What is the difference between mediopassive VP's and anti-causative VP's?

Question

[I've overhauled this question.]

I guess I'm asking about the semantic differences, if any, between mediopassives and anticausatives.

1. Here's a definition of anticausative verb from definitions.net: "anticausative(Adjective) (Of an intransitive verb) which shows an action affecting its subject, without indicating the cause"

Examples of verbs that have anticausative readings include "break," "sink," & "move." For example, consider these sentences: The window broke. The ship sank. The snail moved.

Contrast the latter with these causative sentences: Timmy broke the window. The torpedo sank the ship. The little boy moved the snail.

1. Here's a definition of mediopassive that I got from the SIL glossary. "Mediopassive voice is a passive voice in which the verb has stative meaning, and actor is not expressed.

Example (Chichewa Bantu): In the following example, mediopassive voice is indicated by the suffix -ka:

mwana wangu wapandi-ka

child my beat -MEDIOPASSIVE

‘My child has been beaten.’"

I have also heard such constructions as "The shirt irons easily" and "The book reads well" called mediopassive.

Answer 1

Do either of these terms have definitive definitions among linguists?

No. I have yet to meet structural categories in linguistics that have single, universally agreed upon definitions. Even "word" is not strictly defined in any way.

You can compare terms only within the same framework. "Mediopassive" is a term used generally in historical linguistics for a certain kind of language-particular constructions/forms - anticausative is a term i know from typology.

Unless given a precise definition of the terms, I don't think it is possible to answer your question.

Answer 2

Levin calls it a middle construction in English Verb Classes and Alternations. She provides lots of references. Of the two names you're asking about, only "mediopassive" seems to be used in the titles, while "middle" is far more common.

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