Cover not available
Article published In:
Diachronica
Vol. 40:2 (2023) ► pp.195–237

The rise of middle voice systems

A study in diachronic typology

ORCID logo | Università di Torino

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.

Keywords: middle voice, middle marker, diachronic typology, reflexive
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
Available under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) 4.0 license.

For any use beyond this license, please contact the publisher at [email protected].

Published online: 19 January 2023
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/dia.20058.ing
References
Ahn, Mikyung & Foong Ha Yap
2017 From middle to passive: A diachronic analysis of Korean -eci constructions. Diachronica 34(4). 437–469. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Allan, Rutger
2003 The middle voice in Ancient Greek: A study of polysemy. Amsterdam: Gieben. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2014 Media tantum. In Georgios K. Giannakis (ed.), Encyclopedia of Ancient Greek language and linguistics, 440–441. Leiden: Brill.Google Scholar
Alpher, Barry, Nicholas Evans & Mark Harvey
2003 Proto-Gunwinyguan verb suffixes. In Nicholas Evans (ed.), The non-Pama-Nyungan languages of Northern Australia, 305–352. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics.Google Scholar
Authier, Gilles
2012 The detransitive voice in Kryz. In Gilles Authier & Katharina Haude (eds.), Ergativity, valency and voice, 133–164. Berlin & New York: de Gruyter. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bahrt, Nicklas
2021 Voice syncretism. Berlin: Language Science Press.Google Scholar
Bashir, Elena
2006 Le préfixe D- en Bourouchaski: deixis et point de référence. Bourouchaskiana 1131. 17–62.Google Scholar
Beck, David
2000 Unitariness of participant and event in the Bella Coola (Nuxalk) middle voice. International Journal of American Linguistics 66(2). 218–256. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Benito Moreno, Carlota de
Forthcoming. From (semi-)oppositional to non-oppositional middles: The case of Spanish reír(se) . STUF – Language Typology and Universals.
Bostoen, Koen & Yolande Nzang-Bie
2010 On how “middle” plus “associative/reciprocal” became “passive” in the Bantu A70 languages. Linguistics 48(6). 1255–1307. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bowern, Claire
2012 A grammar of Bardi. Berlin & New York: de Gruyter. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Breban, Tine
2014 What is secondary grammaticalization? Trying to see the wood for the trees in a confusion of interpretations. Folia Linguistica 48(2). 469–502. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bril, Isabelle
2005 Semantic and functional diversification of reciprocal and middle prefixes in New Caledonian and other Austronesian languages. Linguistic Typology 9(1). 25–76. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Brinton, Laurel J. & Elizabeth C. Traugott
2005 Lexicalization and language change. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bubeník, Vit
2013 On the remaking of the middle voice in Indo-Iranian. [URL] (accessed 22/07/2021).
Callaghan, Catherine
2013 Proto Utian grammar and dictionary. Berlin & New York: de Gruyter. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Cennamo, Michela
1993 The reanalysis of reflexives: A diachronic perspective. Napoli: Liguori.Google Scholar
1999 Late Latin pleonastic reflexives and the Unaccusative Hypothesis. Transactions of the Philological Society 97(1). 103–150. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2020a The actualization of new voice patterns in Romance. Persistence in diversity. In Bridget Drinka (ed.), Historical linguistics 2017. Selected papers from the 23rd conference on historical linguistics, San Antonio, Texas, 31 July – 4 August 2017, 109–142. Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2020b Mechanisms and paths of grammaticalization and reanalysis in Romance. In Walter Bisang & Andrej Malchukov (eds.), Grammaticalization scenarios: Cross-linguistic variation and universal tendencies, Vol. 11, 165–248. Berlin & New York: de Gruyter. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Cennamo, Michela, Thórhallur Eythórsson & Jóhanna Barðdal
2015 Semantic and (morpho)syntactic constraints on anticausativization: Evidence from Latin and Old Norse-Icelandic. Linguistics 53(4). 677–729. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Chavula, Jean
2018 The polysemy of the neuter extension -ik in Citumbuka (N21) and Citonga (N15). Southern African Linguistics and Applied Language Studies 36(3). 197–209. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Chhangte, Lalnunthangi
