DECODING ENGLISH AND URDU SYNTACTIC STRUCTURES A MINIMALIST ACCOUNT OF VOICE ALTERNATION

http://dx.doi.org/10.31703/gssr.2025(X-III).07      10.31703/gssr.2025(X-III).07      Published : Sep 2025
Authored by : SadiaChoudhri

07 Pages : 72-89

http://dx.doi.org/10.31703/gssr.2025(X-III).07      10.31703/gssr.2025(X-III).07      Published : Sep 2025

Decoding English and Urdu Syntactic Structures: A Minimalist Account of Voice Alternation

    The transition from active to passive voice structure is an integral syntactic behaviour in organic languages. The present study explores the syntactic structure of active/passive sentences in English and Urdu, addressing argument structure, case assignment, and the execution of functional projections like VoiceP using Chomsky's Minimalist program(1995) as the theoretical framework. The findings suggest that English passives display the explicit promotion of the internal argument, which is the object-to-subject slot, suppression of the external argument, and the agent(subject) to an adjunct place, generated under the Voice head Phrase. In comparison, Urdu passives contain no overt subject demotion, rather maintaining the designated accusative objects in positions identical to the ones in active sentences. The absence of a by-phrase and the lack of an inert pro subject show that Urdu passives do not represent true passives; rather, they are classified as "active impersonals"(Blevins, 2003), which highlights the implications of their split-ergative orientation.

    (1) Sadia Choudhri
    Lecturer, Department of English, HITEC University, Taxila, Punjab, Pakistan.
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Cite this article

    CHICAGO : Choudhri, Sadia. 2025. "Decoding English and Urdu Syntactic Structures: A Minimalist Account of Voice Alternation." Global Social Sciences Review, X (III): 72-89 doi: 10.31703/gssr.2025(X-III).07
    HARVARD : CHOUDHRI, S. 2025. Decoding English and Urdu Syntactic Structures: A Minimalist Account of Voice Alternation. Global Social Sciences Review, X, 72-89.
    MHRA : Choudhri, Sadia. 2025. "Decoding English and Urdu Syntactic Structures: A Minimalist Account of Voice Alternation." Global Social Sciences Review, X: 72-89
    MLA : Choudhri, Sadia. "Decoding English and Urdu Syntactic Structures: A Minimalist Account of Voice Alternation." Global Social Sciences Review, X.III (2025): 72-89 Print.
    OXFORD : Choudhri, Sadia (2025), "Decoding English and Urdu Syntactic Structures: A Minimalist Account of Voice Alternation", Global Social Sciences Review, X (III), 72-89
    TURABIAN : Choudhri, Sadia. "Decoding English and Urdu Syntactic Structures: A Minimalist Account of Voice Alternation." Global Social Sciences Review X, no. III (2025): 72-89. https://doi.org/10.31703/gssr.2025(X-III).07