Abstract
In voice and alignment typology, a categorical distinction is generally made between inverse systems on the one hand and symmetrical voice systems on the other. A major reason for distinguishing between these two types is the assumption that inverse systems are governed by a hierarchy involving grammatical, semantic, and ontological criteria, while symmetrical voice systems are based on discourse-pragmatic factors. However, the two types also have several important properties in common, in particular the fact that they have more than one nonderived transitive construction. Based on data from three native languages of South America, we show that the line between the two types is not always easy to draw, and that features of the inverse type can coexist with those of the symmetrical-voice type in the same language.
Acknowledgments
This article is a result of the international collaborative project Referential Hierarchies in Morphosyntax of the EuroBABEL initiative of the European Science Foundation; the authors wish to thank the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (HA-5910/1-1) and the Swiss National Foundation (10BA13-125811) for the financial support of their research. Haude’s contribution to this paper is furthermore part of the program Investissements d’Avenir overseen by the French National Research Agency, ANR-10-LABX-0083 (Labex EFL). We wish to thank Denis Creissels, Nikolaus Himmelmann, Alena Witzlack-Makarevich, and three anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments. We assume full responsibility for all remaining shortcomings.
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