Evidence against unidirectionality in the emergence of middle voice systems

Case studies from Anatolian and Paman

Bibliographic Data

ID21820022
AuthorsGuglielmo Inglese (0000-0003-2577-8348, University of Turin, corresponding author), Jean‐christophe Verstraete (0000-0002-3576-9827, Australian National University), Jean-Christophe Verstraete (University of Leuven , Leuven , Belgium)
Year2023
Volume76
Issue2
Pages235-265
Publication date2023-07-26
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueLanguage Typology and Universals (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1867-8319 • E-ISSN: 2196-7148
PublisherWalter de Gruyter GmbH (PUBLISHER • DE)
DOI10.1515/stuf-2023-2010
OpenAlexW4384340046
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited51

Middle voice systems are characterized by the distribution of a middle marker over two macro-classes of verbs: oppositional and non-oppositional verbs. In diachronic studies, it has been proposed that the historical link between the two groups is unidirectional, with middle marking spreading from oppositional to non-oppositional verbs. In this paper, we challenge this assumption and discuss two case studies, one from Anatolian and one from Paman languages that show the opposite development, that is, from non-oppositional to oppositional. In both cases, we argue, constructions that originally had a lexically determined distribution develop grammatical functions connected with valency reduction

Linguistics · Valency · History · Linguistics and language evolution · Natural Language Processing Techniques · Philosophy · Psychology · Syntax, Semantics, Linguistic Variation

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