The presentation of Washabaugh 1977 represents a retrograde step in the analysis of creole systems. Though he may be correct in his belief that the constraints on complementizer variation were inadequately stated in Bickerton 1971, his decision to replace that analysis by one based on lexical diffusion and the perception of surface structures is vitiated by a number of errors, both analytic and statistical, and ignores what is most interesting about linguistic change, i.e. the capacity of the human mind to make quite abstract generalizations about broad linguistic categories.

This paper proposes an underlying representation for passive sentences in Mojave and in Uto-Aztecan, and explores the broader issues that arise in extending the analysis to other languages and incorporating it in linguistic theory as a substantive language universal. In the introduction, this underlying representation is presented and discussed in relation to previous analyses of the passive. It is claimed specifically that passive sentences in Mojave and Uto-Aztecan are basically impersonal, and derive from structures in which a clause with unspecified subject is embedded as subject complement to the predicate be. Agentive phrases, when they occur, are said to derive from an external source, and are not considered an intrinsic part of the passive construction. The Uto-Aztecan evidence, primarily comparative and diachronic, is presented in §1. It is argued that reflexive constructions commonly assume passive function because both involve ‘non-distinct’ arguments, of which coreferential and unspecified arguments are special cases. The concept of non-distinct arguments receives considerable support from various syntactic changes that occurred in Uto-Aztecan. The Mojave evidence, primarily synchronic, is presented in §2. In §3, a variety of related issues are treated, including potential problems in extending the analysis to English, the source of by-phrases, the nature and status of unspecified arguments, the semantic claims implied by the proposed underlying representation, and the relationship between passive and perfective constructions.

Complementary distribution between SVO and clitic-VSO word orders in Yagua receives a natural explanation from independent principles of Case and X'-theories of the Principles-and-Parameters theory of grammar. Word-order variation in Yagua results from the fact that both clitics and arguments compete for a single Case. This conflict is resolved by moving the head of the phrase to the phrase-internal AGR[eement] position and allowing the clitic to acquire morphological visibility via incorporation into the head. Independent justification for this analysis is adduced from reflexives: all and only those arguments whose heads raise to AGR (subject, genitive, and oblique, but not direct objects) may serve as antecedents for reflexive clitics. This is explained if we require that the indices of the head, AGR, and the argument be connected. This analysis sheds new light on phrase structure, Case theory, and clitics in Universal Grammar.

Inadequacies in the Sound pattern of English feature system, in the realm of unattained natural classes and unaccommodated contrasts, are shown; and alternative solutions to these problems are considered. One involves added features; the other involves the notational innovation of the ‘complex symbol’.