Fluidity in argument indexing in Komnzo

3.2.1 The definition of verb templates

For a complete description of verb templates, it is useful to expand our categorisation and make further subdivisions beyond prefixing versus ambifixing. The morphological slots involved in the definition of templates are the following: (i) the undergoer prefix, (ii) the diathetic prefix, and (iii) the actor suffix.^[3] On the basis of the presence versus absence of these slots and on the basis of what is encoded in them, we can define the five templates that are shown in Table 3. The undergoer prefix can index either the p argument of a transitive verb form or the s argument of an intransitive verb form. Furthermore, it can be filled with a person/number-invariant form, which I call the middle prefix. The diathetic prefix slot can be empty or be filled by the diathetic prefix a- (DIA). The neutral label ‘diathetic’ is used here because its function is underspecified, as it can either decrease or increase valency (cf. Döhler 2022a,b). Finally, the actor suffix can index the a argument of a transitive verb form, or the s argument of an intransitive verb form. Moreover, the actor suffix can be absent for those intransitives, which index the s argument in the prefix.

Thus, Komnzo is an example of a split-intransitive system (Merlan 1985) or split-s system (Dixon 1994). One type of intransitive indexes their s argument in the prefix like the p argument in the transitive template. I call this pattern prefixing template. The second type of intransitive indexes their s argument in the suffix like the a argument in the transitive template. This is one function of what I call the middle template.

From the possibilities of these three morphological slots, we can now define five verb templates, as shown in Table 3.^[4] As mentioned earlier, the presence versus absence of the actor suffix creates a distinction between prefixing and ambifixing templates. A second criterion is the presence versus absence of the diathetic prefix, which changes the reference of the undergoer prefix from a p to a beneficiary (ben) or possessor (poss).^[5] The corresponding nominal is then flagged with either dative or possessive case. I call this template, the ‘(io) template,’ i.e. io for indirect object. This is possible for verbs in the transitive template creating the ‘transitive (io) template,’ which could also be called ‘ditransitive template.’ However, I avoid this term because the process is so productive in the language, that it is better to analyse all ditransitives as being derived (cf. Section 3.2.3). The diathetic prefix is also possible for intransitive verbs in the prefixing template, which creates the ‘prefixing (io) template.’ Finally, the diathetic prefix is used together with the middle prefix creating the ‘middle template.’^[6] Henceforth, I use the labels prefixing, prefixing (io), middle, transitive and transitive (io) when referring to the five templates. I give concrete examples in (5a–e).

As mentioned earlier, template fluidity is one of the main characteristics of the system in Komnzo. This does not mean that all verb stems can occur in all templates. While the system is fluid for some verbs, there are restrictions for most verb lexemes. In fact, only a small number of lexemes can occur in all templates. An example is the verb migsi (mig-∣mir-) ‘hang’ in (5a–e). In the examples, we can see how the different templates change the meaning of the verb. Note that the examples are all elicited and appear here in a reduced gloss, which ignores all TAM information. Examples (5a–e) correspond to the five templates as they are listed in Table 3.

3.2.2 The semantics of verb templates

Since I address the topic of lexical semantics and how it interacts with template fluidity, it seems appropriate to first describe the meaning contributed by the different templates. This can be done in two ways. First, we can cycle a single verb lexeme through the five templates and see how this affects its meaning, as was done in examples (5a–e). Second, we can examine the verb forms in the corpus for each template and refine more general semantic categories. This is done below.

The prefixing template (5a–b) is used for intransitive verbs. Typical verb meanings found in the prefixing template are shown in (6), which is a non-exhaustive list. It follows from the list that the prefixing template expresses state-like meanings, and these are often non-volitional. Notable exceptions are a few dynamic verbs like yak- ‘walk, come’, thefäsi ‘jump’ and yarenzsi ‘look around’.

