Scholarlink

<p>This paper provides evidence from Budai Rukai (Austronesian, Taiwan) and argues that three intransitive constructions—the passive, anticausative, and unaccusative—converge through verbal marking in the form of comparable prefixation, while exhibiting distinct characteristics related to causation and argument structure. In change-of-state verbs, all internal arguments assume non-agentive roles, functioning as undergoers, patients, or themes affected by the events conveyed. The passive and anticausative constructions allow for an agent or cause, whereas the unaccusative excludes both. Building on approaches to Voice and little <i>v</i> (Chomsky <CitationRef CitationID="CR18">1995</CitationRef>; Kratzer <CitationRef CitationID="CR36">1996</CitationRef>; Schäfer <CitationRef CitationID="CR51">2008</CitationRef>; Legate <CitationRef CitationID="CR38">2014</CitationRef>), this study argues that the Rukai passive and anticausative instantiate two distinct types of Voice heads, whereas the unaccusative instantiates a <i>v</i> head. The absence of an external argument is attributed to a syntactic feature common to these functional heads, while semantic features associated specifically with the passive and anticausative account for the restricted distribution of the optional external argument. In addition to providing a detailed description of these intransitive constructions, the study also considers the Rukai patterns from a cross-linguistic perspective.</p>

错误：搜索内容不能为空，请输入英文关键词
错误：关键词超出字数限制，请精简
高级检索

Intransitivity, causation, and argument structure: evidence from passive, anticausative, and unaccusative constructions in Budai Rukai

  • 期刊论文

  • 发表日期：

    2026年6月27日

查看全文
  • Cheng-Fu Chen

摘要

This paper provides evidence from Budai Rukai (Austronesian, Taiwan) and argues that three intransitive constructions—the passive, anticausative, and unaccusative—converge through verbal marking in the form of comparable prefixation, while exhibiting distinct characteristics related to causation and argument structure. In change-of-state verbs, all internal arguments assume non-agentive roles, functioning as undergoers, patients, or themes affected by the events conveyed. The passive and anticausative constructions allow for an agent or cause, whereas the unaccusative excludes both. Building on approaches to Voice and little v (Chomsky 1995; Kratzer 1996; Schäfer 2008; Legate 2014), this study argues that the Rukai passive and anticausative instantiate two distinct types of Voice heads, whereas the unaccusative instantiates a v head. The absence of an external argument is attributed to a syntactic feature common to these functional heads, while semantic features associated specifically with the passive and anticausative account for the restricted distribution of the optional external argument. In addition to providing a detailed description of these intransitive constructions, the study also considers the Rukai patterns from a cross-linguistic perspective.