Detransitivization Strategy and the Indonesian Middles

DOI

10.2991/assehr.k.211226.003How to use a DOI?

Keywords

middles; divalent; syntax-semantics mismatch; detransitivization strategy

Abstract

Middles cross-linguistically are commonly defined as syntactic operations which behave in an intermediate way between actives and passives. The associated verbs that enter into middles are intransitive. However, there are cases where the verbs needed for the middles are conceptual-semantically divalent. I argue that the Indonesian middles which may contain semantically divalent verbs can participate in them utilizing detransitivization strategy. The study gathered the data found in Leipzig corpora. The collected data are then divided related to their lexical arity properties. The verbs that semantically belong to monovalent verbs and those associated with divalent verbs, it is found out that while actives and passives in Indonesian have different marking respectively, the Indonesian middles are invariably marked with the ber-form. The ber-forms which are markers of intransitive verbs make the middles invariably monovalent while the divalent verbs are turned into intransitive ones leading to a syntax-semantics mismatch, that is, the associated middle verbs which are semantically divalent are made syntactically monovalent.

Copyright

© 2021 The Authors. Published by Atlantis Press SARL.

Open Access

This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC license.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - I Nyoman Udayana
PY  - 2021
DA  - 2021/12/27
TI  - Detransitivization Strategy and the Indonesian Middles
BT  - Proceedings of the International Congress of Indonesian Linguistics Society (KIMLI 2021)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 10
EP  - 13
SN  - 2352-5398
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/assehr.k.211226.003
DO  - 10.2991/assehr.k.211226.003
ID  - Udayana2021
ER  -