Why is middle voice the way it is?

What is it about?

This article draws on novel field materials about emerging middle voice constructions from eight Sinitic languages to reconstruct a possible diachronic path of the development of a middle voice construction. Based on the diachronic scenario, it gives a plausible explanation for the lexical-grammatical duality of middle voice (i.e., the same middle voice marker is employed in both productive grammatical constructions as well as in fixed lexical forms, see Inglese 2021).

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Photo by Luke van Zyl on Unsplash

Photo by Luke van Zyl on Unsplash

Why is it important?

Middle voice constructions across languages are usually too old to trace its origins and development (Kemmer 1993). And its lexical-grammatical duality has been a pecularity not found in other well-established voice categories. This article deals with both problems with novel and rich data and provides useful insights into the essence and pecularities of the middle voice category.