The Evolution of Syntax in Western Austronesian

Despite growing interest in the syntactic typology of Austronesian languages, it remains unclear how the core syntax of Western Austronesian languages has evolved through space and time. While the languages distributed closer to the linguistic homeland, Taiwan, display elaborate morphosyntax and a complex four-way voice system known as Philippine-type voice, those located to the south show different degrees of decay in this voice system. These patterns of decay are often accompanied by secondary innovations, such as changes in word order, the rise of applicatives, and a gradual shift towards analytic syntax. This has resulted in the emergence of a cline of reduced voice systems featuring a two-way actor-undergoer voice contrast. While much previous work has proposed a second prototype known as Indonesian-type, we highlight that there are few if any shared innovative features that unite these languages. Thus, we argue that it is really only possible to propose a single Philippine-type prototype with other systems showing remnants of these features.