On the Origin of Middle Voice and the Rise of Labile Syntax in Bribri Sara Pacchiarotti & Leonid Kulikov (Ghent University)

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On the origin of middle voice and the rise of labile syntax in Bribri Sara Pacchiarotti & Leonid Kulikov (Ghent University)

1 Introduction

In this paper, we show that the Bribri (Chibchan, Costa Rica) middle voice suffix -r derives passive voice from active transitive and agentive intransitive verbs, as well as anticausative verbs from nominal and adjectival roots (§3). In order to do this, we first introduce Bribri morphosyntactic features (§2) which are crucial to understand the data in the following sections. In §4, we argue that the -r suffix had originally an anticausative function and then developed into a middle marker. In §5, we show that there is a small group of verbs in Bribri which always carry the -r suffix and lack an active counterpart without the suffix -r (media tantum verbs). These verbs have become labile (and are the only labile verbs in Bribri), occurring in both intransitive and transitive constructions with no formal (supra)segmental change. In §6, we outline a novelty diachronic scenario for the rise of a small “island of lability” within the verbal system of a language with strict and overtly marked transitivity oppositions.

2 Active voice and transitivity in Bribri

Bribri is a Chibchan language spoken in Costa Rica, by approximately 13.000 people (Jara Murillo and García Segura 2013: 1). Data presented in this paper come from the Coroma variety.1 Bribri mostly shows an ergative- absolutive alignment pattern, where the absolutive category (S/P) is always unmarked (both on pronouns and lexical NPs) and appears obligatorily in preverbal position, while the ergative category (A) is marked by means of postpositions (wã, tö) and can appear either before or after the absolutive+verb sequence. The presence of two non-allomorphic, historically unrelated ergative markers instantiates what is (often) called “differential ergative marking” (McGregor 2009). Bribri displays morphological ergativity, but a clear S/A pivot (i.e. the target of certain syntactic operations) in many areas of syntax. Syntactic operations specifically targeting the S/A category (but not P) are control of co-reference of a third person anaphoric pronoun in a following possessive NP, control of co- reference under coordination, as well as NP equi-deletion in infinitival complement clauses, Subject to Object raising and passive voice derivation (Dickeman -Datz 1984). Bribri is a dependent-marking language with optional

1 First hand data in this paper are elicited. Elicited examples do not specify a source. These data were collected in the course of approximately 6 years by the first author while living in Costa Rica. Elicitation was carried out mainly with the native Bribri speaker and community leader Alí García Segura at the department of philology and linguistics at the Universidad de Costa Rica in San José. Alí García Segura has been working and publishing on Bribri language and culture for over 20 years. We greatly acknowledge his fundamental contribution to this paper. Second hand data come from published oral tradition texts and grammatical descriptions. An abbreviation in parentheses after the free translation of an example indicates the source from which the example was obtained. A number after the abbreviation, e.g. (ALB: 92) refers to the page number within that source. Abbreviations for second hand sources are as follows: ALB Aprendemos la lengua bribri (Jara Murillo and García Segura 2009), IHB: Itté Historias Bribris (Jara Murillo 1993), SOA: Cargos tradicionales del pueblo bribri: Siõ‘tãmĩ, Òköm, Awà (Jara Murillo and García Segura 2008). For full references, see bibliography. The glosses of all examples obtained from oral tradition texts are our own.

Virtual SLE 2020 Middle voice workshop verb indexation of (= verbal agreement with) the absolutive (S/P) category. Verbs in the active voice are either transitive or intransitive at the root level. There are two formal classes of verbs in Bribri: oral and nasal verbs (Constenla Umaña et al. 1998: 16). Oral verbs add the thematic vowel -ö [ʊ] after the root, while nasal verbs add the thematic vowel -ũ after the root. The infinitive ending -k is added after the thematic vowel, as in shk-ö-́ k ‘to walkʼ and sa- ́ ũ-k ‘to seeʼ (Jara Murillo and García Segura 2013: 98). In the imperfective aspect, active voice verb forms take different imperfective suffixes depending on whether they are transitive or intransitive (Constenla Umaña et al. 1998: 82). In the perfective aspect, the strict distinction between syntactically transitive and intransitive roots is no longer marked by dedicated morphology: transitive and intransitive roots show identical aspectual suffixes. Note that the remote perfective aspect has many morphophonologically unconditioned (i.e. suppletive) suffixes. Imperfective and perfective suffixes are shown Table 1. Table 1: Aspectual suffixes sensitive to root-level transitivity INTRANSITIVE TRANSITIVE

