A Study of the relation between middle and Passive voices in Italian language

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Abstract

Only two voices have been represented in Italian grammar. If we look at the passive constructions from a pragmatic point of view, it can be seen as a language strategy being classified as an event. This change of perspective creates different structures. In this article we shall study a speaker’s change of perspective in attention to the Valence Theory. According to this theory, a verb on the basis of its valence predetermines its syntactic environment and its required arguments on the surrounding constituents in reference to its grammatical characteristics. So we can change a sentence structure by means of verb valence or in other words by decreasing the verb valence .This is an approach to express an action on different perspectives. In this framework we are going to indicate that Italian grammar has three voices: active, middle, and passive, so that the passive meaning in the middle voice is dominant . Therefore, it is the base for our sentence analysis . We shall put forward different kinds of passive voices and variant structures that Italians use for this purpose. Most of the Italian passive structures are used for topicalization.

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