Abstract

Proto-Oceanic had two distinct sets of clitic pronouns, with members of one set expressing the S ("subject" of intransitive sentences), while the members of the other set expressed the A ("agent" of transitive sentences). Clitic pronouns expressing O ("object") observed in some Oceanic languages today are later innovations, rather than reflexes of Proto-Oceanic "object" clitic forms. The main evidence comes from a comparison of what is reconstructible for Proto-Extra Formosan, a parent language of Proto-Oceanic, and Proto-Polynesian, one of the daughter protolanguages of Proto-Oceanic.

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