The middle template is used for dynamic (and often volitional) events. These involve the verb meanings in (7). In fact, the majority of intransitives are expressed in the middle template, i.e. they are morphological middles or reflexiva tanta (in the sense of Geniušienė 1987). The middle template is multifunctional. In example (5c), we saw the verb migsi ‘hang’ in an inchoative, reflexive alternation (‘hang self up’, or ‘assume hanging position’). The middle template is used for various valency alternations including impersonals, reflexives/reciprocals, and passives (cf. Section 3.2.3). The interpretation of an inflected verb form in the middle template, e.g. whether it is impersonal or passive, results from lexical semantics interacting with case marking on the nominal (Döhler 2018, 187).

The transitive template (5d) is the main ‘biactant construction’ in Komnzo (in the sense of Lazard 2002). The corresponding actor nominal is flagged with the ergative case, while the undergoer is unmarked, i.e. in the absolutive case. We have seen examples of this above in (1a), (2a), and (4). Typical verb meanings found in the transitive template are shown in (8).

The transitive (io) template is the ditransitive construction in Komnzo. In comparison with the (simple) transitive template, the addition of the diathetic prefix changes the reference of the prefix from a patient or theme to a beneficiary or possessor, as in (5e). The dependent nominal is accordingly flagged with dative or possessive case. Examples of verbs in this template are as follows: yarisi ‘give’, trikasi ‘tell’, fänzsi ‘show’, and rbänzi ‘explain’. However, these verb stems may also occur in the transitive template, in which case they index the patient or theme, rather than the beneficiary, and they change their meaning slightly (e.g., trikasi ‘tell’ becomes ‘report’, or yarisi ‘give’ becomes ‘transfer’). As a consequence, one can argue that all ditransitives are derived (Döhler 2018, 206). I expand this argument in the following section.

3.2.3 Valency alternations

The system of templates is used for valency alternations. For example, the verb marasi (mar-) ‘see’ occurs in the transitive (9) and in the middle template (10). There are 302 inflected forms of this lexeme in the corpus. The majority of tokens (290) are in the transitive template. It follows that the use of the middle template in (10) is best analysed as a reciprocal alternation. Note that reflexives and reciprocals are encoded identically in Komnzo (Döhler 2022b).

Another example is the causative alternation in (11), where the speaker describes how gardens are shifted to a new location from year to year. The verb brigsi (brig-∣brim-) ‘return’ is used in the middle template in (11a). In (11b), the transitive template introduces a causer to the argument structure, and thus, ‘bring back’ is a better translation. The verb brigsi occurs 171 times in the corpus. The majority of tokens (133) are in the middle template. Thus, the use of the transitive template in (11b) is best analysed as a causative alternation.

A third example is the applicative alternation, which is encoded by the transitive (io) template. In example (12), we see the verb brigsi in the transitive (io) template. In addition to the adverb nezä ‘in return’, it is the template that expresses the meaning ‘pay him back’. A more literal translation of (12) would be ‘return something for him’.

Almost all verbs can be applicativised in this way in Komnzo. The argument indexed in the prefix is usually flagged with the dative case or possessive case. This is shown with the verb rinaksi (rinak-∣rin-) ‘pour’ in example (14). The verb is in the transitive template in (13), while it occurs in the transitive (io) template in the following example.

Applicativisation is also possible for prefixing verbs. In example (15), the s argument (‘old man’) of yukrasi ‘stand’ is indexed the verb, while in the following example (16), it is the possessor (‘the old man’), even though it is clear that the state-of-affairs described by the verb is about the s argument (‘taros’). Note that the inflection in (16) is still mono-valent, because only one argument can be indexed in either of the two prefixing templates. The same is true for (14) above. The verb remains bivalent in its morphology, because no more than two arguments can be indexed in this template.

3.2.4 Deponency

A number of verbs in Komnzo are deponent with respect to the diathetic prefix. I understand deponency here as a mismatch between morphology and morpho-syntax (Baerman et al. 2006). These verbs employ the diathetic prefix obligatorily, i.e. they always occur in the prefixing (io) or transitive (io) template, but the argument indexed in the undergoer prefix is the s argument and the p argument, respectively. The dependent nominal is then in the absolutive, and not in possessive or dative case. For example, the prefixing verb yathizsi (-thiz∣-thif) ‘suffer, die’ only occurs in the prefixing (io) template. One would expect that the prefix indexes a recipient or possessor in this template, as in (5b) or (16). However, as we can see in (17) and (18), it is the s argument in absolutive case, which is indexed.^[7]

There are also deponent transitive verbs, which always employ the transitive (io) template. The prefix in these inflections always indexes the p argument. Examples for deponent transitives are fiyoksi (fiyok-∣fiyoth-) ‘make’, frmnzsi (frmnz-∣frms-) ‘prepare’ and dagon (na-∣wob-) ‘eat’. As this article is concerned with prefixing verbs, I will not address deponent transitive verbs here.

