A Grammar of Kalapalo, A Southern Cariban Language

Ellen B. Basso
Professor Emerita
Department of Anthropology
University of Arizona
Tucson, Arizona

agaves66@gmail.com
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Contents

Acknowledgments
List of Tables
List of Diagrams
Abbreviations and symbols
Grammatical morphemes

1. The Language and its Speakers

1.1 Genetic affiliation and history
1.2 Linguistic profile of Kalapalo
1.3 Typological features of special interest
1.4 Linguistic registers in Kalapalo
1.5 The multilingual Alto Xingu society and its history
1.6 Kalapalo language attitudes and language interaction
1.7 Research conditions and data

2. Phonology
2.1 Segmental phonology
2.1.1 Consonantal inventory
2.1.1.1 Consonant clusters
2.1.1.2 Minimal pairs focusing on consonants
2.1.2. Vowel Inventory
2.1.2.1 Minimal pairs focusing on vowels
2.1.2.2. Vowel nasalization
2.1.2.3 Vowel lengthening
2.1.2.4 Vowel aspiration
2.1.2.5 Initial vowel deletion
2.1.2.6 Vowel sequences
2.2. Syllabification
2.2.1 Words consisting of a single vowel
2.2.2. Complex morpho-phonological words.
2.3. Stress in the Kalapalo phonological word
2.3.1 Primary stress
2.3.1.1 Single syllable words
2.3.1.2 Words initiated by pronominal prefixes
2.3.1.3 Demonstrative stress
2.3.1.4 Imperative word stress
2.3.1.5 Interrogative stress
2.3.1.6 Variation in stress on names
2.3.1.7 Vowel lengthening and stress
2.3.1.8 Pragmatic stress
2.3.2 Secondary stress
2.3.3 Stress on Portuguese derived words
2.4 Morphophonemic Processes
2.4.1. Vocalic elision: regressive influence
2.4.2. Vocalic elision: progressive influence
2.4.3 Vocalic assimilation
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2.4.3.1. Influence of the preventative prefix

2.4.3.2 Assimilation involving /o/
2.4.4 /f/ surfaces as [p]
2.4.5. Emergence of /m/ from /p/
2.4.6 Emergence of /g/ (velarization)
2.4.7 Emergence of /l/ connector (C)
2.4.8 Epenthesis
2.4.9. Ablaut
2.4.9.1 Kinship terms
2.4.9.2 Second person possessed nouns and perfective nominals
2.4.9.3 Hortatives
2.4.9.4 Imperatives.
2.4.9.5 Body parts
2.4.9.6 Other nouns
2.4.10 Allophonic processes
2.4.11 Repetition and reduplication processes
2.5 Phonotactic Restrictions
2.6 Discourse inflenced changes
2.7 Prosody in relation to leader’s talk (oratorical register)
2.8 Baby talk
2.9 Kalapalo whistling.
2.10 Some linguistic features of shamanic practice

3. Introduction to the Kalapalo word classes

3.1 Overview
3.2 The major word classes
3.2.1 Nouns
3.2.2 Verbs
3.2.3 Adverbs
3.3 Clitics and particles
3.4. The small closed word classes
3.4.1 Ideophones
3.4.2 Interrogatives
3.4.3 Demonstratives
3.4.4 Adjectives
3.4.5 Expressives
3.4.6. Discourse lexemes
3.4.7 Deontics
3.4.8 Coordinator
3.5 The syntactic nature of the major Kalapalo word classes
3.5.1. Word classes and stem formation
3.5.2 First-level stem-formation processes: roots and radicals
3.5.2.1. fa, ‘aural’
3.5.2.2. fe, ‘de-valued’
3.5.2.3. iŋ-, ‘new’
3.5.2.4. akua,:’ consciousness’.
3.5.2.5 mї-, ‘face’
3.5.2.6. –te, ‘motion away’
3.5.2.7. –fo/po, ‘pierce’
3.5.2.8. fu-: ‘know’
3.5.3 Ambitransitive Roots
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3.5.3.1. ki-utter:
3.5.3.2. fa-, ‘hear’
3.5.4 Second level derivational processes
3.6 Person marking prefixes
3.6.1. Basic person marking prefixes
3.6.2. First person prefixes on intransitive verb and possessed noun
phrases.
3.6.2.1. u, 1st person singular
3.6.2.2. ku, kuk, kukw (1+2), first person plural, inclusive
3.6.2.3 uk- , first person plural, inclusive
3.6.2.4. ukw-, first person plural, inclusive
3.6.2.6. tis-, first person plural exclusive (1+3)
3.6.3 Second person prefixes e-, o-, a-
3.6.3.1 e-
3.6.3.2 Ablaut /o/
3.6.3.3. Ablaut /a/
3.6.4. Third person Ø- , is-
3.6.5 Person marking prefixes on transitive stems.
3.6.6. Person marking prefixes on kinship terms
3.6.7 Person marking prefixes on case morphemes
3.6.8 Plural concordance suffixes
3.6.9 Third person co-referent reflexive prefix t(ї)-
3.7. Order of constituents in the verbal and nominal word
3.7.1. Overview
3.7.2. Focus of clausal argument
3.8 Morphological marking of grammatical relations
3.9 Discussion: The emergent nature of Kalapalo word classes

4. Nouns and Nominalizations

4.1 Syntactic functions and distributional features of Kalapalo nouns
4.1.1 Word order: nouns as core arguments of verbal clauses
4.1.2. Nouns as heads of possessed noun phrases
4.1.3 Noun modification
4.1.4 Nouns as predicates with demonstratives
4.1.5 Nouns predicated by copula constructions
4.1.6 Nouns and adjectival predications
4.1.7 Relativization
4.1.8. Semantic types of nominal predications
4.1.9 Participant coding
4.2. Noun Types
4.2.1 Non-possessed nouns
4.2.1.1 Personal names
4.2.1.2 Proper nouns
4.2.1.3 Ideophonic proper names
4.2.1.4 Spatially deictic third person nouns
4.2.1.5 Cardinal numbers
4.2.2 Possessable nouns
4.2.2.1 Nominal time words
4.2.2.2 Words for geographic settings
4.2.2.3 Words for body parts
4.2.2.4 Ordinal numbers
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4.2.3 Kinship nouns

4.2.3.1 Endearment suffixes
4.2.3.2 Suppletive kinship words
4.2.4 Material possessions
4.2.5 Taste and smell lexemes
4.3 Morphological Properties of Nouns
4.3.1 Position of the morphological structures in the nominal word
4.3.2 The contrastive prefix ta- (CONT)
4.3.3 Absolutive person marking
4.3.4 The reflexive prefix
4.3.5 Stem constituents
4.3.6 Valence increasing suffixes
4.3.7 Non-aspectual nominalizer suffixes
4.3.8 Aspectual nominalizer suffixes
4.3.9 Endearment suffixes
4.3.10 Possessive suffixes
4.3.11 The facsimile suffix, -me
4.3.12 The ‘salient’ suffix –pe
4.3.13. The suffix –fe
4.3.14 Plurality suffixes
4.3.15 Class inclusion copula (-i), unique (-a), negative (-la) suffixes
4.3.15.1 The class inclusion copula, –i
4.3.14.2 The ‘unique’ or ‘special’ suffix, -a
4.3.14.3 The ‘negation’ suffix, -la
4.3.14.4 The pe-i-la construction
4.3.16 Case suffixes
4.3.16.1 Ergative, -feke, -pehe
4.3.16.2 Absolutive Ø
4.3. 16.3 Dative/benefactive -iña.
4.3.16.4 Instrumental –ki
4.3.16.5 Comitative -ake
4.3.15.6 Allative, -na
4.3.15.7 Ablative, -peŋine.
4.3.15.8 Destination, -kaiŋa
4.3.15.9 –pe, marking non-subject argument
4.3.17 Relative clause modifier suffix, -tsї
4.3.18 Primary topical participant –fa
4. 4 Word class-changing nominal derivations
4.4.1 Non-aspectual nominalizations
4.4.1.1 –(i)ɳa(i), stative S
4.4.1.2 –ni, active agent
4.4.1.3 –(i)ñe(ї), ‘experiencer of a state’
4.4.1.4 –pe, ‘essive’
4.4.1.5 -ne/nu(a), ‘contrastive’
4.4.1.6 –ofo, -tofo , ‘usitative’
4.4.1.7 –tsofo,
4.4.1.8. –tu,
4.4.1.9 Degree nominalizations: augmentatives and
diminuatives
4.4.1.10 - ŋo, -mbo, ‘locative nominalization’
4.4.1.11 -mbїɳї, without’
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4.4.1.12. -pїɳї , ‘devalued’

4.4.1.13. (u)fuɳu, ‘resemble’
4.4.1.14. –fu, ‘candidacy’
4.4.1.15. –nїmi, ‘consequential’
4.4.2 Aspectual de-verbal nominalizations
4.4.2.1 Stative verb nominalizations
4.4.2.2 Active verb nominalizations
4.4.2.3 Renominalizations

5. Demonstratives
5.1 Inflectional features of demonstratives
5.2 Word order features of demonstratives
5.3 Pronominal demonstratives and “free personal pronouns”
5.3.1. Nominal predications with pronominal demonstratives
5.3.2. Adverbial predications with pronominal demonstratives
5.3.3. Other non-verbal predications using pronominal
demonstratives
5.3.4. Pronominal demonstratives as verbal argument
5.3.5 Pronominal demonstratives as argument of de-verbal nominalization
5.3.6 Anaphoric pronominal demonstratives
5.3.6.1 uŋele, free pronoun (ANA)
5.3.6.2 ule, anaphoric focus referent (AFR)
5.4 Adnominal demonstratives
5.4.1 Nominal predications with adnominal demonstratives
5.4.2. Adnominal demonstratives as relative pronouns
5.4.3. Referencing a noun phrase as P argument
5.4.4 Summary of relative clause marking by adnominal demonstratives
5.5 Identificational demonstratives
5.5.1. Referencing copula subject (CS)
5.5.2 Referencing fronted NP as former S or A of a de-verbal
nominalization
5.5.3 Identificational demonstrative follows the semantic or copula
verb.
5.5.4. Identificational demonstratives in other kinds of constructions
5.5.5 Identificational demonstratives and comparative constructions
5.6 Local adverbial demonstratives
5.6.1 inde, ‘location close to speaker’
5.6.2. wende, ‘location far from speaker’
5.6.3 ande, ‘location medially near the speaker’
5.6.4 unde, ‘location unknown to speaker’
5.7 Manner demonstratives
5.7.1 ila, distal manner
5.7.2 igeia, proximate manner
5.8 Summary of the functions of Kalapalo demonstratives

6. Verbs and Verbalizations

6.1 Overview
6.1.1 Syntax
6.1.2 Constituent order
6.1.3 Grammatical features
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6.1.4 Phonology of verb stems

6.1.5 Alignment structures
6.2. Intransitive Constructions
6.2.1 Plain intransitive
6.2.2 Extended intransitives
6.2.2.1 Animate extended arguments
6.2.2.2 Inanimate extended arguments
6.2.2.3 Motion verbs with oblique arguments
6.3 Transitive constructions
6.3.1 Ergative-absolutive constructions: general features
6.3.1.1 A as active agent
6.3.1.2 Ergativity and causation
6.3.1.3 Ergativity on locative or directional noun phrases
6.3.1.4 Marking speech act recipients with the ergative suffix
6.3.1.5 Different types of ergative-absolutive constructions
6.3.2 Nominative-accusative constructions
6.3.2.1 The comitative subject
6.3.3 Ditransitive Verbs.
6.4 The inverse-marking constructions
6.4.1 1S>3O→u-
6.4.2 2S>3O →e-
6.4.3 3A >2P→*e-
6.4.4 3A>3P→is-; its-
6.4.5 S2>O1+3→tits-
6.4.6 S1>O2 →e-
6.4.7 S2>O1 →u-
6.4.8 S3>O1+2 →ku-
6.4.9 S1+2>O1 →ku-
6.5 The object-backgrounding construction
6.6 The thetic non-finite construction
6.6.1 Verbal arguments and thetic constructions
6.6.2. Thetic constructions and repetition in discourse
6.6.3 Thetic constructions and clause chaining
6.6.4 Discourse functions of thetic constructions
6.7 Voice
6.7.1 Reflexivity
6.7.1.1 Co-referential reflexivity
6.7.1.2 Adverbial use of the reflexive prefix
6.7.1.3 The t- and ñ- prefix OB compound
6.7.2 Middle voice
6.7.2.1 Diathesis prefix at- on /a/ initial stems
6.7.2.2 Diathesis prefix et- on /i/ initial stems
6.7.2.3 Diathesis prefix ut- on/a/, /e/ and /i / initial stems
6.7.2.4 Diathesis prefix ut- on /u/ initial stems
6.7.2.5 Diathesis prefix e- on consonant initial stems
6.8. Position of constituent segments in the verbal word
6.8.1 Preventative prefix ke-
6.8.2 Personal pronominal prefixes
6.8.3 Downward motion prefix ga-
6.8.4 Intransitive and transitive radical suffixes
6.8.5 Valence increasing suffixes
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6.8.6 Illocutionary force, aspect and irrealis status: overview

6.8.7 The indicative
6.8.7.1 Punctual indicative suffixes, -lï/lu,- dyï/dyu
6.8.7.2 Continuative indicative suffixes, -ga,-ta,-nda,-tsa
6.8.7.3 Resultative indicative, Ø
6.8.7.4 Repetitive aspect -iŋalï
6.8.7.5. Reversative aspect–nalï
6.8.7.6 Potential, -iɳgo
6.8.7.7 Anticipative or inchoative, -ta(ga)ni
6.8.7.8 Counterfactual, -tsolї
6.8.8 Irrealis status
6.8.8.1 Hypothetical
6.8.8.1.1 punctual-hypothetical status, -fo-lï
6.8.8.1.2 continuative-hypothetical status, -fo-ta
6.8.9 Malefactive applicative, -iñalї
6.8.10 Plural concordance suffixes
6.8.10.1 absolutive, - ko
68.10.2 accusative,–ni
6.8.11 –ti, desiderative clause constructions
6.8.12 Evidential suffixes
6.8.12.1 ‘authoritative hearsay’, -tï,
6.8.12.2 ‘non-authoritative hearsay’, –fi
6.8.12.3 ‘inherited knowledge’, -kilï, -kita
6.9. Valence-increasing operations
6.9.1 Use of –ŋe/ne radical.
6.9.2. Use of causative suffixes –ki ,-Gi, -ga
6.9.2.1 –ki, ‘make someone do something to someone else’;
‘make someone be X’
6.9.2.2, -Gi, ‘let someone do/feel X’
6.9.2.3, -ga, ‘involved with doing X to someone’
6.9.3 The preventative –nu
6.10 Speech act verbs and quotatives
6.10.1. -nїgї, -‘say.to X’
6.10.2 -ta. ‘tell to X’
6.10.3 ki-, ‘utter’:
6.10.4 ifa- ‘tell about X’
6.10.5 ika- ‘teach, talk about X’.
6.10.6 Other speech act verbs.
6.11 Verbal constructions for times of year
6.12 Second level derivational processes.
6.12.1 Nominal incorporation
6.12.1.1 Verbal constructions for times of day
6.12.1.2 Examples with body part words
6.12.1.3 Examples with words for handled material objects
6.12.1.4 Examples with words for personal functions
6.12.1.5 Examples with words for natural species names
6.12.2 The te-, ‘go away to do X’ derivation
6.12.3 Verbalizations of ideophones

7. ‘Be’ roots and copularity

7.1 The class inclusion copula suffix –i
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7.2. Zero copula

7.3 ‘Be’ root functions
7.3.1. The verb-like character of ‘be’ roots
7.3.2 The noun-like character of ‘be’ roots
7.3.3. The adverbial-like character of ‘be’ roots
7.4 Copular root constructions
7.4.1 ata- active equative root, ‘do’, ‘act as’, ‘reach’, ‘move to’ (EQA),
7.4.1.1. ata-ni, irrealis inchoative or anticipated
7.4.1.2 at-ehe, perfect aspect
7.4.1.3. ata-nïgï, perfective passing state nominalization
7.4.1.4. at-ïfïgï, imperfective nominalization
7.4.2. Non-copular functions of ata-
7.4.2.1 ata-i-ti, desiderative adverbialization adjunct
7.4.2.2.. ata-lï, punctual indicative intransitive verbal construction
7.4.2.3. ata-ŋe, locative nominalization
7.4.2.4 ata-ŋa, attributive nominalization
7.4.3. a-, stative equative root, “be associated with” (EQS).
7.4.3.1 a-nïmi, consequential nominalization
7.4.3.2. a-titi, desiderative adverbial
7.4.3.3. a-nï-mb-iñe, de-verbal ‘former state’ nominalization
7.4.3.4 a-nïgï, passing state nominalization
7.4.3.5 a-pїgї, end result of a voluntary process.
7.4.3.6. a-nïŋgo-iŋo, imperfective, potential aspect/mood
7.4.3.7. a:nika, a:=nika (epistemic clitic)
7.4.3.8 –(a,u)ŋ, ‘ownership’
7.4.3.9 aɳ-olo, ‘confirmation’
7.4.4 its-existential copular verb, ‘live as, exist as’ (EX).
7.4.4.1 its-a, intransitive, continuous indicative
aspect
7.4.4.2 its-a in copular constructions
7.4.4.3 its-ani, anticipated irrealis status
7.4.4.4. its-omi, enabling purposive
7.4.4.5 i-ñalï, malefactive
7.4.4.6 i- ñïgï, transformed state nominalization
7.4.4.7 its-olï, hypothetical irrealis
7.4.4.8 its-iŋa, stative attributive nominalization
7.4.4.9 (i)tsa-ŋe, deontic imperative
7.4.4.10 i-ti adverbial desiderative
7.4.4.11 its-ue, urgent imperative
7.5. The active equative copular and perfect aspect, atehe
7.5.1. Perfect of experiential situation
7.5.2 Perfect of persistant situation
7.5.3 Future perfect
7.6. Auxiliary copular verb constructions
7.7. Contrasts between demonstrative and ‘be’ root predicational constructions
7.8. Summary: Copular predicate sets

8. Imperatives and Imperative Strategies

8.1 Positive imperatives
8.1.1 –ke suffix
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8.1.2 - ɳ(g)e(ї) suffixes

8.1.3 –tse suffix
8.1.4 –te suffix
8.1.5. –tïŋi , suffix with first person plurals
8.2 Second and third person deontic constructions
8.3 Negative imperatives
8.3.1 Preventative
8.3.2 Prohibitive
8.3.3 Cautionary, odyo
8.3.4 Warning, okoh
8.3.5. Adversative, afïtï
8.4 Hortative and invitational constructions
8.4.1 Proximates
8.4.2 Distals
8.4.3 Leaders’ hortatives
8.5 Didactic warnings
8.6 Imperative strategies
8.6.1 Polite negative imperative strategy
8.6.2 Positive imperative strategies
8.7 Grammatical features of imperatives
8.7.1 Shared features with the same meaning
8.7.2 Features distinctive or particularly common to imperatives
8.8 Comments

9. Interrogative Constructions
9.1 Polar questions
9.1.1 Polar question examples with responses
9.2 Informational and rhetorical question constructions
9.2.1 Information content questions
9.2.1.1 uwa, ‘what, why’ questions
9.2.1.2. unde, ‘where’ questions
9.2.1.3 uɳu, ‘who’, ‘what’, ‘how’ questions
9.2.1.4 una, ‘‘to where’ questions
9.3 tї ‘rhetorical questions’
9.3.1 t≈aɳo-ti=ma, ‘so that’s where X was?’
9.3.2 tï-eku-... ‘so why ever did X? ’
9.3.3 tï-ki,’so that was what?’
9.3.4 tï-ko=mbe-ki, ‘so that’s what’s been done’?
9.3.5 tї-ma, ‘so that was it?’
9.3.6 tï-me, ‘so that kind of thing’?
9.3.7 tï-tomi, ‘so for that purpose, reason?’.
9.3.8 tï-su-ki, ‘so that’s being done’.
9.3.9 tї-su-na, ‘so does this fool come?’
9.4 Use of contrastive prefix ta-
9.5 A conversational example
9.6 Summary

10. Adverbs and Adverbializations

10.1 Distinctive features of Kalapalo adverbs
10.1.1 Adverbs in clause constituent order
10.1.2 Adjunct functions
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10.1.3 t-√-ADV constructions

10.2 Inflections on adverbs
10.3 Adverbial derivations
10.4. Underived adverbs
10.4.1 Adverbs of manner
10.4.2 Adverbs referencing the movement of the sun
10.4.3 Basic color terms
10.4.4 Other lexicalized adverbials
10.5 Adverbial suffixes
10.5.1 The degree suffix –tsetse, somewhat more’
10.5.2 –la, ‘negative’ in antonym constructions
10.5.3 Attributive adverbial suffixes
10.5.3.1 Lexical–ki adverbials
10.5.3.2 Derived –ki adverbials
10.5.3.3 –mi adverbs
10.5.3.4 –pi adverbs
10.5.3.5 –ti adverbs
10.5.3.6 –fi adverbs
10.5.3.7 –tsu(i) adverbs
10.5.3.8 –isi, itsi adverbs
10.5.4 Adverbial spatial deictic suffixes
10.5.4.1 –kai,’on’ or ‘beside’
10.5.4.2 –p(f)o, ‘in relation to a flat surface’
10.5.4.3 –pїga, ‘above a flat surface’
10.5.4.4 –pa, ‘touching a flat surface’
10.5.4.5 –pati, ‘on an island or swampy environment’
10.5.4.6 –kuati, ‘into a watery environment
10.5.4.7. –ka, direction of water
10.5.4.8 –(g)ati, ‘into a container’
10.5.4.9 –ta, ‘inside a container’
10.5.4.10 -(Gi)tati, ‘travelling on a surface by means of’
10.5.4.11 –isatati, ‘motion inside a container’
10.5.4.12–tundati, ‘motion onto a surface’
10.5.4.13 –ofinati, ‘motion beneath’
10.5.4.14 –itati, ‘inside’ (a solid object)
10.5.4.15 –nda, -ndo, ‘location’
10.5.4.16 –fїtї, ‘gathered together’
10.5.5 The adverbial temporal deixis suffix -funda
10.6 The adverbial suffix -ku, ‘intensive’
10.7 Adverbial negation
10.7.1 Simple negation
10.7.2 Denial of predication
10.8 The adverbialized ‘be’ root ag-

11. Small Word Classes

11.1 Ideophones
11.1.1 Ideophonic syllables
11.1.1.1 One or two syllables ending in checked consonant /k’/
11.1.1.2 One or two syllables ending in /m/
11.1.1.3 One syllable extended /u/
11.1.1.4 Reduplicated syllables
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11.1.2 Referencing human calls or animal cries

11.1.3 Complex ideophonic constructions
11.2 Expressives
11.2.1 Interjections
11.2.1.1 eteh, ‘beautiful’
11.2.1.2 atah, ‘delicious’
11.2.1.3 kїtsї, ‘disgusting’
11.2.1.4 okoh, ‘dangerous’
11.2.1.5 opuh, ‘far’, ‘a long time’
11.2.1.6 adyah, ‘impatient’
11.2.1.7 kїtah, ‘self-reproaching’
11.2.1.8 iñe:, ‘tiny’
11.2.1.9 mohoh, ‘big’, ‘fat’
11.2.1.10 mbah ha, ’a great amount’
11.2.1.11 dyasu, ‘pity’
11.2.2 Epistemic expressives
11.2.2.1 u:m, referencing imaginative thought
11.2.2.2 akah, ka:h, frustrative
11.2.2.3 koh, unknowing
11.2.2.4 ah, assertive
11.2.2.5 ma, uncertainty
11.2.2.6 ekї, uncertainty regarding a name
11.2.2.7 u:m ma, uncertainty of understanding something seen
11.2.2.8 ah u:m, ‘certainty of imaginative thought, conviction’
11.3 Adjectives
11.3.1 Syntactic and grammatical features
11.3.2. Adjectives of quality and physical features
11.3.3 Comparison of adjectival and nominal complements
11.4 Discourse particles
11.4.1 eh he, ‘agreement’
11.4.2 eh, ‘yes’
11.4.3 aluale, ‘instead’
11.4.4 aifa, ‘ready’, ‘done’
11.4.5 lepene, ‘afterwards’
11.4.6 lepe, ‘next’
11.5 Deontics
11.5.1 ake-tsaŋe, deontic subject construction
11.5.2 fe-tsaŋe, deontic object construction
11.5.3 ake-ts≈igei, deontic demonstrative construction
11.5.5. Deontics in complex clause constructions
11.6 Coordinator õ, ‘and’

12. Clitics and Particles

12.1 General overview of Kalapalo clitics
12.1.1. The positioning of clitics on phonological words
12.1.2. Semantic types of clitics
12.2 Affective clitics and particles
12.2.1 =su, pejorative (PEJ)
12.2.2 =keñi, evitative (EVIT)
12.2.3 =ki, negative mirative (MIRN)
12.2.4 =seku, neutral or positive mirative (MIR)
xii

12.2.5 =futsu, ‘pathetic’, ‘pitiful’

12.2.6 nile, ‘beware’
12.2.7 dyogu, ‘unkind’
12.2.8 eGitse, ‘unfortunate’
12.3. Epistemic clitics and particles
12.3.1 General overview
12.3.2 Semantic parameters
A. Focus on object, speaker inside description or
foregrounded
12.3.2.1 wãke
12.3.2.2 =tifa
12.3.2.3 =nika
12.3.2.4=laka
12.3.2.5 =ma
12.3.2.6 =maɳa
12.3.2.7 =kaɳa
B. Focus on object, speaker outside description or not
foregrounded
12.3.2.8 =ɳapa
12.3.2.9=tata
12.3.2.10 =fїna
12.3.2.11 koh
C. Focus on person in subjectivity
12.3.2.12 =tafa
12.3.2.13 =kafa
12.3.2.14 =kato
12.3.2.15 =tiki
D. Focus on changing subjectivity
12.3.2.16 =maki
12.3.2.17 =makina
12.3.2.18 =pile
E. Contra-spective morphemes
12.3.2.19 = kiɳi
12.3.2.20 mukwe
F. Intersubjectivity
12.3.2.21 =aka
12.3.2.22 =taka
12.3.2.23 =tsїna
12.3.2.24 =kalaka
12.3.2.25 =nipa
12.3.2.26 =nafa
12.3.2.27 =nifa
12.3.2.28 =(p)apa
12.4 Taxis clitics
12.4.1 Syntactic features
12.4.2 =fata (SIM)
12.4.3 =lefa (MT)
12.4.4. =gele (PT)
12.4.5 =ale (UT)
12.4.6. =fale, ‘new, overlapping’ (NO)
12.4.7 =fofo, ‘very soon or immediately’ (IM).
 xiii

12.4.8 gehale, ‘again’

12.4.9. =tale, ‘ different taxis’ (DT)
12.4.10 =male, ‘different, adversative’ (DAD
12.4.11 =nale, oppositive, immediately following event (OPO)
12.4.12.= ɳuGi, ‘interrupted event’ (IT)
12.4.13 =kogua, end of frustrative, relentless activity (EREL).
12.4.14 =tiga, habitual (HAB)
12.5 Interclausal reference markers
12.6 The clitic/particle distinction in Kalapalo
12.7 Problems with the definition of ‘modality’

13. Complex Clause Constructions

13.1 Lexical complementation
13.1.1. Utterance complementation
13.1.2 eɳ(ї)u, ‘reason’ complementation
13.1.3 aɳi, ‘result’ or accomplishment complementation
13.1.4 iɳge, ‘consideration’ complementation
13.1.5 ene(a)-fa, ‘suppositional’ complementation
13.2 Verbal complementation strategies
13.2.1 Contrastive clauses
13.2.2 Enabling purposive complements
13.2.3 Concessive complements
13.2.4 Desideratives
13.3 Subordination
13.3.1 Motion complements
13.3.1.1 ‘A goes away while B does Y’
13.3.1.2. ‘go away to do X’
13.3.1.3 ‘x comes to do y’
13.3.1.4 Extended intransitive with goal-oriented subordinate clause
13.3.2 Non-finite supine (purpose of motion) subordinate clauses
13.3.3. Perception complements
13.3.4 Nominalization subordination strategy
13.3.5 Anaphoric focus referent ule subordinate clause marker
13.4 Discussion: ‘Purposive’ and ‘reason’ constructions

14. Clause chaining and interclausal reference in Kalapalo Narratives

14.1. General overview
14.1.1. Narrative segmentation and clausal coordination
14.1. 2. Ideophonic clauses
14.1.3. Focus shifting ule clauses at level C
14.1.3.1 Demonstrative function
14.1.3.2 Subordinate clause marker
14.1.3.3 Focus shifting functions
14.1.4 Taxis marking and embedded clause chains, Level D
14.2 Medial-final and initial-consecutive structures
14.3. The interclausal reference marking complex
14.3.1 Reference and marking clauses
14.3.2 SET I interclausal reference markers
14.3.2.1 (A) =mbe (SS) ‘same subject’, ‘that same one’
14.3.2.2 (B) =mba (DS) ‘new subject’, ‘different one’
14.3.2.3 (C) =dye (SE) ‘same prior event’
xiv

14.3.2.4 (D) =dya (DE) ‘different, successive event’

14.3.2.5 (E) =mbedye (SSE) “same subject, same prior event’
14.3.2.6 (F) =mbedya (SSDE) ‘same subject, different
successive event’, ‘reason’
14.3.3 Compound forms (Set 2)
14.3.3.1 (G) =mbege (SSR) ‘that again’
14.3.3.2 (H) =mbegedya (RDE) ‘even though’
‘nevertheless”
14.3.3.3 ( I) =mbembege (PE) ‘and again and again as
before’-
14.3.3.4 (J) =mbembegedya (PDE) ‘but even after doing
all that’
14.3.3.5 (K) =mbegeledye (RSSE), ‘still as before’
14.3.3.6 (L) =mbekudye (INC) ‘without exception’,
‘comprehensive’
14.3.3.7 (M)=mbekudya (NOMR), ‘for just that reason (that’s
why)’
14.3.3.8 (N) =mbele (CU) , ‘cumulative effect’, ‘in
the end’
14.3.3.9 (O)=mbale (CAT) ‘as a result’, ‘consequently’
14.2.3.10 (P) -mbembale.(SSCAT) ‘so afterwards, elsewhere’
14.3.3.11 (Q) =mbetufugu: SSTOT ‘done to/by all of them’
14.3.4 Interclausal reference marking and atehe perfects
14.3.5. Discussion of Kalapalo clause chaining and switch-reference
14.4 The primary topical participant marker –fa
14.4.1. –fa in complement clause constructions
14.4.2. –fa on subordinate clauses and adverbial adjuncts
14.4.3. Preserving continuity of primary topical participant
14.4.4. Relation between -fa and the marking and reference clauses
14.4.5 –fa and split-ergativity
14.5 Focus structures and topical expressions: review

Appendix A: Swadesh 100-word list

Appendix B: Vocabulary
I. Stems II. Lexemes
Appendix C: The Tree Termites’ Arrow, told by Kakaku
Appendix D: Mїti, told by Kambe
Appendix E: Upe, The Jaguar’s Crushed Flanks, told by Kudyu

References
 xv

Acknowledgments

I am most grateful to those who generously commented upon my earlier

efforts to describe the Kalapalo language and who helped by reading
sections, providing critical references and patiently encouraging my
work on the project over the years: Asif Agha, Eithne Carlin, Ferdinand
de Haan, Lynda deJong the late Desmond Derbyshire, Patience Epps,
Spike Gildea, Laura Graham, William F. Hanks, Berend Hoff, Jane
Hill, Susanne Kung, Simon Overing, Gunter Senft, Joel Sherzer, and
Judith Tonhauser. Since 1966 my research has been supported by grants
from the National Science Foundation, the Wenner-Gren Foundation for
Anthropological Research, Inc., the John Simon Guggenheim
Foundation, and the University of Arizona. Special thanks go to Dr.
Bruna Franchetto of the Department of Anthropology, Museo Nacional,
Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, who so generously offered to
sponsor my more recent work in Brazil during 1998, and I thank her and
Dr. Carlos Fausto for their gracious hospitality. Professor Bruna
Franchetto’s writings on Kuikuro have been most important for my
understanding of Kalapalo. I am also most grateful to Alexandra Y.
Aikhenvald and R.M.W. Dixon for their invitation to attend the Research
Centre for Linguistic Typology at LaTrobe University, Melbourne
Australia as a Visiting Fellow during 2007. Of course I take full
responsibility for all errors, mistakes and omissions.
The loving patience and support of my husband David Marsh
Jaffrey made this work possible. Above all, I wish to express my
unending gratitude to the three generations of Aifa and Tanguro
communities who warmly welcomed me and showed so much
enthusiasm for my work. As always I acknowledge their continuing to
allow me to learn from them in so many different and lasting ways.
    xvi 
 

List of Tables
1. Kalapalo consonant segments
2. Kalapalo vowel segments
3. Kalapalo syllable structures
4. Syllable count in three texts
5. Phonotactic restrictions on the presence of consonants
6. Phonotactic restrictions on the presence of vowels
7. Word classes and their categorial inflections and derivations
8. Person marking prefixes and plurality on noun and verb phrases
9. Person marking prefixes and plurality on case suffixes
10. Constructions and their marking at syntactic levels
11. Types of predicational nominal constructions
12. Spatially deictic third person pronouns
13. Referential kinship and affinal terminology
14. Suppletive kinship words
15. Possessablity features of underived nominal types
16. Person marking and plurality on the dative/benefactive case morpheme
17. Non-aspectual nominalization suffixes
18. Aspectual nominalization and renominalization suffixes
19. Morphological and semantic distinctions in demonstrative sets
20. Pronominal demonstratives
21. Distribution of phoneme initial stems in sample of verbal morphemes
22. Intransitive radicals 
23. Transitive radicals  
24. Illocutionary force/Irrealis/Aspect verb paradigm
25. Valence-increasing suffixes
26. Inverse-Marking processes
27. Person marking on ‘be’ roots
28. Inflectional and derivational ‘be’ root paradigm
29. Preposed imperative interjections
30. Preposed interrogative words
31. Adverbial suffixes
32. Kalapalo interjections
33. Kalapalo epistemic expressives
34. Discourse particles
35. Comparison of Kalapalo enclitics and particles
36. Affective clitics and particles
37. Kalapalo epistemic morphemes
38. Features of taxis marking in Kalapalo clauses
39. Segmentary levels and reference coordinates in Kalapalo narrative structure
40. Set 1 Interclausal reference marking structures
41. Set 2 Interclausal reference marking structures
42. Semantic properties and temporal reference of inter-clausal reference marking (Set 1 and Set 2)

 
xvii

List of Diagrams
1: Order of constituents in nominal words
2. Order of constituents in verbal words
3. Order of constitutents in adverbialized words

 
 xviii

Abbreviations and symbols

A: transitive subject, agent

ABL: ablative

ABS: absolutive

ADEM: adnominal demonstrative

ADV: adverbializer

AFR: anaphoric focus referent

ALL: allative

ALOC: adverbial locative

AN: agentive nominalizer

ANA: anaphoric 3p

ANT: anticipated, inchoative

ATN: attributive nominalization

BN: benefactive nominalization

b-in-law: brother in law

C: coordinator, listing word

CO: connector

CAN: candidate

CAT: cataphoric

CAUS: causative radical

CAUSP: causative/permissive

CF: counterfactual

CHY: continuous hypothetical

CI: continuous indicative aspect/mood

CL: class inclusion copula

xix

CO: cooperative

COLL: collective

COM: comitative

CON: contained

CONC: concessive

CONF: conformative

CONS: consequential

CONT: contrastive

CU: cumulative

DAD: dangerous

DAT/BEN: dative/ benefactive

DE: different event

DEO: deontic

DES: desiderative

DEST: destination

DEV: devalued

DH: distal hortative

DIM: diminutive

DIS: dislocative

DS: different subject

DT: different or contrastive taxis

EM: epistemic clitic or particle

END: endearment

EP: epenthetic vowel

EQA: active equative ‘be’ root

EQS: stative equative ‘be’ root

 xx

EREL: end relentless

ERG: ergative

ESS: essive

EV: evidential

EVIT: evitative affective clitic

EX: existential stative ‘be root

EXN: experiencer nominalizer

EXP: epistemic expletive

FA: father

FACS: facsimile

FO: former, terminated

FRUST: frustrative

GF: grandfather

GM: grandmother

HAB: habitual

HORT: hortative

I:imperative

IA: inappropriate

ICP: incompletive

IDEM: identificational demonstrative

IDEO: ideophone

IJ: interjection

IM: immediate taxis

IMP: imperfective nominalization

INC: inclusive

IND: indefinite pronoun

xxi

INST: instrumental

INT: intensive

IPE: involuntary resultative nominalization

IRM: interclausal reference marker

IT: interruptive taxis

LT: least, lesser

M: modifier

MAL: malefactive

MAJ: majority

MIR: mirative

MO: mother

MT: metonymic taxis

MV: middle voice diathesis

NA: not yet initiated nominalization

NEG: negation

NMIR: negative mirative

NN: negative nominalization

NO: new overlapping taxis

NOMR: logical association, preceding

NT: new, different taxis

O: object

OB: object-backgrounding compound

OBR: older brother

OD: deontic O

OP: oppositive

OZ: older sister

 xxii

P: patient

PAU: paucal

PDE: same subject, new successive event

PDEM: pronominal demonstrative

PE: perpetuity

PEJ: pejorative

PER: perfect aspect

PERL: perlative

PH: proximate hortative

PHY: punctual hypothetical

PI: punctual indicative aspect/mood

PL: plural

POSS: possessive

POT: potential aspect/mood

PREC: precise,immediate, exactly at the moment

PREV: preventative

PRT: prohibitive taxis

PS: passing state nominalization

PT: persistant action

PTP: primary topical participant

PURP: purposive

Q: content question word

R: resemble

RDE: repeated subject, different event

RECIP: reciprocal

REF reflexive
xxiii

REP: repetitive

RES: resultative

REV: reversative

RSSE: repeated subject, same event, ‘still as before’

RQ: rhetorical question prefix

S: intransitive subject

SAL: salient copula

SCAUS: sociative causative

SD: deontic S/A

SE: same prior event

SIM: simultaneous

SN: stative subject nominalizer

SS: same subject

SSCAT: consequential event

SSDE: same subject, different event

SSE: same subject, same event

SSR: same repeated events

SSTOT: same subjects, totality

SUP: supine

T: target

TEMP: temporal adverb

TH: thetic

THO: thoughtless

TR: transformed state

U: unique copula

UN: unending nominalizer

 xxiv

URG: urgency, impatience

USIN: usitative nominalizer

UT: unending taxis

xxv

VA: ambitransitive radical

VI: intransitive radical

(voc): vocative

VPE: voluntary resultative nominalization

VT: transitive radical

W: ‘without’ nominalizer

YBR: younger brother

YZ: younger sister

z-in-law: sister-in-law

Ø: unmarked morpheme

√: stem

; fused morpheme

1, 1p: first person

2, 2p: second person

3, 3p: third person1+2: first person inclusive

1+3: first person exclusive

> A operating on P

→ change of construction

= cliticization

≈ vocalic elision, syllable reduction

: extended vowel

, slight pause

! assertive vocalization

; portmanteau glosses in formally unsegmentable element with more than one meaning

subscript i,j to distinguish two third-person arguments

Ideophonic meanings are put in parenthesis

xxvi
 xxv

Grammatical Morphemes

Included in this list are inflectional and derivational prefixes and

suffixes, their glosses and meanings. Where the meaning or function of a
form is not understood clearly ‘?’ appears as the gloss and the term
‘formative’ is used. The final column lists sections where the morphemes
are discussed in the grammar. Where allophones occur (ї:u; f:p), both
allomorphs are included here. For the full lists of clitics, see Chapter 3:
Clitics and particles, Tables 8-10; Chapter 14: Discourse and grammar,
Tables 41,42. Prefixes are listed with (-) following the morpheme,
suffixes with (-) preceding the morpheme.

