Passive Voice and Causal Roles in Spanish
This paper focuses on oblique variation in the passive. It relies on insights on causal modeling to study the construction types available to express a passive or medio-passive meaning in Spanish. Oblique variation is argued to fulfill an important function in the profiling of the relation between agent and patient, causer and causee, affectant and affectee. The choice of the preposition is shown to function as a device for agenthood management. Based on distributional evidence, the systematic survey of representative corpus examples with the four most frequent prepositions (por ‘by, through’, en ‘in’, de ‘of, from’ and con ‘with’) sheds light on issues related to the prototypicity and nuclearity of participant relations in passive and medio-passive construals.
References (82)
References
Bosque, Ignacio. 1999. “El sintagma adjetival. Modificadores y complementos del adjetivo. Adjetivo y participio.” In Gramática Descriptiva de la Lengua Española, ed. by Ignacio Bosque, and Violeta Demonte, 217-310. Madrid: Espasa.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Brugman, Claudia. 1981. Story of Over. MA thesis, University of California at Berkeley. (Published in 1988 as The story of Over: Polysemy, semantics, and the structure of the lexicon. New York: Garland.)![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Cano Aguilar, Rafael. 1981. Estructuras sintácticas transitivas en el español actual. Madrid: Editorial Gredos.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Comrie, Bernard. 1981. Language universals and linguistic typology. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Conti Jiménez, Carmen. 2004. Papeles semánticos (instrumento y comitativo). Madrid: Universidad Autónoma de Madrid.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Cornelis, Louise H. 1997. Passive and perspective. Amsterdam/Atlanta: Rodopi.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Croft, William. 1991. Semantics categories and grammatical relations: The cognitive organization of information. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Croft, William. 1998. “Event structure in argument linking.” In The projection of arguments: Lexical and compositional factors, ed. by Miriam Butt, and Wilhelm Geuder, 21-63. Stanford: CSLI Publications.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Croft, William. 2001. Radical Construction Grammar. Syntactic Theory in Typological Perspective. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Croft, William, and D. Alan Cruse, 2004. Cognitive linguistics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
De Kock, Josse, and Carmen Gómez Molina. 1990. Las formas pronominales del verbo y la pasiva. Salamanca: Ediciones Universidad de Salamanca.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Delbecque, Nicole. 1996. “Towards a Cognitive Account of the Use of the Prepositions Por and Para in Spanish.” In Cognitive Linguistics in the Redwoods, The Expansion of a New Paradigm in Linguistics, ed. by Eugene Casad, 249-318. New York/Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Delbecque, Nicole. 2002. “A construction grammar approach to transitivity in Spanish.” In The Nominative/Accusative. Case and Grammatical Relations across Language Boundaries, ed. by Kristin Davidse, and Béatrice Lamiroy, 81-130. Amsterdam: J. Benjamins. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Delbecque, Nicole. 2003. “La variable expresión del agente en las construcciones pasivas.” Nueva Revista de Filología Hispánica LI 2: 373-416.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Delbecque, Nicole. 2004. “Verbos de respuesta: análisis léxico-construccional.” In Estudios de Lingüística: El verbo, ed. by José Luis Cifuentes Honrubia, and Carmen Marimón Llorca, 119-165. Alicante: Universidad de Alicante.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Delbecque, Nicole. 2005. “El análisis de corpus al servicio de la gramática funcional y cognoscitiva. Hacia una interpretación de la alternancia lineal sujeto-verbo/verbo-sujeto.” In Variación sintáctica en español: un reto para las teorías de la sintaxis, ed. by Gabriele Knauer, and Valeriano Bellosta von Colbe, 51-74. Tübingen: Niemeyer.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Delbecque, Nicole. 1999. “La subordinación sustantiva: Las subordinadas enunciativas en los complementos verbales.” In Gramática Descriptiva de la Lengua Española, ed. by Ignacio Bosque, and Violeta Demonte, 1965-2081. Madrid: Espasa.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
DeMello, George. 1997. “Verbo pronominal con por + agente.” In Lengua escrita y habla culta en América y España, ed. by Josse De Kock, and George DeMello, 127-133. Salamanca: Ediciones Universidad de Salamanca.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