1993 Mizo syntax. PhD dissertation, University of Oregon.
Clendon, Mark
2014 Worrorra: A language of the north-west Kimberley coast. Adelaide: University of Adelaide Press.Google Scholar
Comrie, Bernard
2006 Transitivity pairs, markedness, and diachronic stability. Linguistics 44(2). 303–318. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Cristofaro, Sonia
2010 Semantic maps and mental representation. Linguistic Discovery 8(1). 35–52. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2019 Taking diachronic evidence seriously: Result-oriented vs. source-oriented explanations of typological universals. In Karsten Schmidtke-Bode, Natalia Levshina, Susanne Maria Michaelis & Ilja A. Seržant (eds.), Explanation in typology: Diachronic sources, functional motivations and the nature of the evidence, 25–46. Berlin: Language Science Press.Google Scholar
De Smet, Hendrik, Lobke Ghesquière & Freek Van de Velde
(eds.) 2013 On Multiple Source Constructions in Language Change. Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Devos, Maud & Jenneke van der Wal
(eds.) 2014 “COME” and “GO” off the beaten grammaticalization path. Berlin & New York: de Gruyter. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Dik, Simon
1983 The status of verbal reflexives. In Liliane Tasmowski & Dominique Willems (eds.), Problems in syntax, 231–256. New York & London: Plenum. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Dingemanse, Mark
2019 ‘Ideophone’ as a comparative concept. In Kimi Akita & Prashant Pardeshi (eds.), Ideophones, mimetics and expressives, 13–33. Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Dixon, R. M. W.
2002 Australian languages. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Dom, Sebastian, Leora Bar-el, Ponsiano Sawaka Kanijo & Malin Petzell
Forthcoming. Middle voice in Bantu: In- and detransitivizing morphology in Kagulu. STUF – Language Typology and Universals.
Dom, Sebastian, Leonid Kulikov & Koen Bostoen
2016 The middle as a voice category in Bantu: Setting the stage for further research. Lingua Posnaniensis 58(2). 129–149. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Dom, Sebastian, Guillaume Segerer & Koen Bostoen
2015 Antipassive/associative polysemy in Cilubà (Bantu, L31a): A plurality of relations analysis. Studies in Language 39(2). 354–385. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Dum-Tragut, Jasmine
2009 Armenian: Modern Eastern Armenian. Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Dunkel, George E.
2014 Lexikon der indogermanischen Partikeln und Pronominalstämme. Heidelberg: Winter.Google Scholar
Estrada Fernández, Zarina
2005 The pronominal form -a as a middle marker in Pima Bajo. International Journal of American Linguistics 71(3). 277–302. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Evans, Nicholas D.
1995 A grammar of Kayardild. Berlin & New York: de Gruyter. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Evseeva, Natalia & Iker Salaberri
2018 Grammaticalization of nouns meaning “head” into reflexive markers: A cross-linguistic study. Linguistic Typology 22(3). 385–435. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Fernández Garay, Ana
2005 Contacto ranquel-español en la pampa argentina. In Claudine Chamoreau & Yolanda Lastra (eds.), Dinámica lingüística de las lenguas en contacto, 49–66. Hermosillo: Universidad de Sonora.Google Scholar
Fufa Teso, Tolemariam
2009 A typology of verbal derivation in Ethiopian Afro-Asiatic languages. Utrecht: LOT.Google Scholar
Gandon, Ophelie
2018 The verbal reciprocal suffix in Turkic languages and the development of its different values. In Mehmet Ali Akıncı & Kutlay Yagmur (eds.), The Rouen Meeting: Studies on Turkic structures and language contacts, 29–43. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Geniušienė, Emma Š.
