Parts of speech in Yawarana

TBD: Introduction

Distinguishing parts of speech

• Koehn and Koehn 1986: 111 on Apalaí: "Particles follow words of any class other than the ideophone, and never occur as free forms or in isolation."

Verbs

TBD

Nouns

TBD

Adverbs

• copredicative function
• no person inflection
• deriving aderbs: -ke ‘prop’ to do: is -ke negated with -jra only when on noun roots?

Postpositions

TBD

Shared morphology

• third person prefixes & linker are (partially) shared between nouns and postpositions
• -jpë ‘pst’ on nouns, pronouns & verbs

Pronominal clitics

to do: expand this section Transitive and verbs, nouns, and postpositions share preposed sap person markers. The occurrence of bound first person u= on members of all four parts of speech is illustrated in ; illustrates the same distribution for second person më=. The 1+2 form ej= is very rare compared to the first and second person forms.

1. 1. irë nwa chipëkë usamori uyïpï incharë

      irë

      irë

      3ANA.INAN

      dem

      nwa

      nwa

      thus

      part

      chipëkë

      chipëkë

      because

      part

      usamori

      u=samo-ri

      1=cry-IPFV

      pn=vi

      uyïpï

      u=yïpï-∅

      1=mountain-PERT

      pn=n

      incharë

      in-charë

      see-IMN

      vt

      That's why I'm crying seeing my hills. / por eso yo estoy llorando viendo mis cerros
   2. aniki ta uyeremari

      aniki

      aniki

      who

      pn

      ta

      ta

      like

      part

      uyeremari

      u=yere-ma-ri

      1=eat-CAUS-IPFV

      pn=vt

      Who was going to feed me then? / ¿quién más me iba a alimentar pues?
   3. uyarë wïrë përemekïrï

      uyarë

      u=yarë

      1=alone

      pn=postp

      wïrë

      wïrë

      1PRO

      pn

      përemekïrï

      përemekï-rï

      talk-IPFV

      vi

      I just talk. / yo hablo sola (convrisamaj: 46)

1. 1. nwarë mëtëpëtiri, tëpëtijra sejkë

      nwarë

      nwa=rë

      thus=EMP

      part=part

      mëtëpëtiri

      më=të-pëti-ri

      2=go-PLUR-IPFV

      pn=vi

      tëpëtijra

      të-pëti-∅=jra

      go-PLUR-IPFV=NEG

      vi=part

      sejkë

      sejkë

      ***

      vi

      You're going to go like this? Don't go like this. / así tu te vas a ir, no puedes ir así
   2. weroro wëra këyetari mëmukuru

      weroro

      weroro

      dog

      n

      wëra

      wëra

      like

      postp

      këyetari

      këye-ta-ri

      big?-VBZ.INTR-IPFV

      vi

      mëmukuru

      më=muku-ru

      2=child-PERT

      pn=n

      Your children grow up like dogs. / tus hijos crecen como perro
   3. mëtojpa wïrë

      mëtojpa

      më=tojpa-∅

      2=hit-IPFV

      pn=vt

      wïrë

      wïrë

      1PRO

      pn

      I will beat you to death. / te voy a matar a golpes
   4. ¿mëpana ma tataja wejsapë?

      mëpana

      më=pana

      2=DAT

      pn=postp

      ma

      ma

      RST

      part

      tataja

      ta-ta-ja

      3P-say-NEG

      vt

      wejsapë

      wej-sapë

      COP-PST

      vi

      Didn't he say it directly to you? / ¿no te lo dijo directamente a tí?

When occurring on nouns and adpositions, these elements behave identically to a free pronoun by triggering the linker y-. An alternative analysis in which the person markers are prefixes would require the y occurring on nouns and postpositions to be part of the prefix, so e.g. më- / _C, mëy- / _V. However, no such y occurs on verbs . Such an analysis would therefore need to postulate that there are phonologically conditioned allomorphs on nouns and postpositions, but not on verbs. An analysis as cliticized pronominal forms does not face that issue, since the absence of y on verbs is expected by the absence of a linker on verbs.

1. 1. kwase mëëmpamïjpë ejnë waimu yaye

      kwase

      kwase

      how

      part

      mëëmpamïjpë

      më=ëmpamï-jpë

      2=learn-PST

      pn=vi

      ejnë

      ejnë

      1+2PRO

      pn

      waimu

      waimu-∅

      language-PERT

      n

      yaye

      yaye

      LOC

      postp

      How you learned our language. / como aprendiste nuestro idioma
   2. mëini wïrë ya

      mëini

      më=ini-∅

      2=see-IPFV

      pn=vt

      wïrë

      wïrë

      1PRO

      pn

      ya

      ya

      ERG

      postp

      I will see you. / te voy a ver

Other applicable criteria point to a clitic analysis, too (ref).

Interestingly, second person is much more frequently expressed by a bound form (ref).

Derivation and productivity

• productive class-changing process w/ lexically conditioned suffixes
• semantic variation & non-compositional meanings
• some constructions simply need a different word class, no meaning change per se