Austronesian alignment

E45257

Austronesian alignment is a morphosyntactic alignment system, common in many Philippine and related languages, where verbal voice and focus mark different core arguments in ways that do not fit neatly into standard nominative–accusative or ergative–absolutive patterns.


Statements (49)
Predicate Object
instanceOf linguistic alignment pattern
morphosyntactic alignment system
syntactic phenomenon
affects argument extraction restrictions
case-marking of core arguments
word order possibilities
alsoKnownAs Austronesian-type voice system
Philippine-type alignment
associatedWithLanguageFamily Austronesian languages
characterizedBy focus system on verbal morphology
lack of clear ergative–absolutive pattern
lack of clear nominative–accusative pattern
multiple transitive voices
symmetrical voice alternations
voice system marking different core arguments
contrastedWith ergative–absolutive alignment
nominative–accusative alignment
difficultToAnalyzeAs purely accusative
purely ergative
hasExampleLanguage Atayal
Cebuano
Ilocano
Kapampangan
Kavalan
Malagasy
Seediq
Tagalog
hasKeyConcept actor voice
circumstantial voice
locative voice
patient voice
pivot argument
voice-marked argument
involves alternation of which argument is privileged
morphological marking of semantic roles
marksOn verb
privilegedArgumentCalled pivot
subject (in some analyses)
privileges one core argument per clause
relatedTo voice and focus systems in Austronesian linguistics
resembles Philippine-type voice system
studiedInField linguistic typology
morphology
syntax
usedIn Formosan languages
many Philippine languages
some Bornean languages
some Indonesian languages
some Oceanic languages

Referenced by (1)
Subject (surface form when different) Predicate
Cebuano language
alignmentType

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