Abstract
Impersonal Voice in Turkish
The aim of this study is to address the impersonal voice in Turkish, which has a distinctive syntactic operation, is marked by specific morphemes and differs from the passive voice in terms of its semantic and pragmatic properties but which is not discussed separately in grammars or is considered within the scope of the passive voice as an independent voice category and to reveal the basic properties of this category. The fact that the -l- and -n- morphemes are used in the formation of both structures also plays a role in the inability to establish the impersonal voice as a structure distinct from the passive voice. Since they have the same markers, the distinction between the two structures may be overlooked. However, passive structures are formed with transitive verbs whereas impersonal structures are formed primarily with intransitive verbs. Nevertheless, not all intransitive verbs are equally compatible with the impersonal structure. While unaccusative verbs involving a participant affected by the event can occur in the formation of the impersonal voice only under certain conditions, intransitive verbs containing an animate and volitional agent are more readily compatible with the impersonal voice. On the other hand, since intransitive verbs do not contain an object, the object-to-subject alternation observed in the passivization process does not occur in the impersonal voice. Before these fundamental distinguishing properties of the impersonal voice are presented in the study, the existing approaches to the issue in the literature will be evaluated; subsequently, the basic differences between the passive and impersonal voices will be addressed and the relationship between the impersonal voice and intransitive verbs will be examined within the framework of the unaccusativity hypothesis, which divides intransitive verbs into two subgroups, unergative and unaccusative.
Keywords
impersonal voice, passive voice, unaccusativity hypothesis, intransitive verbs, unergative and unacc