The ergativity option: an alternative way of viewing the grammar of Dari

Abstract

M. A. K. Halliday's ergative view of language based on ± agency is an insightful one that gives us a useful tool in the analysis of any language. This ergative model has proven particularly fruitful in the investigation of Dari (Afghan Persian), where agentivity is both semantically narrower and grammatically more limited than is the notion in English. Because Dari has no active/passive contrast, clauses are either middle voice or active voice. If there is an agent, it is always the subject of the clause. This restricted realization of agency makes the notion of passive moot and casts the language in an ergative light where the affected participant is more typically in focus than is an agent.