Middle voice as generalized argument suppression The case from Indonesian

摘要

Middle voice verbs contrast with transitive active verbs in showing detransitivization. However, they also constitute a heterogeneous set syntactically and semantically, including anticausative, dispositional, inherent reflexive, and passive readings, with a syntax that seems more unergative or unaccusative depending on the reading and the language. Thus the category has defied attempts at a unified formal definition, leading some to suggest it is a family of constructions or a notional category. We present data on her- middles in Indonesian and their allomorphs, which show all of the canonical types of middle voice readings but also several additional types not attested in other languages. These include some in which both of the corresponding active forms' arguments are expressed as direct arguments, where the subject of the active corresponds to the subject of the middle and the object is incorporated. Although this may seem to add additional reason to support a family of constructions analysis, we show that a single unified definition is possible. We propose that ber- suppresses one argument of the verb, but it is unspecified as to which is suppressed. Different independent argument realization possibilities of Indonesian conspire to sometimes suppress the subject and sometimes the object. Coupled with principles of implicit argument interpretation and lexical semantic and pragmatic factors, all of the middle readings of Indonesian arise from this one operation. Middles in other languages may in turn follow from the same analysis, but some of the available options may not arise owing to typological aspects of those languages, and a family of constructions analysis may even be necessary in those cases. Thus a syntactically and semantically unified analysis of middles is possible, albeit manifesting in different ways in different languages.