Voice, valence and focus in Makassarese

Abstract

Makassarese (South Sulawesi) has a set of verb prefixes cognate with voice-marking morphology in other Austronesian languages of Indonesia and the Philippines. However,unlike many of these languages, Makassarese has an asymmetrical voice system with a passive prefix ni-opposed to several constructions loosely termed ‘active’. One construction with the prefix aN(N)- shares features of both transitive and intransitive clauses. This paper will examine this construction, evaluate previous analyses suggesting it is ‘formally intransitive’, ‘antipassive’ or a marker of ‘agent focus’, and propose a different analysis with the label ‘semi-transitive’. Finally, it will discuss the use of a pre-predicate focus slot, which serves several of the functions typically fulfilled by a voice system in other West Austronesian languages.