The agentive passive in Slovenian from a corpus pragmatics perspective

Mikolič Južnič, Tamara (author), Pisanski Peterlin, Agnes (author)

The agentive passive involves agent demotion; consequently, its use is closely linked to information structure in fixed word-order languages, but its function in flexible word-order languages is less clear. The present corpus-based study examines the use of the agentive passive with the -n/-t participle in Slovenian, a flexible word-order language, focusing on how the register and the semantic and pragmatic factors influence its use. Two reference corpora of contemporary Slovenian were used in the analysis: GOS, comprising spoken discourse, and KRES, comprising mainly written discourse. The results show that the passive with s strani is used more frequently than the traditional passive with od. A cross-register comparison reveals considerable differences in the use of the agentive passive with s strani and od. The findings also reveal that the agentive passive is often used to reduce the responsibility of the agent to avoid assigning blame or to create the impression of objectivity.

• Language: English
• Keywords: agentive passive, type of agent, type of verb, responsibility attribution, Slovenian
• Typology: 1.01 - Original Scientific Article
• Organization: FF - Faculty of Arts
• Publication version: Version of Record
• Publication date: 01.01.2026
• Year: 2026
• Number of pages: Str. 1-26
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-186436
• UDC: 811.163.6'366.573
• ISSN on article: 1018-2101
• DOI: 10.1075/prag.24094.mik
• COBISS.SI-ID: 288910851
• Publication date in RUL: 01.09.2026

Record is a part of a journal

• Title: Pragmatics
• Shortened title: Pragmatics
• Publisher: IPrA Research Center
• ISSN: 1018-2101
• COBISS.SI-ID: 19665762

Licences

• License: CC BY-NC 4.0, Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International
• Link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
• Description: A creative commons license that bans commercial use, but the users don’t have to license their derivative works on the same terms.

Secondary language

• Language: Slovenian
• Keywords: pasiv z izraženim vršilcem, tip vršilca, tip glagola, pripisovanje odgovornosti, slovenščina

Projects

• Funder: ARIS - Slovenian Research and Innovation Agency
• Project number: P6-0446-2024
• Name: Teoretično, opisno in uporabno prevodoslovje

• Funder: ARIS - Slovenian Research and Innovation Agency
• Project number: P6-0215-2019
• Name: Slovenski jezik - bazične, kontrastivne in aplikativne raziskave