In the Mayan language Kʼicheʼ, the core arguments of a clause are unmarked for case, and are cross-referenced by person markers on the verb.
'when transformed using the antipassive voice, becomes: Gauzathingmiragarriakwonderful-PL-ABSikusiriksee-PERF-STATnagoam//ikusiasee-PERF-ACTnaizamGauza miragarriak ikusirik nago / ikusia naizthing wonderful-PL-ABS see-PERF-STAT am / see-PERF-ACT am'I am seen wonderful things.
Thus, the following sentence is ungrammatical: *bajiM-ABSjaɽaman-ABSbani-ɲucome-NFUTbalanF-ABSɟuɡumbilwoman-ABSbuɽa-nsee-NFUT*baji jaɽa bani-ɲu balan ɟuɡumbil buɽa-nM-ABS man-ABS come-NFUT F-ABS woman-ABS see-NFUT'The man came and saw the woman.
'In the conjoined sentence, the omitted argument (the man) would have to be in ergative case, being the agent of a transitive verb (to see).
In order to make this sentence grammatical, the antipassive, which promotes the original ergative to absolutive and puts the former absolutive (the woman) into dative case has to be used: bajiM-ABSjaɽaman-ABSbani-ɲucome-NFUTbaɡunF-DATɟuɡumbil-ɡuwoman-DATbuɽal-ŋa-ɲusee-ANTIP-NFUTbaji jaɽa bani-ɲu baɡun ɟuɡumbil-ɡu buɽal-ŋa-ɲuM-ABS man-ABS come-NFUT F-DAT woman-DAT see-ANTIP-NFUT'The man came and saw the woman.
[9] The term antipassive is applied to a wide range of grammatical structures and is therefore difficult to define.
R. M. W. Dixon has nonetheless proposed four criteria for determining whether a construction is an antipassive:[11]: 146 While the first, second and fourth criterion are widely accepted, Dixon's formulation of the third criterion is controversial, in that many linguists consider as antipassives also constructions that give no option of including the object.
In this connection, it has also been argued that even nominative-accusative languages such as Swedish and Russian can be said to have antipassives (Swedish hunden bit-s 'the dog bites (in general, unspecified patient)', Russian sobaka kusaet-sja (with the same meaning)); both have markers originating from a reflexive pronoun, and a similar origin of antipassives is attested in Pama-Nyungan, Kartvelian, Chukotko-Kamchatkan and Turkic languages.