The phonology and morphology of Filomeno Mata Totonac

When possessed, this class of derived noun can also serve as a verbal ‘ought to X’ construction
that will be discussed in §3.3.11.6.
3.3.11.5 Result nominalizations. Another type of very productive deverbal nominalization is
the result noun. It is usually derived from a verb with the prefix ta- and a –n/-n"i" suffix that
requires stress on the final syllable of the stem, although sometimes no suffix is involved. It
contrasts aspectually with the purpose construction described in §3.3.11.4, for example, purpose
noun lii$éqeeti" ‘dirty laundry (laundry to be washed)’ vs. result noun ta$eqéen ‘clean laundry
(washed laundry)’. There is also a fairly large group of resultative deverbal nouns with a body
part prefix or no derivational prefix.
Like most FM Totonac deverbal nominalization processes, result nominalizations in ta- are very
productive with both transitive and intransitive verbs. Since it is unusual typologically to find
inceptivized transitives, some background is needed.
McQuown, for a Sierra Norte dialect of Totonaco, notes similar patient nominals (“nombres
recipientes de la acción”) derived from a broad class of inceptivized transitive verbs (1990:113-
114), including ‘possess’, ‘tie’, ‘dress’, ‘kiss’, ‘weave’, ‘help’, ‘write’, ‘see’, ‘hunt’, ‘count’ and
more. So TFM seems to be between the other two varieties in the range of transitive verbs that
can be inceptivized.
3.3.11.5.1 Result nouns in ta-. The nature of the ta- prefix with result nominalizations is
unclear. With resultative verbs it appears to be the middle voice (MV) marker (§5.4.4.2) that is
required to convert these verbs from an active to middle voice reading. Thus pink ‘s/he splits it’,
tapínk ‘it splits’, tapínk ‘the crack’; $íi ‘s/he ties it’, ta$íi ‘it is tied’, ta$íin ‘knot; prisoner’. With
non-resultative verbs, which normally cannot take the MV prefix, it may be that MV is possible
only in this construction to give a resultative, middle voice reading, although this would be
paradoxical morphologically. Or it may be a nominalizing prefix unrelated to the verbal middle
voice affix (but see §3.3.11.6.2).
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