258 Chapter 9 VPs and verbal marking
have an overt agent or a discourse-linked null pronominal agent.^6 Finally, it has
been proposed that in certain narrative discourse, actor voice and object voice
clauses play different functional roles: actor voice providing background infor-
mation and object voice for advancing the plot line (see Hopper 1979 on Clas-
sical Malay, Davies 2005 on Madurese).
Added to this is the fact that some Indonesian languages, it has been pro-
posed that object voice and passive are distinct structures. Arka (2003) identi-
fies both object voice and passive in Balinese. According to Arka, object voice
is indicated by lack of voice morphology (27) and passive by the suffix -a (28).^7
(27) Nyoman ejuk polisi. Balinese
Nyoman OV.arrest police
‘The police arrested Nyoman.’
(28) Nyoman baang-a pipis teken Wayan. Balinese
Nyoman give-PASS money by Wayan
‘Nyoman was given money by Wayan.’
Additionally, the agent of the object voice in Balinese must be an unmarked NP
(as in (27)) and is a core argument that can participate in a number of grammati-
cal structures (e.g. quantifier float, topicalization, imperatives and others), while
the agent in the passive is expressed in a PP (as in (28)) and is not a core argu-
ment and thus does not participate in other grammatical structures. Specifically,
Arka shows that the agent in the object voice structure can antecedent a reflex-
ive while the agent of a passive cannot.
The types of grammatical distinctions observable in Balinese do not exist
in Madurese; that is, there is no discernable difference in the grammatical beha-
vior of the agent when it is an NP and when it is the object of a PP. In particu-
lar, unlike Balinese, the agent of the Madurese object voice structure is able to
bind a reflexive-like element.
(29) Aba'na dibi' e-kennal-lagi (bi') Rika ka Evi.
herself OV-know-AGI by Rika to Evi
‘Rika introduced herself to Evi.’
(30) Foto-na aba'eng dibi' e-jelling bi' Marlena.
photo-DEF herself OV-see by Marlena
‘Marlena looked at a photo of herself.’
(^6) Keenan and Manorohanta (2001) report a similar number for Malagasy (60%), as does
Bell (1988) for Cebuano (49.3%).
(^7) The -a suffix marks passive in the low register. In the high register, there is a distinct
passive prefix, ka-.