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In:New Insights into Theoretical Syntax from Asian Languages: Studies in honor of C.-T. James Huang
Edited by Andrew Simpson
[Linguistik Aktuell/Linguistics Today 290] 2026
► pp. 322–347

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Bornean passives in comparative perspective

 | University of Helsinki | National University of Singapore
 | Fudan University
Published online: 15 January 2026
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https://doi.org/10.1075/la.290.13erl
Abstract
This paper investigates three types of passives in Lebo’ Vo’, an endangered Kenyah language of northern Borneo (Austronesian), and discusses their implications for linguistic theory and syntactic typology. Passives in Lebo’ Vo’ involve a preverbal analytic marker, with an agent expressed optionally in immediately preverbal or postverbal position. Echoing differences between passives with and without agents in Mandarin Chinese (Huang 1999, a.o.), these different passive types differ in their ability to form long-distance passives. We argue that these three passive types differ in terms of their probing and nominal (Case) licensing specifications.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Lebo’ Vo’ passivization in the typology of movement types
    • 2.1Passivization and the A/Ā-distinction
    • 2.2Long-distance passivization in Lebo’ Vo’
    • 2.3Ā-properties of Lebo’ Vo’ passives with agents
    • 2.4Summary
  • 3.Proposal
    • 3.1Lebo’ Vo’ clausal syntax
    • 3.2Agentless passives
    • 3.3Passives with agents
  • 4.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
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