Remarks on involuntary agent constructions

Abstract

The present paper discusses formal and semantic features of so-called “Involuntary Agent Constructions” (IAC for short) from a cross- linguistic perspective. The label refers to constructions that express the meaning ‘do sth. accidentally/involuntarily’. This means that in contrast to a canonical agent the feature of volitionality is lacking. The paper shows that volitionality (and thus agency) is an important part of linguistic transitivity, since in many languages IAC's are formally less transitive constructions than canonical transitive clauses. On the basis of their formal features, IAC's will be divided into four types. In addition to the formal typology of IAC's, the paper also discusses semantic features that condition the use of IAC's in languages. These include the semantics of events and the nature of the agent. On the basis of these features it is shown that IAC's are constructions that express the unexpected low degree of agency associated with an event. For example, forces like ‘wind’ do not readily appear in IAC's due to their inherently low degree of agency. Also the additional functions that IAC's can express are discussed.