Western Malayo-Polynesian

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Noun1.Western Malayo-Polynesian - a western subfamily of Malayo-Polynesian languages
Malayo-Polynesian, Polynesian - the branch of the Austronesian languages spoken from Madagascar to the central Pacific
Malay - a western subfamily of Western Malayo-Polynesian languages
Philippine, Filipino - official language of the Philippines; based on Tagalog; draws its lexicon from other Philippine languages
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References in periodicals archive
In Western Malayo-Polynesian languages there are two constructions for encoding most two-place predicates.
There is also something akin to ergativity in many western Malayo-Polynesian languages inasmuch as the patient is the subject of an unmarked transitive verb, and a marked construction with a nasal prefix on the verb has to be used to make the agent subject.
In the Western Malayo-Polynesian languages of Indonesia and the Philippines there is characteristically a patient-subject construction, often unmarked, and an agent-subject construction, often marked with a nasal prefix on the verb.
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