Abstract
Argument encoding in Movima transitive clauses is based on a referential hierarchy (1 > 2 > 3 topic > 3 nontopic). Verbal direct and inverse marking indicates the roles (actor/undergoer) of the event participants. The argument with the higher-ranking referent is obligatorily represented by a constituent directly attached to the predicate, while the argument with the lower-ranking referent is represented by a constituent less closely connected to the predicate, aligning with the single argument of the intransitive clause. First and second person can only be encoded in the first way and therefore do not show any alignment effect with the argument of the intransitive clause. However, pragmatic factors can override the person hierarchy: when, for pragmatic reasons, first and second person are expressed by a free pronoun in clause-initial topic position, they can be treated like lower-ranking persons.
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