IMPERFECTIVE -ṹ (nasal), -ö́ (oral) -e ́ (nasal), -é (oral)

PERFECTIVE (RECENT) -ê, -e ̃̂

PERFECTIVE (REMOTE) -ã’, -ẽ’, -ĩ’, -õ’, -ũ’, -a’, -e’, -ë’, -i’, -o’, -ö’, -u’, -k, -t, -ts

Consider the syntactically transitive verb stem katöḱ ‘to eat (hard things)’ and the syntactically intransitive verb stem chaköḱ ‘to eat’. The root of the former takes the imperfective transitive suffix -é and thus must occur in a clause with two core arguments (1), while the root of the latter takes the imperfective intransitive suffix -ö ́ (identical to the thematic vowel -ö ́ ~ -ö) and can never occur in a clause with two core arguments (2). (1) saʼ tö kö́ chi chaká kat–é 1PL.EXCL ERG pig meat eat.hard.things–IPFV:TR ‘We eat pork meat.’

(2) saʼ chak–ö́ 1PL.EXCL eat–IPFV:INTR ‘We eat.’

In the perfective aspect, whether remote or recent, both verb forms take identical perfective suffixes (i.e. –ê for the recent perfective in (3) and (4)). (3) saʼ tö kö́ chi chaká kat–ê 1PL.EXCL ERG pig meat eat.hard.things–PFV.REC ‘We ate pork meat.ʼ

(4) saʼ chak–ê 1PL.EXCL eat–PFV.REC ‘We ate.’

The intransitive verb stem chaköḱ can never appear in a transitive construction, even in the perfective aspect, cf. the ungrammaticality of (5).

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(5) *saʼ tö kö́ chi chaká chak–ê 1PL.EXCL ERG pig meat eat–PFV.REC *‘We ate pork meat.’

Altogether, intransitive underived verb roots are less numerous than transitive verb roots (Jara Murillo and García Segura 2009). As far as we can tell, besides the media tantum verbs discussed in §5, no underived verb root in Bribri can be used both in syntactically intransitive as well as transitive constructions without undergoing derivation or changes in the marking of core grammatical relations. Accordingly, the media tantum verbs in §5 represent a small “island of lability” within the mass of non-labile verbs.

3 Functions of middle voice suffix -r

In Bribri [bzd] (Chibchan, Costa Rica), the -r suffix is used to derive passive voice from syntactically transitive and agentive intransitive verb roots. The -r suffix is also used to verbalize nominal and adjectival roots to produce intransitive anticausative predicates, that is, a predicate describing a change of state conceptualized as occurring spontaneously, without the instigation of a semantic agent. We use the term MIDDLE VOICE CLUSTER (MVC in examples’ glosses), following Kulikov (2011: 393), as a broader cover term to capture these intransitivizing functions of the -r suffix. This suffix is a reflex of Proto-Chibchan *-de, which Constenla (2008: 131) reconstructs as a marker of middle voice. This suffix does not have reflexive nor reciprocal functions. These functional domains are covered by morphology other than -r. Altogether, the range of functions of the -r suffix is narrower than the domain covered by middle voice in languages such as Greek, Sanskrit (Indo-European), or Georgian (Kartvelian), which typically include all or most of such functions as reflexive, passive, anticausative, antipassive, reciprocal and autobenefactive (see Kemmer 1993; Kulikov 2013, to mention just a few).