The following abbreVIations refer to the word classes where morphemes

in the present list occur:

a adverbial
c copular verb
d deontic postposition
n nominal
q interrogative
v verbal

Morpheme Gloss Meaning

Prefixes
a- 2 second person (v,n)
ake- SD deontic S/A (v)
at- MV diathesis (middle voice) (v)
e- 2 second person (v,n)
e- MV diathesis (middle voice) (v)
et- MV diathesis (middle voice) (v)
fe- OD deontic O
ga- D motion downwards (v)
i- 3 third person
ka- PREV preventative (v)
ke- PREV preventative (v)
ku 1+2 first person inclusive
kuk 1+2 first person inclusive
m- 2 second person
n- OB object-backgrounding (v)
nz- OB object-backgrounding (v)
ñ OB object-backgrounding (v)
ɳ- OB object-backgrounding (v)
o- 2 second person (v,n)
t(i)- REF reflexive (v,n,a)
ta- CONT contrastive (q)
ta- DIS dislocative (,v)
tis- 1+3 first person exclusive
tï- RQ rhetorical question (q
 xxvi

u- 1 first person singular

ukw- dual dual
ut- MV diathesis (middle voice) (v)

Suffixes and Infixes

-a U unique identificational copula

(n)
-ake COM comitative (n)
-apa CONF conformative with second
person (v)
-atai IMP impatience, encouragement (v)
-dyї PI punctual indicative (v)
-dyu PI punctual indicative (v)
-dyu END endearment (n)
-ehe PERF perfect aspect (c)
-fa PTP primary topical participant (n)
-feke ERG ergative (1,2,1+3,3 persons)
-fi ADV adverbial

-fїgї VPE resultative,voluntary process (n)

-fїɳї UN unlike (a)
-fo HYP hypothetical(v)
-folї PHY punctual hypothetical
-fota CHY continuous hypothetical
-fopїgї AA almost but never accomplished
(n)
-fu CAN candidate for doing X
-fuegї EXCS excessive (n)
-fuɳu RES resemblance (n)
-ga CI continuative indicative (v)
-ga SCAUS sociative causative (v)
-ge I imperative (v)
-ge PERL perlative (n)
-Gi PCAUS permissive causative, (v)
-Giɳa ADV motion along
-go PAU paucal (n)
-gї POSS possessive (n)
-gu POSS possessive (n)
-i CL class inclusion copula (n)
-i EP epithentic vowel
-i TH thetic (v)
-iña DAT/BEN dative/benefactive (n, v)
-iñal(u)ї MAL malefactive applicative (v)
-iñe(ї,u) SN stative experiencer (n)
-iɳa SN stative attributive (c)
-iɳi NN negative agent (n)
-iɳo POT potential aspect/mood (v)
-isi ADV de-verbal adverbializer (a)
-iti DES desiderative (v)
 xxvii

-kai E extended transitive argument (v)

-kaiɳa DEST destination (n)
-ke I imperative (v)
-ke formative ‘because of, following from’?
-ki ADV intransitive verb
adverbialization (a)
-ki CAUS causative (v)
-ki INST instrumental (n)
-ki NMIR negative mirative (q)
-ko PL plural (absolutive) (n,v)
-ku IN intensive (a)
-ku CAUSS causative, stative suffix(v)
-ku VT transitive radical
-kuegї AUG augmentative, monstrous,
different (n)
-kusїgї DIM diminuative (n)
-la NEG negative (v, a)
-lї PI punctate indicative
aspect/mood (v)
-lu PI punctate indicative
aspect/mood(v)
-mbїgї FO terminated, former (n)
-mbїɳї W without (n)
-me FACS facsimile (n)
-mo COLL collective (n)
-na OP contrastive (q,n)
-na ALL goal; allative (v,n)
-nalї REV reversative (v)
-nda CI imperfective,
continuative indicative (v)
-ndo ALOC locative (a)
-ne CONT contrastive (q,n)
-ne VT transitive radical (v)
-ñe VT transitive radical (v)
-ni CI imperfective,anticipated,
inchoative aspect/mood(v)
-ni (n) AN active agent (n)
-ni PL plural (accusative)
-nїgї PS passing state (n)
-nїmbiñe F former state (n)
-nїmi CONS consequential (n, c)
-nu(a) PREV preventative (v,a, n)
-ñalї MAL malefactive (v)
-ñїgї TR transformed state (n)
-ñu END endearment (n)
- ɳa, ɳi SN subject nominalization (c)
- ɳa VT transitive radical (v)
-ɳalï REP repetitive (v)
-ɳe I imperative (v)
-ɳe DEO deontic (c)
-ɳe VT transitive verb radical (v)
 xxviii

-ɳi I imperative (v)

-ɳo PREC precise, immediate, exactly at
the moment (n, a)
-ɳu LT least or lesser (n)
-ɳu VI radical (v)
-ofo USIN usitative (n)
-olo ? formative (c)
-omi PURP purposive (a)
-ote CONC concessive (v)
-papa CO cooperative (v)
-pe SAL salient; entity belonging to
a larger whole; target (n);
-pe ESS essive (n)
-pehe ERG ergative (1+2 person) (n)
-peɳine ABL ablative (n)
-pi ADV adverbial (a)
-p(f)їgї VPE end result, voluntary
process (n)
-pїɳї DEV devalued (n)
-po ADV adverbial (a)
-sa CI continuous indicative (v)
-su POSS possessive (n)
-ta CI imperfective continuative
indicative aspect (v)
-ta DIS dislocative
-te VI intransitive verb radical (v)
te I urgency (v)
-ti DES desiderative (a,c,v)
-tiga HAB habitual (v)
-tї EV evidential (n,v)
-tї M modifier (n)
-t(s)їe ENC encouragement, urgency (v)
-tїfїgї IMP active imperfective (n)
-tїɳї I imperative (v)
-tigi SUP supine
-to REC reciprocal (n)
-tofo PN place name (n)
-tomi PER permissive (v)
-tote CONC concessive (v)
-tsa CI imperfective continuative
indicative aspect/mood(c)
-tsaɳe DEO deontic postposition
-tse I imperative (v)
-tse VI intransitive verb radical
-tsetse ADV somewhat (a)
-tsi VI intransitive verb radical
-tsipїgї US unending, imperfective state (n)
-tsїpїgї NA not yet initiated (n)
-tsї M modifier (n)
-tsїgї IPE end result, involuntary
process (n)
 xxix

-tsofo BN benefactive attributive (n)

-tsu POSS possessive (n)
-tsuegї MAJ major type of (n)
-tu ATN stative affective attributive (n)
-tu DIS dislocative (v)
-tufugu IMP active imperfective (n)
-(u)fuɳu R resemble (n)
-Ø RES resultative (v)
-Ø TH thetic (v)
Ø- ABS absolutive (v)
 1

Chapter 1
The Language and its Speakers
1. 1 Genetic Affiliation and History

The language called Kalapalo is one of two existing so-called sub-

dialects of the Southern Cariban family (Meira and Franchetto 2009;
they use the term ‘Caribanan but I follow others in using ‘Cariban’ as a
generic term for these languages). This and most other labels for Cariban
groups in the region are taken from both Cariban and Tupian names for
past ethnolinguistic communities. The name Akuku, apparently taken
from an ancient settlement, was at the time of my original research a self-
reference used by these Cariban speakers. The name ‘Kalapalo’ was
originally given by local people to a very old settlement (etu). But from
the time of the nineteenth century German explorer-scholars Karl von
den Steinen and Herman Meyer, researchers and Brazilian administrators
began collecting the names of such places, both to develop linguistic
classifications and to estimate the local population. These names came to
be used in an essentialist way, to refer to Alto Xingu ‘local groups’ or
even ‘tribes’. By the second half of the twentieth century, ‘Kalapalo’ was
sometimes used in self-reference when speaking to outsiders. Finally,
‘Kalapalo’ came to be used more recently by the residents of the
settlement called Aifa (‘ready.done’) in self-reference, as a radio tag.
Other Southern Cariban sub-groups spoken in the region are
called “Nahukwa”, “Matipu” and “Kuikuro”. Nahukwa (probably taken
from the name of a historical community Aŋafukua but more recently
referring to the survivors of the southwestern community of Dyagamu) is
most closely related to Kalapalo. The pair Matipu (from the local Tupian
name, Matipuhy; referring to surviving members of the old settlement
Wagifїtї) and Kufikugu (‘many kufi fish’) together constitute the other
sub-dialect. Differences between all four of these subdialects are not yet
entirely clear, as only Kufikugu and Kalapalo have been studied. All
four names came to be used by local residents of the Alto Xingu under
the influence of Portuguese-speaking administrators and anthropologists.
However, the more proximate community affiliations of residents are
still used to refer to individuals, regardless of their language affiliation.
Recent comparative phonological analysis by Sergio Meira and
Bruna Franchetto has led to the conclusion that Cariban languages found
south of the Amazon should be divided into three groups, which they call
Kuikuro, Arara-Ikpeng, and Bakairi. The latter two sub-groups are
deemed related, while Kuikuro is considered an independent sub-branch.
(Meira and Franchetto 2005). As Kuikuro is today a local word for a
particular residential-dialectical group, I prefer the more cumbersome but
accurate ‘Alto Xingu Cariban’.
Currently, there are approximately 1200 speakers of Alto Xingu
Cariban sub-dialects living in a number of local communities on both
sides of the Culuene River, a majority headwater tributary of the northern
flowing Xingu River. People calling themselves “Kalapalo” number
approximately 500 and reside in three communities on the protected
reserve in the Alto Xingu basin called the “Xingu National Reserve”.
2

Kalapalo also live in small local Brazilian communities, particularly the

town of Canarana, and in the city of São Carlos, in São Paulo state,
where they attend school in a special program coordinated by
anthropologists. A special literacy program organized by Brazilian
academics in the late 20th century has encouraged literacy in local
languages and has probably had an important role in maintaining
indigenous language use. But while Kalapalo is still spoken by children
and youths, the language has been increasingly supplemented by
Portuguese not only in contacts with outsiders but as a local lingua franca
since about 60 years ago; Portuguese is used in many situations within
the reserve, where there are speakers (in the southern region) of four or
five mutually unintelligible languages sharing a common culture.
Speakers of at least three other languages do not participate to any extent
in this cultural context but have some contact with groups in the southern
region. Ritual genres are still performed by residents of the Alto Xingu,
and there have been efforts to record and preserve little known
ceremonial practices (e.g., as in Marina Herrero, Ulysses Fernandes, Joao
Veridiano Franco Neto 2006). However, outside of the large scale
ceremonial gatherings involving people from many different
communities and focused upon the life-status events of hereditary
leaders, youths are less interested than in the past and their attention has
turned to new media (tv, email, Facebook and other social network sites).
The ‘Kalapalo’ as seen in recent times appear to be an
amalgamation of several different community groups (otomo), the
members of which came as survivors after disease or attacks by enemies
decimated their populations. Some of these people, having been raised
in communities speaking Arawak or Tupi languages, came to use the
particular variety of Southern Cariban in use by the majority of residents
(and in particular their leaders), but as is clear from their children, still
alive during the period of my research in the 1980’s, kept speaking their
own languages in some circumstances. The second problem with the idea
of ‘the Kalapalo’ as a distinct language group is that the people
themselves often use this word in self-reference when speaking with
outsiders, to the extent that the name has become a kind of label used to
distinguish them from other local settlement groups. Closely connected
with this local usage seems to be a newly developed sense of a distinct
identity that appears to be the result of actual multigenerational
continuities, due to the population recovery that began to emerge after a
devastating measles epidemic in 1954.

1.2.Linguistic profile of Kalapalo

Kalapalo is a highly agglutinative head marking language with minor

tendencies towards some fusion due to pervasive vocalic elision at
morphemic boundaries and to the resultant syllable reduction. There are
also some fusional morphemes, particularly involving plurality with
aspectual inflectional suffixes. However, there are usually clearly
recognized internal morpheme boundaries and most affixes have syllabic
autonomy. There are frequent word class changing derivational
processes which result in somewhat flexible word class functioning, but
predictable word orders and inflectional and derivational features usually
 3

allow easy identification of members of these classes. There are twelve

basic word classes in Kalapalo; some of these have subclasses. The two
largest and open classes - verbs and nouns- are subject to derivational
processes, as are adverbs, the next largest class. The smaller, closed
classes include clitics, demonstratives, ideophones, expressives,
adjectives interrogatives, discourse particles, deontics, and a connector.
Verbal inflections include absolutive person prefixes as well as
following: middle voice diathesis prefixes, the reflexive and thetic t-,
contrastive, and valence decreasing object-backgrounding prefixes.
Verbal suffixes form an elaborate set, including indicative aspectual and
irrealis suffixes, causal and permissive valency increasing suffixes, and
plural concordance suffixes referencing intransitive subject (S) and
transitive object (O) alignments. There is a separate plural suffix for
transitive subject (A) arguments.
Nouns can be inflected for syntactic oblique semantic
directional cases, in possessor-possessed constructions with pronominal
prefixes (with possession suffix), and one or more of a large number of
nominalization suffixes including derivational markers of nominal
aspect. Adverbs may be inflected with adverbial suffixes and derived
from both verbs and nouns. Other morphemes—such as the primary
topical participant –fa, the relative clause modifier –tsï and the
subclasses of epistemic, affective, and locative clitics—may be hosted by
morphemes associated with all three of the major word classes.
Kalapalo is mainly an ergative language, though ‘ergativity’ has
been shown to have non-agentive ‘causal’ meanings in Southern Cariban
(Franchetto 2006; 2010). There are several minor splits. The first is
conditioned by illocutionary force. My data show a split between the
nominative-accusative hortative and imperative; and the ergative-
absolutive in all persons in the indicative and interrogative illocutionary
force. The second split involves valence-decreasing structures. Inverse
marking and object-backgrounding structures are nominative-accusative;
direct marking of arguments on finite verb phrases are ergative-
absolutive. Finite transitive clauses follow OV constituent order with the
ergatively marked A postposed in the clause; while object-
backgrounding and intransitive clauses follow SV order. Marked
transitive clauses in which the transitive subject is fronted for pragmatic
reasons, follow AOV order. Adverbial clauses generally precede main
clauses. There are two types of non-finite verb constructions: the thetic,
and the supine. The thetic may preserve the S or A argument of the verb.
Kalapalo is a predominantly suffixing language, with a smaller
number of prefixes. There are several semantic types of clitics, all of
which include a large number of morphemes. Some of these may act
independently as lexical particles. Word stems include root+ radical
combinations, the latter specifying world class function. Many (but
probably not all) roots seem to be pre-class forms, needing to be derived
through the “first level” infixes for transitive/intransitive verb, noun, and
adverb functions. There are several “second level” derivational
paradigms through which words of one of these classes can become
associated with any of the two other classes. There is pervasive use of
derivational affixes involved in nominalization, renominalization,
verbalization, and adverbialization. Inflectional and derivational
4

paradigms are large, and as I have just mentioned, many root and stem
morphemes can cross word class boundaries. While most morphemes in
the language have their own distinctive functions or meanings there are
about 4-5 homophonous suffixes and polyfunctional derivational affixes.
Some multifunctional homophonous morphemes cross word class
boundaries. Kalapalo, a head final language, exhibits mainly head
marking, but also some dependent and adjunct marking.

1.3 Typological features of special interest

Kalapalo displays several interesting typological features.

- Prosodically, it is rare insofar as second syllables of
phonological words are stressed.
- It is a split-ergative language with splits conditioned by
illocutionary force type and valence. Imperatives and
valence-decreasing structures are nominative-accusative. All
other structures are ergative-absolutive.
- There is a large set of epistemic clitics, which must be
distinguished both grammatically and semantically from the
much smaller set of evidential suffixes.
- Evidentials express the relation between a speaker and the
source of traditional knowledge: inherited through hereditary
leadership status, customary or traditional knowledge shared
by all who listen to storytelling, and personal knowledge that
has been passed down directly to the speaker by other
authorities.
- There is a copula suffix as well as several ‘be’ roots which
appear in both copular and regular intransitive constructions,
in de-verbal nominalizations, adverbializations, and a limited
number of types of auxiliary verb constructions.
- There are several sets of demonstratives. One set of
demonstratives may be used to reference a noun phrase as S
or A of a verb, but only when that verb (which may be a
copula) is in indicative anticipated aspect inflection, and
further only when the noun phrase is fronted before the verb
in a focalization process. Additionally, that verb may have
been nominalized.
- As with other Cariban languages, word-class changing
derivations involving verbs, nouns and adverbs are
pervasive. A subset of derivational de-verbal and
renominalized noun forms have perfective and imperfective
aspectual properties. These and other nominalizations may
preserve S and A arguments of their verbs.
- There is a perfect aspect in the active equative ‘be’ root in
copular verb constructions.
- There is a large set of interclausal reference marking clitics
that are involved with clause chaining. Interclausal reference
marking has both shift-reference and cross-clausal semantic
functions.
- Kalapalo is a tenseless language. In addition to the de-verbal
nominal perfective and imperfective aspectual inflections,
 5

the irrealis inflections together with several purposive

complement clause constructions and the active eauative ‘be’
root in future perfect allow for implication of possible
futurity in the absence of a true tense marker. Reference to
distant or recent ‘past’ events may occur with several
epistemic clitics.

1.4 Linguistic Registers in Kalapalo

Kalapalo speakers make use of two major distinctive registers. The first
is associated with affinal civility, and includes name avoidance and the
use of several morphemes distinctive to the register. Morphemes that
develop a sense of personal humility and modesty are common in this
register (Basso 2007). The second register is what is called ‘leaders talk’,
used by hereditary leaders in multi-community ceremonial gatherings
focused upon life-cycle events in leader’s lives (marriage, youth ear-
piercing, memorializing dead leaders). This is characterized by special
speech rhythms, evidentials referencing leaders’ inherited knowledge,
pervasive reference to past leaders, and also involves morphemes
emphasizing humility and personal modesty (Basso 2009). Finally, baby
talk and men’s whistling are minor registers in use in daily interaction.

1.5 The multilingual Alto Xingu society and its history

In lowland South America, centuries of brutal invasion, occupation, and

enslavement by Europeans, as well as the repeated decimation of
populations that resulted from newly introduced diseases, repeatedly led
the survivors to flee from the centers of European expansion to explore
new places where they hoped to settle. As these refugees encountered
one another, mutual fear and distrust sometimes resulted in violent
conftrontations. Yet once the sheer immediacy of survival was ensured,
some of these refugees tried to peacefully establish contacts leading to
beneficial relationships, often integrating themselves into existing
communities and adopting local cultural forms, as apparently happened
when Cariban speakers entered the Alto Xingu, occupied by Arawak
speaking communities (Heckenberger, 2001; 2005).
Thus, as happened in the Alto Xingu, people from very different
kinds of communities, often speaking different kinds of languages, were
able to establish new allegiances and identities that transcended their
own particular groups, forming very new kinds of societies that seem to
have been strategic responses to the new conditions imposed upon them.
Although not always successful, such undertakings must have involved
extended and patient efforts, during which people subjected held notions
of moral commitment and obligation to particularly intense scrutiny.
Ideas regarding commitment to a newly forming community, the
organization of labor, exchanges of goods for trade, relationships with
parents and with in-laws, such crucial matters as what one ate, the
weapons one used for killing people and animals, the labels one used to
identity oneself (and one’s enemies) and above all, the typical demeanor
required of men and women in their relations with one another all
6

reflected upon what it meant to be a member of a newly formed moral

community.
During the time of my research, the Kalapalo told stories that
inform us of the specific character of events leading to their ancestor’s
incorporation into such communities. Local people focused attention
upon one another and also inwardly, upon their own communities.
Europeans, most remembered for their slaving raids in the Alto Xingu,
were not however the only people who were present to be resisted and
commented on, but other indigenous people. New challenges to values
and especially notions of the public self and its duties developed. People
created new social forms out of remnant, refugee groups who were
forced away from their homelands, often finding themselves in violent
confrontation with others they encountered. The Kalapalo stories have
much to teach us about what happened to people during such time of
disorientation and what it felt like to participate in events of those times.
While the Kalapalo did not appear to make use of an abstract
notion of an Alto Xingu ‘society’, they did see themselves participating
in a larger moral whole, an ethical community, which was made to stand
in marked contrast with the formerly hostile groups (called aɳikogo,
‘fierce people’) in the region and who, it seemed, once surrounded them.
Alto Xingu communities are relatively permeable and all
settlements include at least some people who were born elsewhere (and
who are identified with other places and languages). Some of these
people left their natal settlements to marry, others have been forced to
flee after witchcraft accusations. Such people joined relatives in more
distant places when that was possible. Yet others, now deceased elderly
people, were the last survivors of communities that had been decimated
by disease prior to the early 1960’s. Since people have been moving
around in these ways for generations, most Xinguanos participate in
multiple and cross-cutting relationships both within their own
community and elsewhere. These ties form a network extending into
every Alto Xingu settlement.
More recently, relationships with these other communities have
changed as the local environment has been seriously degraded by fires on
reserve lands, and cattle ranching in the immediately surrounding area.
For example, men can no longer gather land snail shells used for ritual
ornaments in territory long used for that purpose, but are now bought
from the Shavante, who live to the east of the Alto Xingu and often met
with in the Brazilian town Canarana.

1.6 Kalapalo language attitudes and language interaction

Residents of the Alto Xingu typically associate their communities (and

especially their hereditary leadership) with particular single languages
and claim to only use those languages in public contexts. It was indeed
the case that during the time of my research many people knew at least
something of other local languages but most were basically monolingual.
In some cases individuals, born into one community but resident in
another (by virtue of marriage or resettlement away from a home
community due to a witchcraft accusation), are bi- or even tri-lingual,
although the latter is quite rare. Additionally, Brazilian Portuguese has
 7

long been used, with varying degrees of competence, as a lingua franca

among speakers of the different local languages.
Integrated into most people’s speech are words from other
languages the Kalapalo use in various ways. Because of a requirement to
avoid the names of relatives by marriage and those of the dead that have
not been passed on the grandchildren, people often use words in the local
Arawak and Tupi languages, or in Portuguese, as substitutes for the
Cariban proper nouns.
There are also many instances of foreign language citations used
by narrators who may be able to translate some words in another
language that appear in songs they are quoting to a listener. I propose
that citation forms, extracted from songs learned by rote, are the first
stage in a process leading to incorporation of “foreign” words into the
local language. These have most likely already been modified in the
songs, to accord with local phonological rules.
The following are some such citation examples from a narrative:
the speaker is a woman who has been asked by her husband to quote a
song that women sing in connection with the narrative he is telling us.
After she sings, she then tells us:

1. ikine - feke fegei nuGikidyu Ø-ta=i-feke

bread-ERG DEM (foreign word) tell to-CI=3-ERG
’nugikidyu’, she was saying that to them about bread.

2. kuigiku-feke fegei nukaidyafinunitsa, Ø-ta=i-feke

Manioc.Soup-ERG DEM (foreign word), 3-CI=3-ERG
‘nukaidyafinunitsa’, she was saying that to them (about) manioc soup

It seems the citation in line 2 is really something more complex

than a simple noun but since the speaker doesn’t speak the language of
the song in question, she can only repeat some important words,
probably with some Kalapalo phonological changes as well.
As the citation example shows, non-Cariban songs are an
important source of linguistic material for Kalapalo speakers. Many
ritual songs performed by the Kalapalo, are described by them as
“Mehinaku” (referencing a local community of Arawak speakers); some
are also Tupi. While most Kalapalo do not appear to understand the full
content of these songs, many people can “translate” noun-like content
into Kalapalo. Usually these are single features treated as independent
words (though they may not be such in the original song). The
“translations” are in what could be called ‘citation’ forms, as they are not
inflected. However, these forms are very often heard in actual use,
incorporated into full Kalapalo utterances
Because of the importance of the affinal civility register, which
involves avoidance of the names of certain relatives (some child names
may be of natural species or ordinary household objects) , many such
‘ordinary’ words are prohibited to most speakers. Therefore, words from
other languages (including Portuguese) are also interesting to Kalapalo
speakers because they are very useful to them in these situations. Thus a
second stage of this language contact process probably involves
substituting “foreign” words for Kalapalo words in affinal civility
8

situations. Portuguese names are now frequently used as older names

become ‘used up’ by an increasing population.
Finally, such ‘foreign’ lexemes eventually acquire local
grammatical functions (as for example, serving as complex noun roots)
and are incorporated into the language when they are correctly
grammaticalized. An example follows in which the Portuguese word
cobertor, ‘blanket’ is integrated (in Kalapalo pronunciation) into a clause
chain construction, cliticized with an interclausal reference marker that
serves a clause coordinating function:

3. lepene mbokï, Agifigu-na kombetoh=mbembale.

afterwards (sound of placing item), Agifigu-ALL
blanket=SSCAT.

kombetoh, ñalï-ma fu-nïmї-i-t≈i-feke.

blanket, NEG-EM know-CONS-EV≈3-ERG
‘Later on mbokï, he put down before Agifigu a blanket as he had
done with the others. A blanket, they say he didn’t know what it
was.’

1.7. Research Conditions and Data

My original dissertation research among the Kalapalo began in the

settlement called Aifa in 1966 where I lived until 1968, working on
anthropological topics. Since that initial period of work, I returned in the
Alto Xingu 1978-82, and again in 1998. I have always resided with
several families in their communal residences (the Kalapalo preference
as well as my own), and traveled with Kalapalo to all the local
communities during my stay, as well as to their old settlement sites.
I was originally trained in social anthropology at the University
of Chicago during a time of serious criticism of the structuralist-
functionalist approaches, and had a long-standing interest in relations
between language, psychology and culture. During my earlier work, my
Kalapalo assistants first listed parts of the house and names of plants and
animals as a way of teaching me their language, but some also began to
tell me traditional narratives, encouraging me to write down their words
with what translations they could give me. It was this experience that led
me to prepare a project involving the taping and transcription of these
narratives between 1978-82 with the goal of preservation and translation.
The patient help of my many Kalapalo assistants, particularly those
whose ability to speak Portuguese enabled those early rough translations,
was inestimable. Later my work on affinal civility and other forms of
ritual discourse observed during ceremonial gatherings stimulated my
interest in Kalapalo epistemic marking, evidentiality, and their
relationship to stance processes This in turn led me to begin serious work
on Kalapalo grammar. The present work is thus the result of a decades-
long inquiry, in the main based upon the narrative materials that I
recorded, and which were translated by me and several Kalapalo
assistants in their communities. These recorded data have been preserved
at the University of Texas Archives of the Indigenous Languages of
 9

Latin America (AILLA) organized by Professor Joel Sherzer, and

sponsored by the National Science Foundation.
10

Chapter 2
Phonology

2.1. Segmental Phonology

Kalapalo has a large inventory of phonemes, including

twenty-one consonants (of which four are allophones) and six
vowels. Three consonants are co-articulated, and there are three
consonant clusters. Compared with other Cariban languages this
unusually high number of consonants is motivated by allophonic
voicing contrasts, a uvular allophone, and to a lesser degree, the
inclusion of two fricatives and two affricates . It is possible these
consonants appear due to contact with the local indigenous Arawak
languages (from which many ritual terms originate) and with
Brazilian Portuguese spoken in the Alto Xingu region. The first of
these fricatives sh [ʃ] was attested during my early research in 1978
for only one word taken from Brazilian Portuguese, but may now be
more common. The second of these, ž [ʒ], appears in at least one
name of a ritual practice associated with Arawakan speakers. The
third is an affricate /č/ attested from the use of a Portuguese loan-
word. Nonetheless, these consonants also appear as onsets in
ideophonic constructions., The number of vowels on the other hand
is comparable to the inventory of other Cariban languages (Gildea
ms; Meira and Franchetto 2005). Bruna Franchetto, who includes
“Kalapalo” as a subdialect of her general category of Alto Xingu
Southern Cariban “Kuikuro” (Kufikugu in more recent spelling in
some publications), attests 14 consonants and six vowels (Meira and
Franchetto 2005).
The basic syllable pattern in Kalapalo is (V) CV. Initial (V)
in a word is often dropped unless it forms the core of a pronominal
prefix; final (V) at a morpheme boundary is highly subject to either
regressive or progressive elision (according to stress) (marked ≈ in
all examples in this grammar). A restricted syllable pattern is CVC.
This is ideophonic only, with a final lamino-palatal /m/ or an alveo-
palatal /k/, a checked consonant (marked with ‘).). In addition there
are instances of syllabic reduction within the grammatical word
associated with vocalic elision. These are noted where relevant in the
text commenting on particular examples.

2.1.1. Consonantal inventory

Kalapalo uses voiced and unvoiced stops, a voiced uvular flap,

voiceless and voiced fricatives, voiced affricates, nasals, one lateral,
and a semi-vowel. In addition, there are four co-articulated
consonantal segments: a voiced post alveolar palatal stop (dy, written
dy); a voiceless dorso-velar stop (kw); a voiced velar stop (gw); a
prenasal voiced bilabial stop (mb, written mb) ; and three consonant
clusters involving an initial nasal consonant followed by a voiced
allophone of an unvoiced post alveolar stop; velar stop; or alveolar
fricative. The voiced uvular stop and flap are allophonic. These
consonantal segments are all shown in Table 1. Where the practical
orthography uses notation different from that of IPA, the latter is
 11

included in square brackets. Where Franchetto’s practical Kuikugu

orthography is different from mine, her usage is included in plain
brackets. The material in Table 1 indicates that bilabials (5), velars
(5) and post-alveolars (8) are particularly common, as well as voiced
and unvoiced contrasts. Kalapalo consonants only occur in onset,
never coda; /h/ which often occurs in coda position appears to be an
aspirant.

Table 1. Kalapalo Consonantal Segments

Bilabial Alveolar Post- Velar Dorso Uvular Glottal

alveolar -velar

voiceless p t k kw
stop
voiced d g
stop
voiced dy [dy]
palatal
stop
prenasal mb [mb]
(voiced)
stop
voiced flap G
voiceless f [ɸ ] s h
fricative
voiced z (nz) sh [ʃ], ž [ʒ]
fricative
voiced ts č
affricates
nasal m n ñ [ɲ] (nh) ŋ
lateral l
semi-vowel w y

In the following examples, primary stressed syllables are marked

with '. (.) marks a syllable boundary.

1. /p/
a. as onset: 'pi.dyu, name for a ritual mask; 'pu.pu, ‘great
horned owl’; 'a.pa ‘my father’ (vocative); wi.gi'paŋ.a.gï, ‘my ear’

2. /t/
a. as onset: ta.ta'ke.ge.ni, ‘four’; ti'ku.Gi, ‘small parrot’;
'tu.ku, ‘gourd’; a'taũ, ‘ carrying basket’; uŋ'a.ta ‘inside the
house’

3. /k/
a. as onset: 'kui,gi,’manioc’; 'ka.ŋa, ‘fish’; ko'gopiñe, ‘we
are return-ers’; a'kiŋ.i ‘false scorpion’; -'a.ke, ‘comitative’
b. as coda:

4. / kw/ : In this co-articulated consonant, the first element is

dominant.
12

a. This phoneme cannot appear as the initial element, and only

appears in the medial position of initial VCV syllables following /u/:
ukw'a.ŋi, ‘let’s wait’; Ukw'a.ka, woman’s name; ku.kwe'ta, ‘we’re
going to get; ; =mukwe, ’in vain’

b. There are many examples of this phoneme being associated with a

reduced syllable, as in the construction wherein the lexical adverbial
ekugu, ‘fully’ is followed by a morpheme with /a/ initial:

i. ekugu hosts the conformative clitic apa: ekugu=apa

(fully=conformative) →ekukw≈apa

ii. ekugu hosts the comitative suffix ake:

ikugu-ake →telo-a ikw-ake

5. /d/ post-alveolar voiced stop

a. as onset: 'da.fa, ‘dove’
Da’ga, man’s name

b. /d/ also appears co-articulated in the environment of the nasalized

consonant /n/, as nd (see phoneme 8. and Section 1.1.2.3 on
consonantal clusters for more discussion)

6. / g/ voiced velar plosive

a. as onset followed by /e/:

ge'ha.le, ‘again’
'a.ga, ‘large lizard’
e'fi.gï, ‘your grandson’
ke'kige'fa, ‘let’s not go any further’
Taɳgugu-kai, ‘on the Taɳ' gugu’
aɳ' ikogo, ‘fierce people’
i'gei, inanimate identificational demonstrative

7. /G/ This is an allophonic variation of /g/. It is a very strong

uvular flap, first described by Bruna Franchetto (personal
communication). This articulation seems most usual when followed
by /a/, and is especially strong at onset for some speakers when
followed by /i/, but there does not seem to be consistency in this
regard and more statistical analysis is needed. It is interesting to see
a serial articulation ranging from the more open articulation
manifested by (6) through the tightened articulation of igei through
examples in (7).

a. as onset followed by /e/:

U'Getsu, woman’s name
o'ko.ge.tsi, ‘tomorrow’

b. as onset followed by /i/:

'Gi.tï.gï, ‘the head’
a'Gi:,’skin disease’
 13

mu'Gi.ki, ‘grubs’
a'Gi.Gi, ‘giant anteater’, also, a bird name
i'gei foGu, ‘always this’
u'agGiɳo, ‘(a person) like me’

In the following example, the speaker co-articulates a glide-like

sound, much like the voiceless velar initiated sound in (4). Although
this is repeated by the speaker, I do not currently have other
examples of this usage and have not included it as a feature in Table
1.

j. afїtї≈Gwe-la
denial 1-NEG
‘No, not me.’

8. / mb/ : Prenasal bilabial voiced stop. The second element is

dominant

a. as onset: =mbe.le: interclausal reference marker (clitic);

'Amb.o, woman’s name

9. /f/ [ɸ] This voiceless bilabial fricative has two allomorphs. The
first, written /f/, has clear bilabial friction; the other shows less
friction, more open mouthing and expelled aspiration. The latter
should be interpreted as different from the phoneme /h/, whose
pronunciation at onset is ingressive while aspirated and which cannot
appear as onset except in ideophonic constructions.

a. 'fa.la, ‘mud cakes’ (ritual item)

fũ, ‘two headed (blind) snake’
i'fa.nda, ‘comb’, ‘centipede’
i'faũ, ‘the cousin’
a 'fa.sa, ‘forest monster’
e'ke.ge.'fu.ŋu, ‘resembling the jaguar’
tu'afi, mat strainer

10. /s/ voiceless alveolar fricative

a. as onset: saɳ’a.ka.fi, a species of tall bamboo

'su.su, ‘pineapple’
si.so'a.nï.gï, ‘completion of 3person’s dry season’
'so. ''lo, ‘manioc cracker bread’
'si.ke, ‘tocandira ant’
'se.ga.ti, ‘that same place’
is'aŋ.a.gï, ‘ 3person’s genipapa (fruit)’
i 'so.a, ‘dry season’

This phoneme is voiced as /z/ in the environment of preceding

nasalized consonant /n/ (see section 1.1.2.2).

11. /ts voiced post-alveolar affricate

a. as onset: 'its.u, ‘creek’

14

i'tsa.he.ne, ‘3rd person’s younger sister’

i'tsu.fi ‘3rd person’s clearing’
i'tsaŋ.a.gï, ‘3rd person’s fish catch’
tsitsitsi, ideophone representing the ticking sound of
a wristwatch.

12. č voiced velar affricate

This phoneme occurs as onset in ideophonic constructions:

čiu čiu čiu čiu, ‘clearing brush’
čiuk bom, čiuk bom, čiuk bom, ‘tearing bark off a tree trunk
and dropping the pieces to the ground

There is one indigenous lexeme:

apiči ‘grandson/grandfather’.

č/ is also attested from a loan word from Portuguese, in one

speaker’s use: 'mbu.či.na from P. 'bo.ta, “boot”.

13. /h/ glottal voiceless fricative

Considering that /h/ is the only consonant that occurs in coda

position, it seems likely that that word final /h/ is actually phonetic,
resulting from aspiration. 14. /z/ This appears to be an
allophone of /s/ (10), appearing voiced after the nasal consonant /n/.
See Section 1.1.2.2 concerning consonant clusters for examples.

a. as onset: he’ yes (simple agreement); this is an ingressive

aspirated fricative. The unusual character of the phonemic inventory
of the word (including the final glottal stop) suggests the word is an
epistemic expletive.

b.as coda?: egressive aspiration as in eh 'he: very well (agreement

response). It is common with expressives, such as akah,
‘frustration’, koh, ‘unknown’, u:ma:h, ‘lack of
understanding’.

15. /sh/ [ʃ] post-alveolar voiced fricative

a. As onset in the ideophonic construction for the sound of a snake:
shiiiiiiiii

b. /sh/ was also used at the time of my research in 1978-82 only in

borrowed words:
sha 'vã.shi, the name for “bottle gourd”, from “Shavante”, the
(Brazilian Portuguese) name of a nearby Ge-speaking group;
'shiŋ.u, from the Brazilian Portuguese name for the Rio Xingu.

16. /ž/ [ʒ]: Velar voiced fricative

I have only one example of this consonant, appearing on the onset of

the important mask ritual name ža'kwi.ka.tu. As this ritual is
associated with the Arawakan speaking communities in the Alto
Xingu, the phoneme is interpreted as existing in Kalapalo as a
 15

consequence of language contact. Some speakers pronounce the

word: dya 'kwi.ka.tu.

17. /dy/ [dy]: Post-alveolar voiced palatal stop. The first element is
dominant.

a. on onset:

i 'dya.li, ‘tapir;
=dye, ‘same event’ clitic/particle as in,
'u.ge=dye-ta ‘me, from before’
dye 'fu.dye 'fu, ‘bull roarer’

18. /m/ bilabial nasal

a. on onset:
'ma.so.pe, ‘secluded maiden’
'mi.to.te, ‘pre- dawn’
'mu.gu, ‘man’s son’
ta'mi.tsi.la, ‘a short time’
a'ma.ñu,’ dear mother’
ku'ñi.to.mi, ‘so that we’re able to see’

9./ n/ alveolar nasal stop

a. on onset):
na.ka.ŋu'nda,’ 3p. is bathing’
a'na, ‘corn’
an'e.tu: leader;
a'fo.na.le: you (were) crying
i.fu'le.nï.gï: it is roasted
'le.pe.ne, ‘next’, ‘then’
a'ta.ni, ‘they are’ (present).

20. /ñ/ [ɲ]; (nh): post-alveolar nasal

a. on onset: 'ña.tu.i, ‘five’

'a.ñu, ‘my dear little one’

21. / ŋ/: velar nasal

a. on onset:
'ŋau.pu.au, ‘their grandfathers’
'ŋune, ‘moon’.
'a.ŋa, ‘genipapa fruit’
te.ŋe'lu.i.ŋo, ‘planning to go away’

22. /l/: post-alveolar lateral

a. on onset:
'la.mbe, ‘that’s right’
'lu.mbe, ‘mouse’
ah'la.su, ‘that’s right’ (pejorative)
16

23. /w/: bilabial semi-vowel

This semi-vowel may be distinguished from the first person

pronominal prefix u- which is usually not clearly stressed; speakers
will make syllabic separation of /u/ when asked to speak slowly( as,
u- ' ato), ‘my friend’.

a. on onset:
'wa.Gi, ‘jatoba’
wawawa. the call of the maned wolf
wa'wa.tsi, ‘dog’ (baby talk)
'a.wa, ‘my uncle’
is'ũwĩ, ‘3p father’

24, /y/: velar semi-vowel

This appears on onset in naming (f), but as such this

phoneme may be allophonic with 3p possessor /i/ following
preceding grammatical word ending in /ï/ or /o/ as in (a-e):

a. yeŋ'i.ko.gu, ‘their possessions’

b, 'ya.tsi, ‘their “misery”’ (expression of sympathy)
c. yaŋ'a.tï.gï.ko, ‘their breasts’

d. an'e.tu 'o.to ye=ŋa.pa=fal≈i'ge-i

‘Probably this is food for the leader this time.’

e. 'ai.fa, i.fu'le-nï.gï ‘ye-tsa.

‘That was finished roasting.’

f. names:
'Ya.nu.ma, Ya'lu.i. mens’ names; 'Ya.mu.ri.ku.ma.
lu, name for women’s ceremony (probably of Arawakan
origin)

2. 1.1.1 Consonant Clusters

All three Kalapalo consonant clusters ɳg, nd, and nz involve voicing
of an unvoiced consonant in the environment of an initial nasal
consonant. The voiced consonant is therefore treated as an allomorph
of the unvoiced consonant with the same articulation, although there
is little clear evidence for making this claim regarding consonant
cluster (3), /nd

1. A common consonant cluster is ŋ+g. In Kalapalo, this appears on

morphemic boundaries as with some names, and when /ŋ/ is
followed by the imperative suffix (as –ke) or the plural suffix –ko
where /k/ becomes velarized as /g/.
There is no apparent possibility of *ɳk. Some examples are:

a iŋge, ‘look, see’, ‘consider’, not *iŋke ). Forming a minimal pair

is aŋge, ‘rattle’, ‘small locust sp.’
 17

b. with the potential plural aspect/mood suffix - iŋgoiŋo, not *

iŋkoiŋo):. te.lu'ko-iŋg.o, ‘they are going away‘; i'mi.nïŋg.o.fa.ta:
‘while 3ppl’s dawn is starting’

c. On the passing state perfective de-verbal nominalization -їŋgo:

u-ifo-gu-i an-їŋgo at-e.he
‘You are already my respect relatives’.

d. This consonant cluster is attested in other semantically non-

imperative and non-plural instances, e.g. Kalapalo ifaŋguiŋa, ‘river’;
uŋgati , ‘inside the house’; Taŋg'u.gu (river name). Two examples of
verb stems using ŋ+g follows. (ii) shows the use of the causative –Gi
transitive verb infix followed by an active verb aspectual
nominalization (see noun chapter for more information on this
construction).

i. u-i.ŋgu-Gi-'ta=ki.ŋi=a.le≈'fe.ke
1-deceive-VT-CI=EM=UT≈2-ERG
‘Too bad you’re forever lying to me’

ii. e'fi.ña.no-fe.ke≈ka:h fi'gei e-i 'ka.ŋGi-pї.gї

“It’s looks like it was your older brother who made you go up.”

e. A rare example of this compound appearing on onset is the name

for a kind of small swarming ant: ŋg'ï.ta.he.

2. (/nz/ [nz]) . This is the alveolar voicing of the fricative (/s/) in the
environment of nasalized consonant /n/.

a. The combination appears as onset when followed by ï/u., and as

one of the forms of the ‘object-backgrounding’ (OB) valence-
decreasing prefix, in which P is omitted and replaced by the prefix.
In this process, several phonological variants are seen: ŋ-, ñ-, and nz
(3rd person P); it is not clear what the morphophonemic reasons are
for the different phonological forms except that nz is always 3rd
person (note the third person anaphoric prefix is- (its-). (see also
2.2.3 for other similar phonological changes connected with this
morphosyntactic process)

a. as onset

nzïŋ'ai.tsï.ko,
‘their arms wrapped’
'na.go fe'gei nz-aŋ'a.tuŋG.'i.ña.lï, Taugi-ko ege iŋ-iso
“ Consequently, those same people were fed up, Taugi and
his companion, this person’s husband”
' i-na-fofo nz-u'ta-ni
‘He’ll try it out here right now’.
nzu 'e.ŋi, “cicada”
Ka 'fu.nzu: woman’s name
ña.lï-ma its-'ï.Gi-ndzi-dyu-i i-'fe.ke
“It wouldn’t be something she could use up”.
18

3. /nd/. In this cluster, there is a voiced consonant /d/ and never an

unvoiced consonant /t/ in the environment of the nasal /n/. As with
the other clusters discussed in this section, the second element is
dominant. This cluster occurs in the vocalic environment of ï, e, and
a. As to whether this is an allophonic change is difficult to assess as
there are no attested morphemes (such as the plural suffix –ko
discussed in 1.2.1) that have been changed in the presence of the
nasal. The relation between /d/ and /t/ is however certainly parallel to
that of the other voiced/unvoiced allophones discussed above.

a. as onset:
'a.nd.a.gï, ‘your mouth’
'e.nd.a.ti, ‘outside’
'i.nd.e, ‘here’
'o.ndo, ‘resinous red paint’
'u.nd.e.ma?, ‘where’? (‘?’ = rising tone used with
questions)
'na.ka.ŋu.nda, ‘is bathing’

2.1.1. 2. Minimal pairs focusing on consonants

p apa, ‘father’ (voc)

t ata, ‘fish name’
k ak 'a ‘quail-like bird’
g aga,’mask ritual’, ‘black ant’
m ama, ‘my mother’ (voc)
ŋ aŋa, ‘genipapa’
f afa, ‘ fish name’
s asa, ‘deer’
l ala, ‘mud cakes’ (ritual item)
w awa, ‘my uncle’ (voc)

k ika, ‘get wood’n ina, ‘to’(allative case)

l ila, ‘distant place’t ita, ‘come here’

p api, ‘my grandfather’ (vocative, informal)

m ami, ‘another’f afi, ‘dogfish’
G aGi, ‘skin disease’
t oto: owner, sponsor tate, ‘burity palm
fronds’
k oko,‘interjection: watch out’ take, ‘grasshopper’
g ogo, ‘grill’, ‘platform’dy odyoh,’don’t’ñ
oño, ‘large green lizard’

t itu, ‘woodpecker’
ts itsu, ‘creek’, ‘dog bark’, ‘animal cry’, ‘human call’
l ilu, ‘necklace’

t oto, ‘owner’
k oko,’wasp’
 19

k eke, ‘snake’
l ele,‘that one’ (third person distal pronominal
demonstrative)
g ege, ‘this one’ (third person proximate pronominal demon)

k aku, ‘fruit’
g agu, ‘seed’
ñ añu, ‘my dear child’
l alu, ‘section of fruit’; ‘act of flying’

t take, ‘grasshopper’ts tsake, ‘listen’ (imperative)

f (i)fake, ‘far’
w wãke, ‘epistemic marker’

ñ ñïŋïta ‘(3p) is inside the house’

s sïŋïta, ‘(3p) is sleeping’

G Gitïgï, ‘the head’

s sitïgï ‘3rd person’s head’

G aGi, ‘skin disease’

g ege, ‘proximate third person demonstrative’

n anika, ‘is that so?’

