Jeffrey Lidz (University of Delaware)
Many languages (e.g. Diyari, Lithuanian, and Udmurt) mark the verb in a reflexive construction with the same morpheme as in an antipassive construction. Other languages like Kalkatungu, use one morpheme for reflexive and another for the antipassive. Still others lack a morpheme for one or the other of these functions. In this paper, I account for both the close connection between antipassive and reflexive as as the limited variation shown in languages with respect to these morphemes. Adopting a two-tiered theory of argument structure (Grimshaw 1990) I argue that reflexive morphemes arise when the most prominent element in the aspectual tier is unlinked (Lidz 1995). The antipassive morpheme arises when the least prominent element on the aspectual tier is unlinked. Thus, morphemes which indicate both antipassive and reflexive indicate that there is an unlinked element somewhere on the aspectual tier. This analysis is superior to one in which reflexive and antipassive morphemes are detransitivizesr because some verbs retain their transitivity when reflexive marked.