3.1 Passive voice derivation

Table 2 illustrates how passive voice is derived in Bribri by adding the -r suffix to the same base as the remote perfective form of active voice verbs but with the loss of any final glottal stop (Constenla Umaña et al. 1998: 26, Margery Peña 2005: lxiv). To form the passive perfective, the suffix -ẽ with a low tone is added after -r. In the passive, the imperfective has no special additional ending, and -r surfaces simply as /ɾ/. The infinitive ending of a passive voice stem is always -ũk, formed by the thematic vowel -ũ with a low tone (following –r) plus the infinitive ending -k. The forms in curly brackets are morphophonological notations underlying phonological forms. Table 2 also includes some examples of strong stem suppletion between infinitival and perfective forms (cf. chöḱ ‘to say’ and ppöḱ ‘to hit’).

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Table 2: Passive derivation from active voice verbs

ACT INF ACT REM PFV PASS STEM PASS INF PASS IPFV (-Ø) PASS PFV (-ẽ) tsöḱ tsë’ {tsë–r} tsë–́ n–ũk tsë–́ r tsë–́ n–ẽ ‘to sing’ ‘sang’ ‘to be sung’ ‘is sung’ ‘was sung’ ĩnṹk ĩnĩ’ {inĩ–r} ĩni– ́ n–ũk ĩni– ́ r ĩni– ́ n–ẽ ‘to play’ ‘played’ ‘to be played’ ‘is played’ ‘was played’ chöḱ yë’ {yë–r} yë–́ n–ũk yë–́ r yë–́ n–ẽ ‘to say’ ‘said’ ‘to be said’ ‘is said’ ‘was said’ ppöḱ bûk {buk–r} bú–n–ũk bú–r bú–n–ẽ ‘to hit’ ‘hit’ ‘to be hit’ ‘is hit’ ‘was hit’

The suffix -r is used in three types of passive constructions: (i) Agentless Passive (see 6 and 7); (ii) Impersonal Passive (see 8 and 9) and (iii) Potential Passive. We illustrate here only (i) and (ii). In Bribri, when the verb bears the -r suffix with passive voice function, an Agent phrase is not allowed in the construction. AGENTLESS PASSIVE (6) ieʼ tö baloʼ yaʼ tã̂ ĩ 3SG:PRX:H ERG chicha drink:PFV.REM much ‘He drank a lot of chicha.’

(7) baloʼ ya–r tã̂ ĩ chicha drink–MVC:IPFV much ‘A lot of chicha is drunk.’

IMPERSONAL PASSIVE (8) ieʼ tsëʼ tã̂ ĩ 3SG:PRX:H sing:PFV.REM much ‘He sang a lot.’

(9) tsë́–n–ẽ tã̂ ĩ sing–MVC–PFV much ‘There was a lot of singing/It was sung a lot.’

Crucial to the passive analysis of the -r morpheme is the fact that when this suffix is added to transitive verbs, it does not convey the meaning of an event that occurs spontaneously, i.e. without the instigation of an agent. In (10), the transitive verb stem tsaköḱ ‘to break’ appears in the active voice form with an ergative and an absolutive argument. (10) yeʼ tö ṹ tsakiʼ 1SG ERG pot break:PFV.REM ‘I broke the pot.’

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When the verb tsaköḱ takes the -r suffix in (11), no spontaneous occurrence can be assigned to the event (unless additional morphology is added to the verb stem). Even though the semantic Agent cannot be overtly expressed in the construction, it is nevertheless implied that someone broke the pot. (11) ṹ tsakí–n–ẽ pot break–MVC–PFV ‘The pot was broken (by someone).’

3.2 Anticausative verbalizer

Another function of the -r suffix in Bribri is that of a verbalizer which derives intransitive anticausative verbs from adjectives and nouns. Example (12) and (13), show that the adjectival root bâ ‘hot’ combines with the verbalizer -r, yielding ‘to become hot’. (12) tsuruʼ bâ–r chocolate hot–MVC:IPFV ‘The chocolate (always) becomes hot.’

