A Grammar of Tamashek (Tuareg of Mali)

8.3 Mediopassive 471

b. passive-mediopassive (rare)

-tvw-vm-vksu-'be eaten'

LoImpfP

VblN

PerfP

Imprt

-aetw-sem-asksa-

taw-sm-aks

-t-itw-am-aksi-

a-tw-sm-sks

'Be questioned' in (481.a) is the passive of a frozen causative (for all
practical purposes, the passive of a simple transitive verb); there is no attested
verb #-vstvn-. 'Be respected' is the passive of -s-vmrvr- 'respect, honor', a
lexicalized causative of the adjectival verb 'be big' in the contextual sense 'be
important' (PerfP maeqqor-). 'Be reduced' is the passive of -s-vdrvs- 'reduce',
causative of the adjectival verb 'be few, not much' (PerfP darus). To the extent
that the double derivation is logically transparent, the passive-of-causative
appears to have the underlying patient as subject ('X be caused to be big/few'),
with both the agent of the intervening causative and the outer agent omitted.

'Be eaten' in (481.b) does not seem to differ much in meaning from

-amm-aksa-, the simple mediopassive on which it is based.

The usual variant forms occur for A-grm, in particular LoImpfP

-tiw-as-sstin- and -tiw-as-amrir- with no Lolmpf -t- prefix.

8.3 Mediopassive (-m-, -η-, -nvy-)

The mediopassive is characterized by a nasal prefix -m- or -n-. It is much less
productive (in the sense of ready combinability with any transitive verb) than
the T- or TW-passives (§8.2, above). While those passives imply an agent
(however unspecific), the mediopassive usually denotes agentless
mediopassives. Mediopassives tend to become semantically specialized and
therefore lexicalized. There are a number of verbs in my dictionary that begin
with m or η and have stem-shapes consistent with those of mediopassives, but
either correspond to no underived stem, or diverge semantically from a
formally related underived stem.
The transitive verb -vfrvn- 'choose, select' illustrates the difference
between mediopassive (-n-vfrvn-) and passive (-tvw-vfrvn-). Both can be
glossed 'be chosen'. However, -n-vfrvn- focuses on the qualities of the
referent, and can be glossed 'be the best (in a competition)' (cf. English select
in adjectival use: a few select wines). On the other hand, -tvw-vfrvn- implies
an agent: 'be chosen (by someone)'. Another mediopassive example is -m-oru-
'be open(ed); be untied', which denotes an agentless transition, or the resulting
state.
One reason the mediopassive is not particularly productive is that some
verbs can be used intransitively or transitively without derivational prefixation.
Quite often, the intransitive use (denoting a state) is expressed in the Resit