1987 The typology of reflexives. Berlin & New York: de Gruyter. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Gerdts, Donna B. & Thomas E. Hukari
2006 The Halkomelem Middle: A complex network of constructions. Anthropological Linguistics 48(1). 44–81.Google Scholar
Giacalone Ramat, Anna & Andrea Sansò
2011 From passive to impersonal. A case study from Italian and its implications. In Andrej Malchukov & Anna Siewierska (eds.), Impersonal constructions: A cross-linguistic perspective, 189–228. Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Gianollo, Chiara
2010 I verbi deponenti latini e l’unità della flessione in -r . Incontri triestini di filologia classica 81. 23–49.Google Scholar
Gibert-Sotelo, Elisabeth
2018 Deriving ablative, privative, and reversative meanings in Catalan and Spanish. Borealis 7(2). 161–185. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Gijn, Rik van
2010 Middle voice and ideophones, a diachronic connection: The case of Yurakaré. Studies in Language 34(2). 273–297. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Green, Ian
1995 The death of ‘prefixing’: Contact induced typological change in Northern Australia. Annual Meeting of the Berkeley Linguistics Society 414–425. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Grestenberger, Laura
2016 Reconstructing Proto-Indo-European deponents. Indo-European Linguistics 4(1). 98–149. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Grossman, Eitan
2021 Transitivity, diachrony, and language contact. In Silvia Luraghi & Elisa Roma (eds.), Valency over time, 13–30. Berlin & New York: de Gruyter. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Grossman, Eitan & Stéphane Polis
2018 Swimming against the typological tide or paddling along with language change? Dispreferred structures and diachronic biases in affix ordering. Journal of Historical Linguistics 8(3). 388–443. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Guérois, Rozenn
2015 A grammar of Cuwabo (Mozambique, Bantu P34). PhD dissertation, Université Lyon 2.
Guérois, Rozenn & Koen Bostoen
2018 On the origins of passive allomorphy in Cuwabo (Bantu P34). Southern African Linguistics and Applied Language Studies 36(3). 211–233. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Gunnik, Hilde
2018 A grammar of Fwe. PhD dissertation, Ghent University.
Haas, Mary
1977 From auxiliary verb to inflectional suffix. In Charles Li (ed.), Mechanisms of syntactic change, 525–537. Austin: University of Texas Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Hardy, Donald E.
1994 Middle voice in Creek. International Journal of American Linguistics 60(1). 39–68. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Haspelmath, Martin
1990 The grammaticization of passive morphology. Studies in Language 14(1). 25–72. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
1995 Review of ‘The middle voice’ by Suzanne Kemmer. Language 71(2). 372–374. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2003 The geometry of grammatical meaning: Semantic maps and crosslinguistic comparison. In Michael Tomasello (ed.), The new psychology of language, 211–242. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
2019 Can cross-linguistic regularities be explained by constraints on change? In Karsten Schmidtke-Bode, Natalia Levshina, Susanne Maria Michaelis & Ilja A. Seržant (eds.), Explanation in typology: Diachronic sources, functional motivations and the nature of the evidence, 1–23. Berlin: Language Science Press.Google Scholar
Haspelmath, Martin & Thomas Müller-Bardey
2004 Valency change. In Geert E. Booij, Christian Lehmann & Joachim Mugdan (eds.), Morphology. An international handbook on inflection and word-formation, 1130–1145. Berlin & New York: de Gruyter. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Hatcher, Anna Granville
1942 Reflexive verbs. Latin, Old French, Modern French. Baltimore: The John Hopkins Press.Google Scholar
Hayward, Richard
1984 A reconstruction of some root extensions of the Eastern Cushitic verb. In James Bynon (ed.), Current progress in Afro-Asiatic linguistics, 69–109. Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Heine, Bernd & Hiroyuki Miyashita
2008 The intersection between reflexives and reciprocals: A grammaticalization perspective. In Ekkehard König & Volker Gast (eds.), Reciprocals and reflexives: Theoretical and typological explorations, 169–224. Berlin & New York: de Gruyter.Google Scholar
Hieber, Daniel
2018 Category genesis in Chitimacha. In Kristel Van Goethem, Muriel Norde, Evie Coussé & Gudrun Vanderbauwhede (eds.), Category change from a constructional perspective, 15–46. Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Holton, Gary
2006 The relational noun marker in Tobelo (Northeast Halmaheran). In Tenth international conference on Austronesian linguistics. [URL]. (accessed 22/07/2021)
Holvoet, Axel
2020 The middle voice in Baltic. Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Inglese, Guglielmo
2020 The Hittite middle voice: Synchrony, diachrony, typology. Leiden: Brill. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2021 Towards a typology of middle voice systems. Linguistic Typology ahead of print. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Inglis, Stephanie Heather