(13) tsuruʼ bâ–n–ẽ chocolate hot–MVC–PFV ‘The chocolate (became hot and) is hot (now).’

The adjectival or nominal roots which become verbs by means of the verbalizer -r always have their infinitive ending in -ũk. Table 3 offers some examples of this highly productive derivation. The first column indicates the syntactic category to which the root belongs. The second column illustrates the infinitive formation of derived intransitive anticausative verbs, where the verbalizer -r on a non-verbal stem is followed by the infinitive ending -ũk. The -r suffix can apply to a combination of noun + adjective (cf. apá ‘body’ + tôttó ‘soft’) or noun + noun (cf. biloʼ ‘throat’ + ulá ‘hand’). Adjectival stems can undergo haplology during the derivation process (cf. chabáchabâ ‘muddy’ or sess ̃̂ ẽ ‘cold’ in Table 3).

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Table 3: Examples of intransitive anticausative verbs formed by the verbalizer -r2

ROOT DERIVED ANTICAUSATIVE VERB ({-r-ũk} > -n-ũk) akë ́ ‘ripe’ (Adj) akë–́ n–ũk ‘to become ripe’, ‘to become old’ ãli ́ ‘craziness’ (N) ãli– ́ n–ũk ‘to become crazy’, ‘to become lost’ apá+tôttó ‘body + soft’ (N + Adj) apáto–n–ũk ‘to become soft with water’ bâ ‘hot’ (Adj) bâ–n–ũk ‘to become hot’ bilo’+ulá ‘throat +hand’ (N +N) bilo’ulá–n–ũk ‘to snore’ chabáchabâ ‘muddy’ (Adj) chabá–n–ũk ‘to become muddy’ dukuá ‘flower’ (N) duká–n–ũk ‘to blossom’ sawár ‘fear’ (N) sawá–n–ũk ‘to feel fear’ sess ̃̂ e ́ ‘cold’ (Adj) se– ̃̂ n–ũk ‘to become cold’ shaköshak̃̂ ö ̃̂ ‘acid’ (Adj) shakö–̃̂ n–ũk ‘to become fermented’ sichö ́ ‘white moth’ (bad omen) (N) sichö–́ n–ũk ‘to become a widow, to miscarry after 4 monthsʼ to’ ‘cough’ (N) tó–n–ũk ‘to cough’ wö+ã̂ ë ́ ‘face+color’ (N+N) wöã̂ ë–́ n–ũk ‘to feel shame’

4 On the diachronic source of the -r suffix

In Bribri, causative verbs can be formed by creating a compound which features the verb ṹk ‘to make’, and, to its left side, one of the following elements: [N], [Adj], [N+N], or [N+Adj], as in akëṹ k ‘to ripen smth’, formed by akë ́ ‘ripe’ (cf. Table 3) plus ṹk ‘make’ ( whose imperfective and remote perfective forms are we ́ and õ’ respectively). The resulting compound verb shows one of the conjugated forms of ṹk ‘make’ (which is syntactically transitive at the root level) as can be seen in (14). (14) Alí tö klö̃̂ m akë́–w–é A. ERG green.plantain ripe–make–IPFV.TR ‘Alí is ripening the guineos (a type of green plantain).’

All causative verbs have an anticausative counterpart, where the -r suffix is added before -ũk as in akë-́ n-ũk ‘to become ripe’ (cf. Table 3), yielding to causative-anticausative pairs. However, synchronically, the causative stem -ṹk ‘makeʼ, homophonous with the infinitive ending -ũk of other verbs, has become reanalyzed as an infinitive ending and disappears when the anticausative verb is conjugated, leaving no trace of causative morphology, as shown in (15).

