Philippine subjects in a monostratal framework

This paper argues that distinguishing Pivot (PIV) as an overlay discourse-syntactic function from (grammatical) subject (SUBJ) (Falk 2001) makes it possible to resolve certain perennial relativisation issues caused by yang in Standard and Colloquial Indonesian, which was otherwise unresolved based on previous accounts of Indonesian relativisation. Indonesian relativisation is shown to have a complex structure formation process whereby a flexible space of PIV selection is allowed by yang, and this is further constrained by voice morphology for well-formedness. Specifically, the constraints are summarised as follows: (i) whether the relativised unit is a core argument or not – where core arguments allow both gapping and pronominal copy strategies, but obliques only allow the pronominal copy strategy; (ii) whether close adjacency exists between yang and the relativised argument - where tight yang constructions obligate SUBJ relativisation by means of gapping, and; (iii) whether the verb is overtly marked by voice morphology - where (me)N- imposes a linkage between the Actor SUBJ and a DF-C (particularly FOC-C). The PIV-based analysis outlined in this paper not only offers a solution to the Indonesian relativisation puzzles presented, but in doing so, sheds light upon the fallibilities of existing generalisations in Indonesian relativisation processes, which assume gapping and pronominal copy strategies to be in complementary distribution. Instead, the PIV-based analysis offers a stronger account for these facts whereby the presence of overt SUBJ in the tight yang structure with nasal AV verbs renders the relativisation of OBJ unacceptable, irrespective of any relativisation strategy being used. This could be thought of as a ‘hard’ grammatical constraint of SUBJ relativisation in Indonesian, which requires gapping. It is also arguably related to the grammaticalised cognitive processing efficiency in SVO language systems (Hawkins 2004).

2008

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2019

This chapter discusses grammatical relations (GRs) in Balinese (ISO 639-3: ban, Austronesian, spoken by ~3 million, mainly in Bali, Indonesia). It is demonstrated that Balinese typologically shows relational properties typical for the Indonesian type of Austronesian languages, in terms of voice marking, argument marking, GR alternations, and other related processes such as relativisation, reflexivisation and control. In a wider typological context, Balinese shows splitS in terms of verbal morphology. Syntactically the overall grammar of Balinese shows a symmetrical alignment system: actor (A) and patient (P) arguments of transitive verbs can be equally selected as the grammatical subject or Pivot without the demotion of the other. In addition to voice morphology (showing AV, UV, and middle alternations), Balinese also has applicative and causative morphology, which is good evidence that semantic roles and surface grammatical relations are organised as two distinct layers in the grammar. It is demonstrated in this chapter that much of Balinese syntax revolves around the notion of the privileged argument of Pivot, and its related morphosyntactic and morphosemantic properties in the voice system, in both simple and complex structures; e.g. in clausal argument with/without control and adverbial clauses. We start with the distinction between grammatical relations and grammatical functions (section 2), followed by the selecting properties of Pivot (section 3). Balinese grammar also exhibits a set of properties distinguishing core arguments from obliques, discussed in sections 4 and 5. Three-place predicates are discussed in section 6. It is shown that Balinese exhibits a secundative alignment. Adjuncts are very similar to obliques but they are different in certain respects (section 7). Clausal dependants (complements and adverbial clauses) are discussed in sections 8-9. A conclusion is given in section 10.

University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa Working Papers in Linguistics, 2019

Symmetrical voice is a syntactic phenomenon in which a language has at least two default transitive patterns that are not derived from each other. Each transitive pattern represents a distinct voice which selects a particular core argument as the pivot. This paper proposes that subject and pivot are distinct categories which can be diagnosed by examining a series of properties involving subjects and pivots. Whereas the pivot is privileged for extraction through wh-fronting or relative clause gapping, the subject argument of a transitive construction can act as the antecedent for a reflexive pronoun and manifests wide scope with respect to variable binding. The distinct properties of subject and pivot are demonstrated in Ampenan Sasak, a symmetrical-voice Austronesian language spoken on Lombok, Indonesia.

Studia Linguistica, 2001

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2012

In the literature of Philippine linguistics, Goal-Focus (GF) constructions in Tagalog have been generally considered as transitive, both syntactically and semantically; however, whether Actor-Focus (AF) constructions should be analyzed as syntactically transitive or intransitive is controversial. This paper addresses the question of the syntactic transitivity of Tagalog AF constructions from a new perspective. We argue two points in this paper. First, AF constructions do not form a homogenous construction type but rather consist of both syntactically and semantically varying construction types: ambient, agentive, patientive, reflexive, and antipassive types. Moreover, AF construction types other than antipassive are clearly intransitive. This means that only antipassive AF constructions should be examined in a discussion of the syntactic transitivity of AF constructions. Second, it is argued that antipassive AF constructions are syntactically intransitive; specifically, in this construction type, nominative agent NPs behave like grammatical arguments of GF constructions, but genitive patient NPs do not. It is concluded that Tagalog AF constructions are best analyzed as syntactically intransitive.