3.2.5 Summary

It follows from the description that there is a certain degree of template fluidity. Most verbs can occur in different templates and labels such as ‘transitive verb’ or ‘middle verb’ are often a matter of (corpus) frequency. As we have seen, verbs of the type brigsi ‘return’ can be characterised as middle verbs, because they occur in this template most of the time, whereas verbs of the type marasi ‘see’ can be characterised as transitive verbs on the same grounds.

There are two types of exceptions to template fluidity. First, there are many verb stems that are fixed in their template choice. For example, moth (kwir-∣math-) ‘run’ and thweksi (thwek-∣thweth-) ‘rejoice’ always occur in the middle template. We may call these middle-only verb. Likewise, the verbs mthizsi (mthiz-∣mthif-) ‘rest’ and etfth (ru-) ‘sleep’ always occur in the prefixing template. We may call these prefixing-only verb.

Second, template choice alters the meaning for some verbs to such a degree that it would be misleading to call this an alternation. For example, the verb rbänzsi (rbänz-∣rbs-) has the meaning ‘untie’ in a transitive template, but ‘explain’ in a transitive (io) template. A more literal translation of the latter would be ‘to untie something for someone’ and by semantic extension this means ‘explain’. Another example of this type is karksi (kark-∣kar-), which has the meaning ‘pull’ in a middle template, but ‘take away from someone’ in a transitive template. A more literal translation of the latter would be ‘to pull something from someone’ and by semantic extension this means ‘take’. Such pairs are best analysed as separate lexemes, but often a clear-cut decision between analysing them as alternations or as separate lexemes is not possible.

4.3.1 Template fluidity

With respect to template fluidity, prefixing verbs can be divided into two groups: those that occur only in the prefixing template, and those that occur in other templates as well. Of the 63 prefixing verbs, only 12 are prefixing-only. The remaining 51 verbs can occur in one or all of the ambifixing templates.

An example of a prefixing-only verb is wäksi, which means literally ‘be caught by daybreak’ or ‘experience daybreak’.^[10] The verb is shown in example (19). In the text, the speaker describes the malignant actions of a sorcerer during the night time.

By semantic extension, this lexeme can also be used to mean ‘wake up’, as in example (20). The speaker here describes how they stayed overnight for an event in the neighbouring village.

After what has been described previously, one would expect that this lexeme can also be used in a more dynamic sense in the middle template (‘awaken’), and also with a more volitional sense in the transitive template (‘wake someone’). However, wäksi never occurs in these templates. This gap in the system is filled by a distinct lexeme: bnazsi ‘wake up, get up, rise’. This is shown for the middle template in (21) and the transitive template in (22). In turn, bnazsi cannot be used in the prefixing template. Thus, it seems that in this case, it is the lexical semantics of the two verbs that constrains template fluidity.

A contrasting example is the verb thgusi ‘forget’, which occurs in the prefixing template as well as the ambifixing templates in the corpus.^[11] I provide a longer example in (23), which comes from a botanical walk, during which two speakers were showing me various plants. In the example, the speakers RNA and JAA comment on a particular tree. In (23a), RNA points out that they do not know its name. First, this is done with thgusi in the prefixing template, which frames ‘forget’ as a stative. Note also the use of the iamitive marker z ‘already’. After some further elaboration in (23b) and (23c), she returns to the fact that she does not know the name. In (23d), she intends to say fämmäre z yf zäziré (literally: ‘I fell down without thinking’), which is a more metaphorical way of saying that one has forgotten something. However, she interrupts her speech and corrects herself by using thgusi again. This time the verb occurs in the middle template, which has a more dynamic meaning.^[12]

We can see from the example that there are more lexical constraints for wäksi than for thgusi in terms of template fluidity. It follows that template choice creates a difference in meaning for thgusi, whereas this is done via lexeme choice for wäksi vs bnazsi. As we will see in the following section, template fluidity is highest for verbs that express postures and position.

