Subject and Pivot in Symmetrical-Voice Languages: Evidence from Ampenan Sasak

Abstract

Symmetrical voice is a syntactic phenomenon in which a language has at least two default transitive patterns that are not derived from each other. Each transitive pattern represents a distinct voice which selects a particular core argument as the pivot. This paper proposes that subject and pivot are distinct categories which can be diagnosed by examining a series of properties involving subjects and pivots. Whereas the pivot is privileged for extraction through wh-fronting or relative clause gapping, the subject argument of a transitive construction can act as the antecedent for a reflexive pronoun and manifests wide scope with respect to variable binding. The distinct properties of subject and pivot are demonstrated in Ampenan Sasak, a symmetrical-voice Austronesian language spoken on Lombok, Indonesia.