Open AccessIs there a passive in Dhuluo
Author(s) -
Eunita D. A. Ochola
Publication year - 1999
Publication title -
studies in african linguistics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.178
H-Index - 4
eISSN - 2154-428X
pISSN - 0039-3533
DOI - 10.32473/sal.v28i1.107380
Subject(s) - subject (documents) , linguistics , object (grammar) , theme (computing) , computer science , verb , tanzania , passive voice , history , philosophy , world wide web , ethnology
This article presents an analysis of a particular passive-like syntactic construction in Dholuo, a Nilotic language spoken in parts of Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania. While the construction analyzed resembles the passive construction in English in which the fronted patient/theme is the subject NP, the analysis shows that this construction is not a true passive in Dholuo, but rather a pseudo-passive. The peculiarity of the Dholuo pseudo-passive is that the fronted patient is not the NP subject of the construction; rather, it is a preposed object that is adjoined to IP. What distinguishes this construction from "classic" passive constructions is that the preposed object does not control subject verb agreement.