Towards a typology of pseudo antipassives: an Austronesian perspective

Abstract Although the Austronesian family is widely regarded as a hotspot for antipassive constructions, a closer investigation of 53 languages from Taiwan and Maritime Southeast Asia challenges this view. Philippine-type Austronesian languages have often been analyzed as exhibiting an alternation between a basic transitive construction and a corresponding antipassive. Yet when established typological criteria are applied consistently to the constructions commonly referred to as Actor Voice, genuine antipassives prove to be rare in western Austronesian. We further demonstrate how these putative antipassives form a continuum of semi-transitives, characterized by a general decrease in semantic transitivity while often still featuring a patient that retains various traits of a core argument. Not only does this cline enhance our understanding of how antipassive-like constructions may develop over time, but it also suggests that syntactic intransitivity is not necessarily the endpoint of discourse-driven changes that reduce clausal transitivity. Moreover, it undermines the prevalent ergative view of western Austronesian languages and lends new support to accusative and symmetrical voice analyses, both maintaining that Austronesian-style voice does not alter clausal transitivity. The Austronesian pseudo antipassives thus underscore the importance of approaching typological classifications with caution and situating language-specific analyses within the broader typological literature.