De Miguel, Elena. 1999. “El aspecto léxico.” In Gramática Descriptiva de la Lengua Española, ed. by Ignacio Bosque, and Violeta Demonte, 2977-3060. Madrid: Espasa.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Dowty, David. 1991. “Thematic protoroles and argument selection.” Language 67 (3): 547-619. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Du Bois, John. 1987. “The discourse basis of ergativity.” Language 63: 805–852. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Fernández Ramírez, Salvador. 1986. Gramática española. 4. El verbo y la oración. Volumen ordenado y completado por I. Bosque. Madrid: Arco / Libros S.A.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Fillmore, Charles J. 1982. “Frame semantics.” In Linguistics in the morning calm, ed. by Linguistic Society of Korea, 111–137. Seoul: Hanshin. Reprinted in Cognitive Linguistics: Basic Readings (2006), ed. by D. Geeraerts, 373-400. Berlin/New York: Mouton de Gruyter.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Fillmore, Charles J. 1988. “The Mechanisms of Construction Grammar.” Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Berkeley Linguistic Society 14: 35-55. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Fillmore, Charles J., Paul Kay, and Mary Kay O'Connor. 1988. “Regularity and idiomaticity in grammatical constructions: The case of let alone.” Language 64 (3): 501–538. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
García, Erica. 1975. The Role of Theory in Linguistic Analysis: the Spanish Pronoun System. Amsterdam/New York: North-Holland/American Elsevier.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
García-Miguel, José María. 1995. Las relaciones gramaticales entre predicado y participantes. Santiago de Compostela: Universidad de Santiago de Compostela.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Geeraerts, Dirk, and Hubert Cuyckens. 2007. “Introducing Cognitive Linguistics.” In The Oxford Handbook of Cognitive Linguistics, ed. by Dirk Geeraerts, and Hubert Cuyckens, 3-21. Oxford: Oxford University Press.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Givón, Talmy. 1979. On Understanding Grammar. New York: Academic Press.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Givón, Talmy. 1993. The pragmatics of voice: functional and typological aspects. Reader 2, IFOTT lectures Amsterdam, May 24-28.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Goldberg, Adele E. 1995. Constructions: A construction grammar approach to argument structure. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Goldberg, Adele E. 2006. Constructions at Work. The Nature of Generalization in Language. Oxford: Oxford University Press.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Green, John N. 1975. “On the Frequency of Passive Constructions in Modern Spanish.” Bulletin of Hispanic Studies 52 (4): 345-362. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Herskovits, Annette. 1986. Language and spatial cognition. An interdisciplinary study of the prepositions in English. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Hopper, Paul J., and Sandra A. Thompson. 1980. “Transitivity in Grammar and Discourse.” Language 56 (2): 251-299. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Keenan, Edward L. 1985. “Passive in the world's languages.” In Language Typology and Syntactic Description, Vol.1 (Clause Structure), ed. by T. Shopen, 243-281. Cambridge: Cambridge UP.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Kitillä, Seippo. 2002. “Remarks on the basic transitive sentence.” Language Sciences 24: 107-130. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Lakoff, George. 1977. “Linguistic Gestalts.”
Papers form the Thirteenth Regional Meeting, Chicago Linguistic Society
, 236-287.
Lakoff, George. 1987. Women, fire, and dangerous things: What categories reveal about the mind. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Langacker, Ronald W. 1982. “Space Grammar, Analysability, and the English Passive.” Language 58 (1): 22-80. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Langacker, Ronald W. 1987. Foundations of Cognitive Grammar, Volume I: Theoretical Prerequisites. Stanford: Stanford University Press.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Langacker, Ronald W. 1991a. Foundations of Cognitive Grammar, Volume II: Descriptive Application. Stanford: Stanford University Press.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Langacker, Ronald W. 1991b. Concept, Image, and Symbol. The Cognitive Basis of Grammar. Berlin/New York: Mouton de Gruyter. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Langacker, Ronald W. 2000. “A dynamic usage-based model.” In Usage-based models of language, ed. by Michael Barlow, and Suzanne Kemmer, 1–63. Stanford: CSLI Publications.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Langacker, Ronald W., and Pamela Munro. 1975. “Passives and their meaning.” Language 51: 789-830. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Levin, Beth, and Malka Rappaport Hovav. 1995. Unaccusativity: At the syntax-lexical semantics interface. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Luraghi, Silvia. 1995. “Prototypicality and Agenthood in Indo-European.” In Historical Linguistics 1993. Selected papers from the 11th International Conference on Historical Linguistics, Los Angeles, 16-20 August 1993, ed. by Henning Andersen, 259-268. Amsterdam/New York: John Benjamins. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Luraghi, Silvia. 2001. “Syncretism and the classification of semantic roles.” Sprachtypologie und Universalienforschung 54/1: 35-51.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Lyons, John. 1991. Natural language and universal grammar. Essays in linguistic theory, volume I. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Maldonado, Ricardo. 1999. A media voz. Problemas conceptuales del clítico se. México: UNAM.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Maldonado, Ricardo. 2002. “Objective and subjective datives.” Cognitive Linguistics 13 (1): 1-65. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Martín Zorraquino, Mª Antonia. 