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Article published In:
Studies in Language
Vol. 44:3 (2020) ► pp.548–605

Subject and agentivity in Teotitlán Zapotec

ORCID logo | Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México
| University of Texas at Austin

In Teotitlán Zapotec, some, but not all, verbs undergo stem alternation in the 1st person forms, in addition to the attachment of the pronominal enclitics that encode the subject argument. We argue that stem alternation and pronominal cliticization are independent from one another and that each encodes different grammatical features, agent and subject, respectively. The phenomenon discussed in this paper is peculiar in two respects. First, stem alternation as the exponent of the agent is cross-linguistically rare (although it is common within the Otomanguean languages). Furthermore, the category of agentivity has not been studied in detail in Zapotecan languages, but this paper shows the pervasiveness of agentivity in the Teotitlán Zapotec grammar.

Keywords: Zapotec, subject, agentivity, stem alternation
Article outline
  • 1.Preliminary remarks
    • 1.1Introduction
    • 1.2Language background
      • 1.2.1Morphosyntax
      • 1.2.2Phonology
  • 2.Subject in Teotitlán Zapotec
  • 3.Agentivity in Teotitlán Zapotec: Stem alternation
    • 3.1Intransitive verbs
      • 3.1.1With stem alternation (agentive)
      • 3.1.2No stem alternation (non-agentive)
      • 3.1.3With or without stem alternation (variable verbs)
    • 3.2Transitive verbs
      • 3.2.1With stem alternation (agentive)
      • 3.2.2No stem alternation (non-agentive)
      • 3.2.3With or without stem alternation (variable)
    • 3.3Summary
  • 4.Nature of the stem alternation
    • 4.1Voice prefix alternation
    • 4.2Tone alternation
      • 4.2.11sg
        • 4.2.1.1Modal vowel
        • 4.2.1.2Creaky vowel
        • 4.2.1.3Glottalized vowel
      • 4.2.21pl
        • 4.2.2.1Modal vowel
        • 4.2.2.2Non-modal vowel
      • 4.2.3Summary of tone alternation
    • 4.3Phonation alternation
    • 4.4Weak suppletion
    • 4.5Strong suppletion
    • 4.6Summary
  • 5.Stem alternation as the only exponent of agentivity
    • 5.1Covert subject construction
    • 5.21sg with an object enclitic
    • 5.3Summary
  • 6.Interactions with other grammatical categories and phenomena
    • 6.1Transitivity and valence
      • 6.1.1Transitivity
      • 6.1.2Voice prefixes
        • 6.1.2.1“Causative” u-
        • 6.1.2.2“Restorative” a-
      • 6.1.3Valence alternation
    • 6.2Verb classes
    • 6.3Imperatives
    • 6.4Tense/aspect/mood category
    • 6.5Summary
  • 7.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • Abbreviations
  • References
Published online: 3 August 2020
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/sl.18025.uch
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