The phonology and morphology of Filomeno Mata Totonac

44) mi-lii-qa"tawaqá-qee-ti&
2POSS-PURP-study-MEANWHILE-NOM
‘you should study meanwhile’
45) mi-lii-lii-c%ípa-ti n tsa"
2POSS-PURP-INSTR-catch-NOM ep net
‘you should catch it with a net’
When these derived forms have transitive verb roots, although they are formally possessed
nominals, they appear to behave as transitive verbs in their ability to take third person objects.
They cannot, however, be inflected with 1 st or 2 nd person object pronouns.
46) mi-líi-waa-ti séeqn&a&
2POSS-PURP-eat-NOM banana
‘you should eat a banana’
47) ki-lii-maqtaqal-ti-kán i s%tíilan
1POSS-PURP-care.for-NOM-POSS.PL ep hen
‘we should take care of the chickens’
The verb-like behavior of this ‘ought to’ nominalization is explained by the fact that in this
reading, it is the predicate of a zero-copula phrase (I owe this insight to Lynn Nichols). FM
Totonac is a zero-copula language, and also has a null third person pronoun. Thus a possessed
purpose nominalization, eg, #-lii-$éqee-ti", may be translated as ‘his (clothing) for washing’ or ‘it
is his (clothing) to wash’. The latter translation becomes associated with modal obligation
semantics, to yield ‘he ought to wash it’.
3.3.11.6.2 Passive ‘ought to be X’d’. In addition to the active ‘ought to X’ construction, a
passive ‘ought to be X’d’ derivation exists that begins with a transitive verb prefixed by ta-,
which is then entered into the lii- . . –ti" construction. Thus #-lii-kú#tu-ti" ‘s/he should weed it’
becomes #-lii-ta-kú#tu-ti" ‘it should be weeded’; #-lii-laqá-loqs-ti" ‘s/he should face-slap him/her’
becomes #-lii-ta-laqá-loqs-ti" ‘s/he should be face-slapped’. This construction is very regular and
transparent with all transitive verbs.
48) s%-lii-ta-máq-nii-ti&
3POSS-PURP-MV?-CAUS-die-NOM
‘it should be killed’
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