Ivan Rocha (rocha.i@usp.br) University of São Paulo Advisor: Prof. Dr. Luciana Storto Funding: 1. INTRODUCTION Karitiana (Arikém branch, Tupi family) is an endangered Amazonian language spoken in Rondônia, Brazil. Currently there are 400 speakers living in the Karitiana village. The language displays an ergative-absolutive agreement pattern (Storto 1999), without case-marking on the NP. The aim of this presentation is to give evidence for the existence of anticausative verbs in Karitiana. We adopt the Alexiadou, Anagnostopoulou, and Schäfer (2006)’s theoretical approach and Hale and Keyser (2002). We will analyze the anticausative verbs as being basically intransitive. In Karitiana, there are two well-defined verbal classes syntactically: transitive and intransitive verbs. The former class of verbs can be detransitivized using a morpheme {a-} in order to form an impersonal passive. With regard to the intransitives, there are two patterns of causative/inchoative alternation: (i) one of them undergoes causativization with a morpheme {∅-} and (ii) the other one involves a morpheme {m-}. According to Storto (2001) e Storto and Rocha (2014), all intransitive verbs with causative counterparts are unaccusative. These intransitive verbs cannot be passivized with the morpheme {a-}, unless they have been causativized with {m-} beforehand. 2. METHODOLOGY Our methodology of research is controlled elicitation of data. The tests were made with six native Karitiana speakers. 3. DATA DESCRIPTION AND SYNTACTIC TESTS PARADIGM 1 Itransitive verbs otam ‘to arrive’ in the assertive mood (1) y-pyr-otam-an yn 1-ASSERT-arrive-NFUT 1s ‘I arrived.’ Intransitive verb being causativized by {m-} (2) y-pyr-mb-otam-an yn taso 1-ASSERT-CAUS-arrive-NFUT 1s man ‘The man made me arrive.’ Causativized by {m-} verb being passivized by {a-} (3) y-pyr-a-mb-otam-an yn y-ASSERT-PASV-CAUS-arrive-NFUT 1s ‘I was made to arrived.’ Intransitive verb being straight passivized by {a-} is ungrammatical (4) *y-pyr-a-otam-an yn 1-ASSERT-PASV-arrive-NFUT 1s Transitive verb being passivized by {a-} (5) Ø-pyr-a-´y-dn ti´y 3-ASSERT-PASV-eat-NFUT food ‘The food was eaten.’ Transitive verb being causativized by {m-} is ungrammatical (6) *Ø-pyry-m-´y-dn (ti´y) taso 3-ASSERT-CAUS-comer-NFUT (comida) homem PARADIGM 2 – ANTICAUSATIVE VERBS Anticausative verb in the assertive mood (7) ∅-pyry-kynõ-n ambi karamã 3-ASSERT-close-NFUT house door ‘The door’s house of the house closed.' Causativization using the morpheme zero {∅-} (8) ∅-pyry-∅-kynõ-n ambi karamã yn 3-ASSERT-CAUS-close-NFUT house door 1s ‘I closed the door’s house.’ Passivization using the morpheme {a-} (9) ∅-pyr-a-∅-kynõ-n ambi karamã 3-ASSERT-PASV-CAUS-fechar-NFUT house door ‘The door’s house was closed’ Anticausative verbs are ungrammatical with morpheme { m-} (10) *∅-pyr<y>-m-kyno-n ambi karamã yn 3-ASSERT<v>-CAUS-close-NFUT house door 1s Anticausative verbs can occur within the small clause which functions as a copular complement (11) ambi karamã ∅-na-aka-t i-kynõ-t house door 3-DECL-COP-NFUT PART-close-CONC.COP ‘The door’s house closed.’ TABLE 1 – ANTICAUSATIVE VERBS anticausative causative meaning kynõ kynõ ‘to close’ kot kot ‘break’ okop okop ‘break’ ohok ohok ‘to peel’ oky oky ‘to hurt’ kydop kydop ‘to open’ ‘obm ‘obm ‘to puncture’ atat atat ‘to snap/break’ eem eem ‘to get dirty’ 4. DATA ANALYSIS According to Hale and Keyser (2002: 9-10), the argument structure of verbs, which undergoes an automatic transitivization, is the representation of a composite dyadic in which a predicative root (R) project a specifier throught a verbal head. Thus, the adjective satisfies the complement requirement of the verb, and the verb supplies a place for the specifier required by the adjective. (12) Anticausative verbs (13) other unaccusatives V1 V1 3 3 V1 V2 V1 V2 ∅- 3 m- 3 NP V2 NP V2 ambi karamã 3 yn 3 V2 R V2 R kynõ otam The unaccusative and anticausative intransitive verbs are formed by the conflation operation in which the complement (R) combines with the head V2 . There is a second process of conflation to create the transitive counterpart: the head V2 combines with the V1. This process is called ‘automatic transitivization’ by Hale and Keyser (2002). Automatic transitivization involves a morpheme {∅-} in (12), whereas it involves a morpheme {m-} in (13). The zero morpheme is associated with the anticausative verbs while the morpheme {m-} occurs within other intransitive verbs. We are also following Alexiadou, Anagnostopoulou and Schäfer (2006)’s view whose approach analyze anticausative verbs as being inherently intransitive. According to this proposition, a causative counterpart is derived from its intransitive counterpart. 5. CONCLUSION We analyzed the verbs, which are shown in the table 1, as being inherently intransitive verbs in Karitiana, and which can be causativized by the morpheme {∅-}. We also showed that this subtype of intransitive verbs behaves as verbs of otam-type in the paradigm 1, except by the fact that otam is causativized by {m-}. References Alexiadou, A.; Anagnostopoulou, E.; Schäfer, F. (2006). The properties of anticausatives crosslinguistically. In: FRASCARELLI, M. Phases of Interpretation. Berlin: Mouton, p. 187- 211. Hale, K. & S. Keyser. (2002). Prolegomenon to a Theory of Argument Structure. Cambridge: MIT Press. Storto, L. (1999). Aspects of a Karitiana Grammar. PhD Dissertation, MIT. Storto, L. (2001). Duas classes de verbos intransitivos em Karitiana (família Arikém, tronco Tupi). In Des Noms et des verbs en Tupí-Guaraní. Muenchen: Lincom-Europa. Queixalos, F. (org.).163-180. 2001. Storto, L. And I. Rocha. (2014). Strategies of Valence Change in Karitiana. In Valence Increasing Processes in Amazonia. Telles, Stella, Ana Carla Bruno and Francisco Queixalos (eds.). Bogota: Universidad Nacional de Colombia, (submetido à publicação). View publication stats View publication stats