Zapotec Pronoun Classification Author(s): Stephen A. Marlett Source: International Journal of American Linguistics, Vol. 59, No. 1 (Jan., 1993), pp. 82- 101 Published by: The University of Chicago Press Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1265471 Accessed: 16-01-2018 20:46 UTC JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at http://about.jstor.org/terms The University of Chicago Press is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to International Journal of American Linguistics This content downloaded from 12.14.13.130 on Tue, 16 Jan 2018 20:46:51 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms ZAPOTEC PRONOUN CLASSIFICATION STEPHEN A. MARLETT SUMMER INSTITUTE OF LINGUISTICS AND UNIVERSITY OF NORTH DAKOTA 1. Introduction. Zapotec languages have sometimes been described as having two sets of (nonreflexive) personal pronouns: bound and free (Butler 1976), clitic and free (Jones and Church 1985 and Marlett 1987), dependent and independent (Pickett 1960 and Bartholomew 1983), insep- arable and separable (Butler 1980), suffixes and pronouns (Briggs 1961), particles and pronouns (Pickett et al. 1965). The variety of terminology used indicates that the syntax of Zapotec pronouns requires further study. The goal of this article is to clarify the behavior of these pronouns across the Zapotec language family (using a subset of languages to illustrate), noting where these languages are alike or different.1 1 Zapotec is a subfamily of the Otomanguean stock, with considerable internal diversity, spoken in Oaxaca, Mexico. The five languages presented in this article include San Juan Ate- pec (Ate), spoken in the northeastern part of the Zapotec region; San Juan Guelavia (Glv), spoken in the central (Valley) area; Isthmus (Ist), from the Isthmus of Tehuantepec (consid- ered to be closely affiliated historically with languages from the Valley); San Lorenzo Texmelucan (Tex), from the western section; Santa Catarina Xanaguia (Xng), from the south- ern area; and Yalalag (Ylg) and San Baltazar Yatzachi (Ytz), very closely related languages from the north central area (Villa Alta). An attempt has been made to standardize transcriptions of Zapotec data included here, re- gardless of their source. Double n (nn) and 1 (11) represent "fortis" sonorants; b, d, g, 6, z, etc. represent "lenis" obstruents, but the phonetic realization of these consonants varies from lan- guage to language. The vowels in some Zapotec languages occur with a three-way contrast: plain (V), checked (V?), and laryngealized (V?). The capital X which appears in Yatzachi ex- amples is a voiceless uvular fricative. Tonal information has been omitted in all cases. I thank the following people for discussing these matters with me and for supplying most of the data necessary for this study: Charles Speck, Velma Pickett, Mary Hopkins, Julie Olive, Inez Butler, Joaquin L6pez, Sadot Hernandez, Neil and Jane Nellis, Maria Villalobos, and Catalina Vasquez. I also thank Thomas Smith-Stark and his seminar group for their input during a presentation of this material at the Colegio de M6xico in the fall of 1989, and Steven Lapointe for helpful comments. An anonymous IJAL reviewer provided many helpful sugges- tions. This analysis was also presented in 1990 at the second Maurice Swadesh conference in Mexico City. An earlier version of this paper appeared in the 1990 Work Papers of the Sum- mer Institute of Linguistics, University of North Dakota Session, and (in Spanish) in the pro- ceedings of the 1990 Swadesh conference. The following grammatical abbreviations are used: Is (first singular), lp (first plural), lpi (first plural inclusive), lpe (first plural exclusive), 2s (second singular), 2p (second plural), 3r [IJAL, vol. 59, no. 1, January 1993, pp. 82-101] ? 1993 by The University of Chicago. All rights reserved. 0020-7071/93/5901 -0006$01.00 82 This content downloaded from 12.14.13.130 on Tue, 16 Jan 2018 20:46:51 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms ZAPOTEC PRONOUN CLASSIFICATION 83 A major conclusion of this study is that the traditional division of pro- nouns used in descriptions of Zapotec is inadequate. Instead, we must think in terms of three classes of pronouns, although it may be that only two of these are attested in a given language. For example, Yatzachi and Yalalag Zapotec lack one class entirely, while Xanaguia Zapotec lacks an- other class; Isthmus Zapotec has all three classes, but one class has only one member. I describe these pronoun classes by making reference to two separate parameters: PROSODIC INDEPENDENCE and SYNTACTIC INDEPENDENCE. Syntactically independent pronouns may be prosodically dependent or independent; prosodically independent pronouns are all syntactically in- dependent. Pronouns which are classified as prosodically independent are written below with a raised vertical stroke (') preceding them. Pronouns which are syntactically dependent are