ABSTRACT
Since the term passive is primarily associated with what is known as the personal passive, we shall examine the characteristics of this canonical construction before discussing the less typical passive constructions. We therefore, begin with an overview of the properties traditionally attributed to personal passives, (2.1) and then proceed to determine the relationship between the personal passive and transitivity (2.2). Some tentative conclusions on the nature of the personal passive will be drawn in 2.3 which will enable us to evaluate the status of the controversial passives or non-actor focus constructions in the Philippine languages in 2.4.
