Chapter published in:
Antipassive: Typology, diachrony, and related constructions
Edited by Katarzyna Janic and Alena Witzlack-Makarevich
[Typological Studies in Language 130] 2021
► pp. 385–426

Chapter 12
The antipassive and its relationship to person markers

This paper presents a cross-linguistic study of morphological overlaps between antipassive and person markers and their historical relationships, addressing the question of how frequent developments from antipassive to person marker or vice versa are and whether there are recurrent patterns of change. The results show that historical connections between antipassive and person markers are not confined to a specific macro-area or language family. The development from antipassive to first person plural patient marker is the most frequent pathway in the languages investigated. However, this diachronic pathway does not account for all cases, i.e. other pathways are also possible. While many uncertainties concerning the detailed history of such diachronic connections remain, this study shows that there are tendencies that contribute to the understanding of the history and subsequent development of antipassives.
Keywords: antipassive, person marking, language change, diachronic typology
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.On the diachrony of antipassives
    • a.Agent nominalizations
    • b.Action/result nominalization
    • c.Reflexives and/or reciprocals
    • d.Generic nouns
  • 3.Collection and analysis of the data
  • 4.Antipassives and person markers across macro-areas
    • 4.1Africa
    • 4.2Eurasia
    • 4.3North America
    • 4.4South America
    • 4.5Pacific
    • 4.6Australia
  • 5.Pathways
  • 6.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • Glosses
  • Abbreviations
  • References
Published online: 23 March 2021
https://doi.org/10.1075/tsl.130.12aud
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