The phonology and morphology of Filomeno Mata Totonac

causation may be natural or forced; and the causer may be involved or not involved in the
activity.
5.4.2 Applicatives. According to Dixon & Aikhenvald (1997:78), a prototypical applicative
meets the following criteria:
a) applies to an underlying intransitive clause and forms a derived transitive;
b) the argument in underlying S function goes into A function in the applicative;
c) a peripheral argument (which could be explicitly stated in the underlying intransitive) is
taken into the core, in O function;
d) there is some explicit formal marking of an applicative construction, generally by an affix
or some other morphological process applying to the verb.
Totonaco has four applicatives per the definition, each realized through affixation: a comitative,
dative, instrumental, locative. Additionally, a large group of body part prefixes can occasionally
serve as applicatives. Each of these constructions derives a transitive verb from an intransitive
by bringing a peripheral argument into the core in O function. All of them may apply to
transitive verbs as well. These various applicatives, however, differ in their possession of
applicative properties. Their objects, too, vary in their possession of object properties. These
issues will be discussed as the applicative constructions are described in turn.
5.4.2.1 Comitative taa-. The affixation of the comitative applicative results in a verb meaning
‘X does Y with (another person)’, ‘X invites (another person) to do Y‘, or (another person) helps
X do Y’. The secondary ‘subject’, whose referent is almost always a person, is marked on the
verb using direct object affixes; this is in accord with the finding that the more highly animate
and topical the referent of an applicative is, the more likely it will “display the object properties,
often in preference to or to the exclusion of the base object” (Peterson 1999: 34). The comitative
marker must refer to a specific person or persons; when an action involves the participation of an
unspecified person or group of persons, the associative maq- prefix is used instead (see §5.5.1).
The referent of the comitative is understood to have lesser agency than the subject, that is, to be
participating in the action of the verb at the invitation or instigation of the subject. When both
referents have equal agency, a reciprocal comitative construction is used (see §5.4.4.3).
The comitative occurs regularly with all possible person combinations, and with both intransitive
and transitive verbs. Some intransitive examples follow:
80) kintaatsaalayáan
/kin-taa-tsaala-aa-ni& &/
1OBJ-COM-flee-IMPF-2OBJ
‘you flee with me’
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