ñ añu, ‘my young child’
ŋ aŋi, ‘result’
m ami, ‘another’

k ekï, ‘so-and-so’ (unknown name)

ŋ eŋï ‘reason’f efasï, ‘your older sister’
l elasï, ‘you’re right’

dy edyimo, ‘your (pl) son’

l elimo, ‘your son’

g fugogo, ‘people in the plaza’

mb fugombo, ‘the plaza’

ŋg iŋge, ‘look’, ‘consider’ (imperative)

nd inde, ‘here’
ŋ iŋe, ‘honey’, ‘bees’ nest’

k ikilu, ‘shat’
mb imbilu, ’stole’
s isilu, ‘thunder’
ts itsu, ‘cry’, ‘noise’
l ilu, ‘necklace’

ŋ ŋete ‘come along’ (there) (imperative mood)

ñ akiña, ‘narrative’
t akita, ‘tired’

mb umbe: mouse
nd unde, ‘where’
20

g uge, ‘me’
l lumbe, ‘ashes’

f afua, ‘puma’
g agїa, ‘giant armadillo’

dy idyali, ‘tapir’
t: itali, ‘resin’

f fototo, ‘butterfly’
n noto, ‘snake name’
t utoto, ‘man’

ñ uñati, ‘located outside’ (the house); uñu, ‘my dear child’

ŋ uŋati,’inside’ (the house); uŋalï, ‘one who is housed’ (i.e.,
secluded); uŋu, ‘house’

mb mba=tiga (shft reference clitic – simultaneous taxis (SIM))

nd nda-tiga (aspect/mood verb suffix-SIM)

mb Kambe (man’s name)

m Kamïle (man’s name)

g iminïgï, ‘already dawned’

ŋ iminïŋgo, ‘dawning’

y yeŋikogu, ‘their possessions’

u ueŋikogu, ‘my possessions’
e eŋikogu. ‘your possessions’
i iŋiko, ‘the things’

2.1.2 Vowel Inventory

Kalapalo vowel phonemes are shown in Table 2. Where my

practical orthography differs from IPA use, the latter is included in
square brackets. Bruna Franchetto’s practical orthography use for
Kufikugu is given in rounded brackets.

Table 2. Vowel Segments

Front Central Back

rounded u
medial e ï [ɨ] (ü) o [ɤ]

unrounded i a

1. /i/: 'i.pa, ‘lake’; 'i.gu, ‘seed’; i'fũ, ‘egg’, mitote, ‘before dawn’

2. /u/: u.gu'po, ‘on top of’; u'faű, ‘my cousin’; 'u.le, ‘anaphoric focus
referent’, Mba'mbaŋ.i.su, name of mythological personage
 21

3. / ï/ [ɨ].
This somewhat open medial vowel seems equivalent to
Kuikuro /ɨ/ written (ü) in Franchetto’s practical orthography.

eŋ.e'lï.iŋ.o, ‘will eat you’; tï'i.lu'fe.ke, ‘I kill him’ (3rd p); u'te.lï, ‘I go
away’; pi'dyï.i, ‘barbed catfish’; a'fï.gï, ‘type of piau (fish name);
ag'ï.fa, ‘fish name’.

5. /a/: 'a.ma, ‘mother’ (vocative); 'a.wa, ‘uncle’ (vocative);
a.la'ma.ki-, ‘cause to fall down’; a'ï.e, ‘bamboo knife’; a'u
‘headlice’; 'ai.fa, ‘done’,’ready’

6. /o/ [ɤ]: i'so.go.ko,’maned wolf’; i'so.a ‘dry season’; 'o.go ‘grill’,

‘platform’; iŋ'i.so, ‘her husband’; age'tsi.ŋo ‘one of them’; 'o.gi,
‘distal hortative’; õ , ‘and’

2.1.2.1 Minimal Pairs Focusing on Vowels

a apa, ‘my father’ (vocative)

i ipa, ‘lake’
o opa(h),:‘surprise’,’mistake’ (interjection), ana, ‘corn’
i ina, ‘to’( allative case)
u una, ‘where’

e etu, ‘settlement’
i itu, ‘woodpecker’
o otu, ‘food’
u utu, ‘fish trap’

i igu, ‘tooth’, ‘squirrel’

ï ïgï, ‘fish hook’
o ogo, ‘grill’, ‘platform’
u ugupo, ‘above’

i itsu, ‘creek’
u utsu, ‘fish trap basket’

a añu ‘our dear little child’tate, ‘burity palm fiber’

i iñu, ‘land snail’ ititï, ‘name’
u uñu, ‘my dear child’ (reference) tute, ‘star cluster’

a alu, fruit segment’ aŋke, ‘piqui seed’, ankle rattle’

ilu, ‘necklace’ iŋge, ‘look’, ‘consider’ (imperative)

a aɳiko, ‘wild (inedible) plant’

e eɳiko, ‘unknown reason’

i ito, ‘fire’
o oto, ‘owner’, ‘sponsor’ oŋi, ‘fruit name’
a ato, ‘friend’ aŋi, ‘result’
22

ĩ atï, ‘blueberry’ agï, ‘manioc ritual song’,

‘marsupial’
a ata, ‘good’, ‘nice’ (interjection)
aga, ‘type of mask ritual’, ‘black ant’

e efu, ‘canoe’
i ifű, ‘egg’

ï =fïŋï, ‘unlike’ ŋïne, ‘their house’

u =ufuŋu, ‘resemble’ ŋune, ‘moon’

i fipïgï, ‘payment’
e fepïgï, ‘wound’
o fopïgï, ‘ear piercing’

a tapïgï, ‘foot’
e tepïgï, ‘gone.away’

i akiŋi, ‘false scorpion’

ï akïŋi, ‘many’
o koŋofo, rainstorm’

2.1.2.2 Vowel nasalization

Syllables consisting of a single vowel are stressed, resulting in

nasalization of the vowel. These are uncommon. An example,of a
verb root that is nasalized at onset is the verb õ-“reject”.

Nasalized /ї/ is not attested.

Where a vowel appears in onset, there can be syllabic stress without

nasalization:.

/a/: 'a.ma, ‘my mother’

/e/: 'e.ge, ‘you’ (vocative)
/i/: i.dyu, ‘the daughter’
/ї/: 'ї.gї, ‘hook’
/o/: 'o.go, ‘grill’, ‘platform’
Stress and resultant nasalization can be phonemic, as with the
following minimal pairs:

a. /a/: 'a.ga, ‘mask ritual’; ã: a'gã, ‘large bees’ nest’

b. /u/: 'tű.wa, ‘water’; tu’wã-ku.a.ti, ‘into the water’

2.1.2.3 Vowel lengthening

There are several instances of stress and vowel lengthening rather

than nasalization being phonemic. Vowel lengthening occurs mainly
with single syllable words, as the following to expressives: ko:h,
“unknown; and u:m, “I’m thinking”. If the word has more than one
syllable,such phonological words have a lengthened syllable stressed
[Example (b)?]. In word-final /e/, a glide emerges as /ei/ (egei,
 23

proximate demonstrative; fugei, ‘arrow’). Pragmatically, such stress

occurs syllable final in certain content question predication
constructions, as in (e). (f) shows a minimal pair in which stress is
clearly phonemic, but this is rare. Furthermore, the first word in
example (b) is an adverb that always occurs in clause initial position.

a.. ege ‘you’ (vocative)_; ege, ‘proximate third person

pronominal demonstrative’; fegei, ‘proximate third person
adnominal demonstrative’
b. aifa, ‘ready.done’; aifa:? (? indicates a rising intonation
on the stressed syllable): ‘is it ready.done?’
c. efu, ‘the canoe’; efũ:gu, ‘your egg’
d kwi:fi, “needle”; kwifi, ’(witch's) dart‘.
e. una-laka utelї: ‘where shall I go?’
f. i.ña’lï, ‘negation’ i.ñalï, ‘will become’

2.1.2.4 Vowel aspiration

Final/a/ and /o/ when lengthened are aspirated with /h/ as in the
expressives ka:h, ‘frustrative’, and ko:h. ‘unknown’. Final /a/ and
/o/ that are not lengthened but stressed are usually nasalized, as akã,
‘quail; tõ, ‘ema’. Final /e/ that is lengthened is not aspirated, as in
the expressive iñee, ‘tiny’. Other final vowels (i, ї, u) are not attested
for lengthening or nasalization.

2.1.2.5 Initial vowel deletion

Often the initial (unstressed) vowel will be absent on an initial

adverbial or ideophonic word in rapid speech. It is present when the
word is repeated, or with more careful articulation. In contrast, the
vocalic pronominal prefix is always heard wherever it occurs.

a. eteh, ‘nice’, ‘beautiful’ (ideophonic interjection) →

teh
b. ulepe- → lepe, ‘then’, ‘next’; lepene, ‘afterwards’,
‘following that’
c. iñalï → ñalï, ‘negative’
d. okogetsi → kogetsi, ‘tomorrow’
e. unalaka utelï → * unalaka telï , ‘where can I go far
from here?’
f. apitsiña utetani → *pistiña utetani, ‘I’ll go to
Grandfather’
g. ila → la, ‘someplace far away’. Note: the morpheme
la, ‘like that’ might be confused with this adverb
but usually occurs clause finally, whereas ila occurs
clause initially (see Chapter 3, 3.4.6).
24

2.1.2.6 Vowel sequences

Dipthongs generally occur at morphemic boundaries, but as seen

below can occur with pluralization and initially with some content
question words (b). These dipthongs are broken by syllable breaks.

a. With person prefixes on a V initial verb or NP: ui: (u'i.gu: my

tooth); e'i.ña: ‘for you’ (BEN); oĩ- (o'ĩts.ï.gï; ‘their former hunger’);
o'ĩ.dyï: tied it up; eu: u.ike'u.te.la:
‘I’m not bothered.’

b. In the content question word: ua (u'a.ma)

c. With kinship noun plurals with stress on last vowel: aũ (i'fi.dyau,

‘the (his/her) brothers.’)

d. The class inclusion copula –i will be stressed as when hosted by a

nominal or demonstrative: i'ge-i, ‘this one’. When the entire
phonological word is stressed, a glide ensues: e'gei: ‘you’,’third
person’:

i.gei ko.ko a'.ke-ts≈e.gei fe.u-fe.ke

u.ï.ї.gï u.i'tsa.
’This thing happens at night, (when) I’m beseiged by peccaries.

e. On onset : ai: 'ai.fa, ‘ready, finished’; au, a'ű.tu, ‘prea’; a'u.e:

bamboo knife; au'ë.tï name of Tupian settlement; auGa: name of
Arawakan settlement; au'ma.Gi: ‘man’s name’; aï in onset (mostly)
names: Aïtï (‘rare’, variant of Tupi-speaking people’s settlement
name Aweti in ethnographic publications); dipthongs in coda: eu:
feu, ‘peccary’; uo: kuo,‘fruit name’. tripthong: ue: -kuegï
(augmentative nominal suffix). The pair *ae is unattested.

f. In coda: ao: u.i'mao.ku.gu: ‘my cheek’; kai.ŋa, ‘beside’, ‘at’

2.2 Syllabification

Kalapalo syllable structure may be either single V (aspirated) or C

initial (CV, as well as the more restricted CVC (ideophones and
expressives only)). Only ideophonic words may show consonant
final coda, and then only with /m/ and /k/. /k/ has a following ‘check’
which may be a way of preserving the syllabic structure. As there
are a widely varying number of syllables in the Kalapalo word, the
language rhythm is stress-based rather than achieved through
syllable weight. The following table shows types of syllable
structure:
 25

Table 3. Kalapalo Syllable Structures

Syllable Example Gloss
V(aspirated) eh ’yes’
CV fű ‘blind snake’
CVC tik’ IDEO,
‘sound of arrival’
CVC u:m EXP, ‘I’m thinking’

Using three narratives by three different speakers, I counted syllables

in the first roughly 100 words (not counting ideophones but counting
epistemic expletives and interjections). Table 4 shows the variation
among these three examples, but also a fairly strong consistency.
Most phonological words have from 3-5 syllables; many others have
as few as 2 or as many as 6; but some have only one (usually these
are epistemic expletives and interjections) and others as many as 11.
Most phonological words with over 8 syllables are either adverbials
or discourse segment markers with multiple clitics; some speakers
are more adept at this kind of construction than others. Examples
follow the table.

Table 4. Syllable count in three texts

Syllable count Text 1 Text 2 Text 3

1 1 5 9
2 7 9 10
3 31 29 26
4 21 20 20
5 22 10 12
6 8 13 11
7 5 6 2
8 2 5 2
9 1 3 1
10 4 1 0
11 0 1 1
Total 102 101 94

2.2.1 Words consisting of a single vowel

These units are class inclusion copula suffixes and the listing word õ,
‘and’

a. proper (class) inclusion copula suffixes –i (Cl):

i'fi.tsu.i, ‘served as his wife’.

b. unique suffix –a:

u.ki.lï.a
‘I’ve said’ (quotative).
26

c. connector or listing word õ, “and”

Ah, i'ña.ŋo.mba.ha.le 'to.pu.fa, ah, mu'ku.tsi.fa,

õ 'e.ŋu.fa, 'e.ŋï.mbe.dya, 'to.pu.fa

‘But surely the only vegetables he (was going to plant) were squash,
and surely red sweet potatoes, and um, he (did that to) um squash, ‘

2.2. 2 Complex morpho-phonological words.

In each case the word in question initiates the sentence. Examples in

this section illustrate the complexities developed with plural affixes,
clitics (shift reference, affective and epistemic), as well as taxis
morphemes.

1. Seven syllable words (bracketed):

a. eŋ 'i. ko.-mu.nde. le.fa a'ta.ni.ni. mba ha.le

‘But there’s no way of knowing where they ended up’.

b. tẽ '.ti.ko.su’ŋa.pa.fa
‘Probably they came up here in their usual way.”

c. e.mbu.ki.ne.nï.mi.ŋo i.fe.ke.ni
‘They will be the ones to betray you’.

2. Eight syllable words

a. e.te.lï.ko.dyo.gu.mbe.fa
‘Thoughtlessly, they went away after doing that.’

3. Nine, ten and eleven syllable words. These extreme syllabic

constructions are unusual and it is difficult to make generalizations
of their typological features. The following seem to illustrate
recurrent features.

a. More than one taxis clitic occurs at the end of the clause.
(see following example b). This is especially true of some initial
ule- (AFR) anaphoric focus referent clauses, which are often
(though not always) polysyllabic:

u 'le.pe.ta.'ha.le'ge.fa.le
‘But while all that was going on, now...” (same example used in
demonstrative section above)

b hyper-polysyllabic words include polysyllabic interclausal

reference marking clitics:

i’fe.po.lï. mbe.ge.dya.ha.le i'fe.ke

‘(Even though) he (still) tried to hold on to him that person
(did something else to him).’
 27

The following 10 syllable word is an example of a new segment

introduced by an anaphoric topic referent clause. It is possible the
final demonstrative is actually a separate word but it has become
phonologically fused to the ule-clause.

c. u’le.f.i.ñe.ta.ha.le’gei.-fa.le
“But because they were always doing that to them...”

Example (d) is a complex construction taken from a leader’s

oratorical speech. It is an example of a 10 syllable word with
valence-increasing causal suffix -ɳu, absolutive plural suffix–ko,
and the plural purposive adverbial suffix ndokomi, followed by the
immediate taxis clitic =fofo. This may also illustrate vocalic
assimilation, as the expected continuous indicative suffix is -nda:

d. ku‘ne.ni.tsi.ŋu’ndo.ko.mi’fo.fo
‘Let’s go hunting our game right away.’

e. This example of a ten syllable word includes a construction with

four clitics, including an adverbial and a compound interclausal
reference clitic (IRM) followed by a final epistemic particle.

wï’-nda.ko’fu.ŋu.mbe.dya.mba.le ‘wã.ke
‘I know they were not lying to them, about what they kept
(saying to them).’

f Here is a possible 11 syllable word (in brackets), including both

taxis and final clitic, but one could argue particle status for the clitic
as it manifests stress on the first syllable, as do other two-syllable
grammatical words: This example illustrates a complex adverbial
word.

i‘fi.tse.ke.ku.a.le.ha.le ‘wã.ke tsi’sa.ge.le..

’We were still completely ignorant at that time.’

2. 3 Stress in the Kalapalo phonological word

As I show in the preceding section, Kalapalo words may have from

one to as many as ten syllables. The Kalapalo phonological word
manifests a basic rhythmic stress and intonation pattern.

2.3.1 Primary stress

Preferred stress on disyllabic words is on the first syllable:

‘ka.ɳa, ‘fish’
‘e.fu, ‘canoe’
‘fi.tsu, ‘wife’
‘Ka.pi, man’s name
‘ue.ge, ‘2nd person pronominal demonstrative

On three or more syllable words, primary stress is on the

second syllable from the left.
 28

With three or more syllable words, primary stress normally

falls on the second syllable, followed by a falling intonation.
Subsequent syllables are unstressed. Some examples of words with
stress on second syllable are included in the following clause
construction, wherein each of the two words (bracketed) has stress
on the second syllable.

d. [ŋe'ŋe.-tu] [fe'gei.le.fa]
‘And so he was someone they feared.’

As a language with preferred stress on the second syllable of

polysyllabic words, Kalapalo is relatively unusual typologically; this
is a conclusion of Laver (1994: 519) following his presentation of
L. Hyman’s (1977) statistics. Laver’s explanation for stress as a
demarcative function, “indicating where the word boundaries are
without making the listener expend too much cognitive effort in
calculating them”( p. 519) is interesting for understanding the
relation of some of the Kalapalo boundary marking suffixes to what
appears to be vowel lengthening and stress in the preceding syllable.
Word stress seems to be shifted right with the addition of these
suffixes.

2.3.1.1 Single syllable words

A single syllable word is stressed. These single syllable words are

either ideophonic or epistemic expletives initiating an utterance, or
the connector õ.

a. 'koh, i'ña.lu fu'nu.mu'fe.ke

‘Not known. I have no knowledge of it.’

b. 'u:m, an'e.tu its'oŋ.o.i te’ta.ko.

‘ I’m thinking they are going engaged to the leader.’

. c. õ , ‘and’. This is a used when listing items. This morpheme is

usually preceded by a clear pause, followed by the next item being
listed:
'u.mbe, 'õ uw'a.Gi.ke, 'õ a'ku.gi, 'õ a'gen.a.gi, ' õ
a'kï.gi.sa ' ai.fa
‘mouse, and, packrat, and agouti, and paca, and, capivara.
that’s all’

There are several kinds of exceptions to the basic stress

pattern of primary second syllable stress on polysyllabic (3 syllables
or more) words. These include: words beginning with the
pronominal prefix, demonstrative words, the dative case marker -iña,
imperative constructions where the speaker uses the interrogative
mirative suffix –ki, and in discourse segments wherein the nominal is
emphasized but not topicalized for pragmatic reasons

2.3.1.2 Words initiated by pronominal prefixes

 29

The presence of prefixes on verbal and possessive nominal

constructions normally results in primary stress on third syllable
because the pronominal prefix itself may be stressed for pragmatic
reasons. The following example shows stress on the initial
pronominal prefix of the first person free pronoun, as well as the
third syllable:

a. u’ge.tsa’.ɳe
‘It must be me.’

In the example below, the phonological word in brackets begins with

a stressed pronominal prefix; the primary stress in this example is
thus on the third syllable lu. The first (two syllable) word shows
stress on the first syllable.

b. 'a.ŋi a.wa’dyu.ko
“Our dear uncles are here

2.3.1.3 Demonstrative stress

Pronominal demonstratives (PDEM) are stressed on the first or

second syllable. The adnominal demonstrative (ADEM) and
identificational demonstrative (IDEM) receive stress on their second
syllable, with an emergent vocalic glide.
In (a), the anaphoric demonstrative (ANA) receives stress on
the first syllable (the initial u- is not heard at all) while the first
person PDEM is stressed on the second syllable.

a.'eh, 'ŋe.le u 'ge

‘”Yes, that’s me you were talking about”’.

In (b) the initial syllable of the first person PDEM is

stressed.

b.‘u.ge.dye.ta
‘That was me (doing that).’

In (c) an anaphoric topic referent (ule) clause construction,

the proximate identificational demonstrative ege is stressed
and a vocalic glide emerges. The initial vowel of the
demonstrative is elided due to retrogressive elision.

c. u 'le-pe-ta 'ha.le ≈'gei=fa.le,

AFR
‘But while all that was going on, now...”

2.3.1.4 Imperative word stress

Stress occurs on the first syllable of an imperative construction.

a. 'te.ke: ‘(2pp) go away’ (rather rude; the following

constructions are preferred)

b. eh ‘he 'ke.te.pa.pa
30

‘All right, I agree you should go if that’s what you

want to do.’

c. 'kí.ge.fa Ø- 'nï.gi' fe.ke, ' kí.ge.fa

‘Let’s go’, she said, ‘Let’s go.’

2.3.1.5 Interrogative stress

There is a rising intonation accompanying the final mirative suffix –

ki. Rising intonation is characteristic of interrogative constructions
that begin with question-type words (u 'wa, ‘what’ in this example).
(See more detail is in chapter on Interrogatives)

a. u 'wa.mbe. 'ki?
‘You said WHAT??’

2.3.1.6 Variation in stress on names

Kalapalo personal names, perhaps because of their varied language

origins, exhibit a variety of stress patterns:

a. stress on syllable with onset fricative. The examples are both

names of ancient personages. The latter was considered a ‘Kamaiura
ancestor’ (i.e., member of a Tupi-speaking group) by Kalapalo
consultants.

A.ga'fu.ta.ŋa;
Wa.pa.ge '.pu.nda.ka

b. stress on penultimate syllable. The example is a nameword that is

Arawak word in origin

Ya.mu.ri.ku'ma.lu

c. 'ka.lo.si: from Portuguese ‘Carlos’

2.3.1.7 Vowel lengthening and stress

There are several instances of stress and vowel lengthening rather

than nasalization being phonemic. Longer lengthening with
adjectival-like interjections and ideophones (:; ::) occurs frequently
and often involves reduction of the preceding morpheme, leading to
stress on the lengthened vowel-initiated syllable (a) .

a. u 'ma:, ’what is it?’;

.i.ñe:: , ’how tiny’! (ideophone),
.au::mbïk’: action of falling through the air and landing
hard (ideophone),
au:o:m, ‘extended action of flying through the air and
landing gently’ (ideophone)

Vowel lengthening also occurs with single syllable words, as

in (b), illustrating expressives.
 31

b. ko:h, “unknown’
u:m, ‘I’m thinking’.

If the word has more than one syllable, such phonological

words have a lengthened syllable stressed (c), where in word-final
/e/, a glide emerges as /ei/.

c.. 'e.ge, ‘you’; e'ge, proximate third person demonstrative;

fe 'gei: third person proximate adnominal
demonstrative
fїgi,’penis’; fu’gei, ‘arrow’

Pragmatically, such stress occurs syllable final in certain content

question predication constructions, as in (d).

d. 'ai.fa, ‘ready.done’; ai'fa:? (? indicates a rising intonation

on the stressed syllable): ‘is it ready.done?’
' ko.ge.tsi u 'te.lї, ‘tomorrow I leave’; 'u.na.la.ka u'te.lї,
‘where shall I go?”

Example (e) shows a minimal pair in which stress is clearly

phonemic, but this is rare.

e. i'ña’lï, “negation”; 'i.ña.lï, “will become’.

2.3.1.8 Pragmatic stress

Pragmatic reasons may also govern the use of lexical stress to

achieve prominence. Usually this occurs with expletives and where
there is a shift from one to another narrative segment as in example
(f).

f. o.’koh, ’watch out!’;

o 'koh.mbe.ni.le, ’You’re right, stay away (from him)’

There is a final stressed syllable when mirative suffix -ki

used:
u’wa.mbe‘ki?, ‘what was that??’

g. This example shows prominence achieved through stress where

the grammatical word is inflected with the nominal modifier –tsï (M)
suffix (boldface). This grammatical feature indexes the relative
clause modifier of a head NP. Because stress normally does not
occur on other than a) the second syllable; or, b) the first syllable of
a new two-syllable grammatical word, the prominence of the
modifier and its “emphatic” semantics is reinforced or achieved
through stress.

u’ŋa-ta ’ti-lo-po, ’masope-’tsï-fa, i-ñ-’uŋu-fa

‘Inside the house someone close by, a maiden, the secluded
one’.
32

h. stress to introduce new narrative segments:

aí 'fa = begins new chain versus 'ai.fa (end of clause chain)

i. Where a non-topical nominal or adverbial is emphasized for

pragmatic reasons, the grammatical word will be stressed.

‘ka.ŋa ‘a.ge.tsi o'tu

‘Only one food, fish’.

j. The following example is taken from a conversation to illustrate

the two syllable emphases used by the same speaker on the word
e 'fi.su, ‘your younger brother’:

tsa‘ke.tsї.fa e'fi.su na’-ka-ŋu.nda

“Listen that’s your younger brother bathing.”

ah, efi'su- fїŋї, nї.gi. 'fe.ke

‘“Surely, that’s no younger brother of your’s’,” he
answered.’

k. Where the adverbial aŋi ‘result, consequence’ occurs as an

independent question, the final syllable is strongly emphasized and
lengthened, aŋ'i. Otherwise the initial syllable would be stressed,
'aŋi, as when the morpheme is used as a complement in complex
clause constructions. (See examples in Chapter 13: Complex
Clause Constructions).

l. In mourning (fatafisunda), the final syllable of the speaker’s

referenced relative is stressed as well as the second syllable, and the
vowel lengthened:

u'fi'gї:, ‘my grandson’ (more usually, u'fi.gї)

m. Clause final syllable stress for emphasis

Heavy stress occurs on the clause final syllable for emphasis in a

situation difficult for the speaker.

The mother of a missing man asks a shaman to locate him:

'a.ɳi a 'fa.tũ.wĩ ta 'lĩ e 'fe.ke

’Can you hear your nephew?’

A mother asks her son why the son’s enemy uncle has
appeared suddenly:

. tї 'kima.le a 'wa.yu e 'ta

‘Is there some reason why your dear uncle comes?’
 33

In despair, a man describes a bad dream he has been having:

uge ikoko ake-ts-ige’i

’At night this is how I must be,

feu-feke u-iGї i’tsa, feu-feke.

peccaries surround me, peccaries’.

2.3.2 Secondary stress

As the preceding examples show, in complex phonological words,

primary stress remains on the second syllable. However, units with
more than six syllables have secondary stress (usually at
morphological boundaries), followed by falling intonation, and no
other stress on subsequent syllables. These morphological
boundaries involve syntactic units that are often in themselves
phonological words. Secondary stress also occurs where one or
more cliticized grammatical units follow a longer (host) grammatical
word. Clitics may have from one to as many as five syllables.
While they are distinct grammatical words, because of their
phonological incorporation into the rhythmic pattern of their hosts,
the phonological word actually encompasses clitics. There may also
be secondary stress, when a normally unstressed syllable is
emphasized for pragmatic reasons.

a. The following example shows primary (') and secondary ('')

stress, as well as prominent stress on the final syllable of the
ergative complement, which is being emphasized for
pragmatic reasons (but is not topicalized)

u'iŋ.Gu.Gi-''ta=ki’ŋi’a.le’feke:
’Too bad you’re forever lying to me.’

2.3.3 Stress on Portuguese derived words

Stress on words entering Kalapalo from rural Brazilian Portuguese

may differ, as speakers tend to use the same stress as in the original
language. Some examples that do not follow the usual stress rule in
Kalapalo are:

a) melan’zía: ‘water melon’ (stress falls on the penultimate syllable)

b) só:gro: ‘father-in-law’ (stress falls on the first syllable, with a
lengthened vowell)
c) mus.ke’to: ‘musket’, from mosquete
d) a.fi’dyau: ‘airplane’, from aviaõ
e) bu’či.na: ‘boots’, from P bota.

2.4 Morphophonemic Processes

Kalapalo exhibits several morphophonemic processes, including

regressive and progressive vocalic elision, vocalic assimilation,
emergence of /p/, emergence of /m/, emergence of /g/ (velarization),
emergence of /l/, epenthesis, and ablaut.
34

2.4.1. Vocalic elision and regressive influence

This process (≈) occurs at morphemic boundaries. Where neither

syllable is stressed or the same vowel appears twice at the boundary
(as in a) there is regressive elision with stress placed on the first
syllable final vowel.

a. fa 'ŋgu.i.ŋa 'a.tï ' 'po.ŋa → fa 'ŋgu.iŋ≈a.tï 'po.ŋa

The stressed syllable vowel which occurs at the beginning of the

morpheme will predominate over the unstressed syllable with vowel
ending. In the case of the ergative complement, there is frequently
regressive influence, with resulting syllable reduction, as with an
initial vowel prefix on the ERG suffix.

b. ï +i → i.

As this example illustrates, there is very frequent vowel elision

involving the ergative complement person prefix and the final vowel
of a morpheme (usually this is an aspect/mood suffix or a clitic) on
the verb phrase. When speaking quickly, many Kalapalo use the
quotative ‘say.to’ seen in (b) in a very reduced manner, with only the
initial syllable uttered, as ‘nї.

'u.ntsi nï.g≈i 'fe.ke,

“My young relative”, he addressed him.

c. i + i → i, non-quotative example

itsufu-pe fo-te-lu-a ito-te-ga-ti≈feke.

‘He set fire to some of his slash that he wanted to burn up.’

d. a + u → a

tama ukw-ogopiñalï
ta.ma≈ kw-o .go 'pi.ña.lï
’Why should we have to go back?’

e. Regressive vowel elison may also occur with clitic compounds:

mbe=a.le →mba.le
SS=UT

2.4.2. Vocalic elision and progressive influence

Where there is an epistemic particle with stress on the second

syllable, the elision influence is progressive. Here the perfective
nominalized active equative copular verb at- looses the initial vowel:
 35

c. u 'kwo.to.fe.ke ki 'ŋi≈tï 'fï.gï.ko i 'ge.to,mi

‘I regret our relative insisted he needed to take us away’.

2.4.3 Vocalic Assimilation

There are at least two types of vocalic assimilation: e→a and ї → o.

As only a few examples are attested in my data, more work is needed
to clarify Kalapalo vocalic assimilation.

2.4.3.1. Influence of the preventative prefix

This process occurs with the preventative verbal prefix ke-. When
followed by syllables with /a/, ke →ka. The following are examples
with the preventative prefix as ke-,

a. preceding syllable with /e/:

ke.te.ŋa:
’Don’t go’ (lit, ‘don’t go-er’)

b. preceding syllable with /i/:

u:m, ke.ki.ŋi 'fe.tsa.ŋe

’It seems to me that you must stop saying that.’

c. example preceding three syllables with /a/:

ka≈g.ag.a.pa.ga.tsi.ŋe, u '-i.ku.gu ke 'ti.fi.ñe
’Stop keeping things swept up,(so) you don’t touch my
semen.’ (lit, my semen touch-er}

d. A second example of preventative prefix as ka-, preceding

two syllables with /a/:

ka-g≈atsa-ki-ŋe ake-tsa-ŋe
’I don’t want you to run away’.

2.4.3.2 Assimilation involving /o/

In the example, the first syllable under assimilation influence is –ko,

followed by the nominalizer suffix –mbo, ‘without’. This suffix
would be expected as -mbї in other contexts.

a. a'fa.tu.wĩ.ko'a.ke ti.ñe.ta ' ñ-i.ko.mbo.gu'i el'ei a.ga.i'e.ni

‘I with your nephews, as we come to you, they are entering
(the settlement) without any food.’

2.4.4 /f/ surfaces as [p]

There is emergence of /p/ when the consonant is preceded by /u/ in a

stressed syllable: ifis’uagï: ‘the older brother’ → ‘kupis’uagï, ‘our
older brother’
36

a. u’fu.lu.nda, ‘I travel around’

ah, ku.pi.ña.no.ko ku.p‘ulu-nda-ko u-itsa igei
EXP, 1+2-OBro-PL 1+2-travel-CI-PL 1-EX-CI
IDEM
‘I’m (in this situation) as our brothers travel
around.’

2.4.5. Emergence of /m/ from /p/

In one instance, the environment of preceding /p/ initial syllable, /p/

surfaces as [m]d. There appears to be a phonological constraint on
the use of /p/, as -api, the usual root for ‘hit’ emerges as -mi when
preceded by the essive nominalization –pe on the preceding adverb.
More data are needed for a clear understanding of this process.

a. is'i.na.lï.ti, tiŋ'and.su.ko u'gu.pe 'mi.ña.lï i'fe.ke.ni.

‘When she wanted to come back to them, they pushed their
sister away.’

2.4.6 Emergence of /g/ (velarization)

I have recorded one instance of /g/ appearing where /l/ would

normally occur and several where /g/ appears between the two
vowels.

a. u'li.mo, ‘my child’ →ta.ta'ke.ge.ni, Sa.ga'na.fa 'gi.mo, ‘four,

Saganafa’s children’. This example may be an effect of the
possessive suffix –gї following the name ‘Saganafa’.

2.4.7 Emergence of /lg/, /l/, and /s/ connectors (CO)

I have two several examples of /g/, /l/, and /s/ [l] emerging between
final a and initial a or i of adjoining syllables. In( a) and also b), /g/
emerges between final /i/ and /ї/, and following /a/. In (b), /l/
emerges between initial and following /o/. This NP is then co-
referenced with the clausally postposed ergative argument.
In (c), /s/ emerges between preceding /i/ and following /a/.

a. Ta'u.gi g ≈a'ma.ki.lї i'fe.ke, tugufi 'is.a'ma.ki.lї fe'gei

Formatted: Font: Bold

‘Taugi dropped Painted Catfish. Painted Catfish, he fell

down, Painted Catfish fell.’
→
tї 'ga.la'ma.ki.lï
‘Did someone drop him?’

b. fu'go.mbo, ‘in the plaza’→ o.lo.mbo.ni, ‘your (pl)

plaza’

c tititi tatakeGi-S=ale ete-lї-ko=fata

Formatted: Font: Italic

Formatted: Font: Italic

(sound of walking) on.all. fours-C-UT go.away-PI-PL=SIM

Formatted: Font: Bold

Formatted: Font: Italic

2.4.8 9 Epenthesis
 37

Due to stress assignment and sentential stress patterns, emergence of

epenthentic vowels e, i occurs in a number of cases of suffixation
and cliticization. Where a verb phrase suffix and (less commonly) a
clitic is used, an epenthentic vowel will emerge to create a light
syllable. Some examples follow.

a. In this example /e/ emerges before the clitic mukwe , apparently

because of the stress preceding negative syllable –la, possibly
because of the suffixed zero morpheme ‘consequential’ (CONS):
'ui.keu.te.la e.mu.kwe.ti.fa e.mu.gu e.ta
u'pei.gï'i.ña
“I recall I didn’t get angry with your son after he came to
shake me”.

b. In this example, there are two instances of the epithentic /i/ (both
in boldface). The first appears between a de-verbal nominalization
suffix -ndu, while the second occurs before the negative
nominalization - ɳi.
ut.u.mi.dyї i'fe.ke tse'fe.su.ndu.i.ɳi, 'gei.fe.ke i'fit.su.i.-ɳi
‘He was tied up by her so he couldn’t walk around, so he
couldn’t touch this’.

2.4.9. Ablaut

There are several types of ablaut processes. An initial front grade

vowel in first person u- or second or third persons e- may show back
grade variation a~o in first or second person “possessive” . This is
particularly important in kinship terminology and with some nouns
where there is 2nd person prefix. Some verbs have unusual ablaut
with third person prefix (usually i- or Ø) taking the first person form
(u-). There are also less common examples of u~e and a~o. More
research is needed to clarify these processes.

2.4.9.1 Kinship terms

front grade:
e-figï, ‘your grandson’ e-ŋiso, ‘your (pl?) husband’
u-figï, ‘my grandson’ u-ño, ‘my husband’

back grade ablaut:

a-fiñano, ‘your older brother’ a-figï, ‘my grandson’ (as in
mourning)
a-ma, ‘mother’ (vocative) a-pa: ‘father’ (vocative)
a-ta: ‘your mother’ (referential) o-wï: ‘your father’ (referential)

2.4.9.2 Second person possessed nouns and perfective nominals.

Back grade ablaut (e~a, o) occurs with these word types.

a. a-gu-gu-i
2-thin-POSS-CL
 38

‘your thinness’

b. o-nofa-ne-nïgï figei
2-pregnant-cause-PS ADEM
‘this has made you pregnant.’

c. o-ŋoŋo-gu-ko-iŋo=nale-fa ele te-lu=lefa,

2-land-POSS-PL-LOC-DT-PTP PDEM go.away-PI=MT
ila-iña-lefa.
far.away-DAT/BEN-MT
‘But your own land was where (he) went away for, a distant
place.’

2.4.9.3. Hortatives

With these forms, the ablaut process is o ~e/i

a. Examples with ogi, distal hortative (predicate is located far away

from speaker):

ogi-fa k-ige-ke, Ø-nïg≈i-feke

DH-PTP 1+2-go back-I, 3-PS≈3-ERG
‘Let’s all go back together now’

ogi e-ŋe-te u-iña

DH 2-bring-I 1-DAT/BEN
’Go ahead and bring it for me.’

ogi-atai-fa e-futisofo iŋati e-its-ue

DH-URG-PTP 2-mo-in-law hammock-ADV 2-EX-I
’Right now, go ahead and lie down with your mother-in-
law.’

b. ohsi, proximate hortative;

ohsi- ni itsa-ke=ge
PH-PL measure-I=again
‘Go ahead and measure it again.’

2.4.9.4. Imperatives.
Imperative ablaut appears as e~a,o.
a-tsa-ke-fa
2-listen.to-I-PTP
‘Listen to this.’
o-ndï-ke: ‘blow into the flute’

2.49. 5. Body parts

With some body part words, second person pronominal prefix ablaut
occurs as: e~a
a-ŋakafugu, ‘your (women’s) hair’
e-tagiñu, ‘your speech’
 39

e-fĩgi, ‘your penis’

e-iŋugu, ‘your eye’

2.4.8.6. Other nouns

a. u̴~e
In the environment of -na, the allative case marker

etu, ‘settlement’, etu-pe, ‘one of the settlements’ → ete-na ‘to the

settlement’:

lepene si-nïgï=lefa asuti e-nïgï=lefa ete-na.

afterwards 3-come.to-PS-MT, frog come.to-PS=MT
settlement-ALL

b. a~o
In this example, the existential copular verb itsa →tso in
environment of the collective plural –go. This may also be an
example of vocalic assimilation.

oĩ-tso-go ite-pïgï-ko oĩ:-pi i-tsa-ko

thirst-EX-COLL go away-VPE-PL thirst-ADV 3-EX-PL
‘They all were thirsty, they went away, being thirsty’.

2.4.10 Allophonic processes

a. ï and u alternation in medial and final vowels (never on

initial first person prefix u-). This appears to have to do with
stress. For example, the following pair shows /u/ on a
stressed syllable: i 'dyu or 'i.dyї

b. f→h allophones in initial consonant or final syllable of

affixes: aifa/ aiha: “finished, ready”; hale/ fale
‘different event’.

c. examples of ŋ- →ñ-in reflexive contexts: 1) ŋune “moon”;

ñune-gu,’his own moon (experienced length of time)’); 2)
ïŋïne, ’the house’”; ñïne-gï, ‘her own house’
d. dy→y at onset: dyetsa → yetsa

2.4.11 Repetition and reduplication processes

These are partial reduplications. Reduplication tends to occur with

initial morphemes. The initial vowel, which is subject to elision, is
usually not reduplicated (in the syllable).

a. uwa-ma≈wa-ma itsa-le≈gei
what-EM≈what-EM 3-EX-CI –MT≈IDEM
‘What, oh what was that?’

b. kete, ŋetefa, ‘go on, go on.’

c. mbembege: ‘do that over again’ (interclausal reference marking
compound)
d. odyodyodyo, ’don’t don’t don’t’
 40

e. ŋele-fu ŋelefu ŋelefu

‘that person (being)-above-CAN, etc.’
(jaguar creeping up on someone)

f. uwa-ma-wa-ma itsa-le ≈ ge-i?

what-EM-what-EM 3-EX-UT ≈ADEM-CL
‘What in the world is this?’

g. dyambedyambedyambe: in a story, the otters reflect on how they

love to gobble up certain fish. Nonreduplicated forms would be
simply the interclausal reference marking clitics =dya and =mbe
(SS). However it is not clear how these clitics would relate
semantically to the ideophonic expression.

2.5 Phonotactic Restrictions

The following two tables show phonotactic restrictions on

consonants and vowels. The prosodic classes of morphemes relevant
to the constraints shown include prefixes (one syllable only); roots
(can be as many as three syllables); radicals (can be as many as two
syllables); suffixes and prefixes (one or two syllables); and enclitics
(one to four syllables).

Table 5. Phonotactic Restrictions on the Presence of Consonants

p t k g m mb d kw G f s h ž* ts dz dy n nz ñ ŋ l w
prefix + + + + +
initial
root initial + + + + + + + + + +
radical initial + +
suffix initial + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
enclitic + + + + + + + + +
initial
root medial + + +
radical medial + + + +
suffix medial + + + + + + + + + +
enclitic medial + + + + + +
radical final +
enclitic final +

* only one example, see discussion in 2. 1.2

Table 6. Phonotactic Restrictions on Vowels

prefix root radical affix enclitic root affix enclitic root radical affix enclitic
initial initial initial initial initial medial medial medial final final* final final

o + + + + + + +
u + + + + + +

i + + + + + + +
ï + + +
e + + + + + + + +
a + + + + + + + + + +
*nasalized vowel also possible here
41
42

2.6. Discourse influenced changes

1. whispering: when speaking about the irresponsible behaviour of

an absent third person, the speaker often whispers. This is true even
if the subject in question is no longer alive.
2. “tight” or “creaky” voicing occurs when the speaker is ridiculing
someone’s irresponsible, perhaps ridiculous speech.
3. ingressive aspiration. There is paralinguistic use of pulmonic
ingressive with eh , ‘yes’ or aifa , ‘ready, done’, to emphasized (not
simply to mark) agreement.
4. Expression of grief involves a softened voice and a slower rhythm.

