Transitive verbs with non-accusative alternation in ... - Pluto Huji Ac Il

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Rivka Halevy
(59) ??hu’ nehelam biydey šoded
he was-struck (on the head) by-hands(of) robber
(60) ??hu’ hutslaf biydey 'adono
he was-whipped by-hands(of) his-master
In contrast, passivization characterizes verbs that do not imply a
Manipulator. The verb hika ‘hit’ does not imply a Manipulator because one
can hit somebody by direct “transfer of energy” from A to O; it can
therefore be passivized, as shown in (61):
(61) hu’ ‘amar še-huka kašot bi-zman ha-xaqira
he said that-he-was-beaten severely during the-interrogation
‘He said that he was severely beaten during the interrogation’
The fact that passivization is excluded with hit verbs that do not exhibit a
high degree of transitivity suggests that passivization obeys a constraint on
the aspect of the entire expression rather than directly on the Aktionsart of
the verb alone.
5.3. Summary
The notions at stake in the ‘et/be- alternation, viz.
‘motion’, ‘contact’, ‘causation’ and ‘change of state’, are also involved in
the above discussed diathesis alternations. The body-part possessor
ascension alternation is sensitive to the notion of contact: it is available for
contact by motion verbs, e.g. hika ‘hit’, and pure contact verbs, e.g.
naga’ ‘touch’. The causative/inchoative alternation is found only with pure
change of state verbs, such as šavar ‘break’, but is excluded with transitive
verbs that specify how the change of state occurs, i.e. verbs that refer to the
realization of contact or to the actual process from within. The middlepassive
alternation is found with verbs whose meaning involves causing a
change of state, such as šavar ‘break’ and xatax ‘cut’, but is excluded with
verbs of contact by motion which does not include the change-of-state
feature, such as hika ‘hit’. Passivization is excluded with hit verbs which do
not entail direct transfer of energy from the A to the O but which involve
three semantic roles, two core participants and a Manipulator.
The ‘et/be- alternation, for its part, is sensitive to both contact and
motion, hence it is typically found with hit and cut verbs and their
paradigmatic associates (Classes 1–6). The existence of links between verb