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Egophoricity
Edited by Simeon Floyd, Elisabeth Norcliffe and Lila San Roque
[Typological Studies in Language 118] 2018
► pp. 269–304

Chapter 9
Egophoricity and argument structure in Cha’palaa

| Universidad San Francisco de Quito | Max Planck Institute for Psycolinguistics

The Cha’palaa language of Ecuador (Barbacoan) features verbal morphology for marking knowledge-based categories that, in usage, show a variant of the cross-linguistically recurrent pattern of ‘egophoric distribution': specific forms associate with speakers in contrast to others in statements and with addressees in contrast to others in questions. These are not person markers, but rather are used by speakers to portray their involvement in states of affairs as active, agentive participants (ego) versus other types of involvement (non-ego). They interact with person and argument structure, but through pragmatic ‘person sensitivities’ rather than through grammatical agreement. Not only does this pattern appear in verbal morphology, it also can be observed in alternations of predicate construction types and case alignment, helping to show how egophoric marking is a pervasive element of Cha'palaa's linguistic system. This chapter gives a first account of egophoricity in Cha’palaa, beginning with a discussion of person sensitivity, egophoric distribution, and issues of flexibility of marking with respect to degree of volition or control. It then focuses on a set of intransitive experiencer (or ‘endopathic') predicates that refer to internal states which mark egophoric values for the undergoer role, not the actor role, showing ‘quirky’ accusative marking instead of nominative case. It concludes with a summary of how egophoricity in Cha'palaa interacts with issues of argument structure in comparison to a language with person agreement, here represented by examples from Cha’palaa’s neighbor Ecuadorian Highland Quechua.

Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.The Cha’palaa language
    • 2.1Basic clause types
    • 2.2The Cha’palaa finite clause in natural speech
  • 3.Person sensitivity and egophoric distribution
    • 3.1Person sensitivity
    • 3.2Egophoric distribution as a type of person sensitivity
  • 4.Basic egophoric morphology in Cha’palaa
    • 4.1Basic egophoric distributional patterns
    • 4.2Egophoricity in reported speech
    • 4.3Egophoric marking and plurality
  • 5.Issues of (in)flexibility in egophoric marking
    • 5.1Non-volitional actions
    • 5.2Egophoricity and dubitativity
    • 5.3Egophoricity in speaker questions
    • 5.4Egophoricity and evidentiality
  • 6.Egophoricity in experiencer constructions
    • 6.1Emotion constructions
    • 6.2Desiderative constructions
    • 6.3Volitional vs. non-volitional predicates
  • 7.Conclusion
    • 7.1Argument structure with egophoricity versus person agreement
    • 7.2A synthesis of Cha’palaa’s egophoric system
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • Abbreviations
  • References
Published online: 25 April 2018
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/tsl.118.09flo
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