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Nominalization in Languages of the Americas
Edited by Roberto Zariquiey, Masayoshi Shibatani and David W. Fleck
[Typological Studies in Language 124] 2019
► pp. 301–340

Chapter 7
The ‘relative’ illusion and the origin of non-subject nominalizers in Cahita (Uto-Aztecan)

| Universidad de Sonora

This paper proposes to analyze non-subject relative clauses in Cahita languages (†Tehueco, Yaqui, and Mayo, from the Uto-Aztecan family) as non-subject grammatical nominalizations used as appositives in restrictive appositions. This analysis is based on a diachronic perspective which considers the origin of the markers involved in these constructions as well as the evolutionary paths that lead to the relativization function. The study shows that the different origins proposed for non-subject nominalizers in Cahita (a possessed nominal classifier, a subject nominalizer, a directional postposition, and a locative postposition) are all different types of nominal markers indicating that the base clause/verb is treated as a nominal constituent; that is, that the construction has been nominalized. As for the evolution to the relativization function, the first nominalization uses of these markers are always associated with a referential function and the modifying function corresponds to a secondary development made via apposition, indicating that non-subject relativization in Cahita corresponds in fact to a specialized function of the non-subject nominalization: the modifying function of a possessed non-subject nominalization used as an appositive in a restrictive apposition.

Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.The nominalization approach to relativization
    • 2.1The notion of nominalization
    • 2.2The notion of relativization
    • 2.3The notion of apposition
    • 2.4The nominalization/relativization syncretism
    • 2.5Terminological problems in the domain of RCs
    • 2.6The origin of the nominalization/relativization syncretism
  • 3.The Cahita language(s)
  • 4.Non-subject nominalizations in Cahita
    • 4.1Old Cahita
    • 4.2Modern Cahita
      • 4.2.1Yaqui
      • 4.2.2Mayo
  • 5.The origin of the Cahita non-subject nominalization markers
    • 5.1The origin of the suffix -ye
    • 5.2The origin of the suffixes -’u/-’Vwi in Yaqui and in Mayo
    • 5.3An alternative source for the suffix -’u in Yaqui
      • 5.3.1The suffix -u in Old Cahita
        • 5.3.1.1Former agent nominalizer
        • 5.3.1.2Former attribuand nominalizer
        • 5.3.1.3Action/result nominalizer
      • 5.3.2The suffix -’u in Yaqui
  • 6.Final remarks
  • Abbreviations
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 8 August 2019
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/tsl.124.07gon
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