Feature: Passive constructions

Feature URL:
https://wals.info/feature/107A
Description

(By Anna Siewierska): "A construction has been classified as passive if it displays the following five properties: (i) it contrasts with another constuction, the active; (ii) the subject of the active corresponds to a non-obligatory oblique phrase of the passive or is not overtly expressed; (iii) the subject of the passive, if there is one, corresponds to the direct object of the active; (iv) the construction is pragmatically restricted relative to the active; (v) the construction displays some special morphological marking of the verb. A prototypical example of the passive, as defined above, is given in (1b) from Swahili..."

Relation to Grammaticon concepts

As in the Grammaticon, Siewierska's definition of "passive construction" includes the requirement of verbal marking. So-called "unmarked passives" do not fall under the definition.