On the Present Participle Passive and the First Infinitive in the Finnish Language

Abstract

The Finnish language has three kinds of infinitives and four kinds of participles. Participles are subject to the voice distinction, while infinitives lack in a passive form, except for the second infinitive in the inessive case. In a particular syntactic environment, an infinitive and a participle are interchangeable, and a first infinitive in the active voice sometimes corresponds to a present participle passive in the translative case. The difference between them lies in their degree of the involvement with the matrix predicate. The former functions as an integral part of the whole sentence and can make up a syntactic construction together with the matrix predicate. This difference is relevant also to the diachronic development of the permissive construction.