Corpus linguistic and experimental studies on the meaning-preserving hypothesis in Indonesian voice alternations

Bibliographic Data

ID21226924
AuthorsI Made Rajeg (0000-0001-8989-0203, Udayana University, corresponding author), Gede Primahadi Wijaya Rajeg (0000-0002-2047-8621, Udayana University), I Wayan Arka (0000-0002-2819-6186, Australian National University)
Year2022
Volume8
Issue1
Pages367-382
Publication date2022-12-29
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueLinguistics Vanguard (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2199-174X • E-ISSN: 2199-174X
PublisherWalter de Gruyter GmbH (PUBLISHER • DE)
DOI10.1515/lingvan-2020-0104
OpenAlexW4210807878
LanguageEN
Citations received3
References cited23

One essential feature of voice alternation is that active and passive clauses centred around a given verb express the same meaning: the “meaning-preserving” hypothesis. One effect of the alternation is the different linking of grammatical relations and semantic roles, which affects the identity of the subject. This paper investigates the meaning-preserving hypothesis in voice alternation in Indonesian from a quantitative usage-based perspective by combining corpus-based data with sentence-production experiment data. It analysed Indonesian caused forward/backward motion verbs and the distribution of their (non-)metaphoric senses in active and passive. The findings demonstrate the frequency effects and sense-sensitivity of voice alternation, such that a given voice type of a verb is strongly associated with certain senses. This finding provides initial support for a previous study on voice alternation in an Austronesian language, predicting that the verb’s semantic properties may condition the statistical bias of the verb towards a particular voice. Some convergence between experimental and corpus findings indicates that participants demonstrate some representation of the strong association between a given voice form of the verb and the sense predominantly expressed in that form, highlighting the notion of item-specific representations of linguistic knowledge as found in construction grammar

Grammar · Indonesian · Linguistics · Sentence · Verb · Computer Science · Language, Discourse, Communication Strategies · Language, Metaphor, and Cognition · Psychology · Syntax, Semantics, Linguistic Variation

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