Between Symmetrical Voice and Ergativity: Inverse and Antipassive in Movima

Movima (isolate, Bolivia) has two transitive clause patterns (direct and inverse), which are reminiscent of Austronesian-type symmetrical voice systems. Similar to undergoer voice and actor voice in Austronesian languages, the Movima direct and inverse voice permit the extraction of either the undergoer or the actor, respectively. In addition to the inverse, however, in Movima actor extraction can also be carried out with a detransitivizing (antipassive) voice. After a description of the system, this corpus-based study explores the factors that determine the use of either the antipassive or the inverse in the third person domain. It is shown that, unlike an Austronesian-type actor voice, the use of the Movima inverse is conditioned by the animacy and definiteness of the undergoer, while the antipassive can be employed irrespective of these factors.