Cover not available
Part of
Investigating Language Isolates: Typological and diachronic perspectives
Edited by Iker Salaberri, Dorota Krajewska, Ekaitz Santazilia and Eneko Zuloaga
[Typological Studies in Language 135] 2025
► pp. 71–102

An Austronesian-type voice system in an Amazonian isolate?

Comparing Movima and Tagalog

ORCID logo | Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, SEDYL UMR 8202
The paper discusses some typologically rare structural similarities between Movima, a South American isolate, and the Austronesian language Tagalog. Both languages have a symmetrical voice system, and in both languages verbs and nouns are to some degree syntactically equivalent. For Tagalog, it has been argued that the system is due to a basically equational sentence pattern with a nominal predicate (the nominalist hypothesis), and this explanation is also plausible for Movima. In contrast to some accounts of Austronesian languages, however, there is no evidence of a nominalizing origin of the Movima voice markers. Thus, the discovery that a phenomenon so far considered unique to one language family also occurs in a linguistic isolate is evidence that rare phenomena can arise independently of an areal or genealogical relationship. At the same time, typological parallels between an isolate and a large well-studied family are an interesting source of diachronic hypotheses regarding an isolate language that lacks historical documentation.
Keywords: isolate language, direct-inverse, symmetrical voice, nominalist hypothesis, omnipredicativity
Article outline
  • 1.A Bolivian isolate and its parallels with an Austronesian language
  • 2.Alignment patterns and extraction restrictions
    • 2.1Intransitive and transitive clauses
    • 2.2Two transitive clause patterns
    • 2.3Extraction restrictions
    • 2.4Summary
  • 3.Syntactic flexibility of nouns and verbs
    • 3.1Nouns and verbs as lexical categories
    • 3.2Nouns as main-clause predicates
    • 3.3Verbs in DPs
  • 4.A nominalist account for Movima?
    • 4.1The nominalist hypothesis
    • 4.2Intransitive verbs
    • 4.3The direct marker ‑na as a nominalizer
  • 5.Summary and conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • Symbols and abbreviations (based on the Leipzig Glossing Rules)
  • References
This content is being prepared for publication; it may be subject to changes.
References (41)
References
Campbell, Lyle (ed). 2017. Language Isolates. London/New York: Routledge. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Crevels, Mily & van der Voort, Hein. 2008. The Guaporé-Mamoré region as a linguistic area. In From Linguistic Areas to Areal Linguistics [Studies in Language Companion Series 90], Pieter Muysken (ed), 151–179. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Cruz, Aline da & Neiva, Walkíria. 2019. Innovation in nominalization in Tupí-Guaraní languages: A comparative analysis of Tupinambá, Apyãwa and Nheengatú. In Nominalization in Languages of the Americas [Typological Studies in Language 124], Roberto Zariquiey, Masayoshi Shibatani, & David W. Fleck (eds), 625–655. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
DuBois, John W. 1987. The discourse basis of ergativity. Language 63(4): 805–855. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Frege, Gottlob. 1892. Ueber Begriff und Gegenstand. Vierteljahrsschrift für Wissenschaftliche Philosophie 16(2): 192–205.Google Scholar
Grinevald, Colette. 2002. Nominal classification in Movima. In Current Studies on South American Languages, Mily Crevels, Simon van der Kerke, Sérgio Meira, & Hein van der Voort (eds), 216–239. Leiden: CNWS.Google Scholar
Haude, Katharina. 2006. A Grammar of Movima. PhD dissertation, Radboud University. <[URL]>
. 2011a. Tense marking on dependent nominals in Movima. In Tense Across Languages, Renate Musan & Monika Rathert (eds), 189–206. Berlin: De Gruyter. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. 2011b. Referring to states and events: subordination in Movima. In Subordination in South American Languages [Typological Studies in Language 97)], Rik van Gijn, Katharina Haude, & Pieter Muysken (eds), 141–168. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. 2012. Undergoer orientation in Movima. In Ergativity, Valency and Voice [Empirical Approaches to Language Typology 48], Gilles Authier & Katharina Haude (eds), 159–287. Berlin: De Gruyter. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. 2014. Animacy and inverse in Movima: a corpus study. Anthropological Linguistics 56(3–4): 294–314. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. 2018a. Nonverbal predication in Movima. In Nonverbal Predication in Amazonian Languages [Typological Studies in Language 122], Simon E. Overall, Rosa Vallejos, & Spike Gildea (eds), 217–244. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. 2018b. A topic-marking cleft? Analyzing clause-initial pronouns in Movima. In Information Structure in Lesser-Described Languages: Studies in Prosody and Syntax [Studies in Language Companion Series 199], Evangelia Adamou, Katharina Haude, & Martine Vanhove (eds), 217–244. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. 2019. Grammatical relations in Movima: alignment beyond semantic roles. In Argument Selectors: New Perspectives on Grammatical Relations [Typological Studies in Language 123], Alena Witzlack-Makarevich & Balthasar Bickel (eds), 213–256. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. 2021. Clefting and nominal predication: Two focus-marking constructions in Movima. Faits de Langues 52(1): 117–138. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. 2024. Between symmetrical voice and ergativity: inverse and antipassive in Movima. International Journal of American Linguistics 90(1): 1–36. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Himmelmann, Nikolaus P. 1991. The Philippine Challenge to Universal Grammar [Arbeitspapier 15 (Neue Folge)]. Köln: Universität zu Köln.Google Scholar
