Atlas of Pidgin and Creole Language Structures Online

In addition to the typical passive construction, exemplified in 60-126, Lingala speakers have three other constructions at their disposal to express passiveness.

One is the so-called 'agentless passive' (also called 'stative', 'neute', and 'passive-active'). The form is neither passive nor active: in contrast to actives, the grammatical subject is not the agent, and, in contrast to passives, no agent can be explicated or is implied. In other words, the speaker conveys that the subject is affected by the action, but ignores the involvement of an agent.

O-yéb-án-í
[2SG-know-NEUT-PRES1]
‘You are known’

A second one is the non-promotional passive, which leaves the verb in the active voice, followed by the original patient complement; replaces the subject marker with the 3PL.AN marker having impersonal or generic reference ('they', 'people'); and identifies the agent in the same way as is done in the typical passive construction, i.e. by means of a prepositional phrase with na.

Ba-ko-fíng-a ngáí na molakisi
[3PL.AN-FUT-insult-FV 1SG by teacher]
'I will be insulted by the teacher'.

A third construction consists in the combination of the (preradical) reflexive marker -mí- and the (postradical) causative marker -is-. In some contexts this combination conveys, as might be predicated, that the subject referent causes him- or herself to perform the action referred to by the verb root. But in other contexts it concomitantly generates a causative and a passive meaning. Thus, in the example below, the subject referent will not cause himself to insult (someone), but will cause himself to be insulted. In comparison with the typical passive, this construction stresses the responsibility of the subject referent in causing the situation he or she undergoes as patient.

Na-ko-mí-fíng-is-a na molakisi
[1SG-FUT-REFL-insult-CAUS-FV by teacher]
'I will get myself insulted by the teacher'.

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Typical passive construction