Personal and Impersonal Passives: Definite vs. Indefinite Diatheses.

This paper discusses what is called the ‘impersonal passive’ (ImpPass) with the aim of isolating the criteria under which ImpPass is distinguished from the ‘personal passive’ (PersPass). It will be argued, first, that ImpPass is a misnomer given that it can be formed only from active subjects identified by personal agents. Secondly, we shall investigate why certain languages, such as German and Latin, can form an ImpPass, whereas others such as English cannot. The main insight to be gained is that the overt formal aspectual distinguishability of perfectivity vs. imperfectivity is the main typological criterion allowing ImpPass to occur in a given language. 1 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]