An investigation of the so-called ‘passive’ construction in New Zealand Māori

Abstract

This thesis investigates a (primarily) syntactic feature of New Zealand Māori traditionally and perhaps inappropriately known as the 'passive' but designated as the p-construction in this work. This construction, in Māori, exhibits a number of characteristics that are not typical of passives cross linguistically. In particular, the p-construction has been anecdotally described as being inordinately frequently used in Māori. This thesis will verify this claim quantitatively. This thesis also finds that the two classes of two-participant verbs known as canonical' and experiencer' show different behaviour with respect to the preference for the p-construction. The p-construction in Māori also diverges from what is expected of passive constructions cross linguistically in that it is associated with higher rather than lower transitivity. This work argues that the p-construction is the unmarked transitive construction and that the so-called 'active' construction (referred to as the a-construction in this thesis) is mainly used for pragmatic reasons when the agent noun phrase is required as a pivot.