Abstract
This paper aims to investigate the non-overt marking of spatial relations in the Mesoamerican area with regard to the relationship between spatial interrogatives and spatial declaratives. It is argued that languages which indiscriminately employ the same word form as spatial deictic interrogative for all three basic spatial relations, place, goal and source, do not employ grammaticalized markers for allative and/or ablative functions. Instead they rely on motion verb constructions the semantics of which determine the spatial reference as well as the direction of motion. These systems, however, change via the intrusion of the Spanish preposition de.
Acknowledgments
We are deeply grateful to José Antonio Flores Farfán (CIESAS, Mexico D.F.) and Thomas Stolz (Bremen) for being outstanding teachers and great inspirers to work with indigenous languages of Mesoamerica. Alan R. King provided us with valuable information as to modern Nawat for which we cannot thank him enough. Ultimately, Jean-Léo Léonard, Victorino Torres Nava, Nataliya Levkovych, Christel Stolz and Julia Nintemann were of great help by commenting on draft versions. Nevertheless, the responsibility of all errors committed in this paper lies with us.
Abbreviations
- 1/2/3
1st/2nd/3rd person
- a
series agent/possessor
- abs
absolutive
- ag
agent
- art
article
- ass
assertive
- AUC
argument uniqueness constraint
- aux
auxiliary
- b
series undergoer/theme
- caus
causative
- cl
classifier
- cmp
completive
- con
connector
- d1
proximal deictic particle
- d2
distal/anaphoric particle
- d3
text-deictic particle
- def
definite
- dem
demonstrative
- dept
dependent transitive
- desid
desiderative
- det
determiner
- dir
directional
- e
ergative
- emph
emphatic
- enc
enclitic
- ex
existential
- excl
exclusive
- fil
filler
- fut
future tense
- G
goal
- imp
imperative
- impfv
imperfective
- incl
incompletive aspect
- ind
indicative
- intr
intransitive
- ints
intensifier
- link
linker
- loc
locative
- neg
negator
- nf
non-finite
- nrld
non-realized
- obj
object
- P
place
- part
participle
- pass
passive
- perf
perfective
- pl
plural
- poss
possessor
- ppos
postposition
- prep
preposition
- recp
reciprocal
- red
reduplication
- refl
reflexive
- rel
relational/relativizer
- S
source
- SAE
Standard Average European
- SDD
spatial deictic declarative
- sg
singular
- SI
spatial interrogative
- top
topic
- trns
transitive
- vrbl
verbalizer
- xerg
first person exclusive ergative
Sources
| [AMP] | Amplified Bible © 2015, The Lockman Foundation, La Habra, CA 90 631. |
| [ARNNT] | Ngünechen ñi Küme Dungu (Mapudungun, Chile) © 2011, Wycliffe Bible Translators, Inc. |
| [CTUNT] | Jini wen bʌ tʼan (Chol, Tila) © 1976, Wycliffe Bible Translators, Inc. |
| [EXB] | Expanded Bible © 2011, Thomas Nelson. |
| [MAYABI] | Biblia Maya (Yucateco-Màaya) © 1992, Sociedades Bíblicas Unidas. |
| [MOPNT] | Le'ec Ada' U T'an A Dios A Tumulbene (Mopán Maya) © 2012, Wycliffe Bible Translators, Inc. |
| [NBTN] | Ne Bibliaj Tik Nawat. © 2013, Jan Morrow. |
| [NGU] | In Yenkuik Iyektlajtoltsin Dios (Náhuatl de Guerrero) © 1987, La Liga *Bíblica. |
| [POINT] | Jém jomipɨc trato jém iwatnewɨɨp tánomi Jesucristo (Highland Popoluca) © 2009, Wycliffe Bible Translators, Inc. |
| [TZOZNT] | Sc'op riox: ja' li' yaloj ti chac' jcuxlejaltic ta sbatel osli ti cajvaltic Jesucristoe (Tzotzil de Zinacantán) © 2009, Wycliffe Bible Translators, Inc. |
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© 2018 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Introduction: On typological change in Mesoamerica
- On classifiers and their absence in Classical and Colonial Nahuatl
- Verb-framed spatial deixis in Mesoamerican languages and the increasing complexity of source constructions via Spanish de
- Inflectional class shifts in the Mazatec diasystem: Innovation, contact and metatypes
- Convergence as the driving force of typological change in Nahuatl
- Book Review
- Grammar of the Mexican language (1713): Grammar, didactics, dialectology and translation studies
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Introduction: On typological change in Mesoamerica
- On classifiers and their absence in Classical and Colonial Nahuatl
- Verb-framed spatial deixis in Mesoamerican languages and the increasing complexity of source constructions via Spanish de
- Inflectional class shifts in the Mazatec diasystem: Innovation, contact and metatypes
- Convergence as the driving force of typological change in Nahuatl
- Book Review
- Grammar of the Mexican language (1713): Grammar, didactics, dialectology and translation studies