Subjects in Acehnese and the nature of the passive

This article reexamines a controversial construction in Acehnese (Lawler 1977 versus Durie 1988). I demonstrate that the construction is a passive, even though a verbal prefix bears the features of the agent rather than the surface subject. I analyze the prefix as a morphological realization of the functional head that introduces the external argument; the features borne by this head are not agreement, but rather interpretable features that restrict the external argument position. Important consequences are that Acehnese does not counterexemplify the universality of grammatical relations (contra Durie 1988 and subsequent), and that Acehnese provides clear morphological evidence for the presence in passives of the functional head that introduces the external argument.*