Event Verb Stem Forms
have a third stem form, an “oa-stem,” which seems to be an agentless passive and also functions as a reflexive.
28
2.4.1.1.1 “Basic-stem” and “A-stem” Forms The “basic-stem” forms of verbs all have an e, i, o, or y but not
29
a as the nucleus of
their last syllable. They are here named “basic” because the specific vowel found in their last syllable is unpredictable and because they are the forms from which the other stem
forms are derived. The “a-stem,” as its name implies, has an a as the nucleus of its final syl- lable. In most, if not all, cases it can be derived from the basic-stem form by replacing the
vowel of the final syllable of a basic-stem with an a.
36 a. Basic-stem Forms: osy-n
go-SUB ‘to go’
andy-n arrive-SUB
‘to arrive’ morodo-n
fly-SUB ‘to fly’
dinamy-n stand.up-SUB
‘to stand up’ b. Corresponding A-stem Forms:
osa-n wander-SUB
‘to wander around’ anda-n
touch-SUB ‘to touch or feel’
moroda-n fly.around-SUB
‘to fly around’ dinama-n
pace.around-SUB ‘to pace up and down’
As can be seen in the preceding examples, the basic-stem and a-stem forms consistently differ in how they present the action of the verb: whether they present an action as what
might be called “bounded” or “unbounded” in time. That is, the basic-stem forms view an action as happening at some specifiable point or range in time and as having a starting or
ending point, or both. The a-stem forms, on the other hand, emphasize the action of the verb itself as an event with duration, and neither the start nor the terminus of the action
seems to be in focus.
The preceding examples of the basic-stem and a-stem forms were all of intransitive verbs. However, transitive verbs also have these stem forms. For example, notice the following
pairs of sentences:
30
37 a. Li fary-fa
aba kabadaro.
he kill-FUT
one jaguar
‘He will kill a jaguar.’ 2.4 Verbs
25
28
This oa-stem seems to bears a certain resemblance to the Greek “middle” voice which also seems to have both a passive and a reflexive interpretation see Lyons 1968:375ff. See also Taylor 1970a:210ff. for further
discussion of the three Arawak stem forms.
29
A number of verbs at first appeared to have only a-stems. In most cases, further investigation yielded basic-stem forms not ending in a.
30
These sentences are presented in the future tense because the phonological difference between the basic- and a
-stem forms is most clearly seen in this tense. The tense suffixes in Arawak all also contain an aspect component in their meaning see Chapter 5 on discourse. This interacts with the stem forms such that the difference between
the stem forms is often neutralized see discussion in following paragraphs.
b. Li fara-fa.
he fight-FUT
‘He will fight.’ 36 a. Thy-simaky-fa-i.
she-call-FUT-him ‘She will call him.’
b. Thy-simaka-fa. she-yell-FUT
‘She will yellscream.’ 37 a. Na-mithady-fa
de. they-ridicule-FUT
me ‘They will ridicule me.’
b. Na-mithada-fa. they-laugh-FUT
‘They will laugh.’ 38 a. To
hiaro kanaby-fa
to kodibio-be.
the woman
hear-FUT the
bird-PL ‘The woman will hear the birds.’
b. To hiaro
kanaba-fa. the
woman listen-FUT
‘The woman will listen.’ As can be seen in the preceding sentences, the a-stems corresponding to transitive
basic-stems are usually intransitive.
31
It is almost never acceptable to add a direct object to clauses with a-stems.
26 Phonology and Morphology
31
There are some apparent exceptions to this, as is also noted by Taylor 1970:202. One is the potentially ditransitive verb sikin ‘to giveput’ which becomes just transitive.
Da-siki-fa no thy-myn.
I-give-FUT it
her-to ‘I will give it to her’
Da-sika-fa no
bahy-nro. I-bringtake-FUT
her home-toward
‘I will take her home.’ Other exceptions seem to occur in dummy verb sentences see section 3.2.2.
Ma-bolheidi-n d-a-ja-da
no. PRIV-throw.away-SUB
I-dummy-PAST.CONT-EPEN it
‘I didn’t throw it away particular act.’ Ma-bolheida-n d-a d-anikho.
PRIV-throw.away-SUB I-dummy my-belongings ‘I didn’t go about throwing my things away.’
