THE ABSOLUTIVE/GENITIVE ALTERNATION IN SELAYARESE

Abstract

This paper examines the absolutive/genitive alternation in Selayarese, an Austronesian language spoken on the island of Selayar in the Indonesian province of Sulawesi Selatan, and attempts to elucidate the mechanism behind the case marker alternation. Based on the data we collected, we will argue (i) that the genitive marker is licensed by the adnominal form of a predicate in Selayarese, (ii) that not only XP movement, but also clitic movement, deletes intermediate Comps in Selayarese, and (iii) that clitic movement is not restricted to control structure, and can be long distance in Selayarese.