2005. Tagalog. In The Austronesian Languages of Asia and Madagascar, Alexander Adelaar & Nikolaus P. Himmelmann (eds), 350–376. London/New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
2008. Lexical categories and voice in Tagalog. In Voice and Grammatical Functions in Austronesian Languages, Peter K. Austin & Simon Musgrave (eds), 247–293. Stanford: CSLI Publications.Google Scholar
2015. Notes on “noun phrase structure” in Tagalog. In Explorations of the Syntax-Semantics Interface, Jens Fleischhauer, Anja Latrouite, & Rainer Osswald (eds), 315–337. Düsseldorf: DUP.Google Scholar
Hopper, Paul J. & Sandra A. Thompson. 1980. Transitivity in grammar and discourse. Language 56(2): 251–299. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Jelinek, Eloise & Demers, Richard A. 1994. Predicates and pronominal arguments in Straits Salish. Language 70(4): 697–736. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Judy, Judith E. & Judy, Robert A. 1967. Movima. In Bolivian Indian Grammars [Summer Institute of Linguistics Publications in Linguistics and Related Fields 16], 353–408. Oklahoma: SIL publications.Google Scholar
Kalisch, Hannes. 2010. Los constituyentes de la cláusula enlhet (enlhet-enenlhet). Esbozo de una cláusula omnipredicativa. Amerindia 33/34: 109–150.Google Scholar
Kaufman, Daniel. 2009a. Austronesian nominalism and its consequences: A Tagalog case study. Theoretical Linguistics 35(1). 1–49. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. 2009b. Austronesian typology and the nominalist hypothesis. In Austronesian Historical Linguistics and Culture History: A Festschrift for Bob Blust, Alexander Adelaar & Andrew Pawley (eds): 187–215. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics.Google Scholar
. 2018. Austronesian predication and the emergence of biclausal clefts In Indonesian languages. In Perspectives on Information Structure in Austronesian Languages, Sonja Riesberg, Asako Shiohara, & Atsuko Utsumi (eds), 207–245. Berlin: Language Science Press.Google Scholar
Kinkade, M. Dale. 1983. Salish evidence against the universality of ‘noun’ and ‘verb’. Lingua 60(1): 25–39. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kroeger, Paul. 1993. Phrase Structure and Grammatical Relations in Tagalog. Stanford: CSLI Publications.Google Scholar
Latrouite, Anja. 2011. Voice and Case in Tagalog: The Coding of Prominence and Orientation. Düsseldorf: Heinrich-Heine-Universität Düsseldorf.Google Scholar
Launey, Michel. 1994. Une grammaire omniprédicative: Essai sur la morphosyntaxe du nahuatl classique. Paris: CNRS Editions.Google Scholar
. 2004. The features of omnipredicativity in Classical Nahuatl. STUF — Language Typology and Universals 57(1): 49–69. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Nagaya, Naonori. 2012. On the syntactic transitivity of Tagalog actor-focus constructions. NINJAL Research Papers 4: 49–76. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Queixalós, Francesc. 2006. The primacy and fate of predicativity in Tupi-Guaraní. In Root Classes and Lexical Categories in Amerindian Languages, Ximena Lois & Valentina Vapnarsky (eds), 249–287. Vienna: Peter Lang.Google Scholar
Ross, Malcolm. 2002. The history and transitivity of western Austronesian voice and voice-marking. In The History and Typology of Western Austronesian Voice Systems [Pacific Linguistics 518], Fay Wouk & Malcolm Ross (eds), 17–62. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics, Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, Australian National Univ.Google Scholar
Sasse, Hans J. 1991. Predication and sentence constitution in universal perspective. In Semantic Universals and Universal Semantics, Dietmar Zaefferer (ed), 75–95. Berlin: Floris.Google Scholar
Sasse, Hans-Jürgen. 2009. Nominalism in Austronesian: a historical typological perspective. Comments on Daniel Kaufman’s “Austronesian Nominalism and its consequences”. Theoretical Linguistics 35(1): 167–181. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Schachter, Paul & Otanes, Fé. 1972. Tagalog Reference Grammar. Berkeley: University of California Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Seifart, Frank & Hammarström, Harald. 2017. Language isolates in South America. In Language Isolates [Routledge Language Family Series], Lyle Campbell (ed), 260–286. London/New York: Routledge. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Starosta, Stanley, Pawley, Andrew, & Reid, Lawrence A. 1982. The evolution of focus in Austronesian. In Papers from the Third International Conference on Austronesian Linguistics, Vol. 2: Tracking the travellers, Amran Halim, Lois Carrington, & Stephen A. Wurm (eds), 145–170. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics.Google Scholar
Zúñiga, Fernando & Kittilä, Seppo. 2019. Grammatical Voice. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar