Miluk grammar notes - Part 6
Transitive verbs
Hierarchical marking
The system of case-role marking in Miluk has two levels. On the clause level, noun phrases have an ergative pattern of case marking, as we have seen in
Section 3. However, at the level of morphological marking on the verb interacting with the enclitic person markers, Miluk displays a direct-inverse system, quite similar to the one found in Algonquian languages.
The basic theorectical framework of the direct-inverse system is described in Doty's dissertation, so I will concentrate on the mophological features here. The core system is made up of four categories:
Local:
Inverse:
Direct:
First person acting on second person:
Second person acting on first person:
Third person acting on first/second person:
First/second/third person acting on third person:
-ām̓i
-ai
-ūn
-īn
-ət
-a1-, -ā1-
-a2-, -ā2-
-a
The local suffix -
ām̓i is mostly represented as -
āmi with a plain nasal due to regular sound shift, since it usually occurs following the thematic suffixes -
d and -
ʒ. The inverse suffix -
īn regularly appears as
-ein following uvular obstruents and glottal stop (e.g.
hemēq̓-ein < √
hemēq̓ + -
īn).
The direct infixes -
a/ā1- replace the main vowel of the verb root.
paixc "paint it"
manč̓t "ask her"
ɫāɫi "cure her"
walwi "search for it"
< √pəyx + -a1- + -c
< √mənč̓ + -a1- + -t
< √ɫēɫ + -a1- + -i
< √wəlw + -a1- + -i
On the other hand, the direct infixes -
a/ā2- are inserted directely preceding the final root consonant.
ġalam "take it"
c̓əlban "pinch it"
mikman:ak "beat it"
sūlal "love her"
< √ġalm + -a2-
< √c̓əlbən + -a2-
< √meng + intensive reduplication + -a2-
< √sūl + stative reduplication + -a2-
For roots of the type CVC, the two direct infixes are not distinguished. In this case, the infix will be generically indicated as -
a/ā-.
t̓ām "pack it"
kˀal "call her"
sλāq̓ "bathe her"
< √t̓əm + -ā-
< √kˀel + -a-
< √sλeq̓ + -ā-
Transitive thematic suffixes and the transitive suffix -i
For the great majority of plain (i.e. non-reduplicated) verb roots, the local and inverse suffixes are not added directly to the verb, but are preceded by one of the thematic suffixes -
d, -
ʒ and -
dəs. The latter is rarely found with basic local and inverse forms, and appears to be a variant of -
ʒ occurring with monosyllabic roots ending with a sonorant.
ġalmiʒāmi "I take you"
tġanƛzāmi "I stab you"
hāġʷidai "I leave you"
tbəʒai "you bury me"
sən:dəsai "you name me"
kɫūdūn "sees you/me"
kˀeldūn "calls you/me"
< √ġalm
< √tġanƛ
< √hāġʷ
< √tb
< √sən
< √kɫəw
< √kˀel
+ -ʒ + -ām̓i
+ -ʒ + -ām̓i
+ -d + -ai
+ -ʒ + -ai
+ -dəs + -ai
+ -d + -ūn
+ -d + -ūn
On the other hand, local and inverse forms of plain verb roots without thematic suffix are extremely rare. In the text corpus we find:
cuwam̓i "I kill you" (√
cəw),
giɫuwai "you see me" (√
gəɫəw, variant of √
kɫəw),
hemēq̓ein "sees you/me" (√
hemēq̓).
Many verb roots also have a direct form carrying a thematic suffix.
tġanƛc "stab her"
paukʷc "enslave her"
tbāc "bury her"
kˀalt "call her"
< √tġanƛ
< √pəwkʷ
< √tb
< √kˀel
+ -ʒ + -a1-
+ -ʒ + -a1-
+ -ʒ + -ā-
+ -d + -a1-
Unlike with the local and inverse forms, thematic suffixes are just one way of transitive marking on the direct form of a root. For some verb roots, no direct form with a thematic suffix is found in the corpus. These include very frequently used roots such as √
ġalm "take" or √
kɫəw "see".
Miluk has another explicit marker of transitivity, viz. the suffix -
i which is however restricted to direct forms, at least in the basic system of direct, inverse and local forms.
kɫāwi "see it"
t̓āmi "pack it"
walwi "search it"
ƛxanxi "encounter it"
pūkʷiya "enslave her"
hāwiya "raise her"
< √kɫəw
< √t̓əm
< √wəlw
< √ƛxənx
< √pəwkʷ
< √hēw
+ -i + -ā1-
+ -i + -ā1-
+ -i + -a1-
+ -i + -a1-
+ -i + -a
+ -i + -a
Furthermore, we also find direct forms without any transitive suffix.
t̓ām "pack it"
kˀal "call her"
ġalam "take it"
tba "bury her"
ˀalqsa "fear it"
< √t̓əm
< √kˀel
< √ġalm
< √tb
< √ˀelqs
+ -ā-
+ -a-
+ -a2-
+ -a
+ -a
From the above examples we can see that for many roots, there is more than just one direct form, e.g.
t̓ām /
t̓āmi,
kˀal /
kˀalt,
tba /
tbāc. However, I have only found one transitive verb in the corpus which can appear in all three shapes, viz. √
qtəm "answer":
qtamc /
qtāmi /
qtam.
The distribution of the three direct forms appears to be determined both by the shape of the verb root, as well as by functional aspects. Some root types have clear preferences for, as well as constraints against one of the three forms.
The functional difference between the three forms appears to be related to aspect and affectedness. As a tentative first analysis, I assume that direct forms with a transitive theme suffix indicate a fully affected object and perfective/completive aspect, whereas direct forms with -
relate to not fully affected objects and imperfective aspect. Zero-marked direct forms appear to be close in function to direct forms with a transitive theme suffix.
Direct evidence for this functional distribution comes from a handful of ditransitive forms which have both -
. Here, addition of the suffix -
"take it out for her", cf.
Santiam Kalapuya is one of the Kalapuyan languages, which were spoken in the Willamette valley in Oregon. Like the Coosan languages, the Kalapuyan languages are included in the Penutian macro-group. In spite of their relatively close geographic location, Coosan and Kalapuyan are not thought to have any special relation among each other.
Yet, there are very striking parallels of transitive verb marking, which may origin from a common source, although any conclusion is still premature here. The system of role marking in Kalapuyan is completely nomivative-accusative, with personal object suffixes attaching to the verb. Many transitive roots take a thematic suffix -
with first and second person objects. Third person is zero-marked, but many roots have a suffix -
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