The benefactive phrase of a ditransitive verb is somehow more central to the meaning of the sentence than a benefactive that can occur with other verbs.
38
Furthermore, the more usual benefactive phrase can co-occur with the indirect object one. When this happens, the
benefactive phrase which is not the indirect object follows the indirect object one: 54 a. Transitive verb with benefactive:
Da-soka to
ada ly-myn.
I-chop the
tree him-BEN
‘I chopped the tree for him.’ b. Ditransitive with indirect object and benefactive:
Da-siki-fa no
ly-myn by-myn.
I-give-FUT it
him-BEN you-BEN
‘I will give it to him for you’
2.4.1.3 Event Verb Structure
The total Arawak event verb word is composed of the verb stem either simple or derived and its affixes. There is one prefix position preceding the stem, and there are eight suffix positions follow-
ing it. The affixes and their order relative to the verb stem may be found in Figure 7. Numbers rep- resent position classes. A negative numbered class is a prefix; positive ones are suffixes. Absolute
value indicates distance from stem. Affixes in the same order class cannot co-occur. Other co- occurrence restrictions are discussed in the text.
–1 +1
+2 +3
+4 +5
+6 +7
+8 pron
stem -n -thi
-ra -ma
-bo -ba
-the pron
SUB WH.S
EXPECT HABIL CONT
AWAY COME
-tho -na
-thi -ka
WH.S UNEXP DESID
PERF -sia
-li -fa
WH.O NESS
FUT -ja
PAST.CONT -nbia
INCH -›
PAST Figure 7. Event Verb Structure
2.4 Verbs 31
38
See Section 4.4.4.2 for a discussion of relativization where postposition stranding facts seem to indicate the indirect object is also syntactically more closely bound to the verb than other benefactive postpositional phrases.
At the peripheries of the event verb word order classes –1 and +8 are the personal pronoun prefixes and suffixes which were previously discussed. A morphologically bound
pronoun occurring in position –1 of an event verb is the subject of that verb; one occurring in position +8 is the direct object of course intransitive verbs cannot take a direct ob-
ject.
39
Order classes +1 to +7 consist of various aspect, mood, and directional suffixes. A brief discussion of each order class and the suffixes in it follows.
2.4.1.3.1 Subordinator Class +1 In the first position, +1, following the stem, only the suffix -n occurs. It is the subordi-
nating morpheme SUB, used whenever a verb is in a subordinate clause, and can co-occur with any of the other suffixes. For example:
55 To d-osy-n-bo
jon, abali
anda-the ... the
I-go-SUB-CONT there
one.man arrive-COME
‘Concerning what happened while I was going there, a man arrived ...’ The suffix -n, if it is the only affix on a verb, yields the verb’s citation form—that is, the
form used by Arawaks to talk about a particular verb. It is roughly equivalent to an English gerund or infinitive. For example:
56 andy-n ‘to arrivearriving’
anda-n ‘to touchtouching’
osy-n ‘to gogoing’
salabady-n ‘to make a square post from a log’
2.4.1.3.2 Relativizers Class +2 The second position after the verb stem consists of three relativizing suffixes -thi, -tho,
and -sia, one of which must be used whenever an event verb’s subject or direct object has been relativized.
57 a. -thi ‘WH.SUBJ’ relativized [+human +male] subject: Li
wadili [› dykha-THI-bo d-arakabosan khonan] andy-fa
th-abo mothi. The man [› look.after-WH.SUBJ-CONT my-gun
on] arrive-FUT it-with tomorrow
‘The man who is looking after my gun will arrive with it tomorrow.’ b. -tho ‘WH.SUBJ’ relativized [+human –male] or [–human] subject
Da-wada-bo to
pero [›
rydy-THO de].
I-search-CONT the
dog [›
bite-WH.SUBJ me]
‘I am looking for the dog that bit me.’ c. -sia ‘WH.OBJ’ relativized direct object
D-othika to
kharasy-n [by-mikodo-SIA
› da-myn.]
I-receive the
write-SUB [you-send-WH.OBJ
› me-BEN]
‘I received the writing =letter you sent me.’ 32
Phonology and Morphology
39
See Section 2.3.1 for further discussion on pronouns.