written with an equal sign before them. As a further means of indicating the two parameters, I gloss syntac- tically dependent pronouns with abbreviations rather than with word glosses. The tables of pronouns given in Appendix A follow the classifi- catory system used in this article. The account given here of the distribution of pronouns relies on the proper identification of the head of the phrase, namely, P as head of PP, N as head of NP, and V as head of the clause. Zapotec languages are head initial, and for the purposes of the discussion in 4.2, are VERB INITIAL at the level at which subject fronting takes place. The pronouns are discussed in the (essentially arbitrary) order of pro- sodically independent pronouns (2), syntactically independent pronouns (3), and then syntactically dependent pronouns (4). 2. Prosodically independent pronouns. A pronoun in Zapotec is classified in this article as either prosodically dependent or prosodically in- dependent. A pronoun is considered prosodically independent if it occurs in one (or more) of three positions: (a) in isolation, as a simple utterance, such. as in answer to a question; (b) preverbally without a phonological host; (c) as object of a Spanish preposition. To my knowledge, all third-person pronouns in Zapotec are prosodi- cally DEPENDENT, although I have no account for this apparently significant generalization. Therefore, third-person pronouns will be contrasted with non-third-person pronouns in the following sections. (third respect), 3h (third human), 3f (third familiar), 3ch (third child), 3a (third animal), 3i (third inanimate), P1 (plural), Quest (question). For information regarding pluralization of third-person pronouns, see Marlett and Pickett (1985). This content downloaded from 12.14.13.130 on Tue, 16 Jan 2018 20:46:51 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms 84 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF AMERICAN LINGUISTICS Grammatical counterparts of starred sentences in this section can be formed by using a prosodically independent pronoun instead (if one ex- ists), or by using the prosodically dependent pronoun in a complex con- struction which usually consists of a word cognate with Isthmus Zapotec la? (no obvious concrete meaning) followed by the pronoun.2 2.1. Isolation. The pronouns listed as +P (prosodically independent) in Appendix A can be used in isolation or with the question particle. (In Xan- aguia Zapotec, a similar context is with a deictic following the pronoun.) These pronouns receive their own stress, do not interact phonologically with adjacent words, and do not lean phonologically on adjacent words. (la) (Ist) 'li ya? (Pickett 1960:87) you Quest '(and) you?' (lb) (Xng) 'to ga you there 'it is you (pl.) who are there' (lc) (Tex) 'ya n I Quest '(are you referring to) me?' (ld) (Ate) ?i 'lu? Quest you 'you?' 2 For example, the idea of (2d) can be expressed as in (i), with the complex construction enclosed within brackets. (i) [la? =be] ya? 3h Quest '(and) her/him?' I assume that this complex construction is a noun phrase, with la? as the head noun and the pronoun in a position analogous to that of possessor. Pickett (1960:25) refers to this con- struction as an independent pronoun phrase. Texmelucan Zapotec is the only Zapotec lan- guage known to me at present that does not have a morpheme cognate with this. The complex construction in Texmelucan consists of the third-person pronoun followed by a deictic element, e.g., yu ze? (he there) 'that one' (male), or the first-person plural inclusive pronoun preceded by the plural morpheme and the stem for 'self': de ub na (P1 self us). Other Zapotec languages have a construction similar to the demonstrative type of construc- tion, at least etymologically, such as Isthmus nga (< ni ka, it there) 'that one' (thing). The survey of constructions in which pronouns may occur is not exhaustive. For example, I do not discuss the use of pronouns following quantifiers, including numbers, such as in the following noun phrase from Isthmus Zapotec: ira ka =be (all Plural 3h) 'all of them'. 3 Not all of the morphology in the examples below has been segmented. Some discussion of Zapotec verb morphology may be found in Butler (1980), Speck (1984), and Marlett and Pickett (1987). This content downloaded from 12.14.13.130 on Tue, 16 Jan 2018 20:46:51 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms ZAPOTEC PRONOUN CLASSIFICATION 85 Pronouns not listed as prosodically independent in Appendix A cannot be used in isolation or before the question particle, as shown in: (2a) (Ist) *ni it 'it' (2b) (Tex) *yu he 'he' (2c) (Ytz) *=bo? 3f 's/he' (2d) (Ist) *=be ya? 3h Quest '(and) her/him?' (2e) (Ist) *=lu ya? 2s Quest '(and) you?' (2f) (Xng) *so ga s/he there 'it is s/he (who is) there' (2g) (Tex) *mi n s/he Quest '(are you referring to) him/her?' (2h) (Tex) *na n us Quest '(are you referring to) us?' (2i) (Ate) *?i e Quest s/he 's/he?' 2.2.