2.7. Prosody in relation to leader’s talk (oratorical register)

Several features are distinctive to the oratorical register known as

anetu itagiñu, ‘leader’s (conversational) talk’.

1. repetition of hortative: ogiogiogiogiogi::, ‘come here to me, here

to me, here to me, here to mee....”
2. overlapping discourse with other leaders, particularly with
greeting and departure ritual communication.

2.8. Baby talk

Older people teach children to talk using a set of very simple

constructions. First, the phonological inventory is somewhat limited
compared with adult speech, as there are no central or nasalized
vowels and no velar or fricative consonants. Stress on the second of a
very small sequence of syllables, and syllabic reduplication are
common features. The same constructions are used both to reference
an existing event or item in the child’s immediate environment, as
well as to indicate whether the child wants or needs something. In
this regard a simplification or reduction of the dative/benefactive
(iña) and allative (-na) cases occurs.
Looking at these constructions from the perspective of
syllabification, it appears one of the first things the child learns is a
single vowel syllable type, as well as the main three syllable
structure possibilities, that is, VC, CV, and VCV. In addition, the
second syllable stress occurs quite forcibly in every instance except
one. The exception is, 'ma-ñí – ‘I want to be carried’ and also, ’I
want to carry you’, in each case a kind of simple imperative strategy
which has stress on the first syllable like most adult imperatives.

a-'u – ‘drink.’ (both noun and imperative)

a-'u-na, a'u ’Here’s something for you to drink.’
i-'u – ’I want to drink.’
i-'i – ’I am going to defecate.’
i-'i? (with rising tone), “ Did you defecate?”
pa-'i – ’Sit down.’
pa-'í.na pa-'i – ’Sit down here.’ (urging)
'ma-ñí – ’I want to be carried.’ Also the caregiver says, 'ma-ñí 'ma-
ñí , ’I want to carry you.’ (encouraging)
a-'mu– ’Food, I want to eat.’
mm 'mm – ‘itseke ‘reference to the masked figure during a ritual
performance’ (e.g. the forest monster afása)
 43

ta-'a.ta, ‘(here’s) something nice to eat’

wa‘wa.tsi, -‘dog’

2.9. Kalapalo whistling.

This is a minor register that is used by young men. It involves three

tones: a) descending or low tone, b) emphasis neutral, b) high tone

1. Gender in relation to whistling. Performed by men only, this

register is usually a sign that the participants are age mates who are
brothers-in-law and/or “friends” (ato). Such persons would engage in
various informal activities together; during the time of my research,
whistling was used to call to people inside a house one doesn’t enter,
is too lazy to enter, or when one is outside a house, wanting to speak
with someone inside but wishing to have an encounter outside
(“secret planning”). Whistling is motivated by: a) affinal civility,
which precludes using names and involves avoidance of certain
relatives; and b) a general hesitation in using names, as well as c) the
need to develop privacy in a very open community.

2. Phrases used in whistling:

a. kin term, esp. ku-ña-du ‘bro-in-law’ from Portuguese cunhado)
(low, neutral emphasis, rising)
b. ña-fe ’come here’ (rising, falling)
c. o-ka-ŋi: ’wait’; (neutral, rising, neutral)
d. ke-te-fa: ’let’s go’ (rising, rising, falling)
e. ah-mi-gu ’friend’ (neutral, rising, neutral)

3. Confusion: Whistling often leads to some interference as to the

reason for a whistled call; who is being called (often answered
verbally, in which case the caller, who doesn’t always wish to be
identified by people inside the house, repeats the whistle)

4. Hidden identity: 1) friend calls to his lover’s brother; brother-in-

law calls to wife’s brother who is his “friend”.

2.10 Some linguistic features of shamanic practice

Shamanic practice often involves the use of ideophonic

seeming locutions. This practice may be performed by individuals
visiting patients, but in serious cases a group of shamans will be
collectively involved. In such times there will be special shamanic
communication between them.

a. The shamanic cough

A highly marked feature of collective shamanic practice is

sound of a ‘cough’ older shamans use to call the others together for a
curing ritual. The other participants respond in kind. This ‘cough’ is
a deep, aspirated and repeated vocalization with descending
intonation.

b. The shamanic curing sound

44

The ‘sucking’ practice of the shaman involved directly in

curing a patient involves a loud and repeated ‘hu ah hu ah hu ah’
utterance as the shaman attempts to draw out the kwifi, ‘dart’, which
is causing the victim’s problem. (Among the local Tupian speaking
Kamaiura, this event is said to be called ‘hukahuka’.)
 45

Chapter 3
Introduction to Kalapalo Word Classes

3.1 Overview

This chapter provides a summary overview of the twelve basic Kalapalo

grammatical (word) classes. These classes are distinguished according to
1) their primary stem formation processes, 2) the categorial inflections
that they accept, 3) whether they are subject to derivational processes,
and 4) their word order position within clauses. Of these twelve word
classes, nouns and verbs are the two largest and open classes; adverbs are
a somewhat smaller open class. All three (with their sub-classes), host a
great variety of inflectional and secondary word class changing
derivational morphology. These word class changing processes with a
few exceptions do not occur with most members of the smaller, closed
classes whose inflectional possibilities are also very limited. Listed
according to approximate size from largest to smallest, these eight closed
classes include: clitics, ideophones, adjectives, interrogatives,
demonstratives, expressives (including interjections and epistemic
expressives), discourse particles, deontics, and the coordinator. Table 7
shows the types of inflection and derivational processes allowed for the
members of each word class (and subclass, where appropriate), as well as
the place of a member of each word class in clausal word orders. Note
that verbs, nouns and some adverbs, interrogatives, and demonstratives
may be inflected with many of the same morphemes. This makes
grammatical word class boundaries somewhat flexible. The
understanding of “word class” is also complicated by the derivational
constructions, as de-verbal nominalizations behave more like verbs than
nouns due to the preservation of verbal arguments in the non-verbal
clause, and de-nominalized verbs retain some properties of nouns.
There are also a large number of de-verbalized (de)adverbialized
nominalizations.

Table 7. Word classes and their categorial inflectional and derivational

properties

Word class : Types of Types of inflection Types of clitics

open/closed derivations hosted
verbs: open V, N, ADV pronominal absolutive prefixes; Host all types
intransitive, transitive and of clitics and
ambitransitive radical on root; pronominal
non-finite constructions (supine, prefixes
thetic)
indicative or irrealis suffix on
stem;
benefactive/dative case marker;
valence-changing affixes;
antipassive reflexive prefix;
prohibitive prefix;
plural absolutive suffix;
46

copular and negative suffixes;

primary topical participant suffix
nouns: open V, ADV person prefixes; aspectual and Host most
non-aspectual nominalizations; clitics
possessive, facsimile, dislocative, and pronominal
plural, copula suffixes; case absolutive
markers; prefixes
relative clause modifier suffix; in possessive
primary topical participant suffix; constructions
various classes have constraints
on temporal and other markers
adverbs: V, N aspect/mood suffix; none
open modifier suffix; IRM, modifier;

clitics : V, N none at least one

closed from same,
one from
another
set.occur at end
of the clause
demonstratives N, V, A copula suffixes no
closed
ideophones V, N none taxis clitics
closed ?

interrogatives N plural, facsimile, mirative, case epistemic, taxis,

closed suffixes, non-aspectual IRM
nominalizers
adjectives, none class inclusion copula suffix none
closed class
Expressives: none none epistemics
Interjections,
closed
Epistemic
expressives
Discourse n/a n/a taxis
lexemes
closed
conjunction, none none none
closed

The following list provides a summary introduction to the syntactic,

grammatical and word order features of the word classes. Here, I list the
features with brief exemplification, as readers will see detailed word
class features examined at length in the specific chapters to follow.

3.2 The major word classes

The three major open word classes are verbs, nouns and adverbs. They
share a number of features in common, most importantly their open
functioning and derivational constructions. Verbs and nouns also share
person prefix marking, and members of both word classes exhibit
 47

aspectual marking (though these are morphologically and semantically

different for each class). A lesser feature shared is the use of the
dative/benefactive case marker as a ‘goal’ marker on subordinate verb
clauses. In the following sections, I briefly list the main features of these
word classes, referencing the more detailed sections of the grammar
where the reader may find detailed discussion with multiple examples.

3.2.1. Nouns

- Nouns serve as heads of noun phrases (NP). Nouns can serve as heads
of possessed NP [possessor [personal prefix+N+possessive suffix]].
Nouns occupy the possessed position in possessive constructions.
(Chapter 4, section 4.1.2)

- Nouns function as arguments (S, A, O, and oblique) of the verbal clause

(including copular verb constructions). Nouns can be intransitive
subjects (S), transitive subjects (A), transitive (and ditransitive) objects
(O),including direct objects (DO), and obliques (Ob). Nouns occupy the
O position in transitive and extended intransitive clauses, which is either
immediately before the verb or separated from the verbal construction by
an identificational demonstrative. (Chapter 4, section 4.1.)

- Arguments of verbal constructiions show case (marked Ø for

absolutive) as follows: [N+case suffix]. Such full NP arguments precede
the verbal construction as if foregrounded unless they are non-focalized
A, in which case the argument follows the verb. A and S may be marked
with a pronominal prefix rather than a full NP. Oblique arguments (Ob)
normally follow the verb’s DO argument; in the case of extended
intransitives, they follow the verb. Direct object (DO) NP of speech act
verbs are marked with the ergative case and appear postposed to the
verbal clause. (Chapter 4, section 4.3.16)

- Nouns host pronominal prefixes and plural concordance morphemes;

case marking suffixes; possession suffixes and possessor prefixes; the –
tsï modifier suffix; the switch-function –fa primary topical participant
suffix; affective, epistemic, and locative clitics; and the class inclusion
copula, negative, and unique suffixes. (Chapter 4, section 4.3)

- Nouns are subject to word class changing processes, involving

derivational suffixes, including aspectual derivations in de-verbal and
renominalized constructions and de-adverbial nominalizations. (Chapter
4, section 4.4.)

- Nouns can serve as modifying complements of other nouns; the

modifier -tsï (M) marks a relative clause. (Chapter 4, section 4.3.17)

- Nouns can be predicates when coupled with the copular suffix or a

demonstrative. (Chapter 4, sections 4.1.4-5)

- De-verbal nominalizations may preserve some verbal syntactic

function, particularly with regard to the preservation of the verbal A
48

arguments in the clause, either overtly or in the choice of the

nominalization suffix, and preservation of the middle voice prefix.
(Chapter 4, section 4.4.2) Copular verb nominalizations appear to
preserve some of an auxiliary function. (Chapter 4, section 4.1.5)
3.2.2. Verbs

- Finite main clause verbal constructions are verb stems that are
obligatorily inflected with indicative or irrealis suffixes (Chapter 6,
sections 6.8.6-8), person marking prefixes (this chapter, sections 3.6.2,
3.6.5; Chapter 6, section 6.8.2)), and plural concordance (Chapter 6,
section 6.8.9). Kalapalo verbs may also be inflected with the
preventative prefix (Chapter 6, section 6.8.1) and the downward motion
prefix (Chapter 6, section 6.8.3). Verbs may host derivational suffixes
(Chapter 6, section 6.12); the switch-function -fa primary topical
participant suffix (Chapter 14, section 14.4); evidential suffixes (Chapter
6, section 6.8.11); and epistemic, affective, and interclausal reference
marking clitics. (Chapter 12; Chapter 14, section 14.3)

- Verbs serve as heads of intransitive and transitive and clausal

predicates. (Chapter 6, section 6.2-3). Verbs may appear in both main
and complement clauses(Chapter 13). Main clause verbs may be finite or
non-finite (thetic) (Chapter 6, section 6.6). The non-finite ‘supine’
construction (Chapter 13, section 13.2) is restricted to subordinate (‘true
complement’) clauses. - Verbs exhibit split-intransitive and split-
ergative syntax. Intransitive constructions include the ‘plain’ and the
extended types (Chapter 6, section 6.2.1-2). Transitive constructions
include the following types of alignment in main clauses: nominative-
accusative (hortative and imperatives), and ergative- absolutive. (Chapter
6, sections 6.3). Some verbs are ditransitive (Chapter 6, section 6.3.3)

- Verbs are subject to several valence-increasing (Chapter 6, sections

6.8.5; 6.9) and valence-decreasing processes (Chapter 6, section 6.5) and
take corresponding derivational morphology.

- Verbs are subject to a large number of nominalization derivations,

with arguments often preserved in the resultant constructions. (Chapter 4,
section 4.4.2)

- Verbs are subject to adverbialization derivations, which often preserve

the verbal arguments in the clause. (Chapter 10, section 10.3)

- Verbs may take dative/benefactive and instrumental case marking in

certain ‘goal’ and ‘purposive’ constructions; this makes them noun-like
even when in finite construction. (Chapter 13, sections 13.2-4)

Syntactically, predication is connected to constituent order: Intransitive

verbs are preceded by S (SV). Transitive verbs are preceded by the O,
closely tied to the following verbal construction, and followed by a
postposed A NP. The nominal-accusative constituent order is AOV).
(Chapter 6, sections 6.1.1-2; 6.3.2) - Verbs can serve as heads of
subordinate clauses and receive arguments in absolutive, accusative,
 49

dative/benefactive, instrumental, comitative, allative, ablative, and

locative cases. (Chapter 4, section 4.3.16)

- There are two non-finite verb constructions: 1) the subordinate supine

(purpose of motion) (Chapter 13, section 13.3.2) and 2) the thetic (which
is either an independent or main clause construction) (Chapter 6, section
6.6). The thetic hosts neither person prefix arguments, nor indicative or
irrealis suffixes. Arguments of thetic verbs may occur as lexical NP.

- Verbal clauses can take adverbial adjuncts, including a variety of

complementation strategies (Chapter 13, sections 13.1-2), and
participate in subordination relations with other verbs. (Chapter 13,
sections 13.3.1-3)

- Verb clauses are involved in chaining functions (with grammaticalized

relational grounding, referenced by taxis (phasal) and interclausal
reference marking clitics, some of which substitute anaphorically or
cataphorically for immediately preceding or following clauses, or even
whole clause chains. Verb clauses may also appear in coordination
constructions in clause chaining. (Chapter 14)

3.2.3 Adverbs

- Kalapalo adverbs function as attributives of verbs as well as noun

phrases. NPs that accept adverbial modifiers are demonstratives and de-
verbal aspectual nominalizations. (Chapter 10, section 10.1)
-
- There are several sets of underived adverbs, as well as productive
derivations of adverbs from the larger noun and verb classes. De-
verbalized adverbs preserve verbal arguments. (Chapter 10, sections
10.3-4)

- Adverbs normally occur in first position in the clause. Where there is a

clause chain adverbs have scope over the entire chain. (Chapter 10,
section 10.1.1)

- The adverbial subtypes include negations, locatives, and manner

attributives often used to code major segmental divisions (clause chain
boundaries) in extended narratives. (Chapter 10, sections 10.4, 10.7;
Chapter 14, section 14.1.1)

- Adverbs – both underived and and derived, are subject to nominalized

and verbalized derivational processes. These constructions may be re-
adverbialized as well. (Chapter 10, section 10. 3)

- There are two ‘denial’ adverbials that occur circumfixed around main
clause verbs and noun phrases.
50

3.3. Clitics and Particles

There are a substantial number of clitics in Kalapalo. As I describe in

Chapter 12, Kalapalo has several large semantically defined sets of these
features: affective (8); epistemic (27), taxis (phasal) (14), and
interclausal reference markers (17). Kalapalo clitics have basically
lexical meaning, but the interclausal reference markers (IRM) also have
important grammatical meaning pertaining to switch reference. (See
Chapter 14, section 14.3)

- Clitics are in general bound grammatical features. Clitics never stand

alone and must be hosted by another grammatical word among which are
a variety of syntactic units. All of the latter constitute a phonological
word in themselves to which the clitic becomes attached without
changing the stress pattern of the word. (Chapter 12, section 12.1.1)
Clitics are syntactically free insofar as they do not change their hosts’
functions, nor do they acquire a syntactic function by virtue of being
hosted. Consequently, Kalapalo clitics have very broad scope, in some
cases giving meaning not only to the independent clause or NP to which
they are attached, but often to larger syntactic units involving
subordinate clauses. Clitics do not host inflectional or derivational
morphemes except in rare cases for copula suffixes and the primary
topical participant marker. (Chapter 12)

- Some members of the clitic word class may also function

phonosyntactically as particles. Particles are postposed to adverbial,
nominal, or verbal phrasal constructions and like clitics cannot appear
alone. They do not host any inflectional or derivational features.
(Chapter 12, section 12.6)

3.4 The small closed word classes

The closed word classes are readily distinguished from the main word
classes (nouns, verbs, adverbs) by their very restricted syntactic
functions and their very limited (or absent) inflectional and derivational
possibilities. In contrast to the hundreds of words in the larger classes,
the smaller classes have less than 40 members, and some have fewer than
10. One class, the coordinator, has only one member. These small closed
classes are listed according to the approximate size differences,
beginning with the largest. More detail on the small word classes is seen
in the specific chapters as noted.

3.4.1 Ideophones

This is a semi-closed word class that is mid-range (under 100?) in size

and somewhat productive, as examples in the ideophone section show
with regard to creative combinations of morphemes and speech regarding
unusual or new items and their activities. Ideophones are important
syntactically insofar as they function as what might be called ‘pseudo-
intransitive’ and ‘pseudo-transitive’ clauses, in that they may act as
 51

predicates on their own. Ideophones may also complement verbs, and

the particular sound configurations make them readily understood with
regard to types of action that are referenced—including extended, abrupt,
and repeated. Ideophones appear frequently in narrative discourse.
Kalapalo ideophones are described in Chapter 11, section 11.1. See also
Chapter 6, section 6.9.3 for discussion of verbalizations of ideophones.

3.4.2 Interrogatives

Interrogatives consist of three types of roots which may stand alone but
more usually are further inflected by a variety of suffixes to form
grammatical words. These inflections include nominalizations, plural
markers, the facsimile suffix and the negative mirative suffix. These
roots also host epistemic, affective, taxis and interclausal reference
marker (IRM) clitics. Interrogatives are described in Chapter 9.

3.4.3 Demonstratives

There are five types of demonstratives: pronominal, adnominal,

identificational, local adjectival, and manner. Demonstratives host a
limited range of taxis clitics and the mbe SS (same argument, same
event) or dye (same argument, new event) interclausal reference markers.
The identificational set also functions to mark a noun phrase as S or A of
a following verbal construction, either lexical or copular. Pronominal
demonstratives and the anaphoric pronominals may also function as
independent personal pronouns. They are described in Chapter 5.

34.4 Adjectives

This class has approximately 30 members. Adjectives may modify NP

by juxtaposition. There is very limited class inclusion copula suffixing
on adjectives. Kalapalo adjectives are described in Chapter 11.3

3.4.5 Expressives

The class of expressives includes the sub-classes of interjections and

epistemic expressives. Interjections are two syllable adjective-like
morphemes that express personal feeling, and usually occupy first
position in an utterance. They may also stand alone in discourse. They do
not host inflectional or derivational morphemes. Epistemic expressives
are much like interjections in that they are one or two syllable and most
occur at the beginning of an utterance; some may be suffixed to
interrogatives or even occur at the end of an utterance. Because of this
variation in word order and semantic differences, I treat interjections and
epistemic expressives as sub-classes of the larger word class. Kalapalo
expressives are described in Chapter 11.2.
52

3.4.6. Discourse lexemes

Members of this small closed class have discourse functions. The set
includes six free-standing lexemes that do not form a phonological word
with preceding units. They may host a limited number of taxis clitics.
Kalapalo discourse lexemes are described in Chapter 11.4

3.4.7 Deontics

Deontics are used to complement nominal arguments. They mark their

heads with prefixes referencing the head as S or A on the one hand, or O
on the other. Deontics are thus distinct from the verbal arguments in not
having a person prefix; the head marking prefix may be omitted if there
is a lexical NP head. Deontics are fused forms of the existential ‘be’ verb
with the verbal root followed either by an imperative suffix or an
identificational demonstrative. No further categorizations or derivational
processes occur on deontics. Kalapalo deontics are described in Chapter
11.5.

3.4.8 Coordinator

There is a single coordinator, õ, ‘and’, used to form lists of proper

names. Its use is described in Chapter 11. 6

3.5. The Syntactic Nature of the Major Kalapalo Word Classes

3.5.1. Word classes and stem formation

The major Kalapalo word classes (verbs, nouns and adverbs) are in the
main syntactic rather than lexical in nature. At the core of the three
major word types are roots. In general, Kalapalo roots are subject to two
general kinds of derivational processes, as occur in other Carib languages
(Camargo 2006; Carlin 2004; Ferreira dos Santos 2002; Franchetto 2006;
Gildea ms.; Meira, 1999). The first are the stem-formation process (see
3.4.2), the second are word-class changing and valence changing
processes (see 3.4.4).
What I call “first level” derivations involve a large number of
these “precategorial” roots that must receive an immediately following
monosyllabic morpheme or what I call the radical. Many roots are
monosyllabic, but some are actually bi- or tri-syllabic underived nouns
(e.g., akua, “consciousness”; see example below). There are three ‘be’
verb roots that may function as copular verbs, and one root that appears
to be adverbial (these are discussed at length in Chapter 7).
Radicals specify the word class to which the resultant stem
belongs. This stem constitutes the head of the phrase. The root+radical
construction achieves transitive, intransitive, adverbial, or nominal
function. Some roots are ‘naked’ (Franchetto 2006) or ‘bare’ (Carlin
2004) in that they show more than one possibility for serving as roots for
 53

transitive and intransitive stems and functioning in nominal

constructions. Once they have hosted a pronominal prefix and one or
more suffixed morphemes, root+radical (=‘stem’) compounds achieve
grammatical word status.
Not all radicals are overtly marked. With many intransitive verb
stems, there are zero-realized radicals. These occur with the roots for:
hear (ifa-), touch (ifi-), attack (e-), slap (api-), and utter (ki-). In addition,
some roots are homophonic, as they may serve as radicals with other
roots. Some roots are restricted to one or another word class stem
formation, but many are “pre-categorial” insofar as they can appear in
grammatical words of all three classes.

3.5.2 First-level stem-formation processes: roots and radicals

The following are some commonly used roots showing the types of
grammatical words formed from different root + radical constructions.
Root + radical combinations are boldfaced.

3.5.2.1. fa, ‘aural’

This section shows a pre-categorial root that may be subject to

intransitive and transitive verbal as well as nominal stem formations. As
the examples show, the verbal stem is often subject to nominalizations
using various derivational constructions.

(a) shows an intransitive radical in an intransitive stem

formation; (b) is an example of a transitive verb radical occuring in the
verb stem construction which is subjected to derivation by a
nominalization suffix. (c) is a third type of derivation in which the
transitive stem formation is derived as a nominal by the possessive
suffix.

a. verbal: b. de-verbal nominal:

i-fa-Ø-ta a-fa-ŋa-fesu
3-√- Vi-CI 2-√-Vt-incorrect(N)
‘3p hears’ (Vi) ‘your poor understanding
(hearing)’

c. possessed nominal: u-fa-ŋa-gï

1-√-Vt-POSS
‘my listening thing’, ‘my ear’

d. nominal clause complement to a main clause

i-fa-ŋa-fesu=fale fegei, te-lï=feke…

3- √-Vt—incorrect=DT ADEM, go away -PI=3-ERG …
‘So having heard that incorrectly he went away…’
54

e. three-argument transitive verb:

iñalï-ma iña i-fa-nïm=i-feke

negation-NEG 3;DAT/BEN 3-√-CONS=3-ERG
‘He never intended to tell her anything about it.’

f. Noun with class inclusion copula suffix:

i-fa-i
3-√-CL
‘one who tells’

g. The word afako ‘those who tell of you’ in (g) is used by itseke
or ‘powerful beings’ to refer to humans (i.e., the first people,
mortals). Note the inverse marking prefix, in which 2p is
marked over 3pS.

a-fa-ko (plural noun) ‘

3-√- CL
3>2-√-PL
“those who tell of you’

3.5.2.2. fe, ‘de-valued’ .

This root may be subject to both nominal and verbal, as well as

adjectival stem formations.

a. (+=su pejorative clitic, PEJ):

fes(u)-, ‘old, ugly; poorly, incorrect’

fesiñï, ‘old person/thing’ (experiencer
nominalization)
sï-ŋï-fesu , ‘sleep badly’ (intransitive verb adverbialization)
faŋafesu, ‘ hear badly’ (transitive verb adverbialization)

b. adverbial complement on NP with USIN suffix and negative

adverbial circumfix

afïtï=mbe fes-ofo-i-la
denial=SS poor-USIN-CL-NEG
‘It couldn’t have been any worse’.

c. (+ki adverbial)

feki-, ‘nice, pleasing’ root

fekite, nice, pleasing (adverb)
fekipïgï, ‘well done’ (de-adverbial aspectual nominalization);
fekiñe, ‘a nice thing/person’ (experiencer nominalization)
 55

d. As element in verb roots: sїɳu-fesu-nda, ‘sleeping badly’

italu-fesu-nda, ‘hearing badly’
tefu-fwes≈ale, ‘stomach always hurting’

3.5.2.3. iŋ-, ‘new’

This root is more lexically nominal, but may also occur in

adverbal constructions.

iŋiŋo, ‘new thing’ (attributive nominalization)

iŋila, ‘early’, ‘beginning’ (adverb; noun)
iŋilaŋo, ‘first people’ (attributive nominalization)

Many verbs have noun-incorporating stems as illustrated with the roots

shown in 3.4.2.4-5. Nonetheless they still require radicals.

3.5.2.4. akua,:’ consciousness’.

a. akua-pï-te-lï
consciousness-SAL-Vi-PI
‘go after /find a separated akua (shamanic ritual)’

b. akua-ki-ta, ‘excited, startled’

3.5.2.5 mї-, ‘face’

a. imїtї : her face

b. tї-mї-fisu-Gi
. REF-face-red-ADV
‘his facial sunburn’
c. i-mї-to-ŋo
3-face-REC-LOC
‘his enemy’ (lit, his ‘face to face’)

Some roots are clearly more semantically “verbal” than others, always
taking verbal radicals.

3.5.2.6. –te, ‘motion away’

Here the intransitive verb radical is zero realized, common to
intransitives; Ø is not noted in the morphological analysis.

a. intransitive verb:
una-ma e-te-ta
where-EM 2-go.away-CI
where are you going?
56

b. nominal with class inclusion copular suffix:

te-ti-ñu‐i 
go. away-ADV-N-CL
serving as guides
 
 c.  adverbial
u-te-lu-ki
1-go.away-PI-ADV
‘my manner of going away’

d. -te as transitive radical, used to create a de-nominal transitive

verb:

kukw-eŋiko-gu fegei ku-n-ipï-te-ga-nïmi:

1+2-possessions-POSS ADEM 1+2-DTR-pay-Vt-CI-CONS
‘Thus these things of ours here were given as our payment.’

3.5.2.7. –fo/po, ‘pierce’

a. i-fo-pïgï: pierced (N) b. i-fo-tsi-lï i-feke:

3p. pierce-Vt-PI 3- ERG
c. ifo-tu-gu: ‘it’s point’; ‘He pierced it.’
‘the first in line’ (possessed N)

Roots that are primarily nominal usually (but not always, see (a) above)
have to do with body parts, roots primarily verbal are enacted feelings,
speech acts, bodily events (see also example 3.5.2.3 iŋ- ‘new’ above).
Roots that seem to go either way (as nominals or verbals) are
consciousness activities, statives, and changes of states

3.5.2.8. fu-: ‘know’

a. i-fu-ti- ñi b. Taugi iñalï fu-numi

3-√-Vt-N (name) negative √-Vt-CONS
‘the one who knows’ ‘Taugi thus not knowledgeable’
(de-verbal nominalization)

c. katote ago-feke u-fu-nïgï .

all 2.people-ERG 3-know-PS
‘Everyone knows about it.’

d. Taugi tu-fu-ti agetsi

(name) REF-√-TH one
‘Taugi the only one who knew about it.’
 57

3.5.3 Ambitransitive Roots

Certain roots may take intransitive or transitive verbal radicals; the

resultant stems with their subsequent prefix and suffix constructions head
either intransitive or transitive verb clauses. Examples of such roots
include ige- ‘handle, carry’; ke- ‘cut’; ŋi- ‘give’; fipï-, ‘sell’, ta-‘help’.

As an example, I show a speech act root that is one such ambitransitive.

3.5.3.1. ki-utter

a. Quotative, followed by a quotation; intransitive:

ama ki-ta
mother utter-CI
‘Mother is speaking’

b. Quotation followed by imperative; transitive:

ki-tse u-feke:
utter-I 1-ERG
‘say it to me’ (transitive with ergative case on “recipient” of
speech act)

c. u-aki-sï, ‘my talk, speech’ (possessed nominal)

3.5.3.2. fa-, ‘hear’

The root fa-, ‘hear’ discussed in section 3.2 (above) is another

example of an ambitransitive’ root.

3.5.4 Word class changing derivations and valence changing processes:

second level derivational processes

There are two general types of “second level” derivational processes.

The first are word class changing phenomena. Through these derivational
processes, nouns become verbs and vice versa; adverbs can be derived
from both verbs and nouns and vice versa; nouns may be re-nominalized;
ideophones can become verbs or nouns; demonstratives can be
nominalised. The second type of second level derivational process is
valence-changing constructions. Valence increasing constructions
involve the use of radicals to change syntactic functions of verbs from
intransitive to transitive, and from 2-argument transitives to 3-argument
transitives. Valence decreasing constructions involve the anti-passive,
and the object-backgrounding construction. In addition verb clauses may
be subject to inverse marking, the third valence decreasing process.
58

Derivational processes are described in detail in the word class chapters

that follow this overview chapter.

3.6 Person marking prefixes

Kalapalo has two paradigms of person-status marking pronominal

prefixes. The first or ‘basic’ set of prefixes occurs 1) on possessed nouns
marking person status of possessor; 2) as ‘argument referents’, marking
S of intransitive and copular verbs, to mark O of transitive verbs; and to
reference person status of a restricted set of case markers. This set of
prefixes also appears on de-verbal nominalizations and adverbializations
derived from possessed nouns. The second paradigm of person prefixes
mark A>P relations governed by an inverse marking hierarchy. (These
are discussed in Chapter 7.6). In addition, there is a multi-functional
“reflexive” prefix, tї- that is both anaphorical co-referencing and used in
thetic construction and some adverbializations (see Chapter 7). There is
also plurality agreement on the verb when second person plural members
of Set 1 or 2 are used, or in the case of a third person NP. All
pronominal prefixes appear in first position (unless there is a prohibitive
prefix) and are unstressed, causing the following syllable (generally the
first unit of a pre-categorial root) to be stressed. Person marking prefixes
are distinct from a separate word class of pronominal demonstratives that
may also operate as independent pronouns (described in Chapter 6).

3.6.1. Basic person marking prefixes

Person prefixes are bound phonologically with stems of verbs, nouns,

and the ergative and dative/benefactive and comitative case markers.
However, not all person categories are found marked in each of the three
word categories. Verbs have the most elaborate system, nouns less so,
and case markers the fewest distinctions. Table 8 illustrates the
distinctions in person marking prefixes and co-referencing plurality
markers. The reader is advised to refer to this table during the discussion
on person marking in the examples that follow.
 59

Table 8. Person marking prefixes and plurality on noun and verb constructions
morpheme and translation nominative- ergative-
gloss accusative plurality absolutive
marked on NP plurality
(plural possessor) or inflection
plural S on head
verb, case
suffixes
u, 1 first person
a/e/o, 2 second person
m, 2>3 2nd person > 3p
Ø, 3 third person -ni
is, its, 3>3 third person >third -ni
person
uk, ukw , dual dual or reciprocal +ko; +to when -ni
reciprocal
ku(k), (kw), 1+2 inclusive ‘we’ +ko -ni
tis, 1+3 exclusive ‘we’ +ko -ni

3.6.2. First person prefixes on intransitive verb and possessed noun

phrases.

Person marking prefixes on the intransitive verb mark S. On possessed

nouns, these prefixes occur to mark the person status of the possessor.
The nominal stem is usually followed by either –gï or –pe, salient
(member of a group) suffix. ( There are some examples with both
suffixes “one of her X’s”) which usually (but not in every instance) are
suffixed with the possessive suffix –gu/gï. Most kinship nouns, which are
considered inherently possessed, bear the possessor prefix but not the
possessive suffix:

u-fïgi, ‘my arrow’

e-tapïgï, ‘your foot’
ku-mugu, ‘our (1+2) son’
tis-efugu, ‘our (1+3) canoe(s)’
te-tagiñugu, ‘her own speech’
tï-Gipoŋagï, ‘his own knee’
a-ta, ‘your mother’

3.6.2.1. u, 1st person singular

a. u-efu-gu-pe Ø-its-ue
1-canoe-POSS-SAL 3-EX-I
‘My canoe be-I (trade my canoe)’

b. ah, kogetsi-t=apa u-te-ta-ni

EXP, tomorrow-DIS?=EM 1-go away-CI-FUT
60

’Tomorrow I do intend to go away just as you say.’

3.6.2.2. ku, kuk, kukw (1+2), first person plural, inclusive

1. ku-, when is followed by consonant or /i/.

a. okogetsi ku-te-ga-ni
tomorrow 1+2-go.away-Vi-ANT
‘We’re going tomorrow.’

b. ohsi ku-ñi-ga-ke kogetsi.

HORT 1+2-see-V-I tomorrow
‘Let’s go and see tomorrow.’

c. i-na ku-tsïŋ-i
here-ALL 1+2-sleep-CL
‘Our sleeping here.’

d. ohsi ku-fisa-ke-ku-tsu-fa
HORT 1+2-search.for-intensive-I-M-PTP
‘I mean we need to go search carefully’.

e. ku-iñandsu, ‘our sister’; ku-pigu-ko, ‘our grandchild’

2. kuk, when followed by / ï/

a. kukïŋï, ‘our house’

3. kukw-, when: followed by /a/, /e/. This can be used both as a

direct and inverse prefix.

Intransitive and non-finite verbs:

a. kukw-ae-ŋu-nda okogetsi.
1+2-shoot-Vi-CI tomorrow
‘Tomorrow we’ll shoot (some fish).’

b. Inverse marking use of the prefix:

i-na kukw-ae-ŋu-ni
here-ALL 3>1+2-shoot-Vi-ANT
‘Here (come) our shooters.’

c. itseke kukw-e-nïgï-fale
powerful beings 1+2 approach-PS-DT
‘At that time (not now) we and powerful beings approached each
other.’

d. kukw-efu-ki ŋu-ndï-ŋi-fofo
1+2-canoe-INST shape-Vt-I-IM
 61

‘We should make our canoes right away’.

Note: The speaker is telling about making canoes from jatoba bark,
which was cut off the tree trunk and then shaped by smoking the piece
over fire.

e. afït-dye maki-la aŋikogo-feke kukw-e-lï-ko-la

denial-SO EM-NEG fierce.people-ERG 1+2-kill-PI-PL-
NEG
‘It won’t be as we thought, the fierce people won’t kill us all.’

3.6.2.3 uk-

This is generally followed by /i/.

uk-iŋa- ŋa-pi-tse
3>1+2-eye-cause-ADV-N
‘the cause of our dizziness’

3.6.2.4. ukw-

This form of the first person plural prefix occurs when followed by
consonant or /a/, /i/, /o/

a. On possessed nouns, kinship terms:

ukw-oto, ‘ our parent’

ukwadyo, ‘ our lover’

b. On verbs and de-verbal nominalizations:

ukw-ata-fa-ga-tsi≈-tsï-ŋi=lefa
1+2-move.away-Vi-CI≈EX-N=MT
‘We are in a condition of needing to move away from here.’

c. ukw , used as dual or reciprocal.

Dual or reciprocal status is marked with one of two possible first person
forms (ukw- or u-) (a), with the plural suffix –ko (b), or paucal –go (c).

ukw-ita-mbo-go
1+2-hold.on-Vi-PAU
‘We embrace each other’

ukw-itagi-no-ko-ŋo
1-converse-N-PL-NLOC
‘We speak with each other (together).’
62

d. ukw-ite-go-ko-ŋo
1-laugh-Vi-PL-NLOC
‘We laugh with each other (together).

3.6.2.6. tis-, first person plural exclusive (1+3)

This prefix appears as tis- when followed by a vowel (a, b, d) and ti-
when it is followed by a fricative (ts) (c) or nasal (ñ) (e).

a. eŋi-ke-fa ti-ful-ofo
look-I-PTP REF-travel-USIN
‘See what we use for our travelling.’

b. ande=mukwe ï- ŋaupu-au- ake inde ti-tse-ta

here.now EM 2-grandfather-PL- COM here 1+EX-CI
‘Now I hope your grandfathers and I be here with us’

c. ti-tse-ta kanga fe-lu-iña

1+3-EX-CI fish kill-PI-BEN/DAT
‘We are here to kill fish.’

d. tis-aki-su, 1+3-speech-POSS, "our language", tis-ago, ‘our

people’

e. ande=taka ti-ñe-ta, e-ufi-dyu-iña

here.now=EM 1+3-come.to-CI, 2-find-PI-DAT
‘Just as you thought, we’ve been coming here now to find you.’

3.6.3 Second person prefixes a-, e-, o-

The particular vowel used depends upon the initial verb or noun stem
vowel.

3.6.3.1 e-,
The vowel e- occurs when the initial vowel of a stem is e (in
which case it is lengthened) or the stem begins with a consonant:

a. efu, canoe →e.fu-gu-ko: your canoe(s); but e-fiñano: your older

brother →efi.ñafono, ‘your brothers’

b. With verb stem ete-, ‘go away’:

kogetsi e ≈ te-ke
tomorrow 2 ≈ go away-I
‘You must go tomorrow.’

c. With verb stem fife-, ‘sting’:

 63

u-ifi-fo-lu=nafa e-feke sike-feke-fa

1-touch-HYP-PI=EM 2-ERG tocandira-ERG-PTP
e- fi-fe-po-lї
2-sting-Vt-HYP-PI
‘If you were to touch me, the tocandira ant would sting you.’

3.6.3.2 Ablaut /o/. 2p plural usually occurs with plural suffix)

a. isuwĩ, “3-father” → o-wï-ko, ‘2-father-PL’. ‘the father of you all’

b. itologu, 3- pet-POSS→ o-tolo-gu 2-bird-POSS, ‘Your pet’

c. o-kaŋi=fofo o-fo-nu-ko:
2-wait=IM 2>1-cry-N-PL
‘You all must wait until later to grieve for me’.

d. o-fu-nїgї-ko-fa u-feke
2-know-PS-PL-PTP 1-ERG
‘I know about you all’.

e. u-iŋgu-Gi-tsїgї=taka-ko-n≈ige e-i-ñїgї-feke=lefa
1-deceive-Vt-IMP=EM-PL-CONT=IDEM 2-EX-TR-ERG=MT

o-kotu- feke=lefa.
2-anger-ERG=MT
‘You can’t see, can you, how I was deceived by the way your
anger changed you?.”

3.6.3.3 Ablaut/ a/. This occurs when preceded by epistemic expressive

ah or prior to final vowel e.

a. a-fiñano-feke-fa e-giku-ni-tofo-i i-feke,

2-OB-ERG-PTP 2-envy-FUT-USU-CL 1-ERG,

a-fiñano-feke e-giku-ni-kïgï
2-OB-ERG 2-envy-FUT- N
‘Your older brother will soon find this makes him envious of
you, your older brother will envy you soon.’

3.6.4. Third person Ø- , is-

a. ah, tolo Ø-e-nïgï

EM, bird 3-come-PS
‘The birds did come.’

b. katote=lefa kagaifa-feke Ø-imbi-lї-kita

all=MT Christians-ERG steal-PI-EV
‘I was told that everyone was stolen by the Christians.’
64

c. Suppletive verb e-, “come to” ; the third person form is si-

ah s-i-nïgï-lefa kafu atsï-ga-ŋe-nïgĩ

EM 3-come-PS-MT sky tear open-Vi-cause-PS
‘Surely, when she came she tore open the sky.’

d. is-aGi-ɳo fegei
3-resemble-NLOC ADEM
‘It’s like that one.’

3.6.5 Person marking prefixes on transitive stems.

A/OP is marked in prefixes following a hierarchy, in which 1 or 2 is

marked ahead of 3 both as A and O. With an ergative NP A then is
marked with 3rd person prefix ergative case marker. The following
example lists the set prefixes that encode both direct and inverse
relations.. More detail may be found in Chapter 7.
.
1A >2P → e-

1A > 3P →i-

2A>3P→m

3A >1P → u-

2A >1P →u-

3A >2P →e- (check)

2A >3P →e-

3P >3P→Ø?

3A>1P plural →uk-

3A > 1+3→tis-

3.6.6. Person marking prefixes on kinship terms

Most of these are inherently possessed nouns without the usual –gї
possessive suffix. Normally the possessive suffix cannot be deleted,
though I have one example where this occurs, ukwoto: our (dual) parent
(cited below).

u-fisï, “my younger brother” (note; in informal speech, a man may call
out ‘ufi’ to his younger brother;
e-limo, ‘your son’
 65

i-si, ‘the mother’ (the 2nd person form is suppletive a-ta, “your mother”
with second person singular /a/;
ukwoto, ‘our (dual) parent’
ku-pahene, ‘our (1+2) female cousin’
tis-aũpuau, ‘our (1+3) grandfathers’
tï-iñoi, ‘the one who served as her own husband’.

There are some kin terms that do host a possessive suffix, but the stress
pattern is the same as with other kin terms): i-fi-gï, ‘his grandson’.
See Chapter 4.2.3 for a complete list of kinship terminology.

3.6.7 Person marking prefixes on case morphemes

Person marking prefixes also appear with the ergative (-feke/pehe(ne)),

dative/benefactive (-iña) and in a reduced way, the comitative (-ake) case
markers. There is a reduced set of person categories, including only 1, 2
and 3 person singular markers. Pronominal prefixes appearing on the
three case markers are listed above; other case suffixes do not take
person or plurality marking. Person prefixes and plurality on case
suffixes are shown in Table 9.

