The rise of middle voice systems
A study in diachronic typology
Middle markers are characterized by a distribution halfway between grammar and the lexicon: with some verbs,
middle marking encodes valency change, while with others it obligatorily occurs with no obvious synchronic motivation. Despite the
existing cross-linguistic work on middle markers, their history is still largely unknown. In the typological literature, the
standard view is that middle markers predominantly have their origin in reflexive markers, and that, in their development, it is
invariantly the grammatical component that expands to the lexical component. In this paper, I challenge these assumptions based on
the analysis of a sample of 129 middle marking languages. As I show, the sources and pathways whereby middle markers come about
are much more numerous and varied than what has been reported in the literature. By taking a source-oriented approach, I also
discuss how recurrent cross-linguistic trends in the distribution of middle markers can in part be explained by looking at their
history.
Article outline
- 1.Introduction
- 2.Towards a comparative concept of middle marker
- 3.The diachrony of valency reducing markers
- 4.The diachrony of MVSs in a cross-linguistic perspective
- 4.1Sources of MMs
- 4.1.1MMs from reflexives
- 4.1.2MMs from valency changing markers
- 4.1.3MMs from lexical verbs (and spatial elements)
- 4.1.4MMs from other sources
- 4.1.4.1MMs from markers of uncontrolled events
- 4.1.4.2MMs from markers of plurality
- 4.1.4.3MMs from nominalizers and verbalizers
- 4.1.4.4MMs from aspectual-like markers
- 4.1.5MMs from multiple sources
- 4.2Oppositional and non-oppositional middles in diachrony
- 4.2.1Oppositional > non-oppositional
- 4.2.2Non-oppositional > oppositional
- 4.2.3The emergence of MVSs: A third way?
- 5.MVSs and language contact
- 6.The typology of MVSs: Weighing the diachronic evidence
- 7.Conclusions
- Acknowledgements
- Notes
- Abbreviations
-
References
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