2 The two aspectual forms in Table 3 are pivotal in determining whether a verb is a derived anticausative. For instance, a verb like apáinũk ‘to shake from fear or cold’ might be taken, formally and semantically, as a derived anticausative verb if we only take into account its infinitive form. However, the /n/ that we see in the infinitive apáinũk is not a surface manifestation of the -r suffix. If apáinũk were a derived anticausative, its remote perfective form would surface as */apái-n-ẽ/, morphophonologically *{apai-r-ẽ}. However, its remote perfective is apáinẽ’ [apaineɁ], where the final glottal stop indicates that the /n/ must be part of the verb root (i.e. /apáin-ũk/ and not *{apái-n-ũk}). Similarly, apáinũk is not anticausative (i.e. not derived by means of the verbalizer -r) because its imperfective form is apainṹ (with the imperfective intransitive suffix -ṹ), while the anticausative derivation would yield *{apaí-ɾ}.

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(15) klö̃̂ m akë́–r green.plantain ripe–MVC ‘The guineos (always) become ripe.’

For this reason, forms such as akë-́ n-ũk in Table 3 are analyzed in this paper as cases where the -r functions as an intransitive anticausative verbalizer for adjectival and nominal roots (or a combination of these) and -ũk as the infinitive ending of the verbalized form. Given the fact that the infinitive suffix -ũk in Bribri anticausatives is identical (homophonous) with the causative derivational stem -ũk, going, in turn, back to the verb -ṹk ‘makeʼ (which loses its high tone when combining with nominal and adjectival roots to form causative verbs), one may figure out the following diachronic scenario of the emergence of Bribri -r anticausatives. They could rise as the result of the addition of the -r suffix to the causative stem in -ũk. Subsequently, the -r suffix was extended to all transitive verbs, to form passives. In support of this diachronic path, there is literature indicating that cross-linguistically, anticausative morphemes may commonly develop passive and other intransitive functions (e.g. Haspelmath 1987: 35), eventually becoming a middle voice marker. Although most frequently, the anticausative-to-passive (and anticausative-to-middle) path is only part of a longer diachronic scenario starting with the reflexive function (see, above all, Haspelmath 1990), cases of the direct development from anticausative to passive/middle are not unknown either.3

5 Media tantum verbs

In Bribri, there are twelve -r stems which are not opposed to any active counterpart without this suffix and thus should be qualified as media tantum verbs. These are in Table 4. Because the meanings of the imperfective and perfective forms as well as their aspectual interpretations heavily depend on the type of constructions in which they are found, glosses are given only for the infinitive forms. 4 The column “meaning 1” is the meaning that the verb form has when employed in a one-argument construction, and “meaning 2” is the meaning that the same verb form has when used in a two-argument construction. Semantically, most verbs in Table 4 refer to non-agentive activities.

3 Such scenario may be instantiated by the history of the middle morphology in Hittite, according to Inglese (forthcoming). 4 As it happens with anticausative verbs, with the verbs in Table 4 the imperfective suffix –r also conveys the idea of ‘habitually’ or ‘always’, while the perfective suffix –ẽ yields a ‘present’ resultant state interpretation if no past time adverbial is present in the clause.

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Table 4: Verb morphology of Bribri media tantum verbs INF IPFV PFV Meaning 1 (NP V) Meaning 2 (NP NP V) che– ́ n–ũk che– ́ r che– ́ n–ẽ ‘to be known’ ‘to know’ ṍ–n–ũk ṍ–r ṍ–n–ẽ ‘to fall, to scream’ ‘to understand’ kiá–n–ũk kiá–r kiá–n–ẽ ‘to be wanted/needed’ ‘to want, need’ mi– ́ n–ũk mi– ́ r mi– ́ n–ẽ ‘to go’ ‘to take (to/with)’ dalë–́ n–ũk dalë–́ r dalë–́ n–ẽ ‘to feel pain’ ‘to respect, love, exert oneself’ se– ́ n–ũk se ́–r se– ́ n–ẽ ‘to live’ – tse– ́ n–ũk tse– ́ r tse– ́ n–ẽ ‘to feel’ – oló–n–ũk oló–r oló–n–ẽ ‘to finish’ – e– ́ n–ũk e– ́ r e– ́ n–ẽ ‘to finish’ – tû–n–ũk tû–r tû–n–ẽ ‘to run’5 – e– ̃̂ n–ũk e– ̃̂ r e– ̃̂ n–ẽ ‘to rest’ – u ̃̂–n–ũk u –̃̂ r e– ̃̂ n–ẽ ‘to fly’ –

