The phonology and morphology of Filomeno Mata Totonac

eflexive verbs (see §4.8.2.1), the choice of kin-kaa- . . .-ni" ‘me + you’ for 1 st plural reflexives
correctly reflects the underlying semantics of reflexive ‘we’ as ‘you + I’.
Table 5.5 Reflexive verb paradigm
I saw
myself
you saw
yourself
he saw
himself
kilaaqtsínka&
/kin-laaqtsin-kan-li&/
1OBJ-see-REF
laaqtsínk'a&
laaqtsin-kan-[cg]
see-REF-2SUB.sg
laaqtsínka&
laaqtsin-kan-li&
see-REF
we saw
ourselves
you pl. saw
yourselves
they saw
themselves
! ",,!
kinkaalaaqtsinkán
kin-kaa-laaqtsin-kan-ni&
1OBJ-OBJ.pl-see-REF-2OBJ
kaalaaqtsinkántiti&
kaa-laaqtsin-kan-titi&
OBJ.pl-see-REF-2SUB.pl
kaalaaqtsínka&
kaa-laaqtsin-kan-li&
OBJ.pl-see-REF
The meaning of any reflexive sentence in FM Totonac is ambiguous between the reflexive
reading and an ‘indefinite subject’ reading, for example ‘I saw myself’ or ‘Someone saw me’.
This is treated further in the next section.
5.4.4.5 Indefinite Subject –kan. As just noted, all verb forms in -kan can be read equally as
reflexives or as having an ‘indefinite subject’, as it is referred to in Totonac studies. The latter
reading is glossed as ‘someone does X’, with the impersonal ‘they do X’, or as ‘X is done’. With
first and third person subjects, the ‘someone does X’ gloss is formally appropriate; that is, in the
sentence ‘someone sees me’, for example, the verb ‘see’ is inflected with the first person object
prefix and with –kan (refer to Table 5.5). However, verbs in –kan with second person subjects
take 2 nd person subject markers (again, see Table 5.5), have the formal characteristics of an
atypical passive, and are more appropriately glossed as, for example, ‘you are seen’. Dixon &
Aikhenvald’s criteria for a prototypical passive are:
a) applies to an underlying transitive clause and forms a derived intransitive;
b) the underlying O becomes S of the passive;
c) the underlying A argument goes into a peripheral function, being marked by a non-core
case, adposition, etc; this argument can be omitted, although there is always the option of
including it;
d) there is some explicit formal marking of a passive construction (generally, by a verbal
affix or periphrastic verbal construction.
Dixon & Aikhenvald (1997:73)
Verbs with 2 nd person subjects and the suffix –kan meet criteria a), b), and d), but always omit
the underlying A; Dixon & Aikhenvald call this an “agentless passive” (Dixon & Aikhenvald
1997:74). Note that verbs in –kan with second person subjects show all second person subject