The phonology and morphology of Filomeno Mata Totonac

4.7.1.2 Counterexpectational. The counterexpectational marker ti- has two related functions. It
can be used with any verb in any TAM inflection to indicate that the action of the verb takes
place contrary to some expectation relevant to the context. This non-obligatory usage will be
described in §5.3.1.1 on derivation.
Counterexpectational ti- is also required to appear with certain other mood or tense markers for a
particular compositional semantics. One of these cases was touched on in §4.7.1.1.1, involving
the collocation of NEG "aa=, IRR ka- and CNTR ti- as the only grammatical means for
expressing the negative future in main clauses. The counterexpectational in this case seems to
negate the implied expectation in the discourse context that made necessary the negative
assertion.
The other special use of CNTR ti- is with PAST #- and the perfective aspect to express past
deontic necessity. This contrasts with past tense/perfective aspect forms without ti-, as in
example 30, which have a past conditional meaning.
28) s%titáski"
/s"-ti-ta-skin-li&/
PAST-CNTR-3SUB.pl-ask.for-PFTV
‘they should have asked for it’
29) s%titamparátiti&
/s"-ti-tan-para-titi&/
PAST-CNTR-come2-ITER-2SUB.pl
‘you pl. should have returned’
30) s%tamparátiti&
/s"-tan-para-titi&/
PAST-come2-ITER-2SUB.pl
‘you pl. would have returned’
4.7.1.3 Secondary moods. Besides the major moods of realis and irrealis, whose marking on
verbs is obligatory, and counterexpectational ti-, two other deontic mood markers exist. These
are negative polarity potential la-, and desiderative –kutun. These, along with the optional uses
of the counterexpectational, will be considered in §5.3.1.
4.7.2 Aspect. Aspect is often described as characterizing “the internal temporal structure of a
situation” (Mithun 1999:165). Klein proposes that ‘aspect’ refers to the relation between the time
of the situation and topic time, the time for which the claim is made (Klein 1994:3). The four
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