Semantic typology of voice systems in Western Malayo-Polynesian languages

Abstract Western Malayo-Polynesian (WMP) languages exhibit inner diversity with regard to voice systems. While some lack verbal morphology encoding voice alternations, others demonstrate so-called symmetrical voice alternations. This paper discusses the internal typological grouping within the latter classification of languages, which are further categorized as being either Indonesian-type and Philippine-type. There are, however, certain languages that do not exhibit all the criteria of either category, but do display symmetrical voice alternations. These languages can be viewed as having ‘transitional’ features. With a focus on two languages from Indonesia, this paper aims to provide a new semantic perspective for describing one of these transitional features by examining voice alternations and categorizing the languages as having either a derivational voice system or an inflectional voice system.