Table 9. Person prefixes and plurality on case suffixes

Case Gloss 1P 1+2 1+3 2P 2P 3P 3P

morpheme plur plural
al
ergative ERG u- kupeh tifek efek efek i- i-feke-
fek e-(ne) e e e-ni fek ni
e e
dative/benefact DAT/BE u-- kuk- tis- e- e- i- i-iña-
ive N iña iña iña iña iña- iña ko
ko
comitative COM uak not tis- -ake -ake - not
e atteste ake ak atteste
d e d
on
NP

3.6.8 Plural concordance suffixes

As shown in Table 9, there are two plural concordance suffixes. –ko is an
absolutive that occurs on the verb or the NP head of the adverbial
adjunct, as well as the intransitive S noun phrase. It is used to reference
plurality of subject or patient arguments. –ni is used to reference the
transitive subject (A) argument and occurs on the ergative case
morpheme.
66

a. okogetsi ku-te-lu-ko
tomorrow 1+2-go.away-PI-PL
‘We leave tomorrow.’

b. aŋi-nika inde u-oku-ŋgi-ta

EQ-EM here 1-liquid.food-prepare-CI
i-ŋi-lï e-feke-ni?
3-see-PI 2-ERG-PL?
‘Could it be that you all have seen those who make my drinks
around here?’

3.6.9 Third person co-referent reflexive prefix t(,ї)-

The Kalapalo reflexive prefix t(e,ї) - has several functions crossing word
class categories. The first is to anaphorically co-reference the possessor
of a noun on which it is prefixed and the verbal S or A argument, as:
tї-fiñafo-no
REF-Obro-PL
‘His own brothers’.

Second, the reflexive prefix is used without specifically reflexive

meaning in non-finite thetic constructions, as:
t-e-ti
REF-come.to-TH
‘the coming’

Third, the reflexive prefix occurs with some adverbializations:

t-ugupo-tsi,
REF-fill.up-ADV
‘filled up’

3.7. Order of constituents in the verbal and nominal word

3.7.1 Overview

While Kalapalo is a language with few prefixes and many suffixes, the
verbal construction normally is preceded by several clausal constituents
other than the arguments: these include interjections, epistemic
expressives, adverbs, and negative prefixes. Arguments tend to be
closely adjacent to the verbal word itself. Oblique NPs generally follow
the head NP or the verbal word. According to features of transitivity,
focalization, valence-changing processes, and illocutionary force
grammar, there are several possibilities for word order in Kalapalo.
 67

a. The verbal construction

i. Within a transitive verb clause, the head is normally

located between the Pronoun NP or pronominal prefix and
the postposed transitive subject NP (A) : [O-V-A].

However, A may be placed before O as a means of

foregrounding (calling attention to and/or emphasizing) the A
identity.

ii. Within an intransitive verbal construction, S NP always

comes before V: [S-V] order.

iii. Equative and existential copular constructions generally

operate like the intransitive predications they are [S-V]

b. Within the NP, the simplest noun phrase is a lexical noun or free
pronoun; there are also noun phrases, with an initial noun being
the possessor, the second the possessed; another simple type of
noun phrase involves an adjective complementizer: [ADJ +
N+POSS].

c. Adverbial phrases: Adverbs typically occur to the left of verbal

constructions (two are circumfixes). Many occur in first position
unless preceded by an interjection or epistemic expressive.

3.7.2. Focus of clausal argument

There are several types of focus structure in Kalapalo. Here I am

concerned only with focalization that has influence on clausal
constituent order. When focalization has only scope over one clause, it
involves a temporary fronting of a NP in order to place attention on a
new participant in narrative action. Both transitive subject (A) and
oblique arguments may be focalized by a fronting such that one of these
NP appears before both the verb and O clausal constituents which form
an impermeable unit. Even with such fronting, adverbials and epistemic
expressives maintain their position at the beginning of the clause. In any
clause, only one focalized noun phrase is possible. A full review of
Kalapalo focalization and topicalization (a process linking clauses) will
be given in Chapter 14, after all structures have been described in the
various chapters.

In a., the demonstrative is present because the speaker is answering a

question about why he seems to be going off somewhere dangerous):

a. ukw-oto-fo-ko-feke u-ige-i-ta igei fïgey-ki

dual-parent-COLL-PL-ERG 1-take-Vt-CI DEM arrow-INST
‘It is our older relative who is taking me away (in this situation)
to get arrows.’
68

In (b) the demonstrative is foregrounded to emphasize a situation:

b. ige-a keñi a-fa-ko fili-ñïgï,

this. way EVIT 3>2-tell-PL strength-TR,

a-fa-ko fo-lï-ku≈le=ŋapa=lefa.
3>2-tell-PL HYP-PI-INT≈UT=EM=MT.
‘Lest this way, those who tell of you (i.e., humans, mortals)
become strong, the Tellers might probably be that way forever.’

In (c), the oblique argument of an imperative clause is fronted for

pragmatic prominence.

c. ama-ñu-ko-ina=fofo te-ke.
mother-END-PL-ALL=IT go.away-I
‘Let’s go right away to our dear mother.’

3.8 Morphological marking of grammatical relations

Kalapalo is characterized by head, dependent, and adjunct marking.

Using J. Nichols terminology, Kalapalo may be described as a split-
marking language (1986: 75), although there is a tendency towards
head-marking at all levels. In this regard, Kalapalo approximates the
typological feature exhibited by the Northern Carib languages Trio
(Tiriyo) and Carib (Kalina).
At the phrase level, there is both head and dependent marking.
The possessed noun phrase is head marked by possessed suffix and
possessor pronominal prefix (or possessor noun phrase) as well as
dependent marked by co-referencing plural number and derivational
suffixes.
At the clause level, there is head, dependent, as well as adjunct
marking. The head is marked by coordinate plural suffixing. The
majority of noun phrase arguments of the verb are marked with a case
marker; absolutive (S/O) person prefixes appear on the verb unless there
is an overtly expressed S or O noun phrase.
At the complex clause level (minimally, there are two clauses
involved), there is also dependent marking. The relative NP is marked
with a relative clause modifier suffix. Deontics lexically index person
status of the S, A or O noun phrase. Adjunct noun phrases are marked
with oblique case markers.
At the clause-chain level (minimally, there are three clauses
involved), there is also both head and dependent marking. Medial
clauses are marked with the switch-reference marker. Controlling clauses
are marked with aspect/mood suffix and the taxis clitic. Many if not all
of the features that appear on controlling clauses at the clause-chain level
also occur on the anaphoric focus referent (ule-) clause which generally
appears at major narrative discourse boundaries (see Chapter 14 for
discussion of this morpheme).
 69

Table 10 shows the marked constituents at each level and the

indexed grammatical categories and relational constructions.
70

Table 10. Constructions and their Marking at Syntactic Levels

Phrase Clause Level Complex Clause-

Level Clause chain level
Level
Head possessor Absolutive Evidential
Marking person person prefix, suffix; taxis
prefix; multifunctional clitics on
possessed co-referential controlling
suffix; reflexive prefix: clause
collective t(ї);
suffixes; aspect/mood
word class suffix;
changing and absolutive plural
valence- suffix; negation
changing and denial
derivational adverbials;
affixes. clitics
Dependent copular Ergative case On relative IRM marker
Marking suffixes marker on A NP; clause, use on medial
of the clause
modifier
suffix to
mark
modifying
NP
Adjunct Oblique case
Marking markers on NP;
plural NP has
absolutive plural
suffixes;
adverbial
phrases;
argument (S or
A; O) indexed
by deontic
morphology

3.9 Discussion: The emergent nature of Kalapalo word classes

Kalapalo data verify the findings of several Cariban linguists, who have
described the realization of tokens of word classes in syntax and
grammar (Franchetto and Ferreira dos Santos 2006 about Kuikuro;
Elaine Camargo 2006: 160 and Catriona Hyslop 2006: 92, for northern
Cariban languages). As the preceding table of Kalapalo word class
grammatical features shows, many derivational and inflectional features
(as well as “pre-categorial” roots) cross word class boundaries. Stems
are phonological words that must be inflected to form grammatical
words; these inflectional features, together with first and second level
derivational features, have syntactic functions that help define the main
word classes as ‘not lexical’. In other words, stems + inflectional and
derivational morphemes → syntactic function of the word. The syntactic
 71

of word order and the morphological marking of grammatical relations

all contribute to this understanding and justify the notion of the classes as
syntactically emergent. Finally, but not secondarily, phonological
processes such as stress patterns, vocalic elision, vocalic assimilation,
ablaut, and the inclusion of clitics within the phonological word must
also be noted in any understanding of a particular word class (see
Chapter 12: Clitics and Particles for full discussion).
72

Chapter 4
Nouns and Nominalizations
4.1. Syntactic functions and distributional features of Kalapalo
nouns

Kalapalo nouns form a substantial and open class with a large variety of
syntactic functions. Not only do Kalapalo nouns function as arguments
of verbs, they may form predicates of many kinds, preserving properties
of the heads of noun phrase arguments in demonstrative, copular, de-
verbal aspectual subordinate, and relative clauses. These constructions
are a functionally important feature of Kalapalo nouns. In the first place,
Kalapalo has relatively few adjectives. Second, de-verbal nominalization
is an important subordinate construction. At the same time, nouns are
obligatorily expressed as finite verbal arguments, either as pronominal
absolutive prefixes or as lexical noun phrases, and as pronominal
prefixes on case morphemes where there is no lexical NP.
Nouns have their own dependent marking which includes
grammatical categories of possession, plurality, negation, dislocation,
and case, a set of augmentative and diminutive suffixes, as well as the
class inclusion copula, unique, salient and negative suffixes, and the
relative clause modifier and the shift-function primary topical participant
marker. Kalapalo uses many lexical ‘renominalizing’, de-verbal and de-
adverbial derivational suffixes pertaining to S, O or A. Nouns may also
be verbalized and adverbialized. There are nine aspectual derivational
morphemes (morphologically and semantically different from verbal
aspect suffixes). Grammatical categories shared with the class of verbs
include absolutive prefixes, and absolutive head marking plurality
concordance suffixes; plurality concordance suffixes in ergative case will
also appear on the ergative, comitative and dative/benefactive case
suffixes. Because of the pervasive word class changing derivations in
Kalapalo, many roots and stems (root + radical) are also shared between
verbs and nouns, and to a lesser extent with adverbs. While there are
some classes of underived nouns, nouns are frequently derived from
verbs and adverbs as well as other nouns. Some nouns are renominalized
from verbs constructed from nouns, and nouns share marking of aspect
with verbs, though the morphology and semantics differ and nominal
aspect is specifically connected with subordination. When specifically
referring to derived forms, I use the terms nominalization, but otherwise
use “noun” or “nominal” in a functionally and syntactically neutral way
for any member of this word class.

4.1.1 Word order: nouns as core arguments of verbal clauses

Nouns can be intransitive subjects (S), transitive subjects (S), and

transitive objects (O), as well as indirect objects (dative/benefactive or
instrumental) of ditransitive verbs. Nouns may also be arguments of a
subordinate clause in an extended intransitive construction and oblique
 73

arguments in transitive and valence-decreasing object-backgrounding

clauses.
The basic clausal constituent orders are SV and OVA. S in the
intransitive construction may be either an absolutive pronominal prefix
or a lexical noun. A in the finite transitive indicative and interrogative
inflections is usually a post-posed ergatively marked A which can be
either a pronominal prefix or a lexical noun. Once mentioned explicitly,
the ergative marked A is marked with a pronominal prefix on the
ergative suffix, the construction appearing in the postposed final position
in the clause (d). Nouns modifying other nouns are simply juxtaposed.
Full noun phrase arguments (of whatever case, and whether core or
oblique) precede the verb phrase if topicalized, as in (a); examples are
the ergative NP in (b) and the benefactive/dative marked noun phrase in
(d). Full noun phrase A is usually topicalized in this way when first
mentioned, then put in the post posed position in subsequent mentions.
Verbal arguments are marked with case suffixes (Ø for
absolutive) as follows:

[N+case suffix+ plural concordance suffix].

a. Intransitive S: (Ø = abolutive marking)

isi fo-nu-nda-lefa
3.mother cry-VI-CI-MT
’His mother wept.’

b. A, ergative construction (-feke ergative case)

kotofo-la isi- feke i-li-dyu.

alot.NEG 3.mother-ERG 3-drink-PR
‘Her mother took a sip of it.’

c. A, nominative-accusative construction (imperative mood):

e-li-tse-apa
2>3-drink-I-CONF
‘Drink it like me’.

d. O, ergative construction, Ø marked absolutive

tï-tomi=s≈ne e-ndisï-Ø Ø-ifu-ni-ta

RQ-PURP=PEJ≈OP 2-daughter-ABS 3-cherish-VT-CI

e-feke
2-ERG
‘Was there a reason why you were always so stingy with your
daughter?

e. NP as oblique argument of an extended intransitive verb ñi-

‘see’, marked as such with the DAT/BEN case suffix.
74

ama-ñu-ko-iña=fofo, ama-ñu-ko [ ku-ñi-ta]

mother-END-PL-DAT/BEN=IM, Mother-END-PL 1+2- see-CI
‘Let’s go see dear mother and the others right now, dear mother
and the others’.

f. A deverbalized NP in which the noun is derived with the active

nominalizer suffix -ɳu (AN). This NP is not oblique but a main
argument of the VP. The verbal construction -ti-ga
references the event of passing from one state to another.
 
     tï-n=ege e-fi-Ga-ŋu a-pi-sa-ti-ga
RQ-OP=PDEM 2-heat-SCAUS-AN 2-hit-VI-DES-CI

‘Should there be a reason why you get sweaty’ (why droplets are
hitting you?).’

g. NP as human recipient of a ditransitive verb, tu-‘give’. R is

marked by the dative/benefactive case suffix. In this example the
verb has been nominalized in passing state perfective
nominalization (bracketed).

ifi-pïgï [tu-nïgï], isi-ña i-feke-ne,

payment-VPE give-PS 3;mother-DAT/BEN 3-ERG-PL,
uguka,
shell.belt,
endifegiku, kafoko-kugu.
parrot.feather .headdress, toucan. feather. ornament-fully.
‘The payment given to their mother, the shell belts, parrot feather
headdresses, all the toucan feather ornaments.’

h. NP as non-human recipient of a ditransitive verb ‘eat flesh’. R is

marked with –ki instrumental case suffix.

kaŋa eŋe-ta=lefa i-feke-ne tseta kine-ki=mbe-fa,

fish eat.flesh-CI=MT 3-ERG-PL there flatbread-INST=SS-PTP,

kine-ki=mba-fa,
flatbread-INST=DS-PTP
‘They were eating fish there, they did that with the flatbread,
they did that with flatbread’

i. NP as theme of a ditransitive verb, ge-, ‘take away’. T (here,

kwigiku) is Ø marked (T=P).

e-ge-ke-papa kwigiku Ø-nïg≈i-feke.

2-take. away-I-CONF manioc.soup 3-PS≈3-ERG
‘“I agree you should take this soup”, he said to her,’

ukwoto-iña, ukwoto-iña.
 75

dual-parent-for, dual-parent-for
‘For our parent, for our parent.’

j. In this example, the adverbial suffix –kai, ‘on’ appears to mark

‘this food’ as an extended argument in a ditransitive speech act
context.

kagutu oto-feke s-aki-tsu-nda=lefa tu-iñaɳo-kai.

trumpet sponsor-ERG 3-speak-VI-CI=MT REF-food-on
‘The trumpet sponsor told him his food was (placed) out.’

4.1.2. Nouns as heads of possessed noun phrases

The dependent NP in a possessive predication is marked with the

possessed suffix (a). A possessor marking person prefix marks the
dependent if there is no lexical possessor NP, as in (b).

a. Possessor nominal precedes the possessed nominal with

possessed suffix:

ama-ñu tolo-gu ege

mother-END pet-POSS PDEM
‘This one is dear mother’s pet’

b. Possessor prefix u, ‘me’ and possessed suffix –gu, on N –

tolo, ‘pet’.

u-tolo-gu
1-pet-POSS-COM
‘my pet’

4.1.3 Noun modification

The modifying NP (either preceding or following the head noun) is

dependent marked with the modifier (M) –tsï (tї). This argument may be
incorporated into a main verb clause by a pronominal prefix, or may be
an explicit NP argument (a). The head of the NP that is being modified
may be explicit, referenced through switch-reference interclausal
reference markers, or through a demonstrative. The suffixed morpheme
–tsï thus has a discourse metacommentary function insofar as the
speaker is providing additional information regarding a preceding NP to
the listener and marking it as such. A few examples are given here, with
more examples presented in 4.3.17, Positions of Constituents in the
Nominal Word; 4.5 Relative Clauses; and Chapter 14, Grammar in
Narrative Discourse. M appears in boldface in the examples.
a. The head noun is marked with the modifier (M):

uŋa-ta ti-lo-po, masope-tsï-fa,

76

house-inside REFL-nearby-ADV, secluded.girl-M-PTP

i-ñ-uŋu-fa
3-OB-house-PTP
‘Inside the house someone close by, a maiden, the secluded one.

b. An example of a ‘new information’ NP appearing initially in the

non-verbal clause. Here it is the modifying noun that is marked
with M, while the possessive head NP (Aulukuma fitsu) is
unmarked. As the latter references the primary topical participant
(PTP) (‘wives of Aulukuma’), the shift-function primary topical
participant suffix –fa VanValin, Jr. and La Polla 1997: 287)
follows the modifier:

kuña itau-gu-tsï-fa Aulukuma fitsu, kuña itau-gu.

añi women-POSS-M-PTP Aulukuma wife, añi woman-
POSS
‘I mean the Añi Women, Aulukuma’s wives, the Añi Women’.

c. In this example, M is suffixed to the oblique argument of a

relative clause that modifies the head noun tũwa-kuegї, ‘Water
Monster’:

tũwa-kuegї=fale ege ititu-i,

water-AUG=NT PDEM name-CL,
‘Water Monster this time, that’s its name,

eh, kafї-tsї-kaiɳa et-uwo-lї

yes, sky-M-DEST MV-flood-PI
yes, that (being) who floods up to the sky.’

d. M is suffixed to the interclausal reference marker dye referencing

same argument :

lepene s-їɳїl≈u:m fufufu,

afterwards 3-sleep-(ideophone for extended action),
(sound of blowing spell),
apuɳu-lu=lefa ñalї-ma apuɳu-Ø ,
die-PI=MT negation-EM die-RES

s-їɳї-lu=dye-tsї-fa, taloki s-їɳї-Ø

3-sleep-PI=SA-M-PTP just 3-sleep-RES
‘Afterwards she fell asleep with the spell on her and died, not
died for good but (I mean) she fell asleep, she only slept.’
 77

4.1.4 Nouns as predicates with demonstratives

When paired with a demonstrative, nouns function as predicates. A

demonstrative may relativize a noun phrase, usually with the class
inclusion copula suffix –i (as in 4.1.2.c, 4.1.3 b).
. The following examples illustrate the different kinds of interactions
between types of demonstratives (described in Chapter 5) and nouns.

a. Example of –i, class inclusion copula (CL) construction:

ukw-iñatї-gї-i katote
1+2-hand-POSS-CL all
‘All our hands are this kind’.

b. Example of –a, unique or special (U) construction:

igei-a=lefa a-ŋakafu-gu-a at-ïfïgï tamaki,

manner-U=MT 2-hair-POSS-U EQA-IMP soft
‘Just like your special kind of hair, it’s become soft’.

c. Example of –pe, salient (part of a whole) (SAL) construction

with distal 3rd person pronominal demonstrative:

Kalapalo itau-gu-pe ele,

Kalapalo woman-POSS-SAL PDEM
‘she, one of the Kalapalo women’

e. Pronominal proximate demonstrative (PDEM) ege, ‘3rd person,’

with renominalization referencing an experiencer of a state:

ege etu-ta-gï-iñe
PDEM settlement-DIS-POSS-EXN
‘this person, (a member of ) a settlement somewhere else’

f. 3rd person adnominal demonstrative (ADEM) fegei, with a de-

verbal nominal:

ku-mu-ŋe-tu fegei
1+2-son-VI-N ADEM
‘This is one of our youths.’

g. ‘Situational’ identificational demonstrative (IDEM) igei in an

interrogativeconstruction; in this case IDEM is suffixed by the
class inclusion copula suffix–i:

tu-iti-gi-ma igei-i?
RQ-hammock-ADV-EM IDEM-CL?
‘This is someone’s hammock here, right?’
78

h. De-verbal perfective nominalization with class inclusion copular

prefix suffix (boldface) and de-verbalized exstential copular verb
in ‘transformed state’ inflection (boldface):

is-añatui-ɳo-gu-ko-i u-pїgї-i Tapoge≈ñїgї

3-five-just-POSS-PL last-VPE-CL Tapoge≈EX-TR
‘Tapoge had just become the last of the five of them.’

i. Adverbial predication ‘his hearing badly’ (i.e., faulty

understanding). The demonstrative references the NP following
the verb as S. (Note this example shows an ergative following
the intransitive verb ‘go.away’. this construction will be
discussed in Chapter 7: Verbs):

i-faŋa=fesu=fale fegei te-lï-feke

3-ear =badly =DT ADEM go.away-PI-ERG
Matїga i-mï-te-Ø.
Matїga 3-face-3-go.away-RES.
‘But not understanding himi well, (and) set against Matїga, hej
left.’

4.1.5 Nouns predicated by copula constructions

Copula constructions incude both copula suffixes and inflected ‘be’

roots serving in copular function.

a. This example shows a lexical noun paired with a class inclusion

copula suffix(boldfaced):

ukw-iñatї-gї-i katote
1+2-hand-POSS-CL all
‘All our hands are this kind’.

b.The following example shows a de-verbalized nominalization

(boldfaced) paired with an active equative copula root construction:

[ñatui ake-tsa-ɳe tis-їɳї-pїgї Ø-ata-ni] te-lu-iɳo

five DEO-EX-I 1+3-sleep-VPE 3-EQA-ANT go.away-PI-
POT
’We must finish sleeping five days before going away’.
(lit., ‘five days of our sleeping must occur, then plan to go away)

4.1.6 Nouns and adjectival predications

a. Here is an example of a possessed numerical nominal. It bears

the ‘third person’ possessor prefix is-. Following the stem is the
possessed suffix –gu and the class inclusion copula suffix –i
(CL). The grammatical word hosts the metonymic phasal taxis
=lefa.
 79

is-atakegeni-ŋo-gu-i=lefa
3-four-just-POSS-PREC=MT
‘3rd person’s immedate fourth born.’

b. Here there is a simple juxtaposition of the adjective and the

noun. The adjective precedes the noun.
ego fïgi
nice.behave arrow
‘nice behaving arrow’

4.1.7 Relativization

Kalapalo relative clauses include demonstratives, verbs, adverbs,

pronominal nouns and de-verbal nominalizations modifying a noun. The
relative clause is marked with the modifier (M) –tsї (-tї when suffixed to
ule, the anaphoric topic referent, (AFR)). The common argument often
is marked only on the main clause, and in some cases, does not appear in
either main or relative clause if in third person.

In this example, M occurs on a NP that modifies the head NP which is S

of the main clause. The common argument is explicit in the proper name
used in the relative clause and the third person form of the verb ‘come.to’
in the main clause.

fotugu-i ekugu egene Mbambaɳisu t-їgї-iɳi-tsї-fa

first-CL fully this.side Mbambaɳisu REF-narrow-SN–M-PTP

ah s-i-nїgї=lefa
EXP 3-come.to-PS=MT
‘He was the very first one who came right this way I mean
Mbambaɳisu (on) the narrow one (name for the Rio 7 do
Setembro).’

In the next example M appears on the NP modifier of the head noun that
is P argument of a quotative complement.

b. tї-tomi tũwa ifa-ta e-feke-ni

RQ-PURP water tell.about-CI 2-ERG-PL
‘Why did you all tell about the water?’

tu-fits-au-feke, kuña-feke-tsї-fa, kuña itau-gu.

REF-wife-PL-ERG, añi-ERG-M-PTP, añi woman-POSS
‘To his wives, to the Añi that is, the Añi women.’

c. In this example, there are two clauses marked with M. The first
is a ‘denial’ adverbial construction that is adjunct to the first
main clause, while the second is a NP that modifies the head
noun in the main clause. Both nouns reference the same P
arguments.
80

afïtï la-tsï-ki e-ŋits-au-ko iña-mba-ñalï

denial manner-M-MIRN 2-GM-PL-PL consume-Va-MAL
u-feke
1-ERG
‘No, I’m never going to devour your grandmothers that way!’

e-ŋits-au-ko-tsï fe-tsa-ŋe ke-ku-dye-to

2-gm-Pl-PL-M OD-DEO PREV-INT-DE-COL
‘Your grandmothers should be left alone’.

d. In this example, there is both an O and oblique argument,

both of which are in clauses marked with M. The first is the
oblique argument of the main clause, while the second is
the O argument. The relative clause and the main clause
common arguments are made explicit, first by an object- -
backgrounding prefix, and second by a lexical NP (both are
in boldface). Note the speaker uses both tї and tsї forms of
M (repeated from 4.4.2.2.3d).

ama-ñu –iña=mukwe-tï-fa ñ-ïŋ-itsi-ga-ni

mother-END-DAT/BEN= EM-M-PTP OB-bit-pierce-VT-PL

uguiŋï-mbïgï-pe= mukwe-tsï-fa.
intestine-FS-SAL=EM-M-PTP
‘For poor dear Mother some of these skewers of their former
intestines, though she may not care for them.”

e. In this example, the main clause includes an ideophonic

construction, which, because it is a bird call, references the bird
itself. This type of ideophone may be considered a pseudo-
nominal. This nominal morpheme is followed by a pair of
adverbial adjuncts, the last of which hosts M.

õ ah õ ifa-ki-la=fale i-fudya-tsї-fa.
(call of the blue heron) far-ADV-NEG=NO tree-among-M-PTP
‘”õ ah õ’’, this time not far away, (from) among the trees’

f. Here M is suffixed to the imperative complement of an

intransitive verb:

tsa-ke-tsї-fa e-fisu naka-ɳu-nda

listen-I-M-PTP 2-Ybro bathe-VI-CI
‘Listen to (him), your younger brother is bathing.’

g. Here M is suffixed to the locative adverbial adjunct of the head

noun of the main clause:

s-i-nï-ŋgo-lefa, se-gati-tsï-fa
3-arrive-VI-PI/PL-MT same.place-ALOC-M-PTP
 81

i-ñaŋo-pe-ko-na
3-liquid.food-SAL-PL-ALL
‘They came, to that same place that is, to their food. ’

Relativization also often occurs with adverbial predications, where the

demonstrative substitutes for the head of a noun phrase; the latter may
appear more explicitly at the end of the clause, as in the following
example:

a. Example of a negative (-la) construction:

iñalï-tï Giti≈ ts≈i-la kukuge

NEG-EV sun≈EX-CL-NEG PDEM
‘It’s said we (people) lived without sun.’

4.1.8. Semantic types of nominal predications

The semantic types of nominal predications include: naming, possession,

attribution, class inclusion, identification, location, negation (non-
existence), and aspect. Aspectual sub-categorical contrasts include
inanimate/animate; positive/negative event or circumstance; and
stative/active. Copular verb constructions in nominalized aspect are also
used in active and stative verb derivational constructions. Active
ditransitive verbs may be nominalized in various ways. These
constructions are noun-like insofar as they may be linked to
demonstrative adjuncts and function as heads of relative clauses, but on
the other hand they preserve their verbal arguments, like other derived
nominals. Deverbal nominalizations preserve verbal arguments and also
may be used in clause chaining as reference clauses (see example 3b,
Chapter 14: Clause Chaining and Interclausal Reference in Kalapalo
Narratives). Table 11 lists the different types of predications and shows
examples of different types of constructions associated with each.
(Included in the table here are just a few examples of the many
predications). More detail will be presented throughout the chapter,
particularly in the section on derivational suffixes.
82

Table 11. Types of Predicational Nominal Constructions

Type of De-verbal or De- Non-verbal; Copular Verb

Predication adverbial N+N or Construction*
nominalizations NP+DEM
Naming Añïpe, ititï
fegei
“‘the made
one’, that’s
what (3p). is
called”;
Fitsagu egupe
ititï figeij, “
it’s called
‘cuckoo’s
egg’”.

Possession upїgї: ‘last one’; uitigï fegei, aŋi uwipi kine, ‘I

ifotugu-ko: the first ‘this is my have some bread’
(in line); igifїkїgї-ko hammock’
“in the middle of
them”

Attributive tuifeñegï iguitsini ukwegesu lepe uwipi anïmi:

‘the weaver of its fege-i, “this is ‘the result is I am an
own net’; our laziness”; owner’; ifepïgï
tïfutisïñeko, ‘those kwigi igisï atanilefa tinafeGita,
ashamed of her’; ige-i, “it’s the ‘the tips of the
agetsiɳuetofo, ‘one manioc song”; planted pieces were
more added’ (i.e., katote isifuŋu set gleaming
‘six’) ele-i, ‘all of us (there),’; tuilïfiti
like him’ Kafunetiga atani,
‘Kafunetiga was
there wearing his
shell collar’ aŋifa
efugu anïgï, ‘your
canoes are made’
Locative uŋalï, ‘one who is kupisu wende wende kupisu anïgï
housed’ ikenegele inde Giti atani
isepo ehnene, tïpopïgïGine uŋati
‘the younger atïfïgï,’the pierced
sister also ones were inside’
paired on the
other side’
Essive tuwakualupe: uge aka ige-i aifa igiñoto
‘something from the Kofi fitsu ege- Dyagifunu
water’; tisigatigofo: i ñïŋgo,’the result was
‘what we use for itseke fele-i (finally) Dyagifunu
going outside’ afikwegï limo had become the song
akagoi, ‘they leader’; kagutu
were itsa≈l≈egei ‘but this
Dogfish’s one is the kagutu
daughters’; flute’; ufitsu itsiŋa,
iŋko ‘this could/should be
ŋapalegei my wife’
 83

uwĩpi, ‘what
kind of wild
thing is this I
have?’
Equative isaGiŋo igei, ‘this is aŋolo igei uwama≈l≈ei-tsa
the same’ ‘this is ‘what has happened
acceptable’ to you?’
Negatives 1. -mbïŋï , lacking: afïtïkumaki kugefïŋïkai igei
kagutu tiñimbïŋï igei witsa,’I wasn’t
‘someone who ‘you’re right, beside a human
never sees the this isn’t it’ being here’
flutes’; 2. -fïŋï,
unlike: itaugufïŋï,
‘unlike one of their
women’; -pïŋï, 3.
repulsive or faulty
state: itaugopïŋï,
‘some unattractive
women’

Aspectual: mbïgï: ufitsumbïgï: tapuŋuilefa tseta

former, ended, ‘my former wife’ ñïŋgo, ‘They stayed
state of no there forever’ (or,
longer existing, that was the last time
etc. they went there’)
Aspectual: -ñïgï: i-ñïgï-ko, ‘the
transformative transformed ones’
or change of
state
Aspectual: iñïgï, ‘transformed
transformative; state’
change of state
Aspectual: -nïgï, kafu atsïga-
passing state ŋe-nïgï (the sky torn
open)
Aspectual: end -tsïgï, kine ki-tsïgï
result of an (cooked bread);
involuntary kuGi-tsïgï (what we
process carried)
Aspectual: end -p(f)ïgï; fipïgï,
result of a ‘payment’
voluntary
process
Consequential -nїmi
proper inclusion tï-eku-ma≈l-
igei
a-gugu-i: ‘is
there some
reason why
you are so
thin?”
84

4.1.9 Participant coding

Nouns may code participants in events described in texts and in social

and personal roles, using demonstrative pronouns: [N(name) + DEM
(pronominal or adnominal)].

a. This example was used at the beginning of a story as a kind of

title:

ah, .Fitsagu elei, ‘take note, he was Cuckoo’.

b. Lists of names may be given in contexts when multiple

protagonists of narratives need to be identified:

tatakegeni. Saganafa gimo.

four (name) sons
‘There were four sons of Saganafa’.

Kagaifuku, ititë fegei, õ Kagasafegï, õ ,

(name), name ADEM and, (name), and
Paimïgasa, õ Paipegu-fa.
(name), and, (name)-PTP,

tatakegeni.
four of them.
‘Kagaifuku (that’s the name), and Kagasafegï ,and Paimïgasa,
and Paipegu. Four of them.’

4. 2 Noun Types
Kalapalo nouns include both underived lexemes and nominalizations
derived from other types of words. Nouns can be derived from verbs and
adverbs, and can be de-nominalized to form verbs and adverbs. Some
nouns are also re-nominalizations of other nouns. Nouns of both
underived and derived types fall into two general typological groups
according to their ability to be possessed or not. This is an important
semantic feature as the same entity may be referred to by more than one
noun according to whether or not the speaker wishes to declare the entity
in a potentially intimate relationship with a human being (more on this in
Basso 1975: 17-26).

4.2.1 Non-possessed nouns

Types of non-possessed nouns include: 1. personal names; 2. proper

nouns; 3. ideophonic proper names, 4. spatially deictic third person
nouns and 5. cardinal numbers. In addition, free pronominal
demonstratives (described in Chapter 6) may be considered a sub-
category of non-possessed nouns.
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4.2.1.1 Personal names

Every Kalapalo has two sets of inherited names, one set given by each
parent. A set contains at least one ‘child’ name and one ‘adult’ name,
although usually several names of each type are contained in a single set.
The names are given when an infant and mother exit from postpartum
seclusion. Each parent gives to the child the names belonging to its own
parent, according to the appropriate sex. Because of affinal name
avoidance, a parent only uses the names that s(he) has bestowed on the
child. Children’s names are not generally distinguished according to
gender and are often (but not always) names for natural species, places,
and material objects. Adult names were traditionally used after puberty
seclusion, when the name bestower (now technically in a grandparental
generation) would also take a new name. Adult names are gender
related; they sometimes are the names of mythological protagonists and
may also be names associated with outsiders. Since the names of
recently dead relatives are not used by close kin, a person needing to
bestow a name may find what would be normally available to them ‘used
up’. For this reason, several women asked me for names to give to their
own children. Alto Xingu people now use many names of European
origin: Heinz, Lucia, Elena, Joel exist at the same generational level as
Asuti (frog); Lumbe (mouse); Madyuta, Ugaki and Eusa (‘adult’ names
without lexical meanings). (See Basso 1973: 85-7 for more details on
traditional naming).

4.2.1.2. Proper nouns

These may be derived using degree nominals and readily serve as roots
for re-nominalization and for verbalization derivations. Subtypes may
be distinguished semantically. There is some overlap between these
words and personal names given to humans. However, there are a large
set of personal names that are not also names for things and other living
entities.
To illustrate the various means of creating words that function as
proper nouns, I use several sets of terms relevant to particular semantic
domains. These are: names for fish, names for frogs and toads, kinship
and other relationship terms, and terms for body parts. Names for natural
species are usually listed by consultants in order of their size. The
remarkable knowledge of their environment exhibited by older men is
illustrated by the ready listing of names of this type. Serious
environmental degradation due to forest clearing and dam construction
makes this knowledge highly endangered.

Example 1: Names for kaŋa, ’fish’

The following list includes the first 48 terms of a comprehensive list of

124 fish names elicited from a single elderly man in 1979. My
 86

consultant listed fish in order of size and (secondarily) frequency of

contact. These initial 48 fish names in his list fall into several
morphophonological types.

A. The largest set includes uninflected words. In the sample, with

one exception, all are 2-3 syllables. There is a preference for
final syllable –i, (final a, e, o, and u are rare). I do not have
satisfactory idenitifications for all of these.

1. wagiti (matrincha)
2. kífagi (pacu)
3. 3. kwátagi – curimatá – Prochilahus – medium size, sucker
mouth
4. kïtïti
5. safundu - (tucurare) - chichla multifasciata
6. 6. tañe – (trairão) – Hoplias lacerdae
7. dyofí = tigúfi – (two names)
8. tugúfi – (pintado)
9. afí – (cachorro) – one of var. general to caracidae moë
acestronhampus
10. atígi
11. їgúfa
12. dyegú – (red piranha) – itseke, ‘powerful being’
13. kuógo - giant catfish
14. kufatї– symphysodon – acarámorerê
15. atúi atitï – adyiti
16. adyámu, ugáke’ – electric eel. Electrophorus electricus
17. túpaga
18. tagúfaŋa - with faint yellow line
19. afúaŋu
20. dyagápo’ - aŋágu
21. augáúga’
22. féte’ fresh water oyster
23. fïtá fresh water crab
24. dyokó’
25. fesoko
26. kéu or okópi- muçum. Symbrandues marmoratus –
25. ‘kafágasï – armored catfish – corcudo – loricaria
26. mbásïtï – Apteronotus albifrous
27. tifágï - stingray. Paratrygon motoro-

B. A second set involves names (many from set A) inflected with

the augmentative suffix –kuegï. This morpheme often implies
that the creature is a powerful being (itseke).

28. kwatagi- kuegï – large, long

29. dyïnápa- kuegï - Portuguese, jaraqui (Prochilodus
insignis)
30. kagi- kuegï - Portuguese, jaú – paulicea lütkeni itseke
31. feŋi-kuegï - itseke – a large piranha
 87

32. dyegu-kuegï - itseke – red piranha

33. djofi-kuegï – itseke
34. wagiti-kuegï – itseke – a large matrincha
35. afi-kuegï – itseke –a large cachorro
36. tagafa-kuegï – itseke
37. safundu-kuegï, also called tisa-kuegï

C. On the other hand, only three names were given that carried the
diminuative suffix –kusïgï, and each inflected a name from Set
A:

38. wagiti- kusïgï

39. ketútí -kusïgï
40. atїfu -kusïgï

D. Four terms involved reduplication:

42. tagutagu
43. kïgúkïgu
44. kagikági
45. físe’físe’

E. A small number involved associative, possessive and attributive

nominal predications:

46. associative predication: fágu igiŋgogu – (igiŋgo of the

riverine lake)
47. attributive predication: tafegiñe ,‘the beautiful one’
(because of its red markings)
48. attributive predication: tatitsúñe: the sweet tasting one
49. possesive predication: iféu fogísu – peccary’s fogí

4.2.1.3 Ideophonic proper names

Many proper names for natural species (esp. category names for birds
and frogs) are ideophonic, such as: tsĩtsaha bem-tê-VI (tyrant
flycatcher); fokueu’ nightjar (frogmouth); bïgabïga a kind of frog. As an
example of ideophonic naming, I include an elicited list of names for
katagu,‘ locusts and cicadas’. As these insects are often distinguished by
their call rather than their physical features (though these are, as shown
below, sometimes part of the description), I have included this list as an
example of the practice of ideophonic naming (though not all the names
are ideophonic, the consultants’ descriptions (givewn with the names)
often include descriptions of the animals’ ‘calls’ (itsu).

Example 2: Names for katagu,‘ locusts and cicadas’

tïkotïko - the very large cicada (green head and brown body)
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sakaga - Akwakaŋa’s sister; nzueŋi-fekugu atutu=fale

nzueŋi intse apïŋegï - “it’s smell of rotten piqui”; blue wings,
“pretty”
fïmbiku tupisuGiñe - ‘the red one’
zuizui - very small
zuitsitsi - large
kue - very small
ekege - small, lives in grass in oti, ‘grasslands’: dark blue on
body
Giti ataŋagï - ‘Sun’s flute’
fundiŋu - is said to sing to the kuake’ (leaf cutter ants) just
before they swarm
etsiGitsue , whose name is said to mean “take off your (bark) leg
wrappings”

4.2.1.4 Spatially deictic third person nouns

Several third person nouns have spatial deixis semantics. These are
functionally a class of pronouns. They are used to make third person
distal/medial/proximate contrasts (the proximate may be used in direct
address). As the examples attest, these words were particularly useful at
a time when it was important to try and figure out who people were,
whether possible enemies or ‘people like us’. Like the independent
pronominal demonstratives (see Chapter 5: Demonstratives), spatially
deictic third person pronouns are unpossessed; both word types include
the proximate/distal deictic distinction; however pronominal
demonstratives do not have a ‘medial’ category. Spatially deictic
pronouns mark third person status but do not distinguish between
singular and plural, whereas pronominal demonstratives mark first,
second and third person singular and plural status. Finally, there is also
an unmarked anaphoric pronominal demonstrative uɳele compared
below (4c). The following table shows the four morphemes in the set of
third person spatially deictic pronouns.

Table 12. Spatially deictic third person pronouns

Morpheme Deixis Gloss

ago neutral ‘they’, ‘them’‘the
person(s)’
(u)nago distal (spatio-temporally) ‘ that person (those people)
way over there ’
amago proximate ‘this person (these people)
here’
akago medial (within earshot but not ‘that person (those people)
visible) over there’

1. ago is a neutral noun, with the simple meaning ‘the person,

people’. It may be inflected with a person prefix, as in example
(a) with the first person plural exclusive prefix tis-. Ago is often
 89

used in an anaphoric predication, as in (b), with a

‘consideration’ (iɳi-ge) complement clause and the following
main clause. The primary topical participant marker –fa (PTP)
references the head of the nominal predication as the same as S
of the main verb kundata, ‘chopping wood’:

a. ule-pe-fa kefege-i, katote-tsï-fa tis-ago ŋi-pi

AFR-SAL-PTP spell-CL, all-M-PTP 1+3-people have-ADV
‘The result is a spell, something that all of us have’

b. iɳi-ge-fa, unago-f≈ago-i. ago=maki

look-I-PTP, those.people-PTP≈people. people=EM -

kunda-ta-f ≈ago-i.
chop.wood-CL PTP≈person.CI
‘Think about it, those are people over there. I realize now that’s a
person chopping wood.’

2. unago is a third person, spatio-temporally distal noun. When clause

initial /u/ is usually dropped.

a. This example shows a simple example of the use of the distal

third person singular form unago. The immediately following
construction is a nominalized verb, now fully lexicalized,
meaning ‘offspring’. It is the head of the NP, the nominative A
of the re-verbalized nominalization, whose root is ife-, ‘abduct’.

Saganafa-ka:h=lefa tis-ifugu-i. Saganafa.

Saganafa-FRUST=MT 1+3-ancestor-POSS-CL, Saganafa.
‘It’s really too bad about Saganafa, one of our ancestor’s
,Saganafa. ‘

unago e-ti-dyi-pïgï=kaha
those.people MV-take out.of-VI-PS=EM

tis-ife-nugu-Ga-tiga
1+3-abduct-PS-CAUS-HAB

ti-ñoŋo-gu-pe tis-etu-pe-ki-tifa
REF-land-POSS-SAL, 1+3-settlement-SAL-INST-EM
‘His offspring made a practice of having us stolen for our land,
and our settlements, I remember (being told)’.

b. tseta kuge atani, unago.

same.place humans ESA-ANT, those.people
‘At that same place, there were people living, those people.’

