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Antipassive: Typology, diachrony, and related constructions
Edited by Katarzyna Janic and Alena Witzlack-Makarevich
[Typological Studies in Language 130] 2021
► pp. 149–176

Chapter 5
Antipassive constructions in Oceanic languages

| Lacito CNRS - UMR 7107
This article will discuss the different constructions which could be relevant for identifying antipassives in Oceanic languages, in spite of the fact that there is no dedicated antipassive marker. Some of these constructions involve the backgrounding of the object, but are associated with different syntactic devices, discursive strategies and semantic functions, giving rise to either incompleteness of the action, low individuation of the patient, or restrictions on its uses.
Looking at their semantic and pragmatic specificities, I will investigate what these types of construction have in common and to which extent they can be labelled ‘antipassive’, as has been done inter alia by Cooreman (1994), Dixon (1992) and Janic (2013, 2016).
Keywords: depatientive, middle derivation, Oceanic languages, object incorporation, object omission, object peripherization
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Object omission
  • 3.Different types of object incorporation
    • 3.1Complete object incorporation
    • 3.2Pseudo noun incorporation
    • 3.3Transitivity discord
  • 4.Peripherization of the object
    • 4.1Object peripherization in Polynesian languages
    • 4.2Recessive voice
    • 4.3Marking of the object to avoid ambiguity
  • 5.Middle derivation
    • 5.1With reflexes of the POc *paRi- prefix
    • 5.2“Auto-causative” constructions with POc prefix *paka-
    • 5.3‘Unergative derivation’, a type of derivation with a middle meaning
  • 6.Conclusion
  • Notes
  • Abbreviations
  • References
Published online: 23 March 2021
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/tsl.130.05moy
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Cited by (2)

Cited by two other publications

Janic, Katarzyna
2021. Chapter 8. Variation in the verbal marking of antipassive constructions. In Antipassive [Typological Studies in Language, 130], ► pp. 249 ff. DOI logo
Janic, Katarzyna & Alena Witzlack-Makarevich
2021. Chapter 1. The multifaceted nature of the antipassive construction. In Antipassive [Typological Studies in Language, 130], ► pp. 1 ff. DOI logo

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