Language Research

Abstract The definition and typological description of the category of voice can be provided in two ways: i) at the level of semantic arguments (or semantic roles), ii) at the level of grammatical relations (or syntactic functions). The most important theoretical concept that is determined in terms of these two levels of representations and enables one to capture the rich variety of voices is that of diathesis. Diathesis is defined as a pattern of mappingsemantic arguments onto syntactic functions. In the present research, we explore the typology of diathesis and voice in Kurdish language on the basis of Kulikov’s work (2011). The results of the research show that Kurdish has these diatheses: passive (agentless, absolute and impersonal), conversive, 2/3 permutation, causative (transitive and intransitive), antipassive, reflexive, reciprocal, and anticausative. Of these, only passive, causative and conversive have morphological realization on the verb. Therefore, based on this analysis, one can say that Kurdish has only three voices: passive, causative and conversive.

Abstract Time, aspect, person, number and active and middle voices are the categories based on which the verbal structure of the ancient Iranian languages are studied. According to the prevailing viewpoint, middle voice is the means by which a transitive root is changed to an intransitive one. This viewpoint has its origin in the verbal roots transitive when conjugated in the active voice and intransitive when in the middle, whereas a closer study of the verbal structure of ancient Iranian languages displays features challenging the validity of the current viewpoint. This article analyzes the general structure of middle verbs as an introduction to the study and re-categorization of the Younger Avestan middle verbs is to appear in another article.    

Abstract Time, aspect, person, number and active and middle voices are the categories based on which the verbal structure of the ancient Iranian languages are studied. According to the prevailing viewpoint, middle voice is the means by which to change a transitive root to an intransitive. This viewpoint has had its origin in the verbal roots transitive when conjugated in the active voice and intransitive when in the middle, whereas a closer study of the verbal structure of ancient Iranian languages displays features challenging the validity of the current viewpoint. This article analyses the general structure of middle verbs as an introduction to the study and re-categorization of the Younger Avestan middle verbs to be appeared in another article.