Are Non-Topic Undergoers Direct Objects?: Evidence from Waray

Abstract: Waray is a major language spoken in the Eastern Visayas region of the Philippines. In this paper I argue that genitive case undergoers in clauses describing semantically transitive situations are neither direct objects, nor oblique constituents. Rather their grammatical properties result from speakers’ choice to “de-perspectivize” an undergoer. Consequently, constructions that have been called “Actor Voice” in studies of other Philippine languages are in fact grammatically Intransitive. This observation has profound consequences for the conceptualization of voice and grammatical relations in Philippine languages.