Article published in:
Valence Changes in Zapotec: Synchrony, diachrony, typology
Edited by Natalie Operstein and Aaron Huey Sonnenschein
[Typological Studies in Language 110] 2015
► pp. 117–138

Chapter 7. Valence-changing operations in Coatecas Altas Zapotec

| SIL International
Valence-increasing devices in Coatecas Altas Zapotec (hereafter CAZ) include derivational causatives, inflectional causatives, lexical and paradigmatic suppletion, syntactic causatives and incorporation. Valence-decreasing devices in CAZ include experiencer/anticausative verbs. These are intransitive or transitive verbs of perception, and whose syntactic subject is semantically a patient. Other valence-decreasing devices in CAZ include stative verbs, and object incorporation. Reflexives and reciprocals are not valence-decreasing devices in CAZ because they retain their transitive argument structure. Of particular significance is that approximately 33% of CAZ verbs take da, the lexically-conditioned first person singular experiencer/anticausative pronoun. Da is phonologically very similar to anticausative verbal prefixes found in other Zapotec variants (du- in Zaniza Zapotec and d- in Texmelucan, Yatzachi and Choapam Zapotec).
Published online: 16 December 2015
https://doi.org/10.1075/tsl.110.07ben
References
Butler H., Inez M
1976 Verb classification of Yatzachi Zapotec. SIL-Mexico Workpapers 2: 74-84.Google Scholar
Benton, Joseph
2011 Vocabulario bilingüe del zapoteco de San Juan Coatecas Altas. Ms, SIL International.
Benton, Joe & Marlett, Stephen A
2008 Special first person subjects. Ms, SIL International.
Comrie, Bernard
1976 Aspect: An Introduction to the Study of Verbal Aspect and Related Problems. Cambridge: CUP.Google Scholar
Lyman, Boulden Hilario
2007 Gramática popular del zapoteco de Comaltepec, Choapan, Oaxaca. México: SIL.Google Scholar
Operstein, Natalie
(with contributions from Aaron Huey Sonnenschein) 2011 A survey of valence-changing operations in Zapotec. Position paper presented at the Special Session on Valence-Changing Devices in Zapotecan at the Annual Meeting of the Society for the Study of the Indigenous Languages of the Americas, Portland, Oregon, January 2012.
Smith Stark, Thomas C
2002 Las clases verbales del zapoteco de Chichicapan. In Memorias del VI Encuentro Internacional de Lingüística en el Noroeste, Vol. 2, Zarina Estrada Fernández & Rosa María Ortiz Ciscomani (eds), 166-212. Hermosillo: University of Sonora.Google Scholar
Speck, Charles H
1984 The phonology of the Texmelucan Zapotec verb. International Journal of American Linguistics 50: 139-164. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Vendler, Zeno
1957 Verbs and times. The Philosophical Review 66: 143-160. CrossrefGoogle Scholar