Date of Award
Spring 2025
Document Type
Thesis
Publication Status
Version of Record
Submission Date
March 2026
College Granting Degree
Harriet L. Wilkes Honors College
Thesis/Dissertation Advisor [Chair]
Michael Hamilton
Additional Committee Member 1
Justin White
Additional Committee Member 2
Eric Berlatsky
Abstract
Hiligaynon is a language in the Philippines that is a member of the Central Philippine branch of the Austronesian language family. Although it is spoken by 10% of the population, Hiligaynon is understudied, but it also uses the debated Austronesian alignment system like its relatives. One common approach to analyzing these languages is the ergative-absolutive approach, but some researchers analyze them through a topic marking system under the nominative-accusative approach. This paper analyzes Hiligaynon’s use of Austronesian alignment through reevaluating and reanalyzing previous data and comparing it to work on its related languages to understand the underlying syntax of Hiligaynon’s voicing structure. Sample sentences of various types were provided to a participant, who then judged the grammaticality of these sentences. Based on the results, it appears that Hiligaynon may be best analyzed under the nominative approach because the evidence suggests it does not appear to follow traditional ergative alignment.
Recommended Citation
Craaybeek, Ty, "Analyzing Austronesian Alignment through Hiligaynon Syntax" (2025). Harriet L Wilkes Honors College Theses. 1.
https://digitalcommons.fau.edu/etd_honors/1