Towards an analysis of argument alignment in Takivatan Bunun

Abstract

This article describes the morphological and syntactic mechanisms that are involved in the overt and covert realisation of core arguments in Takivatan Bunun. It argues that the interactions between these mechanisms make it difficult to explain Takivatan predicate-argument structure in terms of traditional notions of transitivity and argument alignment. As an alternative, it proposes that argument alignment in Takivatan is realised through the interaction of a number of relatively independent linguistic subsystems.