<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class="">How about English: “the key opens the door”. However, in this exotic language there is no overt marking of the alternation.<div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">best</div><div class="">Michael</div><div class=""><br class=""><div class=""><br class=""></div>
<div><br class=""><blockquote type="cite" class=""><div class="">On 22. Feb 2022, at 01:40, David Gil <<a href="mailto:gil@shh.mpg.de" class="">gil@shh.mpg.de</a>> wrote:</div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><div class=""><meta charset="UTF-8" class=""><div class=""><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class=""><span lang="EN-US" class="">Dear all,</span></div><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US" class=""> </span></p><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class=""><span lang="EN-US" class="">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></div><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US" class=""> </span></p><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class=""><span lang="EN-US" class="">Is anybody familiar with similar instrument-voice constructions from other parts of the world?</span></div><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US" class=""> </span></p><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class=""><span lang="EN-US" class="">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 class=""> <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></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 class=""> <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></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></div><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US" class=""> </span></p><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class=""><span lang="EN-US" class="">Thanks,</span></div><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US" class=""> </span></p><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class=""><span lang="EN-US" class="">David</span></div><div class=""><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div><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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