38_Passive & Topicalization (`dhè`)

Navigation:

• Back to Structural Sets in Asaxi

---

Grammatical Concept: The Patient-Subject

Asaxi achieves Passive Voice not by changing the verb, but by promoting the Object to the position of the sentence’s Topic using the particle dhè.

This structure (O-S-V) shifts the focus to what happened to the object, rather than what the subject did.

1. The Topic Particle (dhè)

Grammatical Function:

• Type: Relational Particle (Case Marker).
• Function: Topic / Patient Marker.
• Meaning: Marks the preceding noun as the primary focus of the sentence and the receiver of the action.

Pronunciation: IPA: /ðə/

2. Syntactic Structure

Formula:

dhè [Patient] + [Agent] + (Oblique Arguments) + [Verb]

• The Patient (dhè): Placed at the very front.
• The Agent: Appears immediately after the Patient. It is typically unmarked (since to is dropped in standard passive constructions), but it functions as the grammatical Subject.
• The Agentless Passive: If the Agent is unknown or irrelevant (“The tree was chopped”), the Agent slot is simply empty.
  • Structure: dhè [Patient] + [Verb].

Usage Examples

1. Standard Passive (with Agent)

Dhè kjèpo Tom bă kjèkiŕo zèchỏnů. TOP tree Tom INSTR axe PAST-chop “The tree was chopped by Tom with an axe.”

2. Agentless Passive (Unknown Doer)

Dhè shěso zètopu. TOP book PAST-drop “The book was dropped.”

3. Reflexive Passive

Dhè wo zèxijo. TOP 1SG PAST-see “I was seen.”

Comparison (Active vs. Passive)

Voice	Asaxi	Literal	Meaning
Active	(To) Tom kjèpo zèchỏnů.	Tom tree chopped.	Tom chopped the tree.
Passive	Dhè kjèpo Tom zèchỏnů.	Tree(TOP) Tom chopped.	The tree was chopped by Tom.