Passives and anti-causatives share the same morphology in many languages. In Greek, they are both marked by non-active morphology. This isomorphism has been accounted for by positing the Voice head in both the isomorphic passive and anti-causative structures. This paper shows that the isomorphism between passives and anti-causatives exists in Japanese as well and that the same analysis holds of Japanese as well. Further, I show that Japanese isomorphic anti-causatives denote externally caused events. It has been proposed by previous studies that there is a parametric variation with regard to the availability of the causative alternation of externally caused event verbs. Languages that allow anti-causatives of externally caused events employ specifier-less Voice. Following the theoretical assumptions of the previous studies, I argue that the suffix shared by the isomorphic verbs in Japanese is an overt realization of specifier-less Voice. This study supports the empirical validity of positing specifier-less Voice from a comparative perspective.
Abstract
1. Introduction
2. The isomorphism between passives and anti-causatives cross-linguistically
3. The isomorphism between passives and anti-causatives in Japanese
4. Theoretical analysis
5. Anti-causative pairs with distinct morphologies
6. Concluding remarks
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