Non-active voice in Albanian: Implications for the theory of movement

In this article we propose to evaluate the analysis of non-active voice in the light of the data of Albanian, which presents two separate and complementary reasons of interest. On the one hand the passive (i.e. promotion of the internal argument to the EPP position with the external argument independently interpreted) has the same lexicalization as the reflexive and the middle/ unaccusative. The question then is whether all of these different interpretation are associated to the same movement syntax. On the other hand, the lexicalization of this cluster of meanings is not one, but varies according to tense and aspect specifications. Thus in standard Albanian the non-active voice is lexicalized through a specialized (agreement) inflection in the present or past imperfect; it is lexicalized through the clitic u combined with the active forms of the verb in the past perfect; and finally it is lexicalized by the periphrasis be – participle in the present perfect and pluperfect. The question then is whether in the passive or eventually in the other interpretations all these different morpholexical formats correspond to the same underlying movement syntax.