The Cia Suffix as a Passive Marker in Samoan

Abstract

The role of the Cia suffix in Samoan has remained a mystery for over a century. Although the earliest description of Samoan analyzed Cia as a passive suffix, current studies have made claims against that analysis. The present paper argues in favor of a passive analysis for certain Samoan clause types that contain Cia-suffixed verbs. A prototype for passive is posited, and it is shown that the suffix occurs in impersonal passive clauses with a transitive verb stem, and in personal passive clauses without such a stem. These two clause types each differ in only one characteristic from the posited prototype. It is demonstrated that ina, a suffix previously analyzed as a variant of Cia, generally functions differently from Cia. Ina occurs in clauses with fronted ergatives, and in negative clauses containing transitive verbs, while Cia, in addition to marking passive in certain clause types, also derives transitive from intransitive verbs. Finally, it is argued that the data presented in this paper support a passive-to-ergative reanalysis as part of the history of the Samoan language.