1979. Las construcciones pronominales en español. Paradigma y desviaciones. Madrid: Gredos.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Mendikoetxea, Amaya. 1999a. “Construcciones inacusativas y pasivas.” In Gramática Descriptiva de la Lengua Española, ed. by Ignacio Bosque, and Violeta Demonte, 1575-1633. Madrid: Espasa.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Mendikoetxea, Amaya. 1999b. “Construcciones con se: Medias, pasivas e impersonales.” In Gramática Descriptiva de la Lengua Española, ed. by Ignacio Bosque, and Violeta Demonte, 1631-1722. Madrid: Espasa.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Nishida, Chiyo. 1994. “The Spanish Reflexive Clitic se as an Aspectual Class Marker.” Linguistics 32 (3): 425-458. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Nishimura, Yoshiki. 1993. “Agentivity in cognitive grammar.” In Conceptualizations and mental processing in language, ed. by Richard A. Geiger, and Brygida Rudzka-Ostyn, 487-530. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Pearl, Judea. 2000. Causality: Models, Reasoning, and Inference. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Premack, David, and Ann James Premack. 1995. “Intention as psychological cause.” In Causal cognition. A multidisciplinary debate, ed. by D. Sperber, D. Premack, and A.J. Premack, 185-199. Oxford: Oxford University Press.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Primus, Beatrice. 1999. Cases and Thematic Roles. Ergative, Accusative and Active. Tübingen: Niemeyer. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Prince, Ellen. 1996. Constructions and the Syntax-Discourse Interface. University of Pennsylvania. Unpublished manuscript.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Real Academia Española. s.d. Banco de datos CREA (Corpus de referencia del español actual). <[URL]> [on line consultation October 2008 - September 2010].
Real Academia Española and Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española. 2009. Nueva Gramática de la Lengua Española. Madrid: Espasa.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Sánchez López, Cristina. 2002. Las construcciones con se. Madrid: Visor Libros.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Schlesinger, Izchak M. 1995. Cognitive space and linguistic case. Semantic and syntactic categories in English. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Shibatani, Masayoshi. 1985. “Passives and related constructions: a prototype analysis.” Language 61: 821-848. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Shibatani, Masayoshi (ed.). 1988. Passive and Voice (Typological Studies in Language, Volume 16). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Talmy, Leonard. 1988. “Force dynamics in language and cognition.” Cognitive Science 12: 49-100. (Expanded version published in Leonard Talmy 2000, 409-470.) ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Talmy, Leonard. 2000. Toward a Cognitive Semantics, Vol. I: Concept Structuring Systems. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Taylor, John R. 19952. Linguistic categorization. Prototypes in linguistic theory. Oxford: Clarendon Press.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Tsunoda, Tasaku. 1985. “Remarks on transitivity.” Journal of Linguistics 21: 385-396. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Vandeloise, Claude. 1986. L'espace en francais. Paris: Editions Du Seuil.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Vandeloise, Claude. 1991. Spatial prepositions: A case study from French. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Vandeloise, Claude. 1994. “Methodology and Analysis of the Preposition in.” Cognitive Linguistics 5 (2): 157-184. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Van Langendonck, Willy. 2007. “Iconicity.” In The Oxford Handbook of Cognitive Linguistics, ed. by Dirk Geeraerts, and Hubert Cuyckens, 394-418. Oxford: Oxford University Press.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Van Oosten, Jeanne. 1986. The Nature of Subjects, Topics and Agents: A Cognitive Explanation. Bloomington: IULC.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Vázquez Rozas, Victoria. 2007. “A usage-based approach to prototypical transitivity.” In On Interpreting Construction Schemas. From Action and Motion to Transitivity and Causality, ed. by Nicole Delbecque, and Bert Cornillie, 17-38. Berlin/New York, Mouton de Gruyter.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Wilson, Deirdre, and Dan Sperber. 2005. “Relevance theory.” In Handbook of Pragmatics, ed. by Gregory L. Ward, and Laurence R. Horn, 607-632. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Zwicky, A.M. 1987. “Constructions in monostratal syntax.” Papers from the 23rd Regional Meeting, Chicago Linguistic Society, 389-401.
Cited by (2)
Cited by two other publications
Aijón Oliva, Miguel A.
2022.
Grammatical Coding and the Discursive Construction of Participants: Spanish Passives in Written Press News Discourse.
Transactions of the Philological Society 120:3
► pp. 351 ff.
![DOI logo](//benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
Cock, Barbara De & Daniel Michaud Maturana
2017.
Discursive construction of human rights violations: the case of the Chilean Rettig report
.
Text & Talk 38:1
► pp. 1 ff.
![DOI logo](//benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
This list is based on CrossRef data as of 24 july 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers.
Any errors therein should be reported to them.