3. amago is a third person proximate reference:

90

a. uum, aɳi-kah tis-agage amago

EXP, result-FRUST 1+3-same these.people
‘I’m thinking these people here have turned out to be the same as
us’.

b. As in the following, I have examples of this word being used as a

politeness strategy in direct address to a person in an affinal
situation:

Amago, amago.
this.person, this.person

Uk-iŋand-su-ko=gele ake-ts≈igei
1+2-sister-PL=PER DEO-EX≈DEM

e-feke api-tsa-ko. Uk-iŋandsu-ko=gele

2-ERG take-CI-PL 1+2-sister-PL=PER
‘This person, this person, Our sister wants us to let her remain
taken by you. Our sister, still. “

4. kago references a person, or people within hearing distance, but

not visible:

a. koko=gele≈kugu iɳila koko=gele, tok tok tok

night=PT≈fully early night=PT, (sound of axe)

kago-tsї-fa, iña otomo-feke.

those.people there-M-PTP, Iña community-ERG
‘Still in the middle of the night, very early before dawn, still at
night, tok tok tok (they heard) someone over there, the Iña
community (chopping wood).’

b. uɳu-fuɳu-ma=laka akago-i
Q-resemble-EM=EM those.people-CL
‘Do you have any idea what kind of people they could be?’

To compare with the anaphoric demonstrative pronoun uɳele (ANA), the

next example shows the use of this morpheme in a stretch of discourse.
The anaphoric pronoun references first, the NP Taugi-fa ikene iŋiso-i,
‘Taugi, the one who is the younger sister’s husband’, and then another
related pair of NPs: ifasï-ŋiso-iŋo , ‘the person who was going to be the
older sister’s husband’, and the name of this person, Akiŋi. These are
also given in boldface. The speaker’s husband is asked to use the man’s
name; his responses are in brackets.
 91

c. i-fasï-iŋiso-iŋo ikene≈ŋiso-iŋo,
3-OZ-husband-POT, YZ≈husband-POT,

Taugi-fa ikene iŋiso-i.

Taugi-PTP YZ 3-husband-COP
‘the older sister’s husband to be, the younger sister’s husband to
be, Taugi, who served as (one of) the younger sisters’
husbands’.

[uŋele-nafa ifasï-ŋiso-iŋo ŋele-su-fa,

ANA-EM OZ-husband-ANT he himself-PEJ-PTP
‘It happened so long ago I don’t know but it could be that he
himself when he was about to be the older sister’s husband,
he himself, that fool,
is-uata-gu-ko],
3-last. count-POSS-PL
‘their youngest sister,’

ii. i-ga-ke=su-fofo (Akiŋi) [u:m, uŋele=su=dya],

3-name-I=PEJ-IM (Akiŋi), [EXP, ANA=PEJ=DE]
‘Name that fool right now’ (her husband answers:“Akiŋi.”)
I’m thinking about that person I mentioned before, the fool
(who was going to)
eku-andzu ku-i-ni (Akiŋi)
unnamed-z f...k-CL-AN (Akiŋi)
be the one who will f...k (what’s-her-name’s) sister.
(Akiŋi)’

iii. nago fegei Ø- nz-aŋatu-ŋGi≈ñalu, Taugi-ko ege

that.person ADEM 3–OB-hand-VT-MAL, Taugi-PL
PDEM
i-ŋiso
3-husband
‘As for that other one, they were becoming fed up with that
husband of her’s, Taugi and his companion.’

4.2.1.5 Cardinal numbers

Kalapalo cardinal numbers one through twenty are non-possessed nouns.

Numbers six through are non-possessed nominalizations, using the
‘place’ suffix –tofo (PN) and when elicited, (but rarely in naturally
occuring speech) the class inclusion copula suffix is often included as in
the list of nominal cardinal numbers below.
Using a quinary system of numerals, Kalapalo
traditionally counted with their fingers. The gesture of toucing the
relevant left hand finger with the index finger of the right hand was used
to indicate the cardinal or ordinal number. The first five cardinal
numbers are uninflected lexical words, while the numbers six through 10
92

are inflected.. Ordinal numbers are possessed nominalizations described

in 4.2.2.4.

Numbers one through five are:

agetsi, ‘one’
takiko, ‘two’
tilako, ‘three’
tatakegeni, ‘four’. This may be formed with the comitative –ake,
the perlative –ge, and the agentive nominalizer –ni. The initial
morpheme is not understandable.
ñatui, ‘five’. This may be formed from the root of the noun
iñatїgї, ‘hand’ with the final possessive suffix replaced by the
class inclusion copula suffix -i)

Numbers six through ten include:

agetsi ŋuGwe-tofo-i,
one add.to?-PN-CL
‘The position added to one.’
takiko ŋuGwe-tofoi,’ seven’ (‘the position added to two’)
tilako ŋuGwetofoi, ‘eight’ (‘the position added to three’)
tatakegeni ŋuGwetofoi, ‘nine’ (‘the position added to four’)
ñatui ŋuGwetofoi , ‘ten’(‘ the position added to five’)

Finally, the last number katote, ‘all’ (i.e., twenty digits) is

another uninflected noun. While there are no indigenous
numbers for 11 through 19, when talking about ‘all’, the speaker
will bend over and, spreading the hands, superimpose the fingers
over the toes, saying, katote fїgape, ‘all of the digits’

4.2.2 Possessable nouns

These include: 1. cardinal numbers; 2. nominal time words; 3.

geographical settings; 4. words for body parts (with a subcategory of
body parts possessed only by non-living things; 5. taste and smell
lexemes; 6.ordinal numbers.

4.2.2.2. Nominal time words

In addition to the nominal words discussed in this section, Kalapalo time

words include certain kinds of verbs and adverbs. These three sets are
distinguished grammatically. Nominal time words referencing
seasonality are usually possessed (though they do not have to be) and
may host the metonymic taxis clitic =lefa. While seasonal words may
often be unpossessed when terminology is elicited, more often they are
used by speakers with possessive nominalization, and completive aspect
or potential irrealis verbal suffixes, suggesting that experiencing of a
time of day is often more important than simple naming of the event
itself. Adverbial time words complement either copular roots in verbal
inflection or intransitive verbs; these are discussed in the section on
adverbial time words in Chapter 11. Words for times of year,
 93

referencing the behavior of astral phenomena, and some words for the
times of day, are verbs. These are listed in Chapter 6: 7.1-2 The
possessed time words include:

a. isoa: the dry season, isoatu, ‘dry’; sisoanїgї: ‘3ps dry season’;
sisoanїɳgo’ 3pp dry season’
b. tuwakunatu, ‘raining’; tuwakunatuko: their rainy season
c. ɳune: moon; aifa, tilako ɳunegї : after three (of 3p) months

Time words that are not possessed include ten words for time of day that
function as nouns. They usually complement a copular verb or
intransitive verb construction. Many are seen with the adverbial adjunct
ekugu, ‘fully’, ‘completely’. As in (d), this adjunct may be shortened to
ku.

a. mitote, ‘time of crepuscular light’; mitote ekugu, ‘very early,

just before dawn’

mitote i-ña its-aiŋa i-ñïŋgo.

Before.dawn 3-DAT/BEN 3-LOC EX-TR;PL
‘Before dawn, they came to be together with her.’

b. iŋila, ‘early, before or at dawn’. When nominalized as iŋila-ŋo,

‘right at the beginning’, the term is used for ‘dawn people’, the
‘ancients’.

u:m u-ño its-i-ŋa u-ño its-i-ŋa

EXP 2-husband EX-EP-SN 2-husband EX-EP-NA

iɳila-ɳo ki-lï.
beginning-PREC utter-PI
‘“He could be my husband,” she thought, “he could be my
husband,” that person from the beginning just then spoke.’

c. egoti, ‘daytime’

eteh, egoti=lefa ku-ñїgї. egoti.

nice, daytime=MT 1+2-EX-TR. daytime
‘Nice, daytime came into being for us. Daytime.’

d. kohotsi, ‘late afternoon’

kohotsi-ku naka-ŋa tufafuɳugu bruh, bruh,

late.afternoon-INT bathe-NA corvina (sound of fish)

tuwa-ka-ga kambïgape-ge.
water-to-down Kambїgape-still
‘Very late in the afternoon, the bathing corvinas (go) bruh,
bruh, down in the water at Kambїgape.’

e. koko, ‘nighttime, darkness’; koko ekugu, ‘middle of the night’

94

lepene kind-oto ŋapisu-kuegï fuseu-ki-ñe

afterwards wrestle-expert ŋapisu-other black-ADV-EXN

koko tu-te-Ø-ko te-lï-ko=lefa.

night REF-come.to-TH-PL go.away-PI=MT
‘Afterwards the wrestling experts, the other kind of ŋapisuï, the
black ones, came (joined them) at night, and they left together.’

f. ande, ‘today, now’

ande figei tis-ete-lu-ko-iɳo-la

today ADEM 1+3-go.away-PI-PL-POT-NEG
‘We’re not leaving today.’ (‘It’s not today we’re leaving.’)

g. okogetsi: tomorrow

okogetsi figei Taugi faGi-to-gu

tomorrow ADEM Taugi ceremony-ATN-POSS

eti-mbe-lu-iŋo
arrive-VI-PI-POT
‘It will be tomorrow when Taugi’s ceremonial guests
should be arriving.’

h. amiŋa, ‘the day after tomorrow’. This might be a

nominalization of the adverb ami, ‘another one’.

okogetsi, et-tsugo-pe-nïgï.
tomorrow MV-encircle-VI-PS
‘The next day, they are going all around the field’.

amiŋa, ñalï.
day.after, nothing.
‘And the day after, nothing.’

The following two nouns appear to have the same root.

i. a:hmiŋa, ‘even later on’

j. imiŋa, ‘day before yesterday’

4.2.2.2 Words for geographic settings.

Another set of nouns that may be possessed are terms for geographic
settings and the constructed human environment. The most common ones
include:

faŋguiŋa: river
netune: sand bank
tuwa: watery environment
ipa: lake
 95

itsu: creek
itsuni: forest
fagu: ox-bow lake
tefu: rock face (cliff)
kuiganda: place with manioc growing
tuwaka: place where water is held (i.e, bathing place)

fugombo: plaza, settlement center

etu: settlement (ring of houses)
kuakutu: men’s house

4.2.2.3 Words for body parts.

These are inherently possessed terms. There is a set for human beings
(kuge) and another that includes body parts possessed by non-human
animate beings (ago).

1.Human body parts.

Names for human body parts were always given to me with the speaker
referencing his or her own body, or where there are gender differences,
pointing to the body of another person as reference. Some of these, e.g.,
for head, hand, leg, foot, can be used with non-human beings where
appropriate, and there is a separate set for body parts distinctive to non-
human beings. The following list includes different person prefixes on
the possessed nominal as they were given me by several Kalapalo men
and women as we sat outside a house in Aifa talking about this subject. .

uikuŋu, ‘my arm’

uiñatïgï, ‘my hand’
uoto, ‘my right hand’
ufeigï, ‘my left hand’
uatambotïgï, ‘my shoulder’
utiŋagu, ‘my elbow’
uigipaŋagï, ‘my knee’
uegipogugu, ‘my elbow’
ufutisï, ‘my lower leg’
ufodyitë, ‘my shinbone’
ufidyu, ‘ my skin’
utapïgï, ‘my foot’; itsapïgï, ‘their feet’
uŋakafïgï, ‘my bangs’, ‘woman’s hair fringe’)
afaŋapagï, ‘your earlobe’
ifaŋagï, ‘the ear’
efugu, ‘your buttocks’
Gitïgï, ‘your head’
ufitë, ‘my thigh’
uinatagï, ‘my nose’; tisuge sinatagï,’ our (excl) noses’,
inatagïko ‘ their noses’
undagï, ‘my mouth’ ; katote kundagï, ‘everyone’s mouths’;
inzagї, ‘3p’s mouth’
uŋugu, ‘my tongue’
96

utikutagï, ‘my ankle bone’

añatïgï, ‘your breast(s)’
iñugu, ‘the eye’
ifuŋu, ‘the back of the neck’
igï, ‘the tooth’
isigï ogupe, ‘his gums’
fuGitïgï, ‘heart beat’
tilo(pe), ‘liver/heart’; silïpe, ‘3p liver/heart’
ikafugu, ‘man’s hair’
ndïtï, ‘woman’s hair’
uiñombigï, ‘my nail’
tefugu, ‘stomach’; tsefugu, ‘that one’s stomach’
tsefïgïafo, ‘that’s one’s intestines’
itsugo, ‘3p’s skin’
uitsugï, ‘my bone’
ifïgi, ‘his, the penis’
uiñutitї, ‘my scrotum’
igïgï, ‘vaginal orifice’
iñakïgï, ‘the (her) vulval outsides’

2. Body parts possessed by animate non-human beings, ago

ñombigï, ‘its claw’

afegï, ‘its wing’
eu, ‘the fish tail’
igokogu, ‘the animal or bird tail’
isatïgï, ‘its body fat’
isikïgï, ‘its horn’
ifidyu, ‘its shell’
idyatїgї, ‘it’s claw’ (on a fish fin)

3. Plant parts (inherently possessed).

These words do not always show a possessive suffix. The generic
Kalapalo term for ‘plant’ is i.

itagu, ‘leaf’
agu, ‘seed’
iñuŋu, ‘tuber’, ‘rhyzome’
itsї, ‘root’
itsїpitsї, ‘small root’
ipufi , ‘bark’, ‘covering’
fїgi, ‘spine’
apatagї, ‘fork’ (armpit)
ifї, ‘trunk’ (‘body’)
ikuɳu,’ branch’(‘arm’)
natagu, ‘stem of fruit’
ifisї, ‘fruit’
añuku, ‘the little one’, i.e. a small fruit growing from the body of
a larger one
 97

4.2.2.4 Ordinal numbers

Kalapalo ordinals are used not only to reference abstract “first, second,
third, etc.” but also birth order. These are inflected forms (except first
and second which are clearly adverbials, “the first, the following”).
Other are possessives formed from the root of a cardinal number prefixed
by the ise(a)- 3rd person prefix (see 12.2.1.a). The root is followed by the
‘precise’, immediate’ suffix, then the possessive suffix, then an optional
final copula. As these are nominalizations, they will act like regular
nouns with a copula and metonymic taxis clitic. I have included in this
list words used to reference the fingers on a person’s hand or to specify a
‘last-born’ sibling, which are different from the abstract cardinals listed
in section 4.2.1.5.

ifotugui, ‘the first one’

isiŋi, ‘the second’ (i.e., ‘the one following’)
ise-tila-ŋogo-i, ‘the third’ (‘served as his third one’)
is-atakegeni-ŋogu-i, ‘the fourth’

is-atakege-ni-ŋo-gu-i=lefa
3-four-PL-LOC-POSS-CL=MT
‘and (so) on their fourth (day’) (i.e., after they sleep four days)

isa-ñatui-ŋogu-i, ‘the fifth’

is-agetsi-ɳuetofo, ‘the sixth’
tohoŋo ŋuGwetofoi, ‘the seventh’ (‘another added to’)
igifïkïgï ŋuGwetofoi, ‘the eighth’ (i.e., ‘the middle added to’)
isa-tatakegeni- ŋogoi, ‘the ninth one’
ise-timofo-ŋo-gu, ‘the tenth one’
a-ku-pï-te-pïgï-ko, ‘the one who came after all of you’

4.2.3 Kinship nouns

Kinship nouns are a closed subset of nouns that always refer to human
relationships, even though the entities in question may have names of
non-human beings. This subset of nouns has distinctive properties. The
use of kinship nouns is governed by a civility register (Basso 2007), one
of the main distinctive features of interpersonal relationships in the Alto
Xingu. Kinship terms fall into two general pragmatically defined
categories: those used vocatively and those used referentially. With
close relatives and very small children, vocative terms are often used
referentially as well. Full semantic details of Kalapalo kinship
classification and terminology are found in Basso 1970, 1973.
Kinship nouns have special grammatical features. They form
plurals in several distinctive ways not seen with other nouns or verbs.
Kinship nouns exhibit a number of examples of suppletion, particularly
the words in second person which also tend to show ablaut (see Chapter
2). Also, there are clear differences between vocative words and those
used in reference. Vocative kinship terms cannot be possessed, whereas
 98

referential terms may indicate possession. Finally, only kinship nouns

use endearment suffixes.

4.2.3.1 Endearment suffixes

There is a set of endearment suffixes (END) used only with kinship terms
referencing particularly close relationships; these specific terms may be
used either as vocatives or in reference by the relative speaking. Other
than body part terms, and one kinship term, these are the only morphemes
that mark gender differences.

1. -ñu is used for speaking to or about one’s mother and speaking to or

about a very young child. The ‘youngest child’ word has an inherent
endearment suffix; there is no form *u. The terms using this
endearment suffix are: u-ñu: my dear youngest child; a-ñu, ‘our
dear youngest child’; ama-ñu, ‘dear mother of mine’.

2. -dyu/ dyï is generally used with male relationship terms, but there is
an exception for the term ‘ĩ-dyu’ ‘dear little daughter’. Words using
this suffix include: awa-dyu: dear uncle of mine; apa-dyu: my dear
father; i-dyu: ‘my dear little daughter’.

a. ta-tsï egei awa-dyu-ko-iñalï

CONT-M DEM uncle-END-PL-EX-MAL
‘Those are not really my dear uncles.’

3. -dyo: This endearment suffix is found only on the vocative for

grandmother, oko-dyo. It appears as an example of u→o ablaut, or it
may be a case of assimilation.

Table 13 shows the referential Kalapalo kinship terms used for

various classes of kinsmen and the special terminology for relatives by
marriage (affines). The glosses given for these terms are approximate as
the identification of various relatives is based upon a classificatory rather
than strictly genealogical system. The suppletive forms used as
vocatives are listed in Table 18.
Four special terms are used to mark affinal relationships. They
are normally used to reference a third party’s relative, as it is somewhat
embarrassing to use them in reference to one’s own relations. These are
generationally distinguished; some terms are used for cross-generational
relatives. The words are usually not used in direct reference to an
individual person unless to specify the relationship to an outsider. With
direct reference, teknonyms such as ‘mother (father) of our child’ are
used; these are not included in the table.
Kalapalo preference is to use kinship terms instead of personal
names, in keeping with the civility register but also due to a strong
preference not to use a personal name openly. There is a strong name
avoidance rule for more (but not all) of these relatives; a name may be
openly used to assert there is no relationship between the speaker and
referent, as with situations involving witchcraft accusations. Names of
 99

the dead are also avoided unless they have been passed on to people of
the grandchild generation.
100

Table 13. Referential kinship and affinal terminology

3rd person 3rd person 3rd person 2nd person

singular singular plural singular
possessive possessive possessive possessive

singular plural singular

Grand-
parental
generation
isaupuau
M: isaupïgï isaupuau isaupïgïko eŋaupïgï

F: initsu initsau initsuko enitsu

Parental
generation
oto
Affinal ifotisofo ufotisofo
All terms M: isűwĩ : isűwĩ isűwĩko, owï
with plural ‘father’ ; ‘their father’
relatives father’s
are suffixed brother’
with –ko.
M: idyogu, idyogu awa
‘uncle’,
‘mother’s
brother’
F: isi: isi isiko, ‘their ata, atako,
‘mother’, mother’ ’your
‘mother’s mother’
sister’
F: itsu: itsu itsuko etsi
‘aunt’
(father’s
sister)
Own
generation

ifisuandau M: ifisuagĩ: ifisuandau

‘brother’

efiñano: efiñafono efiñanoko

older
brother;
plural:
efisu: efisau efisuko,’thei
younger r younger
brother brother’
ifandau F: iñandsu, iñandsuko
‘sister’
ikene:
younger
sister
 101

Affinal itsahene
(male
relative of a
woman)
ifametigї ifametidyau ifametigїko efametigї
Children’s
generation:
limo
Affinal ifotisofo ufotisofo
own limo idyimo
children
limo
M: mukugu

F: ndisĩ

sibling’s M: ifatuwĩ
children: no
distinctive
cover term;
affinal use
F: ifati

4.2.3.2 Suppletive kinship words

Many vocative kinship words are suppletive. Most are first person but
there is a second person suppletive term for ‘mother’ as well. Table 14
shows the suppletive kinship nouns. Vocative terms are also used for
first person reference. They are shown in in the table with their
associated endearment suffixes. Referential terms are given in third
person.

Table 14. Suppletive kinship words

Referential Translation Vocative Translation

initsu grandmother okodyo ‘dear granny’
isaupїgї grandfather apiči ‘grandpa’
isũwї father apadyu ‘dear dad’
isi mother amañu ‘mom’
ata your mother
idyogu uncle awa ‘uncle’
itsu aunt etsi ‘aunt’
efiñano older brother dyadya ‘older brother’
efisu younger brother ipї ‘younger
102

brother’
ifasu older sister dyadya ‘older sister’

aunt’s male child pamї ‘my cousin’

(male speaking)
ikene younger sister idyu ‘younger sister’
limo child uñu ‘my youngest
child’
child añu ‘our youngest
child’

4.2.4. Material possessions

These are inherently possessed, but marking of possession is often

pragmatically related to a need for emphasizing the possessor. There is
no plurality. The following is a short list of manufactured items. As the
possession inflections illustrate, there is some variation is how this can
be constructed. Pets are also always possessed. Some ritual objects are
inherently non-possessible; these are marked with an asterisk.

atau, ‘women’s carrying basket’, ataugu, ‘your carrying basket’

fiŋi, ‘body scraper’, efiŋigï, ‘your scraper’
kuluta, ‘flute’, kulutagï, ‘his flute’
*kagutu: large trumpet hidden from women
tige, ‘hammock’ (inherently possessed)
utologu, ‘my pet’ (this noun is also used for an adopted child)
tafakugu, ‘hardwood bow’
fїgey, ‘arrow’
efu, ‘canoe’

4.2.5 Taste and smell lexemes

Kalapalo identify seven indigenous categories referencing smell and

taste. These are a mixed group, the first five being possessed nominals,
other adverbials, yet another often nominalized but without a clearly
transparent stem. They may be further (or, re-) nominalized with the
experiencer –iñe nominalizer (EXN).

a. tatitsu, ‘sweet’
b. pïɳegї, ‘pungent’ (in a dangerous, poisonous way)
c. sikegї, ‘pleasant’, ‘fragrant’
d. uegï, ‘fishy’, including breast milk, seminal substance
e. fitseɳegї, ‘sour’
f. isini, ‘painful’, ‘spicy’. The root isi- is usually nominalized ( as
here, with the –ni active agent nominalization (AN).
g. tatsiɳi, ‘bitter’. The root of this morpheme is inflected with the
negative nominalizer suffix (NN)
 103

In addition the Portuguese word salgado, ‘salty’ was used frequently,

especially in later years.
104

4.3 Morphological Properties of Nouns

4.3.1 Position of the morphological structures in the nominal word

According to the nature of their specific syntactic functions, Kalapalo

noun phrases may have any number of constituent elements. Therefore,
some nominal elements are mutually exclusive, others may co-occur. Yet
others are strictly required according to the syntactic role of the nominal,
while others are optional and may be considered related to semantic
rather than syntactic function. The following diagram summarizes the
noun structure of the Kalapalo noun, illustrating the position and general
order of types of nominal elements in the nominal word. Those in the
two large brackets (numbers 3-6; 7-11) do not normally co-occur. The
term “and” means co-occurrence is allowed. The term “or” means the
constituent may not co-occur with the immediately following constituent.
For example, a possessed noun must include a pronominal prefix + root+
radical, either an endearment suffix or a possessive, not both. Number is
allowed and a case or copula inflection will be required according to the
syntactic function of the possessed NP. Discussion follows the diagram.

1 contrastive
prefix ta- (or)
2 pronominal
prefix u-, e-, a-, Ø-, ku- or tsi- (or)
3 reflexive prefix t-
4 root (and)
5 radical
6 valence
increasing
suffix ɳa,–ga, ka-, Gi-, te-
7 non-aspectual
nominalizer suffix (see Table 17)
8 aspectual suffix -ta, -ga; -lї, -dyї; -ehe (or)
9 endearment suffix –dyu, -ñu (or)
10 possessive suffix –gї (or)
11 facsimile suffix -me
12 salient copula suffix –pe (and)
13 plurality suffix –ko, -ni (or)
13 class inclusion copula (-i), unique (-a), or negative (-la) suffix
 105

14 case marker –feke, iña, -ki, ake, -pe, or a locative oblique morpheme(or)
15 modifier suffix -tsї
16 primary topical
participant suffix -fa

Diagram 1. Order of constituents in nominal words

The following are examples of nominal grammatical words (bracketed)
showing the positions numbered above. Glossing is shown in the third
line, translation in the final line.
a. The grammatical word is a renominalization of a nominalized
verb. These structural positions and their related morphological
functions are discussed in the remainder of the chapter.
Afiñuka, [i-pondo-te-pïgï-pe]
(name) [2-4-5-8-14-15]
Afiñuka, [3-covering-VT-VPE-ESS] bird gather-at-RES
‘Afiñuka, his (face) was concealed where all the birds came
together.’

b. An example showing two relative nominals. The second is a

deverablized clause that has been nominalized with an aspectual
suffix. The middle voiced verb is a noun incorporating
construction, thus there are two elements in position 4, the
incorporated noun root iñoti-, ‘cord’ and the semantic root ke,
‘cut’.
[is-ataɳa-gї-pe] [et-iñoti-ke-nїgї]
3-4-10-15 MV-4-4-8
3-long.flute-POSS-ESS MV-cord-cut-PS
‘Once his long.flutes cords have snapped.’

4.3.2. The contrastive prefix ta- (CONT)

a. The stative verb is nominalized, thus being made into an
attributive:

ta-tu-Gi-ñe oĩz-a-tïfïgï
CONT-firm-cause-N tie.down-EQA-IMP
‘not (someone) whose body was firmly tied down’

b. In this example CONT appears before the modifier, thereby

referencing a NP in an immediately preceding
conversational turn.
afïtï. ta-tsï egei-a awa-dyu-ko iñalï
denial. CONT-M IDEM-U uncle-END-PL negation.
‘You’re wrong. Those aren’t my uncles’
106

4.3.3 Absolutive person marking

The absolutive person marking prefix references the possessor

status of possessed nominals together with the possessive suffix.
Where there is no full lexical NP possessor, this prefix is required with
the possessive suffix on the possessed NP. Possession is both a
syntactic function in Kalapalo and an inherent semantic quality of
some nouns as described in 5.2.2. Possession has both
complementation and inflection functions.

4.3.4 The reflexive prefix

The reflexive pronominal prefix is (required with de-adverbialized

nominalizations; it is optional as anaphoric reference. The person
marking prefix and the reflexive do not co-occur.
As noted in Chapter 4, the Kalapalo reflexive prefix t(ї) -
has several functions. The first is to anaphorically co-reference the
noun on which it is prefixed (a). Second, the reflexive is used in non-
finite thetic constructions (b). Third, it occurs with some
adverbializations (c).

a. tї-mu-gu
REF-son-POSS
‘his own son’

b. te-tufu-ti kaah uege.

REF-know-TH FRUST you
‘It’s been known about you.’

c. Adverbialization of a noun:
tї-mї-fisu-Gi
REF-face-red-ADV

4.3.5 Stem constituents

As described in Chapter 4, stems consist of a root (position 4), a

semantic feature that may be a noun itself as in (f), and a radical
(position 5). The radical is a syntactic feature often associated with
different verbal valences. Some also have semantic features, being used
with certain semantic types of verbs or nouns. For convenience, an
example is repeated from Chapter 4, 4.3.4.6.b. Stem elements are
in boldface.

a. i-fo-tsi-lï i-feke
3-pierce-VT-PI 3-ERG
‘He pierced it.’
 107

4.3.6 Valence increasing suffixes

These include various kinds of causatives and a permissive. They are

suffixed to the stem and include several causatives as discussed in
Chapter 6: Verbs. Only one may occur at a time. An example of a
causative (-ga) suffixed to a verb stem is given below:

a. Akwakaŋa nduku-gu u-ke-ŋi-ŋï

Akwakaŋa gourd.container-POSS 1 >3-fill-VT-I

te-ga-ni
go.away-CAUS- ANT
‘I intend to be the person who will fill Akwakaŋa’s container.’

4.3.7 Non-aspectual nominalizer suffixes

As discussed in the section on derivational processes, there are seventeen
non-aspectual nominalizer suffixes some referencing the type of verbal
argument (experiencer, active agent) and others having semantic
references (for example benefactive, devalued, immediate). These are
listed in Table 17. An example of a noun with the augmentative suffix –
kuegї follows.

a. itau-kuegї ipa-gu felei.

woman-AUG lake-POSS ADEM
‘That’s the Monstrous Women’s lake’.

4.3.8 Aspectual nominalizer suffixes

Nine nominalizer morphemes have aspectual meanings. Some of these

appear as derivational suffixes in deverbal nominalizations, others as
renominalizations of simple underived or possessed nouns. Two are
negative morphemes. Kalapalo nominal aspect morphemes may be
sorted into different kinds of perfectives and imperfectives referencing
the nature of an eventuality or end of a situation, but differ
morphologically and semantically from verbal aspect/mood suffixes.
Some combinations of 7 and 8 are attested as shown in the examples in
Table 18 below and the discussion of renominalizations in 4.4.3.3 An
example of the imperfective de-verbal nominalizer (IMP) follows:

a. lepene ndi-ga-tїfїgї
afterwards drop-downward-IMP
‘Following that it was dropping down’
(lit.,’it was a drop down-er’)
108

4.3.9 Endearment suffixes

As discussed in 5.2.3.1, endearment suffixes are used only with kin terms
and are not optional with some kinship words. There is only one
inflectional possibility as the suffix cannot co-occur with a possessive
suffix. An example is: awa-dyu, ‘my dear uncle’

4.3.10 Possessive suffixes

There are several allomorphs of the Kalapalo possessive suffix, which
always appears on the possessed noun. Possession is a dependent
marking feature of Kalapalo. Possessable nouns take the possessor
personal prefix and the possessive suffix –gï or its allomorphs when
possessed. From a semantic perspective, the term “possession” actually
subsumes a number of separate features. These follow from an initial
contrast between ‘not possessable’and ‘possessable.’ Possessable nouns
can be classed semantically according to inherent versus optional
possession, and alienable versus inalienable possession. Semantic
features that follow from ‘not possessable’ include several partitives:
temporal, reciprocal, paucal, countable, augmentative, and diminutive.
The general contrast between possessable and non-possessable nouns is
a contextually or pragmatically varying feature for some sub-classes of
nouns as it influences grammatical function, and there are a number of
inflectional processes involved. The features in question and associated
sub-classes of nouns are shown in Table 15.

Table 15. Possessablity features of underived nominal types

non-possessible types Alienability? Animacy
nouns hierarchy
Countables birth order lexemes no human
Sizeables proper names (can yes non-human
be used as personal animate;
names): diminuative is
1. augmentative, allowed on
2. diminuative human nouns

contextually
possessible
inherently kinship lexemes no human
possessible
body parts inanimate
a. alienable limbs, hair, yes
fingernails, head,
embryo
b. inalienable eyes, stomach no animate
manufactured baskets, bows, yes inanimate
items carrying ring,
handled items water, firewood yes inanimate
 109

Possessive suffixes include:

a. Associative, alienable: -gï/-gu

tsa-faku-gu, ‘their bows’

i-ta-gu, ‘its leaf’ (inherently possessed noun);
i-tolo-gu, ‘pet, lover, younger person raised (adopted)’
afe‐gï, ‘the wing’
kafoko-gu, ‘toucan feather headdress’
ŋinïgï, ‘his gift’ (thing given; from a detransitivized verb)

b. Inalienable: tï/sï (u) /tsï/tsu:

i-fitsï, ‘his wife’

kafoko embufitsu, ‘toucan’s pubic hair’
ifisï, ‘tree’s fruit’
ititï ‘(her/his /its) name’
tï-tafi-su
REFL-processing.mat-POSS
‘her own processing mat’

4.3.11. The facsimile suffix, -me

This morpheme expresses the idea that the noun in question is not full, or
in essence a member of a particular class (‘ kind of’, ‘sort of like’)
(FACS). It is very similar in meaning to what Carlin (2004: 123) calls
the Trio language “facsimile”; I adopt her term here. The facsimile suffix
occurs on nouns as well as in adverbials (j,m).

j. uwa-m ≈ e-itsa. eta-Gi-ñu-mbe≈gei.

Q-EM ≈2-EX, speech-VI-N-SS ≈IDEM.
afïtï. iñalu-me tsa-l≈i-feke-ne.
denial.negation-FACS hear-PI ≈3-ERG-PL

tolo eta-gi-ñu, iñalu

bird speech-VI-N, NEG
‘What’s with you?” about the speech. They weren’t able to
understand anything. Of the bird’s speech, nothing.’

k. lepene indi-ga-tїfїgї
afterwards drop-downwards-IMP
ule-me tsu-lu=fata i- feke pick.up-
AFR-FACS gather-PI=SIM 3-ERG
‘Later on while it was falling down someone who appeared
to be that person I was talking about gathered it up. ‘ (i.e.,
the main character is in disguise)

l. atutu-me=maki, afatuwĩ-i
110

good-FACS=EM, 2-brother’s child-CL

‘After all it looks as if your nephew is a good person.’

m. ta-me-ma kuluta atati tu-i-ŋalï i-feke

CONT-FACS-EM flute inside REFL-put-REV 3-ERG
‘How could he possibly put (them) back inside the flute?’

4.3.12. The ‘salient’ suffix, –pe

The salient suffix -pe is a multifunctional element, with both semantic

and syntactic functions. It can reference a portion of a partitive noun
(e.g., one of a group of wives, a fruit segment). But it (or its homophone)
also functions as the essive ‘stative’ nominalizer (see Position 15). often
followed by a plurality marker. Finally, -pe marks the argument of a
extended intransitive subordinate clause.

The salient copula suffix appears often on proper nouns, marking the
salient part or segment of head NP
:

a. Kalapalo itaugu-pe, ‘a Kalapalo woman’;

agu-pe, ‘one of its seeds’;
alu-pe, ‘one of its segments’ (of a fruit for example);
etu-pe, ‘one of the settlements’;
kaŋikigo-pe, ‘some of the group of fishermen’;
ifitsu-pe, ‘one of his wives’;
masope: woman in seclusion after first menstruation (cf. imatso:
menstruating; from root ma- “change of state”)

The salient suffix also occurs on pronominal demonstratives as, ege-pe:

one of these (proximate). The following is an imperative example, where
the pronominal demonstrative hosts the ‘partitive’ copula suffix –pe.
(Same example 6.1.1.2.f)

b. ege-pe ake-tsa-ŋe tuŋ-Gwe.

PDEM-SAL SD-DEO give-I
‘I want you to give one of these’.

c. The salient suffix inflected on the anaphoric pronominal

demonstrative:

uŋele-pe, ‘one of those’ (anaphoric)

4.3.13. The suffix –fe

The meaning of this suffix is uncertain, and there are very few examples
of its usage.
 111

a. ama nïg≈i-feke. ande-ŋu a-fatuwï-feke

Mother say.to-PS≈3-ERG here.now-tiny 2-nephew-ERG

kwigi-fe ŋi-tïfïgï,
manioc-some? - send-IMP
‘Mother’, she said to her. ‘Here’s a tiny bit of manioc your
nephew has been sending.’

4.3.14. Plurality suffixes

There are various types of plurals; including a number of suppletive

plurals. All plural suffixes have human reference. Generally, plurality
of both nominal and verbal arguments is expressed on the stem as a
suffix, of which there are seven different morphological types,
some allomorphs. The verbal ‘prospective imperfective aspect’
also has a special plurality suffix: singular: -iŋgo; plural: -iŋgoiŋo.
However, there are special markers of plural number on nouns, as
described below.

1. -au plural suffix on human category and kin terms (PL) (itau,
ifandau,fuandau, anetau, etc.). Some kinship terms in the plural have
special changes from singular:

ifau →ifandau
ifitsu → ifitsau

2. -fo, (PL). There are a few words with this plural suffix, referencing a
small group of people related to the kinsperson whose kin word is
suffixed in this way: ukwoto-fo, ‘our (dual) older relative’; -fono
seems to be used when the head noun is plural, as efiña-fo-no.

3. –ko generalized absolutive plural (PL). This suffix is used with verbs
and is a simple plural with possessed nouns.

o. t-iŋ-iŋ-i-ko
REF-look-VI-IRR-PL
They looked behind (themselves).

p. afїtї-ku-dya ake-tsaɳe kukuge-ko-la

denial-INT-DE SD- DEO-EX-I we (1+2)-PL-NEG
‘No, we really don’t want to do that.’

4. –mo, scattered collectivity (COLL) . This suffix references plural

persons who are spread out, not clustered together:

oto-mo: “owners” of a settlement, members of a leader’s clique

followers of a settlement leader)
ukw-o-tofo-ko-mo: dual-parent-USIN-PL-COLL “those who
serve as our elders” (different kind of kin nominalization than
112

those ending in –ine) (with possessive and plural S ko); affinal

civility register: husband to wife

uikenamo: my younger sisters (those like me)

uiŋadyamo: “My grandchildren” (term of address to people
standing around, not all clustered together)

iñomo-pe itsïgï-pe t-eŋe-ga-to-fa

husband-PL-SAL bone-POSS-SAL REF-eat.flesh-CI-PL-PTP

isuwi-feke, ekege-feke
father-ERG, jaguar-ERG
‘Some bones of those husbands of hers that her father the jaguar
ate one by one.’

5. - to, reciprocal (RECIP). Most of these words reference plural persons

whose actions involve some form of actual or expected reciprocity.

fagi-to: guests at ceremony

endupesi-to: stragglers (people to be watched out for)
aŋgeki-to: those who go for the playing (and who will play as
well)
kuge-to-pe: a pair of people
ato-pe: some friends
u-ok-iɳ-Gi-to: some who make my drink
i-mї-to-ŋo: ‘enemy’ (lit, ‘located immediately face to face’)
e-itseke-to-ɳo: ‘your precise power’

ke-fa-to fe-sta-ɳe ukwi-ta=tina wãke

PREV-tell-RECIP DEO-EX-I 1>2PL-utter-CI=EM EM

e-feke-ni
2-ERG-PL
‘Didn’t I tell you before not to say anything?’

Included in this list is the idiom taloki-to: ‘worthless’, from the

adverb taloki, ‘no reason’:

taloki-to=mbale Taugi itseke-tu-iñe

wothless-RECIP=CAT Taugi power-ATN-AN
‘As a consequence, Taugi’s supernatural power is worthless’.

-to on other nominals with non-transparent roots may host a syllable

reductive ‘ usuative ominalizer’ (-tofo, USIN) suffix). Some examples
are, alato, ‘clay pan’; ato, ‘friend’ ; oto, owner, expert

6. -go: paucal (few), with u- first person prefix –go references

‘reciprocal action’.(PAU) This suffix also occurs with the root fugo-,
center (e).

a. tu-ugo-go
 113

REF-1-grill-PAU
my grills;

b. tu-fe-ku-go-ki
REF-shoot-intensive-PAU-INST
‘With his pair of unhealed wounds’, (that is, the entry and exit
points of an arrow).

c. ukwitambo-go: we embrace each other.

d. itau-go-pïŋï: women-PAU-deficient, ‘a few deficient

women’

e. fugo-go: those who stay in the center

7. -goko: paucal plural

igoko; ‘some collections of feathers’

iñangoko: ‘ some of their liquid food’
isogoko: maned wolf (or, ‘wolves’)
(Note: this lexeme can not be made singular)
ŋafingoko: some householders (residents of other houses)

a. A paucal plural hosting a purposive suffix:

ku-nz-ama-ki-go-k ≈omi. tefu-kaiŋa.

1+2-OB-fall-CAUS-PAU-PL ≈PURP, rock-on.at
‘So we can drop them all down where there’s a rock ’
.

4.3.15 The class inclusion copula (-i), unique (-a), and negative (-la)
suffixes

These must always appear in grammatical word final position. Only one
of these suffixes occurs at a time (with one exception as in 5.3.14.3 when
they all occur together).

4.3.15.1 The class inclusion copula, –i

The class inclusion copula suffix –i (CL) has both copular and irrealis
functions. Here I present a few examples, with more discussion of
copularity in general in Chapter 9.

a. In this example, the copula suffix appears on a complement that

is a proper noun, which hosts two interclausal reference marking
clitics. The complement subject is a third person S (zero marked
on the verb, ‘go away’).

kaɳa-i=mbele=mbale ete-lї
fish-CL=CU=CAT go.away-PI
‘Finally in the end he went away as a fish.’
114

4.3.15.2 The ‘unique’ or ‘special’ suffix, -a

The ‘unique’ or ‘special’ suffix, -a ( U) marks distinction of the

predicate on adverbs, nouns, and complement words. This
morpheme has an emphatic semantic quality, as in English “just”
or “only”).

a. Here, the uniqueness of the result of a series of events is indexed

by the –a suffix appearing on the resultative lexical
complement of a larger construction. The adverbial is
nominalized and serves as adjunct to the main verb clause

aŋi-a u-limo-dyo-gu e-nda-ni aŋikogo-feke

result-U 1-child-uncle-POSS attack-CI-ANT fierce people-
ERG
‘The very result is that the fierce people are about to attack our
child’s uncle’.

b. Appearing on a locative adverb, referencing the (unique) quality

of the sun’s movement across the sky, with a sweeping arm
gesture illustrating that trajectory.

inde-a Giti at-ani

here-U sun EQA-ANT
‘The sun was moving right over here.’

4.3.15.3 The ‘negation’ suffix, -la

The ‘negation’ suffix -la (NEG) marks the noun as negated. It is

possible for it to follow the –a “unique” suffix. –la often appears as a
negative suffix on adjectives and verbs and is also the final element in
the “denial” adverbial circumfix afïtï V+la and the negative
adverbialization suffix -kila. There are also several different negative
predication suffixes that occur on nouns and some adverbials: -fiŋï
(‘unlike’); -mbïŋï (‘former, no longer’).

a. The negative suffix on the adjective ‘good’:

atutu-la-ki i-tsa igei

good.thing-NEG-MIR EX-CI IDEM
‘Unexpectedly bad, this situation. ‘

b. The negative suffix on the stative equative ‘be’ root a-inflected

as a nominalization::

afïtï Ø-a-nïgï –la

denial 3-EQS-PS-NEG
‘That wasn’t what it was.’
 115

c. The negative suffix on the unique suffix –a:

ege-a-la e-ki-ta-ti≈feke oko.
PDEM-CL-U-NEG 2-utter-CI-DES≈ERG, grandmother (voc)
‘That wasn’t at all what you wanted to say Grandmother. ‘

4.3.15.4 The pe-i-la construction.

The three suffixes may occur as pe-i-la to mark an essive irrealis on the
verb (Same example 6.1.3.1g)

ah, tї-n≈egei u-figї agi-ɳo-pe-i-la

EXP, RQ-CONT-IDEM 1-Gson like-SN-ESS-IRR-NEG
‘Surely this can’t be someone like my grandson, can it?’

