Algonquian languages show a hierarchy effect in which Infl preferentially
agrees with the argument that ranks highest on the hierarchy SAP >
proximate 3 > obviative 3. When this argument is the object, the outcome is
a special agreement pattern known as the “inverse”. The Algonquian inverse
is well-known, but what has gone unnoticed in the theoretical literature is
that two Plains Algonquian languages, Arapaho and Gros Ventre, have
developed a second, entirely distinct hierarchy effect in which Voice
preferentially agrees with a first-person nominal and Infl concurrently
agrees with the leftover non-first-person nominal. The two hierarchy
effects coexist within the same paradigm: some forms show the familiar
inverse pattern driven by Infl; others show the distinct “speaker-centric”
pattern driven by Voice. In contexts that could conceivably trigger either
pattern, the Voice-driven pattern bleeds the Infl-driven pattern. I argue
that the existence of the two patterns, their distinct effects on the
overall verb form, and their distribution in paradigms follows from the
existence of relativized probes on both Voice and Infl.