1986 The fundamentals of Micmac word formation. MA thesis, Memorial University of Newfoundland.
Jacques, Guillaume
2016 How many *-s suffixes in Old Chinese? Bulletin of Chinese Linguistics. 9(2). 205–217. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2020 Grammaticalization in Japhug. In Walter Bisang & Andrej Malchukov (eds.), Grammaticalization scenarios: Cross-linguistic variation and universal tendencies, 539–574. Berlin & New York: de Gruyter. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2021 Antipassive derivations in Sino-Tibetan/Trans-Himalayan and their sources. In Katarzyna Janic & Alena Witzlack-Makarevich (eds.), Antipassive: Typology, diachrony, and related constructions, 427–446. Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Jacques, Guillaume, Aimée Lahaussois & Dhan Bahadur Rai
2016 Reflexive paradigms in Khaling. Linguistics of the Tibeto-Burman Area 39(1). 33–48. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Jaggar, Philip
1988 Affected-subject (‘grade 7’) verbs in Hausa: What are they and where do they come from. In Masayoshi Shibatani (ed.), Passive and voice, 387–416. Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2001 Hausa. Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Janic, Katarzyna
2016a L’antipassif dans les langues accusatives. Bruxelles: Peter Lang. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2016b Synchronic and diachronic aspects of valency-reducing devices in Oceanic languages. Lingua Posnaniensis 58(2). 151–188. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Karaj, Dawid & Andrea Sansò
Forthcoming. From agent-oriented verbalizer to middle marker: The diachrony of the middle voice in Malayo-Sumbawan. STUF – Language Typology and Universals.
Karst, Josef
1901 Historische Grammatik des Kilikisch-Armenischen. Strassburg: Trübner. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kaufman, Terence
1990 Algunos rasgos estructurales de los idiomas mayances con referencia especial al K’iche’. In Nora England & Stephen Elliott (eds.), Lecturas sobre la lingüística maya, 59–114. Antigua Guatemala: CIRMA.Google Scholar
Kaufmann, Ingrid
2007 Middle voice. Lingua 117(10). 1677–1714. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kemmer, Suzanne
1993 The middle voice. Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Klaiman, M. H.
1991 Grammatical voice. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Kondic, Ana
2011 Middle voice in South Eastern Huastec. In Heriberto Avelino (ed.), New perspectives in Mayan linguistics, 114–143. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.Google Scholar
König, Ekkehard & Peter Siemund
2000 Intensifiers and reflexives: A typological perspective. In Zygmunt Frajzyngier & Traci S. Curl (eds.), Reflexives: Forms and functions, 41–74. Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2013 Intensifiers and reflexive pronouns. In Matthew Dryer & Martin Haspelmath (eds.), The world atlas of language structures online. Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology. [URL] (accessed on 19/04/2021).
Körtvély, Erika
2005 Verb conjugation in Tundra Nenets. Segzed: Goldpress.Google Scholar
Kouwenberg, N. J. C.