4.3.2 The verb ‘be’

It is worth pointing out the idiosyncracies for the existential verb -rä ‘be’ with respect to template fluidity. This verb can occur in all templates, but in the ambifixing templates, it is used as a light verb meaning ‘do’. In terms of frequency, the majority of tokens (3799) are in the prefixing template meaning ‘be’. Only 323 tokens are in ambifixing templates meaning ‘do’. I give an example of -rä in each of the five templates in (24–28).

In a prefixing (io) template, the verb -rä may express possession, as in (25), where the possession is negated.

As a light verb, its meaning is often specified by another nominal or by a following full verb. In (26), -rä occurs in the middle template and is further specified by the nominal fam ‘thought’. This is in fact the most common way to express the concept of ‘thinking’ in Komnzo (lit. ‘do thoughts’).

In (27), -rä occurs in the transitive template and is followed by the full verb kwthenzsi ‘change’, which further specifies its meaning.

Finally, the verb -rä can occur in the transitive (io) template with the meaning ‘do for someone’. In (28), its meaning is not further specified because the context was enough to know that the speaker meant ‘get for someone’. Note that the beneficiary indexed in the prefix is flagged with the dative case (tayafeŋ n ‘for Tayafe’).

4.3.3 Fourth number value

Prefixing verbs allow for various types of special morphology. One such type is the formation of a fourth number value. As in most Yam languages, argument number is distributed over two morphological slots. The person affixes (as well as free pronouns and case markers) make a distinction between singular and non-singular. Dual number is encoded in a special slot, which makes a distinction between dual and non-dual. Singulars combine a singular with a non-dual, duals a non-singular with a dual, and plurals a non-singular with a non-dual. Prefixing verbs allow for the construction of a large plural by combining the singular in the person affix with a dual.^[13] The semantic reading of a large plural can be either exhaustive (‘all X’) or large (‘many X’). This fourth number value is possible only if the particular lexeme occurs in the prefixing template. Those prefixing verbs which can occur in other templates, e.g. in the middle template, cannot encode large plurals in the middle template.

Speakers have commented on large plural inflections as something ‘that old people say.’ Indeed, in the whole corpus, there is a single example of a large plural (29) that occurs in a story told by an older speaker who is now deceased.^[14]

4.3.4 Positional verbs

Another example of special morphology is the stative suffix, which simultaneously encodes dual number: -thgr (non-dual) and -thgn or sometimes -thgrn (dual). The ability to take this suffix, sets up a class of positional verb. These are shown in Table 4 as the first group of verbs. With its 40 members, positional verbs form the largest group within the prefixing verbs. They may express inherent disposition without reference to a ground, e.g. mreznsi ‘be straight’ or myuknsi ‘be twisted’. Most verbs of this groups express position of a figure with respect to some ground, e.g. thorsi ‘be inside a closed container’ or ththaksi ‘be pinned on something’. These meanings can be very specific as in rngthksi ‘be wedged in a tree fork’ (usually of pig’s jaw as hunting trophies) or zaksi ‘be anchored’ (usually of a canoe by the riverbank). Example (30) shows the verb räzsi ‘erect’ in the prefixing template with the stative suffix. Accordingly, the gloss for this lexeme in this template is ‘be erected’.

All positional verbs can be used in all other templates. The following examples show this again for the verb räzsi ‘erect’. Note that this was already exemplified in Section 3.2 for migsi ‘hang’ with elicited examples. Example (31) shows räzsi in the middle template and describes how a person fell from a tree and landed head-first in the mud.

Example (32) shows räzsi in the transitive template. The speaker instructs his friends in this text to build, i.e. to ‘erect’, a house at this place.

There are some prefixing verbs, which do not take the stative suffix, but nevertheless have positional semantics. The first group is a set of the four verbs: msaksi ‘be sitting’, rmigufaksi ‘be in the middle’, yufaksi ‘be bent over’ and yukrasi ‘be standing’. These share with positionals that they can also occur in all other templates. The second set consists of two prefixing-only verbs with positional semantics: wä- ‘be up high’ and -thn ‘be lying down’.

