applicativestyle

Applicativestyle is a linguistic term used to describe a set of valency-changing constructions known as applicatives. In languages described with applicativestyle, a verb can introduce an additional participant into the event, typically to mark beneficiaries, instruments, goals, or other oblique arguments as core verbal arguments. The realization of the applicative can be through affixes on the verb, clitics, or separate particles and periphrastic constructions.

The functional effect of applicativestyle is to alter the syntactic role distribution among participants. By adding an applicative argument, the language can promote a peripheral participant to a more central object position, while the original object may shift to a different role such as indirect object or oblique. This process broadens the verb’s valency and can influence word order, case marking, and pronoun realization. The specific ordering and morphology of the applicative vary widely across languages and are a central topic in typological and descriptive work.

Applicativestyle is discussed across language families, with well-attested phenomena in Austronesian and Bantu languages, among others. Researchers study its triggers, such as beneficiary, instrument, or goal semantics, and its interaction with voice systems, alignment, and discourse function. The term is primarily used in descriptive and comparative linguistics to unify a range of constructions under the broad idea of adding an applicative participant to a verb’s argument structure.

See also: applicative voice, valency-changing construction, linguistic typology.