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Studies at the Grammar-Discourse Interface: Discourse markers and discourse-related grammatical phenomena
Edited by Alexander Haselow and Sylvie Hancil
[Studies in Language Companion Series 219] 2021
► pp. 313–352

Chapter 12
The rise of cause/reason adverbial markers in Yaqui (Uto-Aztecan)

| University of Sonora

This paper deals with three different connectives (betchi’ibo, bwe’ituk, po(r)ke) in Yaqui, which are used to introduce a clause that provides the cause/reason for which the situation denoted in the associated clause is carried out. The goal of this paper is to describe the morphosyntactic diversity present in Yaqui cause/reason adverbial clauses and to explain this diversity considering the evolutionary paths that have originated the three different cause/reason markers in Yaqui. These three markers are associated with three different sources: betchi’ibo originates from a postpositional marker that extended its use from noun phrases to clausal constituents; bwe’ituk comes from discourse via the recruitment of a discourse marker of discontinuity (the discourse marker bwe); and po(r)ke arises from language contact with Spanish.

Keywords: cause/reason adverbial clauses, discourse marker, postposition, switch-reference system, syntactic calque
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Yaqui language
  • 3.Cause/reason adverbial clauses in Modern Yaqui
    • 3.1 betchi’ibo
    • 3.2 bwe’ituk
    • 3.3 po(r)ke
  • 4.Cause/reason adverbial clauses in Old Cahita
    • 4.1Cause/reason adverbial clauses in Old Cahita
    • 4.2The multifunctionality of teca in Old Cahita
  • 5.The origin of cause/reason adverbial markers in Yaqui
    • 5.1The origin of po(r)ke
    • 5.2The origin and evolution of betchi’ibo in Yaqui
      • 5.2.1Other uses of betchi’ibo in Yaqui
        • 5.2.1.1Benefactive/malefactive postposition
        • 5.2.1.2Causal postposition
        • 5.2.1.3Purposive postposition
        • 5.2.1.4Purposive adverbial marker
      • 5.2.2Postpositional and spatial origins of betchi’ibo
      • 5.2.3The uses of betchi’ibo in Old Cahita
      • 5.2.4The rise to causal adverbial marker
    • 5.3The origin of bwe’ituk in Yaqui
      • 5.3.1The bwe’ituk formation
      • 5.3.2The discourse marker bwe
        • 5.3.2.1The origin of bwe
        • 5.3.2.2The discursive functions of the particle bwe
      • 5.3.3The functional motivations of the bwe recruitment
      • 5.3.4Discursive uses of bwe’ituk in Yaqui
  • 6.Final remarks
  • Notes
  • Abbreviations
  • References
Published online: 3 June 2021
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/slcs.219.12alv
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