On the Middle Construction

This paper concerns some crucial properties of the middle construction. It is well-known that middle constructions do not behave in a uniform way so that it is quite hard to characterize the construction. First, it refuses to be parasitic on the independently established structures including ergatives, unaccusatives and passives. Hence, it claims its own structure. Second, this paper deals with the generic reading and the agentivity in the middle construction. To empirically attest its generic reading, typical tests for stative are adopted here. The middle construction behaves just like statives. This paper also seeks to find where an agentivity reading comes from in the construction. If the agentivity has something to do with the presence of an agent. an agent should be either semantically or syntactically active. None of the evidence in the literature in favor of the existence of the agent turns out tenable.