Subject autonomy marking in Macro-Tani and the typology of middle voice

• Published in: Linguistics Vol. 60; no. 1; pp. 215 - 238
• Main Authors: Post, Mark W., Modi, Yankee
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Berlin De Gruyter 27-01-2022; Walter de Gruyter GmbH
• Subjects: Diachronic linguistics; grammatical relations; Grammatical subject; Language typology; middle voice; Sino-Tibetan languages; Syntactic structures; Syntax; Trans-Himalayan languages; Voice (Grammatical); voice constructions
• ISSN: 0024-3949; 1613-396X
• DOI: 10.1515/ling-2020-0218

Middle voice constructions are generally understood as syntactically detransitivizing and as semantically characterized by a “low degree of event elaboration” (in Kemmer’s terms) involving a relatively affected subject. Middle voice constructions thus characterized have been identified in several Trans-Himalayan (Sino-Tibetan) languages, in particular by LaPolla. In Macro-Tani languages, we find a seemingly cognate construction with a similar distribution; however, Macro-Tani middle-like constructions are not detransitivizing, and do not mark subject affectedness. Instead, their primary meaning appears to be one of highlighting
: a heightened degree of autonomy, volition and/or responsibility over an action on the part of the clause subject. In this article, following an analysis of Macro-Tani subject autonomy marking, we will argue that its similarities to and differences from middle voice marking in other Trans-Himalayan languages is consistent with Zúñiga and Kittilä’s view of middle voice as a “network of meanings,” whose properties derive not from their reflection of a unified underlying cognitive category, but rather from a heterogeneous set of developments from similar diachronic source forms.