This special thematic issue of NUSA on Applicatives in Austronesian Languages arose out of a thematic session as part of the 14th annual Austronesian and Papuan Languages and Linguistics conference (APLL14). The event was co-hosted by Leibniz Centre of General Linguistics (ZAS) and the Humboldt University of Berlin on June 9–11, 2022. This special issue is also supplemented by the article by Rajeg and Arka, originally presented at the workshop on Austronesian argument alternations in discourse at the Australian National University [ANU], November 28–29, 2022, co-hosted by ANU and the University of Oslo.