4.3.16 Case suffixes

If a case marker is used, none of the features indicated after the position
of the case marker (other than plurals) is allowed. Kalapalo has nine
case morphemes. There are six syntactic (external structure) cases and
seven semantic or internal structure cases. External structure cases
include: 1) ergative (-feke; -pehe), 2) absolutive (Ø), 3) the syncretic
dative/benefactive (-iña), and 4) instrumental (-ki). All of these
combine strictly syntactic as well as semantic roles. Internal structure
cases are used to mark oblique objects and are in the main locational or
directional deictic categories. These include: 6) comitative, ‘together
with’ (-ake), 7) allative (‘direction towards’), (-na), 8) ablative
(‘direction out, following after, or away from’) (-peŋine), and 9)
‘destination’ (-kaiŋa). Constraints on use of these morphemes concern an
agency hierarchy: powerful beings/human>non-human living things >
inanimates, but also the semantic character of the verbs. Many items that
appear to be inanimate are actually animate beings, powerful beings who
have transformed themselves. (See example 4.3.15.1.d ). In addition,
there is a suffix –pe which marks the thematic (non-subject) argument of
an extended intransitive verb. (4.3.15.8)

4.3.16.1 Ergative, -feke, -pehe(ne)

The ergative case morpheme –feke (-pehe for 1+2 person) may be
suffixed to a noun phrase, or bear a person-marking prefix and
(apparently optional) plural suffix –ne with plural A. The following are
the person-marked forms:

ufeke:1ps ku-pehene: 1+2, inclusive ti-fekene: 1+3, exclusive

efeke: 2ps efekene: 2pp
ifeke: 3ps ifekene: 3pp

The ergative case suffix usually marks A of an active verb. Here the
plurality of the NP is marked in the noun not the ergative suffix.
116

a. e-fameti-dyau-feke kine -Ø i-ki-dyu.

2-Z.in.law-POSS/PL-ERG manioc.bread make.breadVt-PI
‘Your sisters in law are making bread.’

This morpheme can also mark a stimulus in the case of involuntary or

emotional action and change of state verbs (For more discussion, see
Chapter 7: Verbs).

b. ifutisu-ki-tsa-kugu i-feke
shame-INST-EX-fully 3-ERG
‘She had made him thoroughly ashamed.’

c. oĩ-feke u-e-ta
thirst-ERG 1-kill-CI
‘I’m very thirsty’. (‘thirst is killing me’)

The ergative can act with certain intransitive verbs in a valence-

increasing manner, to mark a second argument.

d. In the following example with the intransitive verb atsaku, ‘run

away’ the postposed ergative NP references the appearance of
the runners in another guise than their usual selves. The verb
hosts the reflexive prefix t- to reference the focalized actors in
the preceding clause chains:

lepene aifa. lepene t-atsaku-lu

afterwards ready.done. afterwards REF-run-PI
kanagit-au-feke ñatui
burity.mats-PL-ERG five
‘Following that, they were ready. Then they ran on as burity
mats. Five of them.’
Note: my translator assistant explicity referred to these mats as
‘people’. They were powerful beings who had transformed themselves
to escape fire.

e. In this concessive example, the intransitive ‘utter’ verb ki-

becomes transitivized by the first person plural ergative
construction kupehe (which initially appears with the verb ŋi-,
‘see’in concessive construction).

i-ŋi-gote-fa ku-pehe, sa-fake-fi-tsïgï-ts≈apa

3-see-CONC-PTP 1+2-ERG 3-side-crush-IPE-M≈CONF

e-ta kuge ki-lï kupehe. tits-ilï-fa.

2;go.get people utter-PI 1+2-ERG 1+3-utter-PTP
‘If we see it, “go get ‘his crushed flank’ for that’”, we people
say to each other.’

upe-feke fegei.
upe-ERG ADEM
‘That’s about upe. ‘
 117

4.3.16.2 Absolutive Ø

The lexical patient arguments of ergative constructions do not carry an

explicit case morpheme, as is true for the S argument of intransitive
verbs.

a. Intransitive, S marked Ø (boldface):

fikutafa Ø-te-ta
turtle 3-go.away-CI
‘The turtle goes away.’

b. Transitive ergative, P NP marked Ø (boldface):

isũwї te-ɳe-lї i-feke

3;father eat.flesh-VT-PI 3-ERG
‘He ate his father’.

c. Transitive ergative, P as prefix on the verb stem (boldface). This

occurs because there is no lexical noun or pronoun.

kohotsi u-ondi-ɳalї i-feke

afternoon 1-leave.behind-REP 3-ERG
‘He always leaves me behind in the afternoon’.

4.3.16.3 Dative/benefactive -iña.

This is the only example of Kalapalo case syncretism. When suffixed to

a NP, the latter must reference a human or powerful being. The verbs
concern activity that is directed towards a (human) goal or on behalf of a
person. Where there is no NP, this case marker bears personal prefixes
and when marking plural oblique objects (third arguments of transitive
verbs) is pluralized with the case suffix –ni. (On the ergative and
comitative suffixes this is an A plurality reference). When the case
suffix marks a subordinate plural O ‘goal’ verb clause, the absolutive
plural suffix –ko occurs.

Table 16. Person and plurality marking on the dative/benefactive case

morpheme
1 uiña:
2 eiña
3 singular iña
3 plural iñani
1+2 kukiña, 1+2 (inclusive)
1+3 tis-iña, 1+3 (exclusive)
Plural P, subordinate ‘goal’ VP -ko
Plural oblique NP -ni
118

a. This example shows the use of the dative/benefactive case

marker on a NP used with the extended intransitive body action
verb tsa- “run (after)”. The verb radical –ki has ambitransitive
function.

afïtï-fa itaũ-iña itsa-ki-lu-iŋo-la.

denial-NS woman-DAT/BEN run-Va-PI-POT-NEG
‘He will not run after a woman’.

b. This example shows the speaker’s use of the dative/benefactive

on a NP (in brackets) with a speech act verb in imperative mood.
The dative marker is suffixed to the last constituent in the NP,
the deontic postposition.

[Ukw-oto fe-tsaŋe-iña] i-fa-ke

dual-parent OD-DEO-DAT/BEN 3-tell-I
ukw-oto-iña
dual-parent –DAT/BEN
’Our parent has to be told about it, (to) our parent.’

c. Where the dative/benefactive oblique NP is plural, the accusative

plural –ni is used. Both the following examples have a
benefactive sense:

i. tї-kaɳa-gї-ko ifa-nїgї i-feke-ni

REF-fish-POSS-PL give.to-PS 3-ERG-PL
iña-ni
3;DAT/BEN-PL
‘Theyi gave theiri own fish catch to themj’.

ii. paŋina tu-nїgї iña-ni i-feke

toasted.starch give-PS 3; DAT/BEN-PL 3-ERG
‘She gave them toasted starch. ’

d. The dative/benefactive case also occurs on a subordinate verb

phrase, as a ‘goal’ purposive marker (see also Chapter 13:
Complex Clause Constructions) (Same example as
3.3.2.2.showing the use of two epistemic clitics in succession)

u-ikeu-te-i-la e=mukwe-tifa e-mu-gu

1-be angry with-VT-CL-NEG EP=EM=EM 2-son-POSS
e-ta ei-gï-iña
come.to-CI 3 >1–hit (shake)-POSS-DAT/BEN
“I don’t recall I was angry with your son when he came to shake
me”.

Note: *u-ikilï i-feke: he shat on me ‘shit.on’ in regular transitive

is not allowed

e. akuGisa fe-lu-iña, akuloki-kaiŋa

capyvara shoot-PI-DAT/BEN, (fruit.name)-DEST
 119

ete-lu-ko=lefa
go.away-PI-PL=MT
‘They went to shoot the capyvara by the akuloki tree.’

f. The following is a rare example of the subordinate verb inflected

as a possessed nominal (bracketed), before hosting the
dative/benefactive suffix.

u-ikeu-te-la e=mukwe-tifa e-mu-gu

1-be angry with-VT-NEG 2-EM-EM 2-son-POSS
e-ta [ u-pei-gï-iña]
come.to-CI [ 3 >1–shake-POSS-DAT/BEN]
“I don’t recall I was angry at all when your son came to shake
me (literally, ‘for my shaking’).

g. The following example shows the use of the dative/benefactive

suffixed to a subordinate ‘goal’ verb in punctate indicative
mood/aspect; main verb is in potential mood:

u-t-imi-lu-iña u-enïm-iŋo
1-REFL-revenge-PI-DAT/BEN 1-come-POT
‘I plan to come and avenge myself.

h. This example shows the dative/benefactive case marker on

another subordinate verb in a ‘goal’ purposive construction.

ku-te-ga, kefege-ki tï-i-lu-iña

1+2-go away-VT spell-INST REFL-put on-PI-DAT/BEN
‘We go away to put the spell on it.’

i. Where the dative/benefactive appears on the subordinate clause

and P is plural, the absolutive plural –ko is used on both the verb
and the dative/benefactive.

e-iŋi-lu-ko-iña-ko u-e-ta figei, Ø-nug≈i-feke

2-see-PI-PL-DAT-PL 1-com.to-CI ADEM, 3-say.to-3-ERG
‘I come this way in order to see you all’, 3p said to 3p. ‘

j. The following is a complex clause construction with

thedative/benefactive suffix appearing on both the ‘reason’
complement clause and then on the oblique NP. Note that the
nominal hosting the suffix is a plural noun; thus the case suffix
does not take a plural suffix –ko though it is present on the noun.

Ohsi fetsaŋe eŋu-iña a-liŋu-tu-ete

HORT DEO-EX-I reason-DAT/BEN 2-stir-VT-I

a-ko-iŋo-ko-iña
2-companion-POT-PL-DAT/BEN
120

‘Go ahead we want you to stir it up for you and your

companion.’

k. Here the dative/benefactive marks the theme argument of a verb

complementing ifatiGi, ‘take’ in a non-finite supine ‘purpose of
motion’ construction:

ande-lefa Pañeta ete-ta=lefa i-ŋi-lu-iña

here.now-MT Pañeta go.away-CI=MT 3-see-PI-DAT/BEN
i-fa-tiGi.
3-take-SUP
‘This time Pañeta went to see her to take her away.’

l. The date/benefactive morpheme used on certain postposed

adverbial locatives: (i)la “over there”. Similarly, this case
marker may be a source for adverbials: it is common for the
initial vowel to be dropped:

ogi ña ogi la-iña e-ge-tue.

HORT-DAT HORT over there-DAT come.to-I-URG
‘Come over there, all of you, quickly.’

m. (i)-ñafe: “come.here” (can also be inflected with plural –ni and

with full utterance include tete: “come.in.sight-I”, as in (i)-ñafe
tete, “come over here (towards me).”

4.3.16.4 Instrumental –ki (INST)

This suffix occurs on both animate nouns (but only with certain verbs:
die, marry, have shame, lie to; examples b, c) and inanimate nouns. Note
that there is an homophonic valence-increasing affix –ki, an adverbializer
-ki,and a negative mirative –ki. These are readily distinguishable by the
type of morpheme hosting the suffix. The valence-increasing affix must
follow a verb stem, and is followed by a aspect/mood suffix; the
adverbial suffix appears on a noun stem ; the negative mirative suffix
usually occurs on interrogative phrases word finally and is usually
pronounced with a lengthened vowel for emphasis (–kii), as in uwambe-
kii?.

a. i-tsei-te-Ø i-tsi-pïgï-ki≈ke-tsaŋe
build.fire-I wood-die-VPE-INST≈ SD-DEO
i-gaka-nïm-iŋo e-feke-ne
3-first- CONS- POT 2-ERG-PL
‘I want you to thereby be the first to build a fire from dead wood.
‘

b. s-itau-gu-ki is-ita-ndu-lefa
3-woman-POSS-INST 3-marry-VT-MT
‘He married one of his own women. ‘
 121

c. ŋuŋi-ŋu-fïgï its-a udyimo

lie.to-LT?-VPE EX-CI 1-child.PL
eke-tsefu-fwesu-ki i ts-a
NEG-stomach-bad-INST EX-CI
i-dyi-mo-ki
3-child-PL-INST
‘being lied to with my children who have made me feel
irritated, with the children’

d. a-liŋ-gu-ke-fa ege-ki=dye ≈ ts-a, tu-feŋgiñi-ki.

2-stir-I-PTP PDEM-INST=SE≈EX-CI, REF-ladle-with
‘Stir it with this thing here, with the ladle.’

e. Adverbial referencing manner (as, speaking slowly, calmly)

(clefted construction):

ñalï-ma ege-a e-ki-lï at-ehe atutu-ki u-feke.

negation-EM DEM-U 2-utter-PI EQA-PER slow-ADV 1-ERG
‘This is a gentle way of speaking that you never used with me
before.’

f. tuwa-ki tsufi-dyï-feke fokueu’-feke.

water-INST spash-PI-ERG nightjar-ERG
‘With water, he, Nightjar spashed her.’

g. tu-i-lï i-feke kefege-ki.

put..on-VT-PI 3-ERG spell-INST
‘She put a spell on it.’

h. An example of how the salient copula suffix –pe SAL and –

instrumental -ki (INST) are used together to mark oblique
objects.

nago eti-dyi-pïgï= kaha tis-ifeŋ-ugu-Ga-tiga

that.person offspring-VI-VPE=EM 1+3-steal-PS-CAUS-HAB

ti-ñoŋo-gu-pe tis-etu-pe-ki-tifa
REF-land-POSS-SAL, 1+3-settlement-SAL-INST-EM
‘His offspring were in the habit of stealing us from our land,
from our settlements, I recall.’

4.3.16.5 Comitative -ake

The comitative case suffix is generally used with human persons, in

particular oblique participants, not active agents or thematic participants.
The accusative plural –ni occurs on the comitative morpheme. There is
122

at least one attested case of the comitative referencing ‘through’ or ‘by

means of’ an environment (g).

a. inde i-si-nïgï≈ke api-lï-iŋo e-feke

here 3-come.to-PS≈2;COM 2/club-PI-POT 2-ERG
‘You will plan to use your club when they come together with
you. ‘

b. ande ake-tsa-ŋe e-pigï-ko-ake e-fo-gi-tsa-ko,

here.now DES-EX-I 2-grandson-PL-COM 2-find-VT-CI-
PL,
ti-fo-Gi-tsa=kafa e-feke
REF-find-VT-CI=EM 2-ERG
‘Now you know don’t you that I’m having you look for them
with your grandson, having you look for them.’

c. ande-mukwe-taka ŋ-aup-uau-ake inde tits-e-ta.

here.now-EM-EM 2-GF-PL-COM here 1+3-EX-CI
‘Perhaps we will agree to stay here with your grandfathers.’

d. afïtï-i=dye oko, ata ta-ti-feke

denial-CL=SA Grandma, 2;mother say.to-DES-ERG
e-figï-ake.
2-grandson- COM
‘Not that, Grandma. “Your mother” was what you wanted to say
to me and your grandson.’

e. Example of comitative with the diminuative suffix:

indisï-ake-ŋu-fa.
3.daughter -COM-DIM-PTP
‘(3p) and his little daughter’.

f. Plural comitative with plural accusative suffix –ni:

wende-ake-ni uge, isi ki-lї.

there COM-PL me, 3:mo utter-PI
‘”I’ll be there with you all,” her mother said.’
.
g. A second example of plural comitative:

t-e-ti-ko tï tititiï akïŋi ekugu katote.

REF-come-TH-PL (sound of fish swimming) many fully all
u-pïgï-peŋine ake-ni u-te-tomi
last-PS-ABL COM-PL 1-go.away-PURP
‘They came up to him, tїtititii so many, all kinds. “I want to go
with all of you, following the last one”.’

h. The comitative referencing ‘through’ or ‘by means of’ a

terrestrial environment.
 123

ige-a=lefa ete-lї uwa-nїgї=lefa

IDEM-U=MT go.away-PI surround-PS=MT
takeñї-ake=lefa
open.country-COM=MT
‘Just this way he went through the surrounding open country.’

4.3.16.6 Allative, -na. (ALL)

The Kalapalo allative references ‘direction towards’ a locative goal of an

active verb. These goals are either a geographical setting or an active
verb nominalization. There doesn’t seem to be a distinct location in word
order in the utterance. Note there are two special directional morphemes
1) –ka used both with a hammock (as for example, etiŋa-ka: to lie down
in the hammock, from etige, ‘hammock’), and with water ( as for
example, tuwa-ka, ‘to the water’,) and 2) -ta, used for containers as,
efu-ta, ‘to the canoe’, uɳa-ta, ‘to the house’.

a. lepe-tale≈le≈gei, lepe=mbe t-ogopi-si,

Next-DT-UT-ADEM, next-SS REF-go back-TH,
ño-ki-tofo-na.
OB-pull.up-VT-USIN-ALL
‘Then to do something different, after he did that he went back to
where he could pull it up. ‘

b. igi-tati ekugu=mbe igi-fïkï-gï-na,

center-ALOC fully-SS center-VI-POSS-ALL
‘He was standing right in the middle of it when he did that,
ah s-iki-lï.
EXP, 3-defecate-PI
really, he relieved himself, completely.’

c. eŋu fe-tsa-ŋe taloki = muk≈ake-tsaŋe

reason OD-DEO-EX-I no. reason= EM≈SD-DEO
awa-dyu i-ndisï-na u-te-fo-ta.
uncle (voc)-END 3-daughter-ALL 1-go away-HYP-CI
‘The reason is I’ve decided I should go to(for) Uncle's daughter,
though it probably won't work out the way I would like. ‘

d. ah, e-fisï=t-omi-papa ege-na e-iña

EM, 2-yb=EQ-PURP-CONF PDEM-ALL 2-DAT/BEN
‘It’s really all right with me if in order to be your younger
brother (i.e., your husband) for you he’s (come) to you.’

e. ige-a i-ka-ta=fal≈egei tï-ti-na.

this.way U 3-ask.about—CR=NT≈ADEM REFL-mother-ALL
‘This was how he went to his mother to ask about it.’

f. fagu-na etiñï aka-ne-nïgï i-feke.

124

oxbow.lake-ALL messenger send.away-VT-PS 3-ERG

‘He sent the messengers away to the oxbow lake’.

4.3.16.7 Ablative, -peŋine. ‘away (out, back) from’ (ALL)

This case suffix can be used as an semantic case modifier of an adverbial

or a nominal, and also as in (f) appearing on a verb. In the first instance it
is also a perhaps a way of nominalizing the adverb. This case morpheme
is used in extended intransitive or transitive clauses when the actor is
human, as in a, b,d, f. In transitive clauses, if P is inanimate or a
nominal attribute, the case marker may be used if the A is human (as in
examples (c) and (g).

a. alolatï-peŋine, ‘come out from the bottom’ (of the water)

b. uŋalï-peŋine, ‘come out from the house’

c. This example has two nominalizations: the first a locative

construction of an adverbial; the second an of a verb. These are
interesting for the idea of the physical attribute ‘emerging from’
the woman’s body (as the result of a snake child living inside
her):

ala-oŋo-peŋine=mbe-fa,
pale-just-ABL=SS-PTP,
‘Her paleness just emerged out of her as he did that ,

te-ka-fu-ki-ñu-peŋine-mbe-fa
REFL-thin-VI-CAUS-SN- ABL-SS-PTP
her being made to be thin emerged out of her as he did that’

d. lepene kaŋa-ki-Go-peŋine, tuwa-ka-gati.

afterwards fish-INST-PL-ABL, water-contain-ADV
‘Then at the place where water is held, back from the fishing
places.’

e. This example show the ablative suffix on a verb formed from an

encorporated noun: “coming away from the manioc field”. The
activity referenced by the verb is itself thereby treated in this
way as a kind of nominal.

kwiga-nda-lï-peŋine
manioc-LOCN-PI-ABL
‘coming away from the manioc field’

f. ifïgi-pe ti-dyï-lefa ≈i-feke, tafaku-gu

3-arrow-SAL remove-PI-MT≈3-ERG, bow-POSS

ugupo-ŋo-peŋine
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on top-PREC-ABL
‘So he took his arrow right out (away) from on top of his bow.’

g. In this example, the sense of the use of the ablative on the NP is

only ended in death.

Ñafїgї ɳiso-peɳine s-i-tїfїgї.

Ñafїgї husband-ABL 3-EX-IMP
‘He had been ending his existence as Ñafїgї’s husband.’

4.3.16.8 Destination, -kaiŋa (DEST)

The NP hosting this construction may be animate or inanimate, but the

actor who ‘arrives at’ is always animate. This and the following two
case morphemes are all hosted by NPs referencing a person or thing as a
locative goal of an agent’s travel, including place names, or geographical
features. Note: there is a locative adverbial -kai, ‘on’,’beside’, where the
final suffix -ŋa does not appear (discussed in 10.3.5.1).

a. tu-fitsu-kaiŋa≈ñïgï ni-pi.
REFL-wife-DEST-≈EX-TR have-ADV
‘...coming up to his wife who held onto it.’

b. its-aiŋa-fa, ikene-kaiŋa
3-DEST-PTP, YZ-DEST
‘Beside her, beside her younger sister.’

c tuik! ŋoŋo-kaiŋa=mbe.
(sound of falling on the ground) ground-DEST=SS
‘Tuik, she hit the ground when she did that.’

d. uwa-m≈e-i-tsa Ø- nïg≈i-feke, ah
Q-EM≈2-EX-CI 3-say.to-PERF≈3-ERG EXPL
tï-dyogo-kaiŋa.
REFL-uncle-DEST
“Why are you here?" (someone) asked, surely he (had come)
right up to his uncle.’

e. eh, kafї-tsї-kaiɳa et-uwo-lї

yes, sky-M-DEST MV-flood-PI
‘yes, that (being) who floods up to the sky.’

4.3.16.9 –pe, marking non-subject target

a. In this example of –pe on a proper name, the suffix marks the

NP as the non-subject target of the subordinate verb, which is in
the ‘goal’ marked dative/benefactive construction

Ugukutsu-pe Ø=e-lï-iña=lefa te-ta,

Ugukutsu -SAL 3-shoot-PI-DAT=MT go.away-CI,
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Madyawagi te-ta.
Madyawagi go.away-CI
‘He went away, Madyawagi went away to shoot Ugukutsu.’

b. In this example the root li-, ‘drink’ is in possessive nominal

construction with t- “reflexive” and the -pe construction marking
a partial feature of the object argument of the subordinate verb
‘pull out’:

tuwa-ka ete-lu, tu-li-tsu-pe ti-dyi=fofo

water-ADV go.to-PI REFL-drink-POSS-SAL take.out-PI=IM
i-feke,
3- ERG
‘The very next thing she did was she went to the water’s edge to
draw some for his beverage.’

f. In this example of –pe on a de-verbal nominal, the NP is the

“stimulus” of the transitive verb ‘reject’, hence bearing the
ergative suffix (see discussion of ergativity in Verb Chapter).

õ-lï-fa i-saha-tofo-pe-feke.]
reject-PI-PTP 3-work-USIN-SAL-ERG
‘She turned down the man who was her (bride-service) worker
(i.e., betrothed).’

4.3.16.10 The perlative –ge (PERL)

faɳguiɳa-ge-po-ɳa
river-PERL-alongside-SN
‘what is (growing) all alongside the river’

4.3.17 . Relative clause modifier suffix, -tsї (M)

The nominal modifier suffix (M) may occur on either the head or relative
clause noun, but not both (but it may appear on a series of NPs that
follow one another and modify the same head noun; and also occurs on a
verbal clause or adverb that modifies a noun). M is usually often
followed by the primary topical participant morpheme –fa (PTP) that
occurs in final position on the grammatical nominal word. The modifier
and the primary topical participant suffixes often co-occur; both have
functions having to do with topicality. M references new information
about the same head noun, while PTP preserves nominal topical
continuity when the syntactic function of the noun changes. The nominal
modifier suffix and the class inclusion copula suffix seem to always
function as mutually distinctive morphemes, as they always appear in
grammatical word final position and they never co-occur. In general,
–tsï rarely ends a grammatical word; it seems to need one (but never
more than one) suffixed or cliticized morpheme. Some examples
include: the primary topical participant –fa; the immediate taxis clitic
=fofo; the negative mirative suffix –ki; and the pejorative =su clitic. All
 127

these have an element of emphatic semantics. Similarly the evidential

suffix and the desiderative suffix never occur with M.

a. Here the modified argument is A (marked with ergative case -

feke); the head noun is unmarked:

lepe tu-i-lï i-feke, ah Kusimefu-feke-tsï-fa

next REF-do-PI 3-ERG, EXP Kusimefu- ERG-M-PTP
‘Next he did it, Kusimefu did.

b. Here the modifier of the head noun of the main clause is marked
with M:

uɳa-ta ti-lo-po masope-tsї-fa,

house-inside REF-nearby-ADV secluded.girl-M-PTP,
i-ñ-uɳu-fa
3-OB-house-PTP
‘Inside the house someone near him, a secluded girl, the housed
one.’

In (c) M occurs on anaphoric focus referent demonstrative (AFR), which

modifies the head noun of the main clause.

c. tama-ki ekugu ule-tsї tsїgї-pe e-iñїgї

soft-ADV fully AFR-M bone-POSS-SAL EX-TR
‘That one’s bone’s became soft forever.’

Another type of modifier marking involves M on the NP that serves as

the argument (P or A) of a subsequent transitive clause with P also
marked with a pronominal prefix.

d. A ‘new information’ de-verbalized NP (bracketed) preceding the

verbal clause in which the NP is P argument”:

[uk-ifugu e-ŋe- Ø-tsï-fa] i-ña-mba-lї .

1+2-ancestor eat.flesh-RES-M-PTP 3-consume-Va-PI
ukw-oto-feke
dual-parent-ERG
‘The result is our elders are devoured when our parent has a
meal.’

In this example, the head noun (a proper name) receives the modifier as
new information is given in a juxtaposition of the nouns.

e. itoto felei, itseke felei, Taugi-tsï toto.

man ADEM powerful being ADEM, Taugi-M man
‘Taugi changed himself, he turned into a woman. He is a man
(who did that), a powerful being, Taugi is (usually thought of as)
a man.
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f. In a patient-backgrounding construction, the relative noun is

suffixed with M; it is the same P as is ‘backgrounded’.

Ø- ñ-aŋa-kaga-ni fiatu-fu-le-tsï
3-OB-arm-contain-PL deer- just (only)-ATR-M
‘Holding in their arms only a deer.’

g. The following is an example of complex utterance involving use

of both class inclusion copula suffix -i and -tsï modifier
morphemes in a complex NP construction. This construction
may be represented as: [[[NP [[NP-M] [NP-CL]]]. In this
example the class inclusion copula suffix –i on the final NP
“food” predicates the preceding NP, which is itself a relative
clause showing the modifier –tsï. Note also that both the ‘old
information’ and ‘new information’ NPs host the ‘pejorative’
clitic su.

kuaku=su to-fo-pi-dyï-ku-i-la.
nightjar=PEJ REF-point-VI-PI-INT-CL-NEG

kuõ-tsï=su otu-i
wild.plant.name-M-PEJ food-CL
‘Weird nightjar the one with the beak that’s really not sharp,
(Who has) weeds (serving for) food.’

4.3.18 Primary topical participant –fa (PTP)

This suffix is required when the syntactic function of a noun phrase shifts
but topicalization of old information needs to be preserved. For this
reason, I refer to –fa as a ‘shift-function’ morpheme as described by Van
Valin Jr. and La Polla (1997: 207) This suffix occurs in what is generally
the final position of the Kalapalo noun phrase. It functions to mark the
primary topical participant in a clause chain, especially where the same
referent occurs in a series of differently marked verbal arguments, such
as not only with an explicit absolutive pronominal prefix on the verb
phrase, but also as a pronominal demonstrative or with the anaphoric
focus referent ule.

a. In this example the first use of -fa appears on the focus shifting
ule-clause, which has major discourse segment scope. A new
action occurs but the same primary topical participant is
referenced. This participant is a woman who is the main actor in
the events. She has been told to prepare some food for her
husband, and so she now begins that work.

ule-pe-tsï-fa poki,
AFR-SAL-R-E (sound of object put in container, ATR-EV-PTP

tï-ïño-iña=le-tï-fa, mï-ne-nigï i-feke

REFL-husband-DAT/BEN soak-VT-VPE 3-ERG
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‘Taking a handful, poki, she soaked it for her husband, they say,
she soaked it’.

b. An example from the affinal civility register. Here the middle

voice ‘see, think’ consideration complement verb has been
nominalized. The person under consideration is the ‘sister’ the
man is now being encouraged to ask for as his wife.

ah mukwe-tsï-fa, et-iŋGu-Gi=tofo-i
EXP EM-M-PTP MV-see.think-CAUS=USIN-CL

mukwe-tsï-fa, iñandsu i-ts-omi

EM-M-PTP, sister 3-EX-PURP
‘Surely, that may not work out but, perhaps you should consider
the sister to be yours even though it may not work out.’

c. In this example the reference of the demonstrative and the things

‘that have been put down’ are the same.

ege-fa i-pufi-tsi-ke-ge i-ña-ndo-ŋo-ko-tsï-fa

PDEM-PTP 3-skin-remove-VT-I 3-put down-VT-PREC-PL-M-
PTP
‘“Skin these.” The ones that had been right down beside her, I
mean.’

4. 4 Word class-changing nominal derivations

Kalapalo resembles other Cariban languages insofar as there is pervasive

presence of nominalization processes. These include both structural and
semantic nominal derivations operating on both the lexical and clausal
levels. Structural derivations involve changes in the syntactic roles of
the derived forms. These include grammatical or word-class changing
derivations: de-verbalized and de-adverbialized nominalizations, and to a
lesser degree, nominalized ideophones. Word class-changing
nominalizations become changed syntactically to function as new verbal
arguments. Semantic derivations are in general re-nominalized nouns,
that is, nouns that have been derived from other nouns. Renominalized
nouns may become place names, establish deictic and plurality details of
objects and persons; and shift a speaker’s reference from a fairly
common natural species to that of a dangerous powerful being. Other
important nominalizations reference the agent of a transitive verb,
experiencer of a state, the consequence of an action, and the thing used to
effect an action. To summarize Kalapalo nominalization functions:

a. Operating at the clausal level to create predications regarding

stative and active verb arguments. In the case of de-verbal
nominalizations, the argument structure of verbs is preserved,
either overtly with the case-marked NP present in the clause, or
covertly, by the type of derivational suffix used.
130

b. Operating at the lexical level to create word-class changing

nominalizations and also to re-nominalize other nouns.

c. Operating in predication regarding ideophonic and adverbial

attributes. As a process enabling subordination, nominalization is
an important means of creating subordinate clauses, often from
main VP but also from other nouns and adverbials as well as
stative and active verb nominalizations.

Table 17 shows seventeen attested types of non-aspectual nominal

derivational suffixes, their glosses, and examples of derived forms. With
the exception of Types 10, 11 (which are subsets), each of these is a
single morpheme ‘type’. As can be seen from Table 17, these non-
aspectual suffixes operate on all three of the major open word classes.
The seventeenth type of suffix occurs as two sets, pertaining to active
and stative de-verbal aspectual nominalizations respectively. For ease of
description, these are presented in Table 18 with examples to follow the
table. A separate discussion section examines the case for aspectual
properties of this set. Plural, possessive, and copula suffixes (all of which
appear on nouns) are also not included in Table 17 as they are discussed
in earlier sections of this chapter and in Chapter 7: ‘Be’ verbs and
copularity.

Table 17. Non-Aspectual Nominalization Suffixes

Morpheme Gloss Type Type of word
affected
1. -ɳa, ɳi SN stative S existential copular
stem; lexical verb stem
2. -ni: AN active A transitive verb
3. –(i)ñe (ї,u) EXN experiencer of a state active intransitive
verb, adverbials,
ideophones
4. –pe ESS essive P noun, verb
5. -nu (a) CN contrastive adverb
6. -tofo USIN usitative; from other active verb
nouns, active
transitive verbs;
some numerals; place
naming
7. -tsofo BN benefactive stative, benefactive
attributive
8. -tu ATN attributives, including stative verbs
affective states
9 DIM; degree nominals: nouns
-kusїgї; AUG; diminuatives and
-kuegї; MAJ; augmentatives
-tsuegї; EXCS;
-fuegї; LT
-ɳu
10. ŋo, PREC precise, exactly at the nouns
moment or time
11. –mbїɳї W without nouns
12. -pїɳї DEV devalued nouns
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13. –(u)fuɳu R resemble nouns

14. –fu CAN candidate for doing X active verb

15. –nїmi CONS consequential adverb

4.4.1 Non-aspectual nominalizations

Fifteen types of non-aspectual nominalization suffixes are attested.

Description of the semantics of each morpheme and examples follow.

4.4.1.1 –(i)ɳa, iɳi (SN), stative S

This nominalizer occurs on the existential copular stem its- and stative
intransitive stems. It is also often seen on lexical verbs with a negative
sense (then glossed as NN) of an event. Examples include:

a. ufitsu its-i-ɳa=mukwe ukuge

1-wife EX-CL-SN=EM human
‘If only this were human she could be a wife for me.’

b. The adverbial lexeme aŋi may occur with a person prefix and
may be derived from the a- stative equative ‘be’ root + -ɳi
stative S nominalization suffix. The sense is of a ‘result’.

a-ŋi e-fits-au?
EQS-SN 2-wife-PL‘
‘Did you find your wives? (or, ‘are you ‘married to more than
one woman?’)

c. An adverbialized de-verbal causative that has become

nominalized:

i-ɳi-tso-ɳa-tu-iɳi
3-see-VT-CAUS-N-SN
‘person kept from being seen’ (or, ‘experiencing being made
invisible’), i.e., in puberty seclusion.

d. Ø-ñ-e ɳe-ta-ɳi
3-OB-fear-CI-SN
‘someone fearful (of 3p)’

e. ila-ni-ke ki-ɳi
like.that-PL-I utter-SN
‘Don’t say those things.’

f. utu-mi-dyї i-feke tse-fesu-ndu-iɳi,

tie.up-VT-PI 3-ERG 3-walk.around-CL-EP-SN

igei-feke ifi-tsu-iɳi
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PDEM-ERG touch-VT-SN
‘She tied him up so he couldn’t walk around, so he wouldn’t
touch this (i.e., the ground)’.

4.4.1.2. –ni (AN), active agent

This nominalizer appears on active verbs, both transitive and intransitive

and on some lexicalized onstructions with roots that no longer have
meanings. The morpheme is identical to the absolutive pluralizer that
appears on both active verbs and ergative, dative/benefactive, and
comitative case markers. Examples of this de-verbal nominalization
process include: kueɳeni, ‘our eater’; iñambani, ‘those who drink
them’; kuñiɳuGini: ‘those who see like us’. Notice the nominalizer suffix
replaces the expected verbal aspect/mood inflection.

ageni, ‘only a few’ (from the numeral, agetsi, ‘one’)

ñafeni, ‘firm’ (from the imperative lexeme, ñafe, ‘come here’)

tї-eku-ni tuwa fuɳeni

RQ-INT-AN water hardly.any
‘Why in the world isn’t there enough water here?’

4.4.1.3. –(i)ñe(ї) (EXN), ‘experiencer of a state’

This suffix appears on -ki and t- adverbs; intransitive stative verbs;

adverbials and underived nouns. I have one example of an ideophonic
construction. Examples of nominalized de-verbal adverbials follow:

t-uŋ-is-iñe .
REF-distribute-ADV-EXN
‘that which is shared (distributed)’
t-et-idyi-pї-iñe
REF-MV-extract-SAL?-EXN
‘those who have come out separately (one by one)’, i.e.,
‘offspring’

Some examples of EXN on –ki and –t-adverbials (attributives formed of

verbs and nouns) are in the following list.

u-ku-ki-ñe
1-prohibit-ADV-EXN
‘my being prohibited’ (avoidance state)

t-ala-ki-ñe,
REF-pale-ADV-EXN
‘3p whiteness’

ti-teni-ñe
REF-heavy-EXN
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‘its heaviness’

tatokiñeko,
REF-friend-ADV-EXN-PL), ‘their own friends’ (‘those who are
friendly with each other’).

is-uwї-ki-ñe
3-father-ADV-EXN, ‘a paternal man’, ‘a father to someone’

tї-fitse-ɳe-ki-ñe
REF-rotten smell-CAUS-ADV-EXN
‘the rotten smelling one’

takataka-ti-ñe
takataka-ADV-EXN, ‘what goes takataka’
(i.e., a gourd that is drying out). This is an an ideophonic
nominalization ,

4.4.1.4 –pe, ‘essive’ (ESS)

This essive nominalizer references the NP as ‘existing in a state or mode

of existence’. It may appear on a nominal or verbal word (thereby de-
verbalizing the construction). –pe also often appears on the P argument
of a main resultative clause, or a de-verbal nominalization. The
homophynous suffix referencing the non-subject ‘theme’ of an extended
intransitive subordinate clause verb is described in 4.3.15.9.

a. Here -pe appears on both the kinship word and the proper name,
marking the thematic target of the thetic verb construction.
Here, there is no possibility of thinking of ‘daughter’ as
something that existed in the past; she still exists; SAL has a
different function here. But why is the noun marked at all? I
believe this is because it could be a kind of essive
nominalization.

ekï endisï-pe=lefa ti-mbi-Ø, Afuseti-pe.

unknown.name daughter-ESS=MT REF-steal-TH, Afuseti- ESS
‘What’s his name’s daughter, Afuseti, is stolen.’

b. A similar example, in which –pe marks the essive status of a

precise noun, the verb being non-finite (thetic).

lepe is-iŋï-ŋo-pe t-e-ti.

next 3-behind-PREC-ESS REF-come.to-TH
‘Next one of those who were right behind him came up to
them.’
134

c. Here the verb stem pondo-te, ‘cover over’ has been nominalized
with suffix –pe:

Afiñuka, i-pondo-te-pïgï-pe
Afiñuka, 3-covering-VT-VPE-ESS
‘Afiñuka, whose (face) was concealed (who was covered over).’

d. ah, ufitsu-pe=lefa te-ŋe-Ø-feke.

EXP, 1-wife-ESS=MT eat.flesh-VT-RES-ERG
‘Surely, in the end he was making a meal of my wife’ (more lit,’
parts of my wife were being eaten by him in the end’).

e. In this example the salient copula suffix is used as thematic

marker on the head of a subordinate clause.

igea=lefa a-ŋakafu-gu-a a-tïfïgï tamaki,

this.way=MT 2-hair-POSS-U EQS-IMP soft
‘And just like your special kind of hair, it’s become soft’.

ule-pe atehe-tsï-fa.
AFR-ESS EQA-PER-M-PTP
‘It has remained that way.’

4.4.1.5 -ne/nu(a), ‘contrastive’

This is a pair of contrastive nominalizers (CONT). Examples include:

uiɳinu, ‘my not being seen’; iñalї tsakunu: ‘he’s not one of the runners’
(among a group):

a. ineno-ŋo ategu-i-fa dyofi,

one. place-PREC on.the. side-CL-PTP fish,

ege isa-ekugu-mbekudya
he 3-fully-NOMR
‘“As he was much taller than the other, for that reason” he (was
put) directly across.’

ine-ne-fa kadyaGima, kagutu-fa kago.

one.place-CONT-PTP kadyaGima, trumpet-PTP those.people
‘Opposite were KadyaGima Catfish, they were (playing) the
flutes.’

4.4.1.6. –ofo, -tofo ‘usitative’ (USIN)

“Usitative” is a general term for several related types of nominalizations

that operate on nouns, adverbs and active, or stative verbs (but all
involving voluntary processes). These two morphemes are often used to
de-verbalize an active verb. They often appear in place names
constructed from verb phrases. (Note the morphologically similar
‘immediate’ taxis clitic –fofo, ‘right now’,’immediate’.) Where USIN
 135

de-verbalizes a transitive morpheme, the arguments of the de-verbalized

clauses are preserved.

a. timofo, ‘five’

b. tu-ge-kig-ofo:
REF-poison-VT-USIN
‘their would-be poisoners’

c. agetsi-ɳu-et-ofo, ‘one little one used to advance’ (‘six’);

d. An adverbial that has been verbalized, then nominalized with

USIN, then re- verbalized as a transitive with the ergative
marked A at clause final position.

aGipi-tsi-g≈ofo-iŋo u-feke
bangs (fringe)-VT≈allow-USIN-POT 1-ERG
‘I’m planning to cut her bangs.’

e. A place name constructed from verb stem , oki-, ‘pull out’

(bracketed):

lepe-tale≈le≈gei, lepe=mbe t-ogopi-si,

next-DT-UT-IDEM, next-SS REF-go back-TH,

Ø-ñ-o-ki-tofo-na.
3-OB- pull.up-VT-PN-ALL
‘Then to do something different, after he did that he went back to
where he could pull it up. ‘

f. A place name constructed from verb stem, ume- ‘break/tear

apart’ (the name is of a place where people camped to eat a large
roasted fish).

Taugi-feke=lefa kwigiñu ige-lї e:hge-na,

Taugi-ERG=MT manioc.starch carry-PI way.over.there-
ALL
eɳї-na, afi kume-tofo
um-ALL dogfish 1+2-tear.apart-USIN
‘While Taugi carried the manioc starch waay over that way, to
um, to the place ‘used for tearing the dogfish apart’ (i.e., a
camping place along the river where people grilled their large
fish).

g. In this example –tofo is used on the causativized verb, ‘envy’

and express the sense of ‘source’. In this example, the nominal
is followed by the class inclusion copula suffix –i; both verbal
arguments are present.

e-gi-ku-ni-tofo-i i-feke:
136

2-envy-VT-ANT-USIN-CL 3-ERG
‘the place that will be the source of his envy’

h. The suffix-tofo referencing something used to accomplish

something. The plural suffix –ko co-references the S of the de-
verbalized morpheme.

e-tuwa-ki-tofo-ko iɳi-ta
MV-water-VT-USIN-PL bring.to-CL
‘He was bringing the purgative’.

i. This example shows a denominalized intransitive verb: ‘enclose’

that has been renominalized. The potential mood verb suffix is
preserved but follows the nominalizer.

ukw-etu-wa-nde-tofo-iŋo
1+2-settlement-surround-VT-USU-POT
‘We’ll use this to enclose our living place’ (i.e., create a house).

