The reflexive voice construction in Anindilyakwa

This chapter describes the reflexive voice in Anindilyakwa, a polysynthetic language of Northern Australia. In this language, up to two arguments of a verb are identified by means of pronominal prefixes on the verb. Reflexive voice in Anindilyakwa is marked by a verbal suffix that occurs on transitive verbs and reduces the valency of the verb by one. The suffix signals that the agent subject is co-referential with the referent that previously occurred as the transitive object pronominal prefix. This is mostly a patient referent, but it can also be a beneficiary introduced by the benefactive applicative, or the recipient referent of an inherently ditransitive verb. Although the language has free pronouns, there are no reflexive pronouns in Anindilyakwa; the sole reflexivizer is the verbal suffix.