In this paper, we argue that the rare-constructions in Japanese are all genuinely passives in the sense that they involve either demotion or removal of an argument in the syntax. For the analysis, we suggest that the rare-constructions are derived with a passive element, Pass(ive), whose essential function is to suppress an argument of its sister predicate. The constant and variable properties across different types of rare-constructions are attributed to the interactions of Pass with the other elements involved in their derivations such as Aff(ect) and T(ense). The paper also discusses the nature of -ni and -niyotte, both of which are often considered to be elements introducing a demoted ‘agent’ argument. We suggest that the different distributions between the two arise because the former is a semantically vacuous argument introducer, whereas the latter is a semantically contentful ‘causer’ introducer. If the analyses presented in this paper are tenable, the paper will constitute a support for the views that passives do not necessarily involve suppression of an ‘external’ argument and that so-called non-canonical passives can also be a true passive to the extent that its derivation involves Pass.

在本文中，我们认为日语中罕见的- 结构都是真正的被动结构，因为它们涉及降级或删除句法中的参数。为了分析，我们建议使用被动元素Pass(ive)派生稀有-结构，其基本功能是抑制其姊妹谓词的论证。不同类型稀有结构的常量和变量属性归因于 Pass 与派生过程中涉及的其他元素（例如Aff(ect)和T(ense)）的相互作用。该论文还讨论了 - ni和 - niyotte的性质，这两者通常被认为是引入降级“代理”参数的元素。我们认为两者之间的不同分布是因为前者是语义空洞的论证引入者，而后者是语义上内容丰富的“原因”引入者。如果本文中提出的分析是站得住脚的，本文将构成对以下观点的支持：被动句不一定涉及对“外部”论点的压制，所谓的非规范被动句也可以是真正的被动句它的推导涉及Pass。