Voice and Extraction in Malayic
In many Malayic languages (western Austronesian), subjects can undergo A’-movement (relativization, WH-movement, focus movement, and topicalization) without any special qualification, whereas nonsubject nominals can A’-move only if the verb appears without a voice prefix. We propose a novel account...
| Published in: | Language |
|---|---|
| Main Authors: | , |
| Format: | Article in Journal/Newspaper |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Cambridge University Press (CUP)
2025
|
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1353/lan.2025.a978273 https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0097850725138216 |
| Summary: | In many Malayic languages (western Austronesian), subjects can undergo A’-movement (relativization, WH-movement, focus movement, and topicalization) without any special qualification, whereas nonsubject nominals can A’-move only if the verb appears without a voice prefix. We propose a novel account for the syntax of voice alternations in Malayic languages, synthesizing insights from the prior proposals of Aldridge 2008b and Nomoto 2015, 2021. Adopting the view that the predicate constitutes a phase (Chomsky 2000, 2001), with word order determined at each phase level (Fox & Pesetsky 2005), our proposal derives both the general subject-only A’-extraction restriction and its limited exception and associated morphological restrictions. The proposal is motivated by our original data on voice and extraction in Suak Mansi Desa, a previously undescribed Malayic language of western Borneo, which we then extend to Standard Indonesian and Standard Malay, as well as various other dialects and languages of the region. |
|---|