41 Li fara-fa
to kabadaro.
he fight-FUT
the jaguar
‘He will fight with the jaguar.’ If the noun phrase corresponding to the direct object in the basic-stem form needs to be
mentioned, it must usually be done in the form of a postpositional phrase. When this noun phrase is a co-participant in the action of the verb, the postposition oma ‘with accompani-
ment’ is used. When it is not a co-participant, usually khonan ‘aboutonof’ is used.
42 a. Li fara-fa
to kabadaro
oma. he
fight-FUT the
jaguar with
‘He will fight with the jaguar.’ b. Na-mithada-fa
da-khonan. they-laugh-FUT
me-abouton ‘They will laugh about me.’
c. To hiaro
kanaba-fa to
kodibio-be khonan.
the woman
listen-FUT the
bird-PL abouton
‘The woman will listen to the birds.’ However, these postpositional phrases can be used with nearly any event verb, regardless
of its stem type. They are not restricted to a-stem forms. 41 Li
fary-fa aba
kabadaro de
oma. he
kill-FUT one
jaguar me
with ‘He and I will kill a jaguar.’
This seems to indicate that the a-stems of transitive verbs are really intransitive.
32
The only mechanism available by which to add another NP into an a-stem clause is the
same means by which one is added to other intransitive clauses—namely, by using it in a postpositional phrase.
As already mentioned, one of the characteristics of the a-stem is that the actions it ex- presses seem to be less bounded and more general. One additional characteristic is that the
a -stem form of some basic-stem forms can take on an iterative meaning. This is particularly
true of actions which cannot be easily viewed as stretched in time, such as ‘hit’. 42 a. Thy-fatady-fa
to kalhina
adadyna abo.
she-hit-FUT the
chicken branch
with ‘She will hit the chicken with a branch.’
2.4 Verbs 27
32
If one accepts Foley and Van Valin’s language typology 1984:107ff., Arawak is a Pragmatic-Pivot language. This can be demonstrated by the fact that the choice of which NP is the subject of a clause is not strictly
determined by the semantic case role of that NP. The intransitivizing effect seen in a-stems then seems to be similar to Foley and Van Valin’s pp.168ff. notion of “backgrounding antipassives [which] put the undergoer
outside the core” p. 173. That is, just as a passive demotes the subject usually agent of a clause to a peripheral role, an antipassive demotes the object usually undergoer. Although antipassives are often associated with
ergative languages, Arawak is an accusative language. Nevertheless other accusative languages also have been shown to have antipassives e.g. Foley and Van Valin mention pp. 173ff. Tzotzil.
b. Thy-fatada-fa to
kalhina khonan
adadyna abo.
she-hit-FUT the
chicken onabout
branch with
‘She will go about hitting the chicken with a branch.’ Although the meaning correspondence between basic-stem and a-stem forms is usually
predictable, some a-stems differ considerably from their basic-stem counterparts. 45 andyn
‘to arrive’ andan
‘to touch or feel’ thimin
‘to swim’ thiman
‘to cross’ 2.4.1.1.2 “Oa-stem” Forms: Passives and Reflexives
As its name implies, an “oa-stem” ends in oa. Verbs consisting of a single syllable derive this form by adding -noa. Verbs having two or more syllables in their stem may either re-
place the vowel of the final syllable with -oa or add -noa. No difference in meaning has been found between the oa-stem forms using -noa or -oa.
33
Oa -stems can be derived only
from transitive verbs, and function in Arawak both as passives and as reflexives or middles.
46 a. Ly-farynoa-bo. from faryn ‘to kill’
he-kill-CONT ‘He is being killed he is killing himself.’
b. Ly-fatadoa-bo. from fatadyn ‘to hit’
he-hit-CONT ‘He is being hit he is hitting himself.’
c. Tho-bokonoa-bo. from bokon ‘to cook’
sheit-boil-CONT ‘It is being cooked it is boiling.’
d. Da-sokoa.
from sokon ‘to chop’ I-chop
‘I was chopped chopped myself e.g. cut myself with a machete or ax.’ In each of the above sentences, the NP which is subject would have been direct object if
that sentence had had a basic-stem form verb.
