The origins of the Austronesian voice system and subject-only restriction

The Austronesian voice system (AVS) is among the most typologically intriguing and well-studied phenomena in syntax. Previous diachronic accounts have used the comparative method to argue that either the voice function or the nominalization function of the voice affixes should be reconstructed to Proto-Austronesian (PAn). In this paper, we use internal reconstruction to lay out a tentative alternative. First, we assume that both the voice and nominalization functions go back to PAn. Second, we suggest that the non-active voice affixes originated in Pre-PAn as prepositions, and were later incorporated into the verb complex as postverbs. The nominalizing function, on the other hand, arose through an inter-stage with compounds. This proposal accounts for several properties of AVS, including the prominence of arguments promoted to subject position and the subject-only restriction, and is supported by a typological parallel in Dinka.