Two steps to high absolutive syntax

Austronesian voice and agent focus in Mandar

Datos Bibliográficos

ID5817795
AutoresDan Brodkin (0000-0001-5663-1301, University of California, Santa Cruz, autor de correspondencia)
Año2022
Volumen31
Número4
Páginas465-516
Fecha de publicación2022-12-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaJournal of East Asian Linguistics (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0925-8558 • E-ISSN: 1572-8560
EditorialSpringer Science+Business Media (PUBLISHER • DE)
DOI10.1007/s10831-022-09248-0
OpenAlexW4312215591
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas5
Referencias citadas79

The westernmost languages of the Austronesian family show verbal alternations that are traditionally referred to as a voice system. This paper investigates the syntax of the voice system in Mandar, a language of the South Sulawesi subfamily. It argues that this alternation tracks alternations in argument structure, determines patterns of Case-Licensing in the voice p , and positions a single argument, the pivot, to raise to the highest a -position in the clause. The process that positions the pivot is decomposed into two steps: first, a process of Object Shift that moves definite arguments out of the vp and second, a process that places the pivot in spec,tp as the result of Case-Licensing by t 0 . Evidence for this analysis is drawn from contexts where the external argument undergoes $${\bar{\textsc {a}}}$$ A ̄ -extraction and the internal argument is definite. In that context, the language employs a special construction which allows the external argument to be the pivot, allows the internal argument to undergo Object Shift, and provides the means to Case-License it within the v p . I refer to this construction as the Agent Focus and argue that it has a syntax similar to the analogous construction in the Mayan languages of the Q'anjob'alan subfamily

Argument (complex analysis · Linguistic Variation and Morphology · Phonetics and Phonology Research · Syntax, Semantics, Linguistic Variation