34
This is very much like the English passive. For Arawak, however, the NP which would be in subject position if the clause had a basic-
stem form verb is completely outside the picture, and cannot be brought back in except in a very indirect fashion. Thus in example 47b below, doma ‘because’ conveys no specific
information as to the semantic relationship e.g. agent between the NP with which it is as- sociated and the verb of the sentence.
47 a. Li fatada
de. he
hit me
‘He hit me.’ 28
Phonology and Morphology
33
Forming the oa-stem with -noa does seem to be a bit more common in very explicit speech.
34
This corresponds to Foley and van Valin’s 1984:149ff. “foregrounding passive” which “permits non-actor arguments to occur as pivot [in this case subject] of a clause.”
b. Li doma
da-fatadoa. him
because I-got.hit
‘Because of him I got hit.’ or ‘Because of him I hit myself.’
c. Ly-dykhonoa. he-appear
‘He appeared.’ ‘He was seen.’
‘He saw himself.’ d. Thy-kanaboa.
she-get.heard ‘she was heard.’
‘She heard herself.’ Although the passive interpretation is possible for all sentences with oa-stem forms, the
reflexive one is not. For example, the oa-stem forms of dykhyn ‘to see’ 47c and kanabyn ‘to hear’ 47d have only the passive reading, and not the reflexive one. If the reflexive
reading is desired, it can only be obtained by circumlocution or paraphrase.
48 a. Ly-dykha l-yja.
he-see his-image
‘He saw himself.’ b. Thy-kanaba
thy-kanakyn. she-hear
her-sound ‘She heard herself.’
The unavailability of the reflexive reading for sentences using kanaboan ‘to be heard’ and dykoan ‘to be seen’ seems to have to do with the fact that the direct objects of their basic-stem forms are not
affected by the action of the verb. Semantically, the direct object of most transitive verbs is the re- cipient or patient
35
of the action of the verb. However, the direct object of ‘to hear’ or ‘to see’ does not participate in the action of the verb at all—either as patient or agent. In Grimes’ 1975 and
Longacre’s 1976 terms, it has more the role of “range.” This non-involvement seems to preclude the reflexive reading when such noun phrases are made the subject of a sentence.
Arawak currently seems to be under pressure from surrounding languages to replace the use of oa-stems to express the reflexive. Many younger people do not use the oa-stem at all for the
reflexive, but instead apply the suffix -waja ‘by.self’ or ‘alone’ to a direct object pronoun. 49 Ly-soka
ly-waja. he-chop
him-self ‘He chopped himself e.g. with a machete.’
This use of waja to create a reflexive pronoun follows the pattern of Dutch, the national language of Suriname, and also the pattern of Sranan Tongo, a creole language almost all
Arawaks in Suriname know and use daily. However, older speakers totally reject reflexive constructions of this sort. They insist the above sentence means:
2.4 Verbs 29
35
Grimes 1975:116ff.; Longacre 1976:28.
50 ‘He is chopping by himself i.e. he is chopping open a new planting ground by himself.’ 2.4.1.1.3 Interactions of Stem Forms and TenseAspect Suffixes
The morphological differences between the three stem forms of event verbs is not mani- fested in many of their occurrences. In particular, the difference between the basic and
a -stem forms is manifested only when the stem immediately precedes the following suf-
fixes:
36
-n ‘SUB’, -thi ‘WH.SUBJ’, -tho ‘WH.SUBJ’, -sia ‘WH.OBJ’, -fa ‘FUT’, and -nbia
‘INCH’. In all other circumstances, the basic-stem form also appears with an a. For exam- ple, the morphological difference between simakyn ‘to call someone’ and simakan ‘to yell
or cry out’ is lost when the present continuative suffix -bo is added. Thus one finds:
51 a. Da-simaka-bo no.
I-call-CONT her
‘I am calling her.’ b. Da-simaka-bo.
I-yell-CONT ‘I am yelling.’
Here the difference between “yell” and “call” must be obtained from the context—in this case, the presence of an object which is obligatory for transitive verbs.
Similarly, the difference between the a-stem form and the oa-stem form is lost preceding the future suffix -fa -ha in some dialects. Thus, tho-boko-fa in isolation can mean either ‘she will
cook i.e. make a meal’ or ‘it will boil’. Context, however, can disambiguate the meanings: 52 Tho-boko-fa
to khotaha
khonan. she-cook-FUT
the meat
abouton ‘She will cook a meal of meat’.