The causative-passive in the Trans-Eurasian languages

The affiliation question of the Trans-Eurasian languages is among the most controversial issues of historical linguistics. A major difficulty is the distinction between genetic retention and code-copying. The present article studies two causative-passive markers relating Japanese to Korean, Tungusic, Mongolic and Turkic. The decision to concentrate on diathetical suffixes is motivated by the cross-linguistic observation that the positions closest to the verbal stem are resistant to code-copying. As a consequence of their relative conservativism, the causative-passive suffixes compared in this study are no longer productive: they have petrified into verb stems. In spite of the ongoing lexicalization, the suffixes can be reconstructed for the individual languages on the basis of diagrammatic iconicity. In the comparative part of this study, a common causative-passive suffix pTE *-tiand an ancillar auxiliary pTE *ki‘make, do’ that grammaticalized into a marker of causativity, are reconstructed. The shared properties are assessed in terms of form, function, combinational behavior and systemic organization. The article concludes that it is more logical to attribute the causative-passive etymologies to genetic retention than to motivate them by codecopying.