4.4.1.7 -tsofo , generalized behavioral attribute (BN)

This appears to be a generalized behavioral attributive but there are only

a few examples so more work needs to be done to describe the semantic
function more clearly.

a. This is a a formal term for relatives, not often used. Kalapalo

speakers were not able to explain the meaning of the root of this
word.

et-its-ïŋ-Gi-tsofo
MV-?-VT-PCAUS-BN
? uncertain translation

b. eh he ki-ɳi, la-i-tsa-ni
agreement utter-NN (=EM), like.that-EX-ANT

m-oki-tsofo-ta
2-pull.out-BN-at
‘I can’t agree, let it be at your ‘pull out’-ers.’ (i.e., monsters who
kept skull trophies) (A warning to someone who wanted to visit
them,that they must stay away from that place).

c. lata Gitï-gï të-i-tsofo

can head-POSS REF-take.off-BN
‘can opener’
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4.4.1.8. –tu (ATN) ?

This morpheme appears suffixed to many nouns and may be an archaic

possessive that has been fused with the no longer meaningful stem.
Examples include:

etu, ‘settlement’
kwotu, ‘sad’
itsotu, ‘angry’
kumuŋetu ‘one of our immature persons’, ‘our youngster’
fonitu, ‘umbilical cord’
otu, ‘solid food’

4.4.1.9 Degree nominalizations: augmentatives and diminuatives

There are five morphemes in this set of morphemes used to re-

nominalize nouns.:

a. -kusїgї (DIM), ‘diminuative’ used for simple diminuatives, both

animate and inanimate. Examples include:, itau-kusïgï: ‘little girl’;
atau-kusїgї ‘carrying basket’; fїgei-kusїgї., ‘little arrow’.

b. –kũegї (AUG), ‘augmentative’. This sufix appears on names of

powerful beings that are often inflected animal category names + kuegї.
Examples include ekekuegï, ‘Snake Monster’; itaũ-kuegї, ‘Monstrous
Women’).
The suffix also appears on animal category names with a sense
of ‘unusual’, or ‘different from more common species’, such as kafugu-
kuegï, ‘wooly monkeys’, that is ‘different howler monkeys’

c. -fũegї (EXCE), ‘excessive’

This suffix appears on the most extreme or excessive of a nominal
reference; these are mostly very dangerous powerful beings such as:
itofuegï: ‘firestorm’; atu-fuegї, the very biggest peccary.

d. -tsũegї (MAJ) ‘majority’. This suffix is also used for types of the
most extreme or excessive of a kind or type. This morpheme can be used
by itself as a nominal with et-middle voice prefix as: etsũegї ‘the most
extreme, greatest’; Nitsuegї, (name of a powerful being, the Black
Jaguar).

e. -ɳu, ‘lesser’, ‘least’ (LT). Nominalizations constructed with the ‘least’

or ‘lesser’ suffix have the sense not only of a very small size, but also
with the sense of ‘a very few’; and ‘appealing, cute’ (because, ‘very
small’). This suffix may also occur with the anaphoric focus referent
(ule) and to construct de-adverbializations. Some of the roots are not
semantically transparent.

a. amïnde-ŋu-ta-fa=le≈gey
no one one-LT-CI-PTP=CT≈DEM
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‘almost know one was there.’

b. inde=ŋu=gele Giti ata-ni

here=LT=PT sun EQA-ANT
‘The sun was still setting.’

c. iñee, ule=ŋu=nika-fa ige

(remarking on size) AFR=LT=EM-PTP PDEM
‘”How tiny!”, those are really small, aren’t they? ‘

d. The following is a single example of a reduplicated form of this

kind:

ige-a-ŋu-ŋu
PDEM-U-LT-LT
‘This is the tinyest.’ .

e. lepe apaɳa-ɳu-fїɳї=tale=fale egei,

next wait-unlike-LT=UN=NO IDEM
‘Then, without waiting much longer, this time

Ø-ñe- ɳi-ko-ndo te-lї-le-tї i-feke.

3-OB-post-PL-among go.away-PI-ATR-EV 3-ERG
‘(to do that) they say he went among their posts (i.e., to cut the
houseposts for a new building.)’

f. There are other lexical forms with this suffix but they do not
reference ‘least’ or ‘lesser’; the suffix appears to be a generalized
stative attributive : ufiɳu, ‘alike”; tetuɳu, ‘heavy”, itotuɳu, ‘hot
to the touch’, i woɳu, ‘wide tree’.

g. As another example of how these augmentatives and

diminuatives may be used, the following is a list of elicited
words for types of peccaries (the generic term for this animal is
feu):
atu (white-lipped peccary, a large species)
atu-fuegї (the largest species)
feu (collared peccary)
feu-kuegї (described as itseke,‘powerful being’)
etsuegї, (‘the most extreme’).

4.4.1.10- ŋo, precise,immediate, exactly at the moment nominalizer

Nominals with these suffixes are occurences that take place ‘at the
moment’. The suffix is used to renominalize nouns (a), and to
nominalize verbs (b) and adverbs (c).

a. iŋila-ŋo-pe-fa u-itsa≈tïfïgï kapaŋa-miti

beginning-PREC-ESS-PTP 1-EX≈IMP different-ADV
‘Right at the beginning I used to behave differently.’
 139

b. u-te-go-ko-ŋo
1 -laugh-VI-PL-PREC
‘the one who laughs right away with me’ . (‘the person I laugh
with’, term for a lover or a close friend.

c. and≈oɳo-pe ɳi-pi
here.now≈PREC-ESS EQS-ADV
‘Those who are here right now have it.’

4.4.1.11 mbїɳї, ‘negative state’, ‘without’ (W)

This morpheme forms a negative on other nouns and on verbs; it

contrasts with the aspectual -mbїgї ‘former state’ suffix (FO), the
negative copula suffix –la, ‘not’, and the de-verbal contrastive
nominalizer –nu. This suffix substitutes for a possessive nominal suffix
as in (a) or may follow on a prior de-verbalizer suffix (b), (c), on an
adverbial (d), (e) , or a verb when a copular subject (f). Examples
include:

a. i-fitsu-mbïŋï
3-wife-W
‘person without a wife’

b. tu-itaɳi-mbїɳї elei
REF-touch-W PDEM
‘He was a person not touched’ (i.e., virginal youth).

c. otu eŋe-ta-ti-ñi-mbïŋï
food eat.flesh-CI-DES-AN-W
‘a person never wanting to eat meat as food’(V→N→N);

d. tï-ño-ki-mbïŋï=fale Ø-iŋi-ŋalï feke-ni

REF-husband-INST-W=NO 3-see-REV-ERG-PL
“But those without husbands, they looked back at them’

e. aŋifolo ti-mu-ki-mbïŋï ≈ts-a helei

Ancient REF-child-INST-W ≈EX-CI ADEM
‘That was an Ancient without children’

f. iŋge-apa e-fï-lu-mbїŋї i-tsa.

consider-CONF 2-walk-PI-W EX-CI

‘Consider as I do, your walking no longer exists (i.e., you don’t

have to walk any further).

4.4.1.12. -pїɳї (DEV), ‘devalued’, ‘unsatisfactory result’

140

This ‘devaluation’ morpheme occurs on a very few examples,

particularly lexemes used in the affinal civility register where
devaluation of extremely valued and cherished people is the norm.

a. ñafïgï igï-gï-ŋo-pïɳï fisu-mbïgï

Ñafïgï genitals-POSS-PREC-DEV YBR-W

Ø-nï-miŋo-fa i-feke
3-say.to-POT-PTP 3-ERG
‘“The younger brother of the person who was destroyed right at
Ñafïgï’s horrible genitals,” he will say to her.’

b. Example from affinal civility register (a man referring to his

daughters when speaking to a potential son-in-law):

itau-go-pïŋï fogi-tsïgï u-feke

woman-PAU-DEV find-IPE 1-ERG
‘a few unattractive women I’ve found’

4.4.1.13. (u)fuɳu, ‘resemble’ (ADV)

This nominalization suffix and the adverbial fїɳї ’unlike’ are remarkable
antonyms with similar morphophonemic construction. The first example
exhibits both: a nominalization of an identificational demonstrative
which is then adverbialized.

a. igei-fungu-fïngï-kila=su figei
IDEM- R-unlike-ADV=PEJ ADEM
afasï=ŋiso-feke
2-OZ-husband-ERG
"This isn't anything like what your older sister's husband
(makes/does) all the time.”

4.4.1.14 –fu (CAND), ‘candidacy’

This nominalizer has the sense of ‘candidate for doing X’. Many names
and nominals take this suffix (e.g., kutufu: tree termites; ugufu: vulture;
kafu: sky, Aɳafu; Kusimefu (personal names), but most seem to have
undeconstructable stems.

a. ete-me-ti-fu
go.away-FACS-DES-CAND
‘someone who seemed to want to travel around’, ‘explorer’

4.4.1.15 –nїmi (CONS), ‘consequence’. This nominalizer

references the consequence of an activity. It occurs on semantic
verbs (c,d) and also on the stative equative copular verb stem a-
(a, b).
 141

a. ule-pe-tï-fa ekege tï-fake-fi-tsïgï .

AFR-SAL-EV-PTP jaguar REF-flank-crush-IPE

a-nïmi
EQS-CONS
‘As far as that was concerned, they say, this became “jaguar’s
crushed flank”.’

b. lepe u-ĩ-pi a-nïmi

next I-have-ADV EQS-CONS
‘Then, my having (it).’

c. The morpheme appears on the valence decreased object-

backgrounding transitive verb stem, ipï-te- ‘pay’:

kukw-eŋiko-gu fegei ku-n-ipï-te-ga-nïmi

1+2-things-PL-POSS ADEM 1+2-OB-pay-VT-cause-CONS
‘These things of ours were what he eventually paid each one of
us.’ (lit., ‘the result of our being paid one by one’)

d. s-inї-mba-ta idyo-pe-nїmi
3-arrive-VI-CI meet-ESS-CONS
‘He continued coming until they had met’.

4.4.2 Aspectual de-verbal and re-nominalizations

The aspectual nominalizations are discussed separately in this section

and appear in Table 18 with their glosses and translations. The table is
followed by the discussion of Kalapalo nominal aspect, with examples.
Derivational processes create nominalizations from both static
and active verbs. In a narrative, nominalized verbs shift attention away
from the action and focus upon the nature of the event as described by
the verb. Deverbal nominalizations thus have an important function as a
clause chaining subordination strategy (see Chapter 14: Clause chaining
and interclausal reference in Kalapalo narrative) and also interact with
the de-transitive strategies in the language. De-verbal nominalizations
tend to preserve the argument structures of the underlying verb
constructions.
Nouns have not been commonly connected with aspect although
‘nominal TAM’ has been recognized in lowland South American
languages: Guarani, Tupian Siriono, Northern Cariban Hixkaryana, and
the Arawakan language Tariana (reviewed in Nordlinger and Sandler
2004). According to Nordlinger and Sandler as of the time of their
writing, there was no language with strictly aspectual markers on nouns
(2004:36). However, the Kalapalo examples presented here suggest that
the nominal suffixes under discussion in the first place are not extensions
of verbal categories but true nominal derivations, and that second, they
are aspectual, not tense markers. Kalapalo uses of these morphemes. At
least four of the nine Kalapalo derivational suffixes can be firmly judged
142

aspectual because they may occur with temporally different adverbs and
clitics.
Seven of these morphemes are deverbal nominalizing suffixes
that may also occur on noun stems, while two others occur as
renominalization suffixes on possessed nouns. This group is presented
in Table 18 together with their glosses and translations.

Table 18. Aspectual Nominalizations

Stative Verb -ñїgї, -nїgї, -tsipїgї,
Nominalizations ‘transformed ‘passing ‘unending
state’ state’ imperfective
state’
Gloss TR PS US
Active Verb -tsїgї ‘end -p(f)їgї, -fopїgї, -tїfїgї,
Nominalizations result of ‘end result ‘almost but imperfective
involuntary of never
process’ voluntary accomplished’
process’
Gloss IPE VPE ICP IMP
Nominalizations -tsїpїgї, ‘not -mbїgї,
of possessed yet ‘terminated,
nouns initiated’, former’
‘future
prospective’
Gloss FP FO

Kalapalo nominalizations using aspectual suffixes reference

seven de-verbal and two possessed nominal predications concerning the
end result or eventuality of situations, both perfective and imperfective.
Some of these suffixes are used as active verb nominalizations. Others
nominalize stative and copular verbs. Two are attested as nominalizers
on possessed nouns only. The resultant nouns may be inflected with
person possessor prefixes or they may exist with a nominal modifier; the
final suffix is always –gї, which when used with the possessor person
prefix, is interpreted as the possessive suffix. These features suggest
parallelism with possessive nominal constructions. Unlike possessive
nominals, however, there are no plural suffixes possible
Stative nominal aspect suffixes may be distinguished according
to a variety of predicational features involving transformed, passing,
unending, resultative, former or terminated (including deceased), future
prospective and non-existent states. (The ‘consequential’ nominalizer -
nїmi is included in the non-aspectual group discussed in the previous
section). Active verb nominalizations include: end result of an
involuntary process, end result of a voluntary process; incompletive, i.e.,
the entity is involved in an initiated or attempted but never
accomplished action; the entity is involved in an imperfective action.
The usage of some of these Kalapalo nominal aspect morphemes is
governed by the animate or inanimate status of the entity concerned.
One appears only with words for inanimate entities, others occur only
with human entities. Following T. Payne I am using the idea of
“involuntary processes” to include one argument verbs involving change
of state, no act of volition, no motion through space, and/or no motion of
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an object (1997:55). These verbs are nominalized with the precision

suffix –ŋo.
Other than perfective nominalizations implicitly contrasting with
imperfective and stative nominalizations (shown in Table 22), the
correspondence between verbal and nominal aspect is purely semantic,
and even then, verbal aspect is closely linked to illocutionary force which
is not marked on nominals. Furthermore, as described in Chapter 6:
Verbs and Verbalizations, aspect inflections are an important marker of
syntactic verb function. On the other hand, ‘be’ verbs in copular
constructions occur in nominalized perfective and imperfective aspects
(iñïgï; anïgï; atïfïgï), and these morphemes as well as the perfect of
persistent situation atehe can occur as predicational modifiers of non-
verbal clauses. Unlike verbal affect suffixes, Kalapalo aspectual nominal
morphemes do not take a plural suffix.
While the nominalizers described in section 4.4.1 appear to have
phrasal derivational functions, aspectual nominalizations may operate at
either the independent noun or the clausal level. An important piece of
evidence for this is the presence of A and O verbal arguments preserved
in nominal clauses. Second, as examples 4.4.3.1.4b, c, h, i, and 4.4.3.1.5b
(below) demonstrate, the aspectual nominalization suffix may be
preceded by one of the non-aspectual nominalization suffixes listed in
Table 21. There is also a case of the active A nominalizer (AN)
following the VPE active verb nominalizer (4.4.3.1, 3g).

4.4.2.1. Stative Verb Nominalizations

1. -ñïgï (TR) ‘transformed state’ . These occur with non-past

references:

a. uwa-ma i-ñïgï
Q-EM EX-TR
‘What happened to (3rd person)”?

b. teh he:, tї-gepi-Gi-lї=su≈le-ñїgї

nice, REF-clean-PERM-PI=PEJ≈ATR –TR
‘How nice, he’s made himself nice and clean from all that’.

2. -nïgï (PS), passing (temporary) state . These occur with various

temporal past references:

a. kafu atsï-ga-ŋe-nïgï
sky opened.up -VT-cause-PS
‘The torn-open sky. ‘

b. aifa api-lï=lefa, iŋi-nïgï-lefa i -feke-ne uŋ-ati.

finish pull.up-PI=MT, bring-PS-MT 3-ERG-PL house-LOC,

ana fule-nïgï
corn roast-PS
‘After they pulled it up and they brought it into the house, the
corn was roasted. ‘
144

c. ule-tse- ŋuGi uk-imi-nïgï

AFR-EX-afterwards 1+2-dawn-PS
‘After that happened our (experienced) dawn.’

3. -tsipїgї (US), ‘unending condition, imperfective state’ . These occur

with present temporal references (a), (b), (c)

a. i-hi-tsipїgї its-a
3-stare.at-US EX-CI
‘He was unendingly stared at.’

b. ipo-tsipїgї, ‘straightened path’ (i.e., a path which had curved

around and then went straight on ahead).

c. tї-uwa=mbe-n-egei aɳi=mbe its-a=tiga,

RQ-chamber=SS-CONT-DEM result=SS EX-CI=EM
‘Could there be someone new in seclusion? Maybe there’s

faka-i igũ-i-tsipїgї
paling-CL surround-CL-US
someone who’se been surrounded with palings’ .

4.4.3.2 Active Verb Nominalizations

1. -tsïgï (IPE), ‘end result of an involuntary process’. This and the

following morpheme (No. 2) are distinguished according to a
voluntary/involuntary verb contrast. Examples show this occuring with
past (c), (g) , present (a), (b), (d); and future (e), (f) temporal references.

a. aŋi= mukwe=taka itaű-go-pïŋï fo-gi-tsïgï u-feke.

result= EM=EM woman-PAU-REP find-CAUS- IPE 1-ERG
‘As you may know, there are a few worthless women I’ve found
to no purpose’.

b. kanasï eñï-ki-tsïgï
Deer.image stink-cause-IPE
‘A deer made to stink.’

c. kine ki-tsïgï uŋa-fi-mbe tufugu

bread make-IPE house-ADV-SS fully
’There was bread made, all the neighbors did that.’

d. ku-Gi-tsïgï
1+2-carry- IPE
‘something that we carried’

e. i-ŋi-gote-fa ku-pehe, sa-fake-fi-tsïgï-ts≈apa

3-see-CONC-PTP we-ERG 3-side-crush-IPE-M≈CONF
e-ta kuge ki-lï kupehe. tits-ilï-fa.
 145

come-CI people utter-PI 1+2-ERG 1+3-utter-PTP

‘If we see it, “go get ‘his crushed flank’ ”, people say to us, we
all say.’

f. Taugi-feke-tsїgї-fa ili-tsomi
Taugi-ERG-IPE-PTP drink-PURP
‘In order that in the end Taugi will have drunk it.’

g. okõ-ki=lefa igї-Gi-tsїgї,
wasp-INST=MT surround-PCAUS-IPE,
‘And she allowed herself to be surrounded with wasps,

kalaki=lefa igї-Gi-tsїgї,
spiny pineapple=MTsurround-CAUS-IPE,
allowed herself to be surrounded with spiny pineapple plants,

eke-ki=lefa igї-Gi-tsїgї i-feke

snakeINST=MT surround-CAUS-IPE 3-ERG
allowed herself to be surrounded by him with snakes.’

2. -(f)pïgï (VPE), ‘end result of a voluntary process” . These occur with

past (a), (c), (d), (f); and present (b), (g) temporal references.

a. tis-eti-dyi-pïgï-iña-tifa, ti-ŋifa≈nïgï.
1+3-come.out-VI-DAT-EM, 1+3-teach≈PS
‘You are right to think our own offspring are taught these things
by us.’

b. wagi akï-i-pïgï ñ-efugu-i,

jatoba shape-EP-VPE OB-canoe-CL
‘their own canoes shaped out of jatoba’;

c. ŋuŋi-ŋu-fïgï its-a udyimo eke-tsefu-fwesu-ki itsa

lie.to-VT-VPE EX-CI 1-child.PL snake-stomach-bad-INST

i-dyi-mo-ki
EX 3-child-PL-INST
‘Being lied to by the children who have made me feel sick to my
stomach, by the children’

d. The nominalization maintains the S noun phrase of the original

verb; it is also possible from the presence of this argument and
word position to consider this a subordinate clause (see also
2.5i).

ah, ku-ñi-ta-fofo ku-nitsu atsa-te-pïgï,

assert, 1>1+2-see-CI-IM 1+2-GM give.to-VT-VPE
“I think we should surely go right away to see our grandmother’s
gift.” (what gm gave)

e. ana ẽtifu-te-pïgï kuge-pe ana

146

corn made.from-VT-VPE people-SAL corn

‘Corn was made from some people, corn.’

f. eŋu-fale ege-i tu-kiñu-lu-ko-i ts-o-te-pïgï

reason-DT DEM-CL REF-jealous-PI-PL-CL 3-burn.up-VI-VPE
‘But the reason for that was their jealousy burned them up.’

Example (g) is an example of the active experiencer lexical nominalizer

iñe (EXN) following an aspectual nominalizer (VPE).

g. Context: the ‘bicho do pe’ (chigger) a small but intensely painful

foot parasite, is travelling downriver when it is encountered by
some people. To make the grammatical process clear, I include
the preceding discourse context.

la-fa u-te-ta la-fa awa-dyu

far.away-PTP 1-go.away-CI far.away-PTP my.uncle-END

i-ndisї eɳe-lu-iña.
3-daughter eat.flesh-PI- DAT/BEN
‘I’m going far away. I’m (going) far away to eat dear uncle’s
daughter.’

tits-eɳu-fїgї-iñe ti-ɳe-ta, ti-ɳe-ta

1+3-eat.flesh-VPE-EXN 1+3-come-CI, 1+3-come-CI

tits-eɳu-fїgї-iñe
1+3-eat.flesh-VPE-EXN
‘Other’s are being eaten as we come, as we come, (other’s) are
being eaten.’

3. -fopïgï (ICP), ‘entity (encoded as O) is attempted but never fully

accomplished’. This suffix only inflects animate verbs in past temporal
contexts. The irrealis hypothetical suffix fo- precedes this suffix.

a. Taugi ito-fuegï-feke=fale ifo-te-fo-pïgï.

Taugi fire-EXCE-ERG=DT burn.up-VT-HYP-VPE
‘Taugi that time was almost burned up by Firestorm’.

4. -tïfïgï (IMP), ‘imperfective’. This suffix references an animate or

inanimate O of an imperfective active verb in non-past temporal
contexts. Often the implication is that O encodes a part or segment of
the entity.

a. ta-tuGi-ñe=gele oĩ-za-tïfïgï
NEG--firm-VT-SN=PT tie.down;VT-?-IMP
‘he being not tied down firmly enough’

b. wegufi- fa-tïfïgï
jatoba make.from=IMP
 147

‘being made from (a piece of) jatoba (bark)’

c. s-igï ≈ke-tïfïgï Ø-apïŋï-fïgï-lefa

3-head≈cut≈IMP 3-die-VPE-MT
‘She was unconscious as her head was almost cut off’

d. ito foni-mak=igei i-fe-tïfïgï, apa-dyu i-fe-tїfïgï

fire want-EM=IDEM-CL 3-tie.up≈IMP FA-END 3-tie.up-IMP
“The one who has tied him up wants fire, it now seems, the one
who has tied up dear father. “

e. faka itsa-ke-tïfïgï
giant.bamboo cut.off-VT-IMP
‘A piece off from giant bamboo’.

f. telo-a ikugu-ake u-їi-ga-tïfïgï

another-E fully-COM 2>1-do.to-SCAUS-IMP
‘With someone completely different for you to mess with.’

g. si-tïfïgï, ‘one who is coming’ (‘a visitor’)

h. biii,
(sound of things thrown about)
‘Throwing arrows all over’.

t-apa-ga-lї=mbe-tїfїgї ata-ni,
REF-thrown.about-SCAUS-PI=SS-IMP EQA-CI,
‘His own things thrown around, lying about after that,

fїgi-pe agi-pїgї=lefa i-feke.

arrow-SAL throw-PS=MT 3-ERG
those arrows of his he had thrown about.’

Note: in the last line of this example the verb has resultative passing state
(PS) inflection, but otherwise operates completely as a transitive verb
with A and O arguments, as well as the cliticized MT relating the entire
clause to the previous one (first line) in the chain.

i. lepe kuG-iti=lefa ifa-ga-ki-ga-tïfïgï .

next all.together-ADV=MT pull.on-upwards-VT-SCAUS-IMP
i-feke-ni
3-ERG-PL
‘Everything together was being pulled up by them.’

j. This is an example with verbal A argument preserved, and the

active copular verb predication in perfect of persistent situation
aspect. The nominalizer is followed by the experiencer
nominalizer -fiñe (EXN).

Taugi anda-gї o-ga-tїfїgї-fiñe i-feke atehe.

148

Taugi follower-POSS reject-SCAUS-IMP-EXN 3-ERG EQA-

PER.

ule-pe atehe.
AFR-SAL EQA-PER
‘She had been rejecting Taugi’s followers (‘She was the Taugi’s
follower’s rejector’). That was being done to them.’

4.4.3.3. Nominalizations of possessives

1. -tsïpïgï ‘not yet initiated’, ‘future prospective’ (FP). This suffix

references an entity that is the prospective result of a process that has
not yet been initiated. This morpheme may be used with both animate
and (more rarely) inanimate entities. They only occur with possessed
nouns, though some of the inherently possessed kindship nouns do not
take a possessive suffix.

a. This and the following examples are taken from the affinal
civility register:

u-li-mo-si-tsïpïgï
1-child-PL-MO-NA
‘not yet the mother of any children of mine’

b. u-li-mo-wï-tsïpïgï
1-child-PL-Fa-NA
‘not yet the father of any children of mine‘

c. aŋikogo efu-gu-tsïpïgï ŋoŋo-fa,

fierce.people canoe-POSS-NA dirt-PTP
‘not yet any canoes of the fierce people, just dirt’

2. –mbїgї, ‘former, terminated’(FO), said of a kin relationship or a

separated body part (in the examples, a turtle shell, intestines).

a. tifo-mbïgï: ‘his former widow’ (i.e., new wife of a man who has
married his dead brother’s wife;

b. wende tũ-wï fidyo i-ti-ñi-mbïgï

over. there REF-father shell (“skin”) 3-return-SN- FO
‘Over there is his father’s shell from before that’s been
returned.’

c. (u)w-iñugu figu-mbugu
1-ancestors grandchild-FO
‘our late ancestor’s grandchildren’, or ‘our ancestor’s
grandchildren from the past’

d. ama-ñu –iña= mukwe-tï-fa Ø-ñïŋ-itsi-ga-ni

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mother-END-BEN= EM-M-PTP 3-OB-pierce-VT-ANT

uguiŋï-mbïgï-pe= mukwe-tsï- fa.

intestine-FO-SAL=EM-M-PTP
‘For poor dear Mother some of these skewers of their former
intestines, though she may not care for them.”

e. ñafïgï ŋiso-mbïgï= nika-fa ege, ŋiso-mbïgï egei,

Ñafïgï husband-FS=EM-PTP PDEM, husband-FO IDEM,

sakatsuegï fisï-mbïgï
Sakatsuegï YBR-FO
‘He’s Ñafïgï’s former husband isn’t he, her former husband?’
“Sakatsuegï’s former brother,”

f. ige-ŋi-mbïgï-ko:
take-EN-FO-PL
‘who had taken them before’

g. õ-ga-ti-ñi-mbïgï- feke
spurn-VT-DES-SN-FO-ERG
‘The one who had tried to get rid of him’

h. Here is an example with a FO morpheme followed by a EQA in

imperfective:

iɳi-mbïgï a-tïfïgï-lefa, ago-pe.

see-FO EQA-IMP=MT, people-SAL
‘Their former human images remained behind.’
150

Chapter 5
Demonstratives

Demonstratives are a small closed word class in Kalapalo, with very

limited inflections. In this chapter, I examine in detail the functions the
members of this word class play in nominal and verbal (including
copular verb) predications. Demonstratives can be distinguished
syntactically from nouns as they cannot be derived from members of
other word classes, nor may they be subject to derivational processes.
Furthermore they do not host case markers. However, there are cases in
which demonstratives are inflected or host clitics.
There are five types of Kalapalo demonstratives, distinguished
according to prosody, predicational function, and their place in clausal
constituent order. I call these types pronominal (PDEM), adnominal
(ADEM), identificational (IDEM), locational adverbial (no gloss,
translated in glossing), and manner (no gloss, translated in glossing),
following Diessel’s (1999; 2009) terminological distinctions for the first
three and Dixon’s (2010, Vol. 2, Chapter 15) terms for the fourth and
fifth. There are very limited inflectional features of demonstratives.

5.1. Inflectional features of demonstratives

Identificational demonstratives may host the class inclusion copula suffix

–i, the “unique” copula suffix –a (U) to reference “uniqueness” and the
‘salient’ copula suffix –pe (SAL) to reference a partitive noun as follows:

a. igei-i
b.igei-a
c. igei-pe

The ‘manner’ demonstrative IDEM (igea, ‘this way’) is always

constructed with the –a suffix.

Pronominal demonstratives in a head-modifying function, and

the ‘situational’ identificational demonstrative igei may host an
interclausal reference marker (dye (SE) or =dya (DE), the ‘same’ and
‘different event’ clitics). Example (d) shows this construction with a
pronominal demonstrative:

d. A conversation with the second person pronominal

demonstrative uege in a rhetorical question construction
followed by first person pronominal hosting =dye (SE),
‘same event’ inter-clausal reference marker clitic:

tï-ma uege
RQ-EM you
‘who are you?’
 151

uge=dye-ta
me=SE-DIS
‘I’m me, from that other place.’

5.2 Word order features of demonstratives

Demonstratives show syntactic differences when it comes to word order.

In predicational clauses, the predicate (whether adverbial, nominal, or
verbal) will appear directly before a demonstrative. Example (a)
illustrates the use of an adnominal demonstrative with a nominal
predicate.

a. u-ititї fegei
1-name ADEM
‘This is my name.’

Occasionally a demonstrative will precede the predicate. This

will only occur when the demonstrative references transitive O. In
example (b) the nominative-accusative imperative construction shows O
in such a focalized position:

b. ege-pe ake-tsaŋe tuŋ-Gwe.

PDEM-SAL SD-DEO give-I
‘One of these should be given by you.’

c. This example is of a preposed interclausal reference construction

with the inanimate identificational pronominal igei and the
adverbal ‘intensive’ suffix –ku and the IRM ‘new event’ clitic
=dya.

igei-ku=dya ti-tsï-Gi ≈ñu e-feke-ni

IDEM-INT=DE 1+3-wait-SCAUS≈SN 2-ERG-PL
“You all have made us wait too long for them.”

Apparently the local demonstrative ande is always focalized as it

normally always appears clause initially as in the example (d). (Lexical
adverbs may occur either in clause initial or clause final position).

d. ande ey-ti-Gi-ni uge.

here.now 2-come.for-CAUS-AN PDEM
‘Me, I’m here to get you’ (lit., ‘com-er for you’. )

The morphological and semantic features that distinguish the

five types of demonstratives are summarized in Table 19.
152

Table 19. Morphological and Semantic Distinctions in Demonstrative Sets

Morpheme PDEM ADEM IDEM Local Manner
type adverbial
Inanimate 3rd ige figei igei
person or
situational
Proximate, ege fegei egei inde, igea
3rd person
Distal, 3rd ele felei elei wende, ila
person
Medial, 3rd ande,
person
Indefinite, sei segei
3rd person (proxi-
mate)
selei
(distal)
Unknown, unde
3rd person
1st person uge
2nd person uege
1+2 kukuge
inclusive.
1+2 tisuge
exclusive
Anaphoric uɳele
anaphoric ule
focus
referent

5.3 Pronominal demonstratives and free personal pronouns.

These morphemes are person marked as shown in Table 19. The

stem shapes of pronominal demonstratives are distinguished by
the presence of the full set of pronominal prefixes that
distinguish person status on possessed nouns and verbs. They
operate as both free personal pronouns and to modify a head NP
either in relative clauses or when functioning as verbal
arguments
As free pronouns, pronominal demonstratives substitute
for nouns (especially name, kinship term or other relationship
word). Free personal pronouns may also be used as independent
personal pronouns when personal identity requires emphasis for
pragmatic reasons. Independent pronouns can be distinguished
from pronominal demonstratives prosodically as the former are
stressed on the initial syllable while the latter are stressed on the
final syllable.
Pronominal demonstratives usually appear following
their predicates (as do other head modifying demonstratives).
Unlike head modifying nouns in relative clause and oblique
constructions however, pronominal demonstratives do not take
 153

case suffixes When pronominal demonstratives occur in a

possessive NP, however, they will precede their possessed
predicates as do other possessor nouns.
Because of the similarity in function, I include in this set
of person marked pronominal demonstratives three others that
have general third person reference. The first is an indefinite
pronominal demonstrative sei described in examples 5.3.2(i) and
(j). The second is a general anaphoric morpheme uŋele (ANA)
only used with animate arguments described in section 5.4.3.6.1.
The third is ule, a multifunctional anaphoric focal referent (AFR)
described in 5.4.3.6.2. The latter two morphemes seem related
as both may be formed from the distal third person
demonstrative ele, or possibly are compounded with a taxis clitic
(see Chapter 12 for a description of this word sub-class).
Pronominal demonstratives with their glosses and translations
are summarized in Table 20.

Table 20. Pronominal Demonstratives

Morpheme Gloss Translation

uge me ‘me’

uege you ‘you’

ege 3PROX ‘this person’. may also be used as an

informal vocative.
ele 3DIST ‘that person’ (from the past)

sei IND ‘someone’,’ something’ (indefinite)

kukuge 1+2 ‘us’, ‘we’ (inclusive)

tisuge 1+3 ‘us’, ‘we’ (exclusive)

uŋele ANA ‘the person I just mentioned’

ule AFR anaphoric focus referent (‘that, as before)

5.3.1. Nominal predications with pronominal demonstratives.

The following examples illustrate the variety of head-marking
functions.

a. Second person plural demonstrative as the head of a

nominal predication:

Oti=maki kukuge
(name)=EM 1+2
‘I realize we’re Oti people after all’.
154

b. The first person pronominal demonstrative following a

de-verbal agentive nominalization (AN)

ande ey-ti-Gi-ni uge.

here.now 2-come.for-VT-AN me
‘Me, I’m here to get you’.

5.3.2. Adverbial predications with pronominal demonstratives

a. First person singular uge and second person singular

uege pronominal demonstratives juxtaposed on adverbial
clauses. The example is taken from one of the “little”
greeting rituals:

[ande≈ke-tsaŋe uge] ama Ø- nïg≈i-feke

here:now≈ SD-DEO me mother (voc) 3-PS≈3-ERG
‘“I’ve decided I should be here Mother”, he said to her.’

ande=nik≈ale uege a-ñu isi ki-lï.

here.now-EM-UT you 2-END 3;mo utter-PI
‘It does seem that you are here now for good, my dear”,
his mother said.’

b. 1+2 plural PDEM kukuge in negative adverbial

predication (circumfixed adverb in boldface). In (b)
PEM also hosts the optional plural suffix –ko, apparently
in this example to emphasize the totality of the group,
with the sense of ‘none of us’:

afïtï-ku-dya≈ke-tsaŋe kukuge-ko-la
denial-INT-SD-DEO 1+2-PL-NEG
‘We’ll all be prevented from (sleeping) well

c. 1+3: tisuge in existential ‘be’ verb construction:

lepene tisuge ti-tse-ta awa

afterwards 1+3 1+3-EX-CI uncle (voc)
‘Later we’ll be there Uncle.’

d. An imperative example, where the third person

proximate pronominal demonstrative hosts the ‘partitive’
salient suffix –pe (and is perhaps thereby re-nominalized
if demonstratives are considered a kind of noun) and
precedes the deontic postposition and the final verbal
imperative predication ‘give’.

ege-pe ake-tsaŋe tuŋ-Gwe.

PDEM-SAL SD-DEO give-I
‘One of these should be given by you’.
 155

g. Use of 3p ege occurs as 2p vocative free pronoun in

casual male speech, usually to call someone’s attention
to the speaker.

ege (response) ai
PDEM ‘Yes?’ (‘I’m listening’)

h. Use of inanimate pronoun ige with class inclusion

copula suffix -i in a rhetorical interrogative
construction:

tї-tafa-gї-pe ige-i
RQ-gourd-POSS-SAL PDEM-CI
‘Is this someone’s gourd?”

i. Use of the indefinite third person sei heading an

interrogative clause:

tї-su-ma-ne sei
RQ-PEJ-EM-CONT PDEM
‘Is there something (alive) here?”

j. The indefinite third person sei heading an existential

copular imperative construction; a man has been
transformed by his relatives into something no longer
human:

ah, ege-te sei≈ts-e

EXP DEM-URG PNOM-EX≈I
‘Now you’re something who must exist (up) there!’

5.3.3. Other non-verbal predications using pronominal demonstratives

a. In a fusional type of construction, the first person pronominal

demonstrative as a free pronoun is virtually prefixed to the
deontic post-positional stem in imperative mood; there is,
however, no deontic prefix ake-. This may mean the
demonstrative substitutes for the prefix:

uge≈tsaŋe.
me≈DEO
‘It must be (has to be) me’

5.3.4. Pronominal demonstratives as verbal arguments

a. Use of pronominal 3p distal ele as S of active equative copular

verb with adverbial adjunct (bracketed):
.
156

ele ata-ni [etefu-andi,] Uledyalu ata-ni,

PDEM EQA-CI [stomach-fill], Uledyalu EQS-CI
‘She was pregnant, Uledyalu was,

b. In an extended transitive speech act (‘says something

about you to us’), the second person pronominal
demonstrative uege references an oblique argument.
Note there is no case marker.

ku-pisua-gї ki-ta dyogu=mba≈k≈egei uege

1+2-Obr-POSS utter-CI uncaring=DS≈EM≈IDEM PDEM
ku-pehe,
1+2-ERG
‘You knew didn’t you that your older brother spoke
thoughtlessly about you to us about something (I’m going to
tell you next).’

5.3.5 Pronominal demonstratives as arguments of de-verbal

nominalizations

a. uɳele, ‘anaphoric’ ‘that same person’ (ANA) as S in a

perfect state nominalization construction:

uɳele-fa ina aki-nїgї

ANA-PTP 3;ALL stop-PS
‘That same person stopped (coming) to them.’

b. tisuge as relative clause (marked as such with modifier –

tse) of the oblique argument of a transitive verb that has
been nominalized in passing state perfective aspect:

tisuge-tsїgї-tse tis-iña Ø-tu-nїg≈i-feke

1+3-only-M 1+3-DAT/BEN 3-give-PS≈3-ERG
‘We’re the only ones he’s given it to.’

5.3.6 Anaphoric pronominal demonstratives

There are two other pronominal demonstrative morphemes. These are not
distinguished as to person or number. They are the anaphoric free
pronoun uŋele (ANA), and the anaphoric focus referent ule (AFR). Both
function syntactically to some degree like free pronouns insofar as they
allow the –pe or –a copula suffixes, and exhibit relatively free order,
either preceding or following a clause. They differ from free pronouns in
accepting the primary topical participant marker –fa (see Chapter 14.3).
As described in 5.3.6.2, ule has complex syntactic functions unlike any
other pronominal demonstratives.
 157

5.3.6.1 uŋele, free pronoun (ANA)

This may be translated ‘that same person I spoke of before’. The

anaphorical pronominal always appears utterance initially. It
appears to function to ‘continuity focus’ a NP that has appeared
previously in focus by fronting. This is what happens to the NP
iɳe, ‘bee hive’ in line ii.

a. i. atapa-tsï-fa s-aupïgï, atapa, atapa.

bee-M-PTP 3-grandfather bee, bee.

ii. iŋe=dye-tsa. eh.

bee.hive=SA-EX yes
‘Their grandfather was Bee. Bee, Bee. Who lives in a hive.
Yes.’
.
iii. uŋele i-pefe-gï-tsï ta-nde-Ø i-feke.
ANA 3-pollen-POSS –M store.up-VT-RES 3-ERG
‘That same one I just mentioned, (where) he stores up his pollen
caches.’

b. lepene uŋele etimbe-pïgï at-ani=lefa.

afterwards ANA arrive-VPE EQA-ANT=MT
‘Later on that person (will have) returned from working on his
own place.’

5.3.6.2 ule, anaphoric focus referent (AFR)

This morpheme references the focal status of a participant in a sequence

of events. It has two major functions. First, as in examples (a) and (b),
ule frequently occurs at the beginning of a major narrative segment,
marking a shift from immediately preceding focus to a new one. Second,
when ule appears at the end of a subordinate clause as shown in brackets
in (c), it marks the clause as subordinate and the O of the subordinate
clause as equivalent to S of the main clause. The subordinator function of
ule is discussed further in Chapter 13: 13.4.5.

a. In this example, there is an ule anaphoric focus referent

marking a major segment focal shift in a narrative. This
function involves the suffix –fa, allowing ule to mark a
primary topical participant. Where ule references an
event context, it hosts a taxis clitic (b):

ule igiku-ni-ta=fale fegei Taugi-feke

AFR envy-VT-CI=NT ADEM Taugi-ERG
‘Because of all that, now Taugi envied him’.

b. ule-tse-ŋuGi i-fïgi-pe ti-dyï≈lefa i-feke

AFR-M-IT 3-arrow-SAL take out-PI≈MT 3-ERG
‘Suddenly stopping that, he removed his arrow
158

tafaku-gu ugupo-ŋo-peŋine.
bow-POSS above-MAL-LOC-ABL
from his bow (held) threateningly above (him)’.

c. This example shows ule marking a subordinate clause:

kuigiku etu-ki-lï li-tsa-ule-tï i-feke-ne.
hot.soup finished-PI drink-CI-AFR-M 3-ERG-PL
‘When the hot soup was ready, it’s said they all drank it’.

5.4 Adnominal demonstratives

There are five adnominal demonstratives: figei (inanimate), definite

animate fegei (proximate, 3p proximate (in environment of speaker and
hearer), and felei (distal or remote, not in the environment of the speaker
or hearer). The adnominal set distinguishes between inanimate and
animate entities, and members of the set are not person marked. The
inanimate adnominal demonstrative (c) figei, has no distal-proximate
contrast. The latter is used not only for inanimate entities but to index
situations. Figei sometimes follows a finite verb, in which case it appears
to function as a focus on the action. There is a fourth proximate
‘indefinite’ adnominal demonstrative segei and an indefinite distal
adnominal demonstrative selei. These appear to have very restricted use.
As adnominal demonstratives are stressed on the second syllable, they
exhibit an emergent vocalic glide. The morpheme is preceded by /f/, or
/s/ for the indefinite form.
For at least three reasons, these must be distinguished from
pronominal demonstratives. First, there is no person marking, only
proximate/distal and animate/inanimate contrasts. Second, unlike
pronominal demonstratives, adnominal demonstratives never themselves
serve as arguments in transitive verb clauses. Third, in nominal
predicational constructions, while their syntactic relation to the predicate
appears to be the same as pronominal demonstratives (predicate NP +
demonstrative; examples 1.a-d), there are however constructions where
the adnominal demonstrative is used as a modifier of the head NP. Thus
adnominal demonstratives function as markers of the relative clause
function. Members of this set may accompany a co-referential noun or
de-verbal nominalization predicate, and in some cases a finite verb
clause. Adnominal demonstratives may precede a deontic postposition.
(See examples 5.1.1c; 5.1.2h).

5.4.1 Nominal predications with adnominal demonstratives

In this function, an adnominal demonstrative serves as the head of the

noun phrase, whether