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Chapter 10. Explaining the antipassive-causative syncretism in Mocoví (Guaycuruan)

  • Cristian Juárez and Albert Álvarez González
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Antipassive
This chapter is in the book Antipassive

Abstract

Among the polyfunctional valency markers, an antipassive-causative marker is a rather typologically unusual grammatical feature. This paper tries to explain the antipassive-causative syncretism in Mocoví, a Guaycuruan language spoken in northeastern Argentina, by examining the synchronic functions and the diachronic formation of the valency modifier -aɢan. We propose that both -aɢan antipassive and causative concentrate on the subject activity and involve the backgrounding of a core argument. These two functions, which are traceable to the formation of -aɢan from the state/change-of-state nominalizer -aɢa and the transitive verbalizer -n, work in tandem with the syntactic constraint of having only two core arguments per derived and non-derived transitive clauses, which crucially allows for the -aɢan reanalysis from causative to antipassive.

Abstract

Among the polyfunctional valency markers, an antipassive-causative marker is a rather typologically unusual grammatical feature. This paper tries to explain the antipassive-causative syncretism in Mocoví, a Guaycuruan language spoken in northeastern Argentina, by examining the synchronic functions and the diachronic formation of the valency modifier -aɢan. We propose that both -aɢan antipassive and causative concentrate on the subject activity and involve the backgrounding of a core argument. These two functions, which are traceable to the formation of -aɢan from the state/change-of-state nominalizer -aɢa and the transitive verbalizer -n, work in tandem with the syntactic constraint of having only two core arguments per derived and non-derived transitive clauses, which crucially allows for the -aɢan reanalysis from causative to antipassive.

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. Chapter 1. The multifaceted nature of the antipassive construction 1
  4. Part 1. Lexical semantics and event representation of antipassive constructions
  5. Chapter 2. Antipassive propensities and alignment 43
  6. Chapter 3. Antipassive in the Cariban family 65
  7. Chapter 4. Aspect and modality in Pama-Nyungan antipassives 97
  8. Chapter 5. Antipassive constructions in Oceanic languages 149
  9. Chapter 6. Antipassive and the lexical meaning of verbs 177
  10. Chapter 7. Unspecified participant 213
  11. Part 2. Antipassive marking
  12. Chapter 8. Variation in the verbal marking of antipassive constructions 249
  13. Chapter 9. Antipassive derivation in Soninke (West Mande) 293
  14. Chapter 10. Explaining the antipassive-causative syncretism in Mocoví (Guaycuruan) 315
  15. Chapter 11. Polyfunctional vanka- in Nivaĉle and the antipassive category 349
  16. Part 3. Diachrony of antipassive constructions
  17. Chapter 12. The antipassive and its relationship to person markers 385
  18. Chapter 13. Antipassive derivations in Sino-Tibetan/Trans-Himalayan and their sources 427
  19. Chapter 14. The profile and development of the Maa (Eastern Nilotic) antipassive 447
  20. Part 4. Fuzzy boundaries
  21. Chapter 15. Indirect antipassive in Circassian 483
  22. Chapter 16. Antipassives in Nakh-Daghestanian languages 515
  23. Chapter 17. Antipassive and antipassive-like constructions in Mayan languages 549
  24. Chapter 18. When an antipassive isn’t an antipassive anymore 579
  25. Chapter 19. Antipassivization in Basque revisited 621
  26. Index 641
https://doi.org/10.1075/tsl.130.10jua

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. Chapter 1. The multifaceted nature of the antipassive construction 1
  4. Part 1. Lexical semantics and event representation of antipassive constructions
  5. Chapter 2. Antipassive propensities and alignment 43
  6. Chapter 3. Antipassive in the Cariban family 65
  7. Chapter 4. Aspect and modality in Pama-Nyungan antipassives 97
  8. Chapter 5. Antipassive constructions in Oceanic languages 149
  9. Chapter 6. Antipassive and the lexical meaning of verbs 177
  10. Chapter 7. Unspecified participant 213
  11. Part 2. Antipassive marking
  12. Chapter 8. Variation in the verbal marking of antipassive constructions 249
  13. Chapter 9. Antipassive derivation in Soninke (West Mande) 293
  14. Chapter 10. Explaining the antipassive-causative syncretism in Mocoví (Guaycuruan) 315
  15. Chapter 11. Polyfunctional vanka- in Nivaĉle and the antipassive category 349
  16. Part 3. Diachrony of antipassive constructions
  17. Chapter 12. The antipassive and its relationship to person markers 385
  18. Chapter 13. Antipassive derivations in Sino-Tibetan/Trans-Himalayan and their sources 427
  19. Chapter 14. The profile and development of the Maa (Eastern Nilotic) antipassive 447
  20. Part 4. Fuzzy boundaries
  21. Chapter 15. Indirect antipassive in Circassian 483
  22. Chapter 16. Antipassives in Nakh-Daghestanian languages 515
  23. Chapter 17. Antipassive and antipassive-like constructions in Mayan languages 549
  24. Chapter 18. When an antipassive isn’t an antipassive anymore 579
  25. Chapter 19. Antipassivization in Basque revisited 621
  26. Index 641
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