2010 The Akkadian verb and its Semitic background. Winona Lake: Eisenbrauns.Google Scholar
Kruspe, Nicole
2004 A grammar of Semelai. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kulikov, Leonid
2010 Voice typology. In Jae Jung Song (ed.), The Oxford handbook of linguistic typology, 368–398. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
2011 Passive to anticausative through impersonalization. The case of Vedic and Indo-European. In Andrej Malchukov & Anna Siewierska (eds.), Impersonal constructions: A cross-linguistic perspective, 229–254. Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2012 The Vedic -ya-present: Passives and intransitivity in Old Indo-Aryan. Amsterdam: Rodopi. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kuteva, Tania, Bernd Heine, Bo Hong, Haiping Long, Heiko Narrog & Seongha Rhee
2019 World lexicon of grammaticalization. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kuular, Klara
2007 Reciprocals, sociatives, comitatives, and assistives in Tuvan. In Vladimir P. Nedjalkov, Emma Š. Geniušienė & Zlatka Guentchéva (eds.), Reciprocal constructions, 1163–1230. Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Lahaussois, Aimée
2016 Reflexive derivations in Thulung. Linguistics of the Tibeto-Burman Area 39(1). 49–66. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Lai, Yunfan
Forthcoming. The denominal origin of causative and passive derivations in Rgyalrongic languages. In Michela Cennamo ed. Voice systems in diachrony Amsterdam & Philadelphia John Benjamins
Langacker, Ronald W. & Pamela Munro
1975 Passives and their meaning. Language 51(4). 789–830. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
LaPolla, Randy
1996 Middle voice marking in Tibeto-Burman. Proceedings of the Fourth International Symposium on Languages and Linguistics 51. 1940–1954.Google Scholar
LaPolla, Randy & Yang Jiangling
2005 Reflexive and Middle Marking in Dulong-Rawang. Himalayan Linguistics 21. 1–13.Google Scholar
Lazzeroni, Romano
2004 Inaccusatività indoeuropea e alternanza causativa vedica [Indo-European unaccusativeness and Vedic causative alternation]. Archivio Glottologico Italiano 89(2). 139–164.Google Scholar
Lehmann, Christian
2015 Thoughts on grammaticalization (3rd edn.). Berlin: Language Science Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Lichtenberk, Frantisek
2000 Reciprocals without reflexives. In Zygmunt Frajzyngier & Traci S. Curl (eds.), Reciprocals: Forms and functions, 32–62. Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Liljegren, Henrik
2016 A grammar of Palula. Berlin: Language Science Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Loughnane, Robyn
2009 A grammar of Oksapmin. PhD dissertation, The University of Melbourne.
Lukaniec, Megan
2018 The elaboration of verbal structure: Wendat (Huron) verb morphology. PhD dissertation, University of California Santa Barbara.
Luraghi, Silvia
2012 Basic valency orientation and the middle voice in Hittite. Studies in Language 36(1). 1–32. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Martin, Jack B.
2000 Creek voice: Beyond valency. In R. M. W. Dixon & Alexandra Aikhenvald (eds.), Changing valency: Case studies in transitivity, 375–404. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Matisoff, James
2003 Handbook of Proto-Tibeto-Burman. Los Angeles: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Matras, Yaron & Jeanette Sakel
2007 Investigating the mechanisms of pattern replication in language convergence. Studies in Language 31(4). 829–865. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Mattiola, Simone
2017 The conceptual space of pluractional constructions. Lingue e Linguaggio 16(1). 119–146.Google Scholar
McGregor, William
2000 Reflexive and reciprocal constructions in Nyulnyulan languages. In Zygmunt Frajzyngier & Traci S. Curl (eds.), Reciprocals: Forms and functions, 85–122. Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Meira, Sérgio
1999 A grammar of Tiriyó. PhD dissertation, Rice University.
2000 The accidental intransitive split in the Cariban family. In Spike Gildea (ed.), Reconstructing grammar: Comparative linguistics and grammaticalization, 201–230. Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Meira, Sérgio, Spike Gildea & Berend Hoff
2010 On the origin of ablaut in the Cariban family. International Journal of American Linguistics 761. 474–515. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Meyer, Anna-Maria
2020 The impact of Slavic languages on Romani. In Yaron Matras & Anton Tenser (eds.), The Palgrave handbook of Romani language and linguistics, 261–302. Cham: Palgrave. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Mous, Maarten
2001 The middle in Cushitic languages. Proceedings of the 27th Annual Meeting of the Berkeley Linguistic Society 75–86. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Mous, Maarten & Martha Qorro
2000 The middle voice in Iraqw. In Kulikoyela Kahigi, Yared M. Kihore & Maarten Mous (eds.), Lugha za Tanzania, 157–176. Leiden: CNWS.Google Scholar
Moyse-Faurie, Claire
2008 Constructions expressing middle, reflexive and reciprocal situations in some Oceanic languages. In Ekkehard König & Volker Gast (eds.), Reciprocals and reflexives: Theoretical and typological explorations, 105–168. Berlin & New York: de Gruyter.Google Scholar
2017 Reflexive markers in Oceanic languages. Studia Linguistica 71(1–2). 107–135. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Mushin, Ilana
2012 A grammar of (Western) Garrwa. Berlin & New York: de Gruyter. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Næss, Åshild
2007 Prototypical transitivity. Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Nater, Hank
2015 Complex predicate-argument relations in Bella Coola. University of British Columbia Working Papers in Linguistics 401. 103–120.Google Scholar
Nordlinger, Rachel
1998 A grammar of Wambaya, Northern Territory. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics.Google Scholar
Olawsky, Knut
2011 A grammar of Urarina. Berlin & New York: de Gruyter.Google Scholar
Ottosson, Kjartan G.
2008 The Old Nordic middle voice in the pre-literary period: Questions of grammaticalisation and cliticisation. In Folke Josephson & Ingmar Söhrman (eds.), Interdependence of diachronic and synchronic analyses, 185–219. Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Pacchiarotti, Sara & Leonid Kulikov
2022 Bribri media tantum verbs and the rise of labile syntax. Linguistics. 60(2). 617–657. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Palancar, Enrique L.
2004 Middle voice in Otomi. International Journal of American Linguistics 70(1). 52–85. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2006 Intransitivity and the origins of middle voice in Otomi. Linguistics 44(3). 613–643. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Palmer, F. R.
1995 Review of The middle voice by Suzanne Kemmer. Journal of Linguistics 31(2). 478–480. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Payne, Thomas & Doris Payne
2013 A typological grammar of Panare. Leiden: Brill. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Piar, Karim
2013 Middle voice construction in Burushaski. MA thesis, University of North Texas.
Pinkster, Harm
2015 The Oxford Latin syntax. Oxford: Oxford University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Polian, Gilles
2013 Gramática del tseltal de Oxchuc. Ciudad de Mexico: CIESAS.Google Scholar
Portilla, Mario Chaves
2007 Diacronía de las construcciones con pronombres reflexivos en español. Filología y lingüística 131–149.Google Scholar
Post, Mark & Yankee Modi
2022 Subject autonomy marking in Macro-Tani and the typology of middle voice. Linguistics. 60(1). 215–238. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Puddu, Nicoletta
2007 Typology and historical linguistics: Some remarks on reflexives in ancient IE languages. In Matti Miestamo & Bernhard Wälchli (eds.), New challenges in typology, 249–270. Berlin & New York: de Gruyter.Google Scholar
Rice, Keren
2000 Voice and valency in the Athapaskan family. In R. M. W. Dixon & Alexandra Aikhenvald (eds.), Changing valency: Case studies in transitivity, 173–235. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Romagno, Domenica
