Mismatch: morphosyntax: pseudo-agent
Transitive verbs with a 3rd person plural agent are used to form an impersonal. Morphologically, these forms are characterized by a 3rd person agent prefix (Ø) and the plural subject suffix -pi.
| Mary | Light | e-Ø-má-ciya-pi |
| M. | L. | ST-3.A-1SG.P-say.to-PL |
| 'I am called Mary Light (they call me M. L.)' | ||
In these constructions, the 3rd plural agent marking is non-referential. However, there are some contexts where an agent is implied which is logically at odds with the agent marking (e.g., with thų 'give birth'). Further, a passive-like construction has recently been recorded, e.g.:
| wichása | ki | mathó | Ø-kté-pi |
| man | the | bear | 3>3SG-kill-PL |
| 'The man was killed by the/a bear.' or
'The man was killed by (the) bears.' |
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Pustet and Rood (1995) construe this as distinct from the superficially identical sentence with the translation 'Bears killed the man', where the plural marker is expected. In examples such as the one shown above, native speakers offer translations in which the agent phrase may be singular. Pustet and Rood interpret mathó 'bear' as the oblique agent of a passive. Such constructions appear to be limited to highly transitive verbs with 3rd person agents.
Pustet, Regina and David Rood. 2005. Argument suppression in Lakota. Paper given at The typology of stative-active languages conference at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthroplogy, Leipzig. May 20-22.