Inner and outer causatives in Austronesian: a diachronic perspective (original) (raw)
Related papers
On The Development of Applicative Constructions in Austronesian Languages
Bulletin of the National Museum of Ethnology 36(4): 413– 455, 2012
In this paper 1) , based on a comparison of the forms and functions of applicative verbs in Austronesian languages and of the clause structures in which such verbs appear, I will discuss the mechanisms by which the reconstructed proto-system developed into the diverse systems currently found in the language family today.
Austroasiatic Affixes and Grammatical Lexicon
Austroasiatic Syntax in Areal and Diachronic Perspective, 2020
The editors of this volume collaborated to create this Austroasiatic grammatical lexicon as a resource for the investigation of the history of PAA syntax. It began as a simple compilation of grammatical and grammaticalised items extracted from Shorto's (2006) reconstruction of Proto-Austroasiatic/Mon-Khmer, and was then augmented with data from the SEAlang Mon-Khmer and Munda Languages Project. Later, special sections on pronouns and morphology were added, extending beyond Shorto's work with other published sources. As noted in the introduction, in the history of Austroasiatic research, mor-phosyntax has been somewhat neglected in favour of lexical and phonological studies, and this has affected the quality and quantity of available grammatical data and remains a serious ongoing problem. This is not to denigrate previous work; researchers legitimately prioritized those facets of language, especially phonology and lexicon that were important to them, and were largely consistent with their immediate professional milieu. In the second half of the 20th century, the diverse and highly dynamic world of grammatical theory often seemed remote from the concerns of those collecting primary data, and work presented within the constraints of particular theoretical approaches was not made more accessible by that fact. Consequently, we feel that it is appropriate to take a back-to-basics approach and present a broad index of grammatical items in etymological context. Austroasiatic reconstruction remains a maturing field. Thus, it is not possible to simply list proto-AA forms for any or all grammatical items, yet it is still often premature to set aside particular etyma that are not widely attested, so we must proceed carefully while always making clear our data sources and reasoning. The compilation presented here is to be regarded as a working document and resource in a highly contingent field of inquiry. Some reconstructions involve only a couple of branches (with a number of items moved to the the final subsection of this paper as items of less likely PAA items or complete exclusions), while others appear in several branches and thus can be considered stronger candidates for original Proto-AA status rather than later innovations which spread aross multiple branches. This data thus gives a sense of Proto-AA grammar, from personal and demonstrative pronouns, to negation and time, to location and comparison.
The evolution of syntax in western Austronesian
Routledge Handbook of Asian Linguistics, 2022
Despite growing interest in the syntactic typology of Austronesian languages, it remains unclear how the core syntax of Western Austronesian languages has evolved through space and time. While the languages distributed closer to the linguistic homeland, Taiwan, display elaborate morphosyntax and a complex four-way voice system known as Philippine-type voice, those located to the south show different degrees of decay in this voice system. These patterns of decay are often accompanied by secondary innovations, such as changes in word order, the rise of applicatives, and a gradual shift towards analytic syntax. This has resulted in the emergence of a cline of reduced voice systems featuring a two-way actor-undergoer voice contrast. While much previous work has proposed a second prototype known as Indonesian-type, we highlight that there are few if any shared innovative features that unite these languages. Thus, we argue that it is really only possible to propose a single Philippine-type prototype with other systems showing remnants of these features.
The origins of the Austronesian voice system and subject-only restriction
2023
The Austronesian voice system (AVS) is among the most typologically intriguing and well-studied phenomena in syntax. Previous diachronic accounts have used the comparative method to argue that either the voice function or the nominalization function of the voice affixes should be reconstructed to Proto-Austronesian (PAn). We propose an alternative path of development using internal reconstruction as a primary methodological tool. First, we reconstruct both the voice and nominalization functions to PAn. We then argue that the non-active voice affixes originated in Pre-PAn as prepositions, which were incorporated into the verb complex as postverbs; the nominalizing function, on the other hand, arose through an inter-stage with compounds. This proposal accounts for a number of properties of AVS, including the prominence of arguments promoted to subject position and the subject-only restriction, and is supported by a typological parallel in Dinka. Finally, we discuss methodological issues in reconstructing typologically unusual morphosyntactic phenomena.
Spec of IP and spec of VP: Two subjects in Austronesian languages
Natural Language and Linguistic Theory, 1992
In this paper we claim that certain facts from four Austronesian languages provide striking support for the claim that there is a VP-intemal subject position Jin addition to the traditional subject position of SPEC of IP. We show (i) that subject-sensitive properties may be split between SPEC of VP and SPEC of IP, theta-sensitive properties (such as binding and control) associated with the former and structure-sensitive properties (such as extraction and quantifier float) with the latter; (ii) that word order facts about these four Austronesian languages as well as variations among the languages follow from the assumption that the two subject positions may be licensed simultaneously at S-structure. Lastly, we show that the proposed analysis of Austronesian phrase structure allows the placement of Austronesian languages within a typology of passive.
Oceanic Linguistics, 2020
Many Philippine-type languages spoken in Taiwan possess an understudied agentless construction formed with a mu-marked bivalent verb. This construction raises theoretical issues because bivalent verbs otherwise require an overt agent, no matter the voice type of a predicate. In this paper I demonstrate that the prefix sequence mu-consists of an Actor Voice (AV) morpheme m-and an agent/cause-eliminating valency-decreasing affix u-, which is likely to derive from a homophonous motion prefix (Starosta 1995; Blust 2003; Liao 2011) prior to the split of Proto-Austronesian. The detransitivizer u-'s compatibility with AV-marked bivalent verbs in languages under seven different Austronesian primary branches, I argue, presents novel evidence against the antipassive view of prototypical AV constructions and lends new support to a transitive analysis, as derived intransitives such as antipassives are incompatible with valency-decreasing operations across languages. I argue accordingly that the ergative approach to prototypical Philippine-type languages is difficult to maintain.