Impersonal Passive

The impersonal passive, which is sometimes called the ‘passive’, is the impersonal form of the verb (called saorbhriathar ‘free-verb’ in Irish; see §1.4.5.2.). First, a description of the impersonal form cited from na Bráithre Críostaí (1999) follows.

An Saorbhriathar Is iad uimhir agus pearsa an ainmní a chinneann uimhir agus pearsa an bhriathair. Nuair nach luaitear aon ainmní úsáidtear foirm ar a dtugtar an saorbhriathar, sin nó foirm an tríú pearsa uatha gan ghníomhaí. Tá an saorbhriathar saor ar uimhir agus ar phearsa. Is gnách foirmeacha pearsanta a thabhairt ar na foirmeacha briathartha nach saorbhriathra.

The Free-Verb It is the number and the person of the subject that determine the number and the person of the verb.

When a subject is not mentioned, a form called the free-verb is used, or else the third person singular form without an agent is used. The free-verb is free from number and from person. It is usual to give personal forms to the verbal forms which are not free-verbs.

[cited and translated from na Bráithre Críostaí (1999: 156)]

Is iad na saorbhriathra na foirmeacha neamhphearsanta is coitianta. Úsáidtear iad nuair nach mian nó nach gá nó nach féidir an gníomhaí a lua.

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The free-verbs are the most common impersonal forms. They are used when they do not want or need to mention the agent or when it is not possible to do so.

[cited and translated from na Bráithre Críostaí (1999: 189)]

For example, as seen in (67), the impersonal form of a verb may be passively used in some cases.

67) Osclaítear an doras in ainm an rí.

oscl-aítear an doras-Ø in ainm-Ø an rí-Ø open-PRS.IMPERS DEF.M.NOM door.M-SG.NOM in name.M-SG.NOM DEF.M.GEN king.M-SG.GEN

‘The door is opened in the name of the king.’

[example from na Bráithre Críostaí (1999: 189), identical to (47)]

However, many linguists claim that the impersonal form in Irish has only one argument: the object.

This fact can be easily clarified in the case of pronouns, in which case the subject form and the object form are distinguished (see §1.4.4.1.).

For example, Stenson (1989) says that the first argument in (68) is in the conjunctive form siad ‘they’

(i.e. the subject form), and in contrast, (69) only contains an argument in the disjunctive form iad ‘they’ (i.e.

the object form) where the conjunctive form siad ‘they’ (i.e. the subject form) is not grammatical.

68) Bhuail siad Ciarraí aríst.

L buail-Ø siad Ciarraí-Ø aríst

PM hit-PST 3PL.CNJTV Ciarraí.M-SG.NOM again

‘They hit Ciarraí again.’

[example from Stenson (1989: 384)]

69) Buaileadh aríst iad / *siad.

buail-eadh aríst iad / siad hit-PST.IMPERS again 3PL.DSJTV 3PL.CNJTV

‘They were hit again.’

[example from Stenson (1989: 384)]

Furthermore, Stenson states that in the impersonal passive, no agent phrase is possible, but instrumental phrases can be used, exemplified in (70) and (71). With the impersonal form of a verb, a prepositional phrase with le ‘with’ can be used, but it is said that this preposition in the impersonal form cannot be used to denote a prototypical agent. The preposition ag ‘at’ is used to denote an agent in the other passive-like constructions, but it cannot co-occur with the impersonal form.

70) *Buaileadh Ciarraí le / ag Gaillimh.

buail-eadh Ciarraí-Ø le / ag Gaillimh-Ø hit-PST.IMPERS Ciarraí.M-SG.NOM with at Gaillimh.F-SG.NOM

(‘Ciarraí was hit by Gaillimh.’)

[example from Stenson (1989: 382)]

30 71) Buaileadh le cloch é.

buail-eadh le cloch-Ø é

hit-PST.IMPERS with stone.F-SG.NOM 3SG.M.DSJTV

‘He was hit with a stone.’

[example from Stenson (1989: 382)]

In addition, the impersonal form can also be applied to intransitive verbs where no overt noun phrase can be seen, as in (72).

72) Siúilfear abhaile.

siúil-f-ear abhaile walk-FS-FUT.IMPERS home

‘One will walk home.’

[example from Stenson (1989: 381)]

In these respects, the impersonal form in Irish is not a prototypical passive construction as neither the promotion nor the demotion of arguments can be seen. It is often said that the impersonal form clause in Irish is similar to the on-impersonal clause in French or to the man-impersonal clause in German.

Stenson (1989) discusses the properties of the notional subject in the impersonal form. In this study, I do not claim anything regarding this point, but the implicit agent can be predicted in the impersonal form in Irish. The predictability of the implicit agent can be explained with the ungrammaticality of (73).

73) *Neartaíodh ar an ngaoth.

neart-aíodh ar an^E gaoth-Ø strengthen-PST.IMPERS on DEF.F.NOM wind.F-SG.NOM

(‘The wind strengthened.’)

[example and translation from Stenson (1989: 386-387)]

74) Neartaigh ar an ngaoth.

neart-aigh ar an^E gaoth-Ø strengthen-PST on DEF.F.NOM wind.F-SG.NOM

‘The wind strengthened.’

[example and translation from Stenson (1989: 386-387)]

According to her explanation, in the case of (73), ‘no agent, even implicit, is possible’, so the impersonal form cannot be used, but the personal form is used as in (74). In the latter, even if the personal form is used, there is no grammatical subject. As for such a construction without a subject, I will call it an apersonal construction in this study, using the term of Hewitt (2002).

cf. In Other Languages

Furthermore, the impersonal form of a verb is a very characteristic feature of Celtic languages. As Hewitt (2002) says:

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All the Celtic languages have “impersonal” verb forms in -r and -d. In English-language Celtic studies, the term

“autonomous” is also used. These forms are said to be related to the “passive” conjugation of Latin (-itur¹²), but there is only one form per tense (at least in the modern languages).

[cited from Hewitt (2002: 15)]

The impersonal forms have, however, a different syntactic status across languages. For example, in Welsh (a Brittonic language, the other branch of the Insular Celtic), the subject form is used with the impersonal form of the verb, as seen in (76).

75) Gwelaf dŷ mawr acw.

gwel-af ^L-tŷ mawr-Ø acw see-PRS.1SG DJSTV-house.M big-M there

‘I see a big house over there.’

[example and translation from Hewitt (2002: 18)]

76) Gwelir tŷ mawr acw.

gwel-ir tŷ mawr-Ø acw see-PRS.IMPERS house.M big-M there

‘A big house can be seen over there.’

[example and translation from Hewitt (2002: 18)]

In Welsh bare nouns, which do not syntactically depend on the finite verb, are linited, the function of which is similar to the disjunctive form of pronouns in Irish (see §1.4.4.1.). In (75) the word tŷ ‘house’ is lenited (dŷ) because it is the object of a verb; however, in (76), with the impersonal form, this word is not lenited. Therefore, it can be said that in Welsh, contrary to Irish, the argument taken by the impersonal verb form is the grammatical subject.

In addition, according to Hewitt (2002), the impersonal form in Welsh can take an agent phrase with the preposition gan ‘with’ while Breton cannot.

Thus, the use of the impersonal form is different across Celtic languages.

12 -itur is the indicative passive present third person singular form: e.g. emō ‘I buy’ > emitur ‘it is bought’

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