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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-ansi-language:EN-US"
lang="EN-US">Dear all,</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-ansi-language:EN-US"
lang="EN-US"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-ansi-language:EN-US"
lang="EN-US">In the
Austronesian languages of Taiwan, Philippines and Madagascar,
there is a verbal
affix that is said to mark "instrument voice"; loosely speaking,
it marks
the topic or subject of the clause as bearing the semantic role
of instrument.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-ansi-language:EN-US"
lang="EN-US"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-ansi-language:EN-US"
lang="EN-US">Is anybody
familiar with similar instrument-voice constructions from other
parts of the
world?</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-ansi-language:EN-US"
lang="EN-US"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-ansi-language:EN-US"
lang="EN-US">The reason
I ask is that a similar construction is present also in some
languages of the
Bird's Head and Cenderawasih Bay regions of New Guinea, eg.
Biak, Roon, Wamesa
and Wooi (Austronesian), and Hatam, Sougb, Meyah and Moskona
(non-Austronesian).<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>What's
curious about this construction is
that, unlike the well-known Austronesian cases, it is the only
morphologically-marked voice in each of the languages in
question; there is no
"ordinary" morphological passive construction.<span
style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>My feeling is that this
construction is quite
uncommon cross-linguistically, but I would like to get a feel
for the extent to which this is indeed true.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-ansi-language:EN-US"
lang="EN-US"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-ansi-language:EN-US"
lang="EN-US">Thanks,</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-ansi-language:EN-US"
lang="EN-US"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-ansi-language:EN-US"
lang="EN-US">David</span></p>
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<pre class="moz-signature" cols="72">--
David Gil
Senior Scientist (Associate)
Department of Linguistic and Cultural Evolution
Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology
Deutscher Platz 6, Leipzig, 04103, Germany
Email: <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:gil@shh.mpg.de">gil@shh.mpg.de</a>
Mobile Phone (Israel): +972-526117713
Mobile Phone (Indonesia): +62-81344082091
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