Taken as a group, positional verbs occur more often in one of the ambifixing templates than in the prefixing template. The figures from Table 4 show that there are 120 tokens in the prefixing templates versus 545 tokens in one of the three ambifixing templates. This varies a lot for individual lexemes, but taken together, one should analyse the prefixing template for this subclass of verbs as an alternation. In other words, their spatial or positional semantics allows them to be used in the prefixing template with the stative suffix (-thgr/-thgn). This ability makes positional verbs the subclass with the highest degree of template fluidity.

4.3.5 Restrictions on TAM

Another morphological irregularity of prefixing verbs is the fact that they are limited in their ability to express certain TAM categories. Most of them cannot express perfectives. Similar to the expression of the fourth number, this restriction only applies when these verbs are used in the prefixing template. For example, positional verbs cannot express perfectives in the prefixing template. This is only possible when they are used in a middle or transitive template, as can be seen with räzsi in (31) and (32).

It seems that the stative semantics of the template are the reason for this restriction. However, there are a few prefixing-only verbs which do allow perfectives, e.g. yak- ‘walk, come’ and yarenzsi ‘look around’. I take these as exceptions to the rule that the prefixing template encodes stative, non-volitional semantics.

4.3.6 Infinitival forms and stem changes

Many prefixing verbs lack an infinitive. Regular infinitives are formed by adding the nominalising suffix -si to the verb stem, e.g. msak is the stem of ‘sit, dwell’ and the corresponding infinitive is msaksi. Some verbs have irregular stems and they employ a noun instead, e.g. fn- is the stem of ‘hit, kill’. Instead of a regular infinitive, the nominal zan ‘hitting, killing’ is used, which can also mean ‘fight, war’. Finally, there are many verbs which lack an infinitival form. The point here is that this happens more often for prefixing-only verbs. About half of them lack an infinitive. Note that this is not the case for the more labile prefixing verbs that may occur in the ambifixing templates, including all positional verbs. Komnzo positionals differ from Nen in this respect, where Evans explains that all positionals lack an infinitive (2014, 236).

Most prefixing verbs have a distinct, usually shorter, stem for this template. For example, the verb msaksi has, like most verbs, two stems which are sensitive to aspect: msak and ms. The latter is used to form perfectives.^[15] These two stems are only used in ambifixing templates, whereas in the prefixing template, the stem of this verb is simply m. Such pairs (or rather triplets) can be found for many of the positional verbs (cf. Döhler 2018, 198).

4.3.7 Deponency

Quite a number of prefixing verbs are deponent in the sense explained in Section 3.2.4. Fourteen of the 63 prefixing verbs occur in the prefixing (io) template, even though the indexed argument is an s argument in the absolutive case, not in the dative or the possessive. This observation might help in explaining some of the idiosyncracies for certain lexemes. For example, the prefixing-only verb ‘shout’ has the stem -nor. This is shown in example (33).

At first sight, this verb violates the semantic profile of the prefixing template in being both dynamic and volitional. However, the stem -nor is often preceded by a nominal that specifies its meaning in some way. For example, -nor is often preceded by kwan ‘shout (n)’ to express the concept of shouting (literally: ‘to shout the shout’), which is similar to English cognate object constructions (‘sing a song’). In example (34), -nor is preceded by the nominal ya ‘tears’ and the combination of ya ‘tears’ + -nor ‘shout’ then means ‘cry’.

There are a number of such combinations: wth ‘excretes’ + -nor means ‘fart’, or even frk ‘blood’ + -nor ‘shout’ meaning ‘bleed’. In the light of these kinds of examples, one could translate -nor in a more non-volitional sense as ‘emit a sound’. Once we adopt this translation, the transitive (io) template comes as a natural coding strategy because the sounds that are emitted must be ‘someone’s sounds’, i.e. they are possessed by the person, or animal, or object that emits them. The expected possessive case marking was probably lost, or simply reanalysed at some point in time, resulting in a deponent structure.