Only the first five verbs in Table 4 can be used both in one-argument constructions and in two-argument constructions despite the presence of the intransitivizing -r suffix on the verb stem, thus being (P-)labile. To the best of our knowledge, there are no other labile verbs in Bribri besides the five listed in Table 4. For the seven media tantum verbs without a transitive counterpart in Table 4, we can only speculate that they may have lost their active counterpart due some (historically non-documented) process of lexicalization and may eventually join the verbs of the first subclass by analogy, in accordance with the diachronic scenario we propose in §6. The first five verbs in Table 4 can have their absolutive argument encoded by the ergative postposition wã or by a locative postposition. We show here a few examples of the different argument structures in which the first five verbs in Table 4 can occur. For instance, the verb min ́ ũk means ‘to go’ when used in an intransitive construction- with an unmarked absolutive as in (16). (16) i–nṍũyö–la mí– r 3SG–nephew-DIM go–MVC:IPFV ‘His nephew was going (after him).’ (IHB:59)

The same verb means ‘to take (to/with)’ when employed in two-argument constructions such as (17).6

(17) ĩ–mí wã ie’ mí– n–ẽ–tsẽ kṍ aíẽ 3SG–mother ERG 3SG:PRX:H go–MVC–PFV–DIR place up:there ‘His mother took him to a place up there.’ (IHB: 90)

5 Verb forms such as tu ñ̂ ũk ‘to run’, u ñ̂ ũk ‘to fly’ and en ̃̂ ũk ‘to rest’, illustrate an ongoing process of reanalysis which seems to be taking place in the language. Alongside their imperfective forms, tu –̃̂ r, u –̃̂ r and e– ̃̂ r respectively, the forms tu –̃̂ n–ẽ, u –̃̂ n–ẽ and e– ̃̂ n–ẽ in Table 4 are perfective recent forms. These three verbs also developed perfective remote forms tu ñ̂ ẽ’, u ñ̂ ẽ’ and en ̃̂ ẽ’. The presence of the glottal stop, typical of transitive and intransitive active voice verbs whose infinitives end in –ũk, seems to indicate that, by analogy with transitive and intransitive active voice verb forms, these media tantum verbs developed perfective forms similar to those of active voice nasal verb stems ending in -ũk (e.g. kín–ũk ‘to wait’ > kínẽ’ ‘wait. PFV. REM’. By analogy with verbs such as kínũk ‘to wait’, stems such as tu ñ̂ ũk ‘to run’ and u ñ̂ ũk ‘to fly’ and en ̃̂ ũk ‘to rest’ are being reinterpreted as if the [n] were part of their verb root. 6 Non media tantum verbs such as döḱ ‘to arrive’ and bitṹk ‘to come’ can occur in a valence pattern construction identical to (17).

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The verb ṍnũk means ‘to fall’ or ‘to scream’ depending on the context, when found in a construction with one syntactic argument.7 (18) yeʼ aké ṍ–n–ẽ–wã di’ ã 1SG brother fall–MVC–PFV water in ‘My brother (of a male) fell into the water/river.’

In (19), the non-absolutive argument of the verb ṍnũk is marked by the locative postposition ã preceded by er ́ ‘liver’, yielding the complex postpositional phrase en ́ ã which means literally ‘in (one’s) liver’. In this context, the meaning of the verb is ‘to understand’, as in (19).8 (19) beʼ é n ã tté ṍ–n–ẽ? 2SG liver in story fall–MVC–PFV ‘Do you understand the story?’ (lit: Did the story fall into your liver?)

As we show elsewhere (Pacchiarotti & Kulikov submitted), media tantum labile verbs only partially behave as transitive active verb roots and the non-absolutive arguments of such verbs (when appearing in constructions with two arguments) display only some properties of ergative phrases.

