The So-Called Passive in Persian

Abstract

The structure of the so-called passive in Persian is examined and it is suggested that there is no passive construction (lexical or syntactic) in Modem Persian. The arguments lead to the structure of the inchoative with a higher sentence and an abstract underlying structure. This structure is compared with that of the pseudocompounds in Persian and the passive in English.' In pedagogical grammars of Persian it is normally said that the passive is formed with the auxiliary verb sodan 'to become' and the past participle of the main verb:2 (1) ali dida sod 'Ali was seen' Ali seen became The grammars generally agree that this passive is not commonly used. It is only used when the agent of the proposition is not known or the speaker does not want to mention it. Phillott's grammar (1919), still one of the most comprehensive grammars of Persian, expresses this fact succinctly (p. 285): The Passive Voice is much less used than in English. The general rule is not to use it, if it can be avoided; in other words, the passive is used only for some special signification, or if the subject is unknown, or if known it is desired to avoid mentioning it. This rule should be observed even though violated by Persian authors. Only transitive verbs have a passive voice. In a footnote to the above passage, Phillott further explains: The use of the Passive is antagonistic to the genius of both Persian and Urdu. The use of the passive is largely increasing in Urdu, doubtless owing to the articles in vernacular news papers translated from English. Urdu idiom again affects the Persian of India and in a less degree that of Afghanistan. A preliminary version of this paper, entitled 'Passive or Inchoative in Persian', was read at the Summer meeting of the Linguistic Society of America, Ann Arbor, Michigan, August 3-5, 1973. I am indebted to Guy Carden and Michael and Beatrice Hall for a number of suggestions for the improvement of this paper. I am also grateful for a number of useful comments from the audience at the LSA meeting. 2 There are a number of other auxiliary verbs which can be used instead of sodan. For example, gardidan and dmadan are more common in literary style and in classical Persian. In this paper, I will use one form only, Sodan, for simplicity in exposition. It should be pointed out, however, that there are a few verbs which do not form constructions with sodan but have similar constructions with other auxiliaries with the same so-called passive structure. Foundations of Language 12 (1974) 249-267. All rights reserved. This content downloaded from 207.46.13.11 on Tue, 18 Oct 2016 06:34:01 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms