A Brief Syntactic Typology of Philippine Languages - Academia Sinica

Lawrence A. Reid and Hsiu-chuan Liao
which are stative, in which the Nominative Patient carries the undergoer macrorole. In
some recent descriptions of Philippine languages these verbs have been referred to as
‘passives’, but we shall maintain the use of the term ‘stative’, to avoid confusion with
other uses of the term ‘passive’ found in the literature, which refer to the various socalled
‘focus’ types as passives. The status of stative verbs in Philippine languages,
however, as true passives is probably justified, in that they are intransitive, there exists a
clear derivational relationship between them and transitive verbs, and their actors are
typically not expressed.
3.3.2.1 Stative verbs with ma-
3.3.2.1.1 Reflexes of PEF *ma-
The reflex of the PEF *ma- affix which typically appears on stative verbs (henceforth
MA verbs), should not be confused with the same phonological sequence that appears on
reflexes of MAG and MANG verbs, each of which are the result of the addition of the
original *-um- form on words first derived with paR-, paN- respectively, so that alternation
still exists in many languages between the m- initial forms as verbs and the p- initial
forms as gerunds or other nominalizations. Stative verbs do not show a derivational
relationship with any p- initial forms.
In many Philippine languages stative verbs can be derived with a perfective aspect
feature, which results in the initial bilabial nasal being replaced with an alveolar nasal.
Phonological processes in other languages have resulted in other patterns of change
affecting the form of MA verbs.
Although intransitive, MA verbs are clearly different from the intransitive verbs
discussed in §3.3.1.1.1. Dynamic intransitive verbs require that their Nominative
Patients be interpreted as actors. Stative intransitive verbs on the other hand require that
their Nominative Patients be interpreted as undergoers.
Stative verbs typically have a derivational relationship with (dynamic) transitive
verbs and also carry the same affect features as their derivationally related transitive
verbs. The following sections provide examples of stative verbs carrying affect features.
3.3.2.1.1.1 Direct affect statives
Direct affect statives are derivationally related to EN verbs. A MA verb that is not
marked for any other affect feature carries a direct affect feature.
462