Smith, Alexander D. and Michael Yoshitaka Erlewine, 2024.
“Emergence of passive voice in Central Borneo.”
Presented at the SLE 57 workshop on passivization.
We investigate the grammaticalization pathways for the analytic passive in several understudied Austronesian languages of Central Borneo, which developed after the loss of the Proto-Austronesian “Philippine-type” voice system. Such systems remain understudied and provide unique opportunities to study passive voice innovations. Based on a consideration of passive marker forms and word orders, we propose multiple innovation pathways for their development, which mutually reinforced one another.