We examine the role of referential properties and lexical stipulation in three closely related languages of eastern Indonesia, the Alor-Pantar languages Abui, Kamang, and Teiwa. Our focus is on the continuum along which event properties (e.g. volitionality, affectedness) are highly important at one… read more
This paper explores transitivity-related features in Abui, a language with fluid semantic alignment (after Donohue and Wichmann 2008). Many known semantically aligned languages distinguish between two argument roles: actor and undergoer (e.g. Merlan 1985; Durie 1987; Mithun 1991, Donohue and… read more
In a number of East and South-East Asian languages, certain grammatical elements such as pronouns, generic nouns, or demonstratives (e.g. one, thing, this) have acquired additional pragmatic functions. Well-documented examples of this grammaticalization process are the Mandarin de, the Malay… read more
This paper critically discusses and contrasts some of the different conceptualisations of transitivity that have been presented in the literature, and argues that transitivity as a morphosyntactic phenomenon and effectiveness of an event as a semantic concept should be separated in discussions of… read more