2010 Anticausativi, passivi, riflessivi: Considerazioni sul medio oppositivo. In Ignazio Putzu, Giulio Paulis, Gianfranco Nieddu & Pierluigi Cuzzolin (eds.), La morfologia del greco tra tipologia e diacronia, 430–441. Milano: FrancoAngeli.Google Scholar
Sakel, Jeanette
2007 The verbness markers of Mosetén from a typological perspective. In Matti Miestamo & Bernhard Wälchli (eds.), New challenges in typology, 315–335. Berlin & New York: de Gruyter.Google Scholar
Sansò, Andrea
2016 Agent-defocusing constructions from nominalized VPs: A cross-linguistic type? Studies in Language 40(4). 894–954. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2017 Where do antipassive constructions come from? A study in diachronic typology. Diachronica 34(2). 175–218. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2018 Explaining the diversity of antipassives: Formal grammar vs. (diachronic) typology. Language and Linguistics Compass 12(6). e12277. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Schackow, Diana
2015 A grammar of Yakkha. Berlin: Language Science Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Schadeberg, Thilo
1982 Les suffixes verbaux séparatifs en bantou. Sprache und Geschichte in Afrika 41. 55–66.Google Scholar
Schadeberg, Thilo & Koen Bostoen
2019 Word formation. In Mark van de Velde, Koen Bostoen, Derek Nurse & Gérard Philippson (eds.), The Bantu languages (2nd edn.), 172–203. London: Routledge. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Schladt, Mathias
2000 The typology and grammaticalization of reflexives. In Zygmunt Frajzyngier & Traci S. Curl (eds.), Reflexives: Forms and functions, 103–124. Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Segerer, Guillaume
2002 La langue bijogo de Bubaque (Guinée Bissau). Louvain: Peeters.Google Scholar
Seidel, Frank
2008 A grammar of Yeyi: A Bantu language of Southern Africa. Köln: Köppe.Google Scholar
Smeets, Ineke
2008 A grammar of Mapuche. Berlin & New York: de Gruyter.Google Scholar
So-Hartmann, Helga
2009 A descriptive grammar of Daai Chin. Berkeley: Center for Southeast Asia Studies.Google Scholar
Terrill, Angela
1997 The development of antipassive constructions in Australian languages. Australian Journal of Linguistics 17(1). 71–88. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Thompson, Chad
1996 The Na-Dene middle voice: An impersonal source of the D-element. International Journal of American Linguistics 62(4). 351–378. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Tsunoda, Tasaku
2006 Reflexive and middle constructions of Warrungu (Australia). In Tasaku Tsunoda & Taro Kageyama (eds.), Voice and grammatical relations, 299–334. Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Wagner, Peter
2012 A grammar of North West Lovari Romani. PhD dissertation, Univerzita Karlova.
Whitehead, Carl
2004 A reference grammar of Menya, an Angan language of Papua New Guinea. Ann Arbor: UMI.Google Scholar
Widmer, Manuel
2018 A grammar of Bunan. Berlin & New York: de Gruyter. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Wiemer, Bjorn
2011 The grammaticalization of passives. In Heiko Narrog & Bernd Heine (eds.), The Oxford handbook of grammaticalization, 536–546. Oxford: Oxford University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Wimbish, Sandra
1991 An introduction to Pagu through the analysis of narrative discourse. Ann Arbor: UMI.Google Scholar
Wise, Mari R.
1990 Valence-changing affixes in Maipuran Arawakan languages. In Doris L. Payne (ed.), Amazonian linguistics, 89–116. Austin: University of Texas Press.Google Scholar
Wit, Gerrit de
2015 Liko phonology and grammar. Utrecht: LOT.Google Scholar
Wolfsgruber, Anne
2019 Impersonal interpretations of Medieval Romance se – tracing initial contexts. In Peter Herbeck, Bernhard Pöll, Anne Wolfsgruber (eds.), Semantic and syntactic aspects of impersonality, 125–148. Hamburg: Buske.Google Scholar
Zaslansky, Matthew
Forthcoming. The Turkic middle voice system: Deponency and paradigm reorganization. STUF – Language Typology and Universals.
Zúñiga, Fernando & Seppo Kittilä
2019 Grammatical voice. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar