Cebuano Locative and Benefactive Voice Constructions: A Preposition Incorporation Analysis

This thesis discusses the formation of locative and benefactive voice constructions in Cebuano while addressing the observation that the verbal affix, *-an*, in addition to selecting an oblique nominal as the topic of a resulting sentence, also functions as an applicative by expanding a verb’s subcatagorization frame to include an oblique nominal as an internal argument.In the process of forming these voice constructions *-an* also appears to take on the lexical meanings of prepositions since an erstwhile oblique argument now functions as an accusative or dative argument. This thesis further discusses the possibility that all of these functions of *-an* are the result of preposition incorporation as outlined in Baker (1988). Through this thesis, the coverage of incorporation theory is expanded to include a Philippine language, adding to the syntactic robustness of incorporation theory by addressing a language with VSO word order.

Thesis Author: Bodily, Jarren

Year Completed: 2004

Committee Members: Dirk Elzinga, John S. Robertson

Thesis Chair: Deryle Lonsdale