The Middle voice construction in Romanian – a corpus based analysis
This paper offers an analysis of the two middle constructions se and isi in Romanian, (1)
and (2) respectively. In Romanian there is more than one way to express the middle
voice construction and this can be considered a very significant language internal
variation that needs to be studied. The claim that the two middle voice constructions
cover the same semantic spectrum, as they were taken to be by previous linguists and
traditional grammarians, is not acceptable. It will be shown that the two constructions
differ in the semantic fields that they cover, in the grammatical associations and most
important in the way speakers conceptualize them.
By using a self built corpus of Romanian from two different genres, narrative and
newspaper, one can conclude that there are main differences in the verbal frames that
each middle construction applies to. Moreover, even in cases where these constructions
semantically overlap, major differences in the lexical collocations, grammatical
paradigms as well as in their frequency of usage, exist. It will be shown that the
isi-middle construction occurs more frequently with speech verb, cognitive verbs,
intentional perception verbs, and emotional verbs; whereas se-middle construction
occurs most often in association with spontaneous event verbs and movement verbs
including translational motion verbs. Moreover, it will be argued that, unlike shown in
traditional grammars, the isi-middle construction is the one that appears more often
with grooming verbs and not the se-middle construction. Finally, both genre specific
differences and across genre tendencies evident from the data such as the fact that the
se-construction is more frequently used than the isi -construction, across genres, are
dealt with.
By using corpora this paper finds a variety of usages of the middle voice constructions
that where not analyzed before because of the lack of natural data and the solely usage
of introspective data. I will argue that in the case of isi- middle construction there is an
extension to other semantic domains such as external possession (3) and causative
constructions (4), while it is not so for the se-middle construction. Hence, this paper
makes two major contributions. First it takes an empirical and data based approach to
language and so to the middle voice construction finding main semantic differences
between the two middle constructions. Secondly it discusses major usages that were
overlooked because of the previous non-empirical and based on introspection
approaches to the notion of middle voice in Romanian.
In previous literature no clear predictions are made as to when each of the functions
occurs. This paper discusses implications of the data for our conception of Middle
constructions from the point of view of meaning and form.
In conclusion, in order to give a better account of the Middle voice in Romanian a usage
based analysis has to be provided. Thus, a reconsideration of the functions and
semantics of the Middle voice in Romanian is called for.
(1) Dar cand ninsoarea [[se]] inteti
si se transforma in viscol
but when snow
MM got stronger and MM transform in storm
But when the snow got stronger…
(2) El [[isi ]]aduse aminte de stiuca, pe care o chema ...
He MM
brought mind of the pike…..
He remembered the pike
(3) El isi
cioplea fluierul. (External possession with benefactive meaning)
He MM carve the flute.
He carved his flute (for himself)
(4) El [[isi]] supara nevasta. (Causative)
He MM makes angry wife.
He makes his wife angry.
Corpora
Number
of words
Romania Libera Corpus 138745
Fairy Tales
96,393
Raw
SE
1094
1588
Semantic mapping in the narrative genre:
Se-middle
3%
2%
1% 2%
Percentage
1% 2% 0%
spontaneous
emotion
5%
31%
2%
9%
3%
10%
126.8236
60.70088
ISI
1101.151
446.2639
Isi-middle
cognitive
grooming
intentional perception
translational
speech
change in body posture
activity
reciprocal
spontaneous
activity
emotion
modal
28%
126
216
Frequency per word
SE
speech action
non-translational motion
8%
ISI
cognitive
perception
8%
Frequency
mental
translational
grooming,body care
body action
indirect middle
existencial
mental
middle passive
non-translational
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