6 The rise of an “island” of lability in Bribri

The syntax of Bribri media tantum labile verbsis of special interest for a diachronic typology of (P-)lability, because it suggests a diachronic scenario for the rise of labile verbs hitherto unnoticed in the typological literature. The core of this mechanism can be described as the usage expansion of the morphologically marked intransitive -r verbs to make up for the syntactic function of the lacking member, i.e. a corresponding verb form without the -r suffix, which would be used in an active transitive construction. The core mechanism of this scenario is the analogical expansion of the range of syntactic uses of a given (middle) form, as illustrated in Table 5.

7 The meaning distinction between ‘to fall’ and ‘to scream’ can be disambiguated by certain derivational suffixes. When combined with the completive suffix -wã (i.e. onẽ-wã), the verb has the meaning ‘to fall’. If the verb takes the directional suffix –kã (i.e. onẽ-kã), the meaning is ‘to scream’. 8 For the Bribri people, the liver is the part of the body which contains both rationality and feelings. The process of ‘understanding’ is thus construed as if the object of understanding falls into one’s liver and, once in that container, is considered “understood” or “apprehended”.

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Table 5: Media tantum transitive expansion Transitive verbs Media tantum verbs transitive pattern root –– (active) intransitive pattern root plus -r suffix verb always carrying -r suffix (passive/anticausative)  Transitive verbs Media tantum labile verbs transitive pattern base verb (active) verb always carrying -r suffix intransitive pattern root plus -r suffix (passive/anticausative)

The two-argument (quasi-transitive) use of media tantum labile verbs (which, originally, presumably were only used in one-argument constructions) emerges in analogy with the productive system found with transitive verbs, which can participate in a passive construction by adding the -r suffix. This two-way system very likely prompted the expansion of some media tantum labile forms -r forms into the transitive domain to fill in the gap in their defective syntactic paradigm. However, media tantum labile two-argument constructions have not reached full transitivity (yet), due to the lack of some subject properties of non-absolutive arguments in two argument constructions. For lack of a better term, we call this mechanism MEDIA TANTUM TRANSITIVE EXPANSION. This situation is quite different from the case of Latin deponent verbs, a lexically-specified set of verbs whose passive forms, in spite of their passive morphology, are used in active but not passive constructions, so that their syntactic paradigms remain defective. Unlike Latin deponent verbs which left an empty slot in the syntactic paradigm, Bribri media tantum labile verbs have developed a two-argument (quasi-transitive) use. With respect to the diachronic typology of (P-)lability, Bribri data suggest that the rise of P-lability may operate even in those languages where P-lability is virtually lacking and has only a marginal status within the morphosyntactic system. Bribri MTL verbs can be considered as “islands of lability” within the syntactic system of a language with overt marking of transitivity oppositions.

7 Conclusions

In this paper we showed/argued that: (i) The intransitivizing -r suffix in Bribri is a MIDDLE VOICE CLUSTER morpheme, serving more than one intransitivizing function within Bribri’s verbal system: the derivation of passive voice from active transitive and agentive intransitive verbs, and the derivation of intransitive anticausative verbs from nominal and adjectival roots or a combination thereof. (ii) -r suffix with anticausative function was the diachronic source for the other intransitive functions. This claim needs however to be substantiated ideally by comparative Chibchan evidence and a thorough comparison with cases in other language families where a similar direction of change has been argued for.

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(iii) We showed that Bribri has a very restricted class of media tantum verbs, that is, verbs with the intransitivizing -r suffix synchronically lacking a counterpart without this suffix. Unlike the vast majority of verb stems in the language, five of these media tantum verbs are labile in the sense that they can occur in a one ([ABS]

[VMEDIA TANTUM]) or two-argument ([NON-ABS] [ABS] [VMEDIA TANTUM]) construction without undergoing any (supra- )segmental change. (iv) We proposed a diachronic scenario for the rise of lability amongst media tantum verbs whereby the morphologically marked intransitive -r verbs started to be used also in active transitive constructions to make up for the syntactic function of the lacking member (i.e. a corresponding verb form without the -r suffix).

References

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