The phonology and morphology of Filomeno Mata Totonac

146) kaac%eeqée
/kaa-c"eeqee-aa/
LOC-wash-IMPF
‘(a rainstorm) washes the area’
147) kkiikáapa"
/k-kii-kaa-pa-li&/
1SUB-RT-LOC-sweep-PFTV
‘I went to sweep the floor’
148) takaas%aká kpusikúlan
/ta-kaa-s"aka k-pusikulan/
3SUB.pl-LOC-scrub LOC-church
‘they scrub the church floor’
Although example 144 has the same gloss as 141, ‘he digs a hole’, the lack of the dative in the
former suggests that a better translation for puuwa# might be ‘he hole-digs’. An intransitive
interpretation of examples 145 to 148 is also possible despite the glosses, since the sentences
contain no overt NPs, and FM Totonac fails to formally mark transitivity on verb roots in most
cases. Further syntactic tests are needed to clarify this issue. (Note that with verbs like $eeqeen
‘wash’, #aka ‘scrub’ and pa" ‘sweep’, kaa-, with its connotation of ‘surface area’, is
conventionally understood to refer to ‘floor’ in many contexts.) The verb #aka ‘scrub’ in
example 148 takes the transitivizer –ii when transitivized through causativization; the lack of –ii
when derived with the locative may be another indication of intransitivity.
With transitive verbs, the locatives license an oblique argument; no evidence of an increase in
valence is found. This is seen most clearly in example 150, where the dative would be expected
to mark ‘him’ if locative ‘spoon’ had become a core argument.
149) kaas%tlaawá
/kaa-s"tlaawa-aa/
LOC-arrange-IMPF
‘she adorns the place’
150) kkiipuumáawii n kuc%ára
/k-kii-puu-maa-wii-li& kuc"ara/
1SUB-RT-LOC-CAUS-eat spoon
‘I went to feed him with a spoon’
! "+#!