Voice and Case in Tagalog: The coding of prominence and orientation Inaugural-Dissertation Zur Erlangung des Grades eines Doktors der Philosophie der Philosophischen Fakultät der Heinrich-Heine Universität vorgelegt von Anja Latrouite Düsseldorf 19. Januar 2011 Tag der Disputation: 28.02.2011 i Table of Contents List of Tables iv Abbreviations v 1. Introduction: Voice and Case in Tagalog ............................................................................... v 1.1 A linking system beyond traditional typologies .......................................................................... 1 1.2 Questions raised with respect to the case markers ...................................................................... 7 1.3 Questions raised with respect to the voice markers .................................................................. 11 1.4 Goals and structure of the thesis .................................................................................................... 14 1.4.1 The goals ................................................................................................................................... 14 1.4.2 The structure ............................................................................................................................ 16 2. Tagalog Essentials ................................................................................................................ 19 2.1 Basic sentence structure & categories .......................................................................................... 19 2.2 Lexical versus syntactic categories ............................................................................................... 21 2.3 Case marking ....................................................................................................................................... 23 2.4 A few remarks on terminological disputes: Topic versus Subject, Focus versus Voice 26 2.5 Verbal marking: aspect, mood and voice .................................................................................... 30 2.6 Summary ............................................................................................................................................... 41 3. Theoretical Considerations ................................................................................................... 42 3.1 Fundamental distinctions in semantic representations ............................................................. 48 3.2 Participant-orientation in Tagalog ................................................................................................. 54 3.3 Verbs and their event structure ....................................................................................................... 56 4. The Nature of the Case System: Different Approaches ....................................................... 62 4.1 Reviewing data put forward in support of the ergative view ................................................. 63 4.1.1 Morphological evidence put forward in support of the ergative analysis .............. 64 4.1.2 Syntactic tests & semantic assessments in support of the ergative analysis ........ 66 4.2 Sells (1998, 2000): Nominatives as A-bar phrases ................................................................... 70 ii 4.3 Machlachlan (1996), Rackowski (2002a, b): Specificity as the key to Tagalog case marking ................................................................................................................................................ 76 4.4 Aldridge (2004): Different types of ergativity ........................................................................... 83 4.5 Conclusion and synopsis .................................................................................................................. 84 5. The Markers ang, ng and sa ................................................................................................. 87 5.1 The marker ang ................................................................................................................................... 87 5.1.1 The semantics of ang: A historical explanation for specific readings ..................... 91 5.1.2 The role of information flow for specific readings ....................................................... 95 5.1.3 Nominative marking without voice marking .................................................................. 96 5.1.4 Prominence in terms of specificity and information structure .................................. 99 5.1.5 Nominative marking with voiced verbs and double ang-marking ......................... 104 5.1.6 Other forms of prominence: voiced verbs and inherent orientation ...................... 113 5.2 The marker ng .................................................................................................................................... 115 5.3 The marker sa .................................................................................................................................... 119 5.3.1 Ng/sa-alternations ................................................................................................................. 121 5.3.2 Sa-marking and Actor-orientation ................................................................................... 123 5.3.3 Sa-marking from functional and formal perspectives ................................................ 127 5.3.4 Causative verbs ..................................................................................................................... 132 5.4 Synopsis .............................................................................................................................................. 135 6. Voice Marking and Meaning Shifts ................................................................................... 137 6.1 Approaches to the voice affixes and their semantics ............................................................. 137 6.1.1 Thematic role approach ...................................................................................................... 138 6.1.2 Control and affectedness approaches .............................................................................. 143 6.1.3 The Actor voice affixes: different degrees of control? .............................................. 148 6.1.4 The Undergoer voice affixes: different degrees of affectedness? .......................... 154 6.1.5 Synopsis .................................................................................................................................. 166 6.2 Transitivity approaches ................................................................................................................... 168 iii 6.2.1 Starosta (2002) versus Ross (2002) ................................................................................. 168 6.2.2 Nolasco (2005), Nolasco and Saclot (2006), Saclot (2006) ..................................... 172 6.2.3 Number of arguments .......................................................................................................... 174 6.2.4 Kinesis: states versus actions ............................................................................................ 177 6.2.5 Aspect ...................................................................................................................................... 182 6.2.6 Punctuality, intentionality & effort ................................................................................. 183 6.2.7 Particularity, individuation & affectedness ................................................................... 186 6.2.8 Directionality ......................................................................................................................... 191 6.2.9 Summary ................................................................................................................................. 193 6.3 Event-structural prominence, voice gaps and verb meaning shifts .................................... 194 6.3.1 Predicate-inherent orientation, voice marking gaps and meaning shifts .............. 194 6.3.2 Event-structural prominence and its relation to the other levels of prominence 199 6.3.3 Event-structural prominence: definition and explanation of voice preferences . 201 6.3.4 More verb meaning shifts and acceptability judgements .......................................... 208 6.3.5 Neutral verbs and voice choice preferences.................................................................. 212 6.3.6 Pragmatic voice choice ....................................................................................................... 215 6.3.7 Synopsis .................................................................................................................................. 219 7. Summary & Conclusion ..................................................................................................... 220 References .............................................................................................................................. 223 Lebenslauf Versicherung iv List of Tables Table 2.1. Stress patterns of verbal and nominal forms 23 Table 2.2 Nouns and personal names 24 Table 2.3 Pronouns 24 Table 2.4 Argument changing operations 29 Table 2.5 Aspect-mood paradigm for /bili/ 'to buy' 31 Table 2.6 Stative voice affixes 36 Table 2.7 Paradigm for /galit/ 'to anger' 35 Table 2.8 Potentive voice paradigme for /bili/ 'to buy' 36 Table 2.9 Voice affix paradigms (Lemaréchal 1991:335) 37 Table