Eintrag

Titel

Impersonal Constructions. A cross-linguistic perspective

Personen

Andrej Malchukov, Anna Siewierska

Jahr

2011

Typ

Sammelband

Verlag

John Benjamins Publishing Co.

Ort

Amsterdam, Philadelphia

Reihe

Studies in language

Band

124

Schlagwörter

Konstruktion

Abstract

This volume offers a much needed typological perspective on impersonal constructions, which are here viewed broadly as constructions lacking a referential subject. The contributions to this volume deal with all types of impersonality, namely constructions featuring nonagentive subjects, including those with experiential predicates (A-impersonals), presentational constructions with a notional subject deficient in topicality (T-impersonals), and constructions with a notional subject lacking in referential properties (R-impersonals), i.e. both meteo-constructions and man-constructions. The typological discussion benefits from a good coverage of impersonality in European languages, but also includes considerations of several African, American, South-East Asian, Australian, and Oceanic languages. The variation in the cross-linguistic realization of impersonality and the diachronic pathways leading to and from impersonality documented in this volume point to a novel perspective on impersonals as transitional structures or an intermediate stage of a more basic diachronic change be it from transitive to intransitive, or from active to passive, or participant-to event-centered construction.

https://grammis.ids-mannheim.de/bdg/74940