovic -- Passive In Nganasan / Larisa Leisio -- 'agent Defocusing' Revisited : Passive And Impersonal Constructions In Some European Languages / Andrea Sanso -- Relations Between Actor-demoting Devices In Lithuanian : Dedicated To Emma Geniusiene / Bjorn Wiemer -- The Rise And Grammaticalization Paths Of Latin Fieri And Facere As Passive Auxiliaries / Michela Cennamo -- Grammatical Relations In Passive Clauses : A Diachronic Perspective / T. Givon -- Two Types Of Detransitive Constructions In The Hokkaido Dialect Of Japanese / Kan Sasaki And Akie Yamazaki -- Passive And Argument Structure / Tor A. Afarli -- Case-driven Agree, Epp And Passive In Turkish / Balkiz Ozturk -- A Unique Feature Of Direct Passive In Japanese / Kenichi Ariji -- Passive As A Feature-suppression Operation / Dalina Kallulli -- The Compositional Nature Of The Analytic Passive : Syntactic Vs. Event Semantic Triggers : Argument Hypothesis Vs. Aspect Hypothesis / Werner Abraham -- The Impersonal Passive : Voice Suspended Under Aspectual Conditions / Werner Abraham And Elisabeth Leiss -- Simple Preterit And Composite Perfect Tense : The Role Of The Adjectival Passive / Monika Rathert. Edited By Werner Abraham, Larisa Leisiö. Includes Bibliographical References And Indexes. Is the passive a unified universal phenomenon? The claim derived from this volume is that the passive, if not universal, has become unified according to function. Language as a means of communication needs the passive, or passive-like constructions, and sooner or later develops them based on other voices (impersonal active, middle, reflexive), specific semantic meanings such as adversativity, or tense-aspect categories (stative, perfect, preterit). Certain contributors review the passives in various languages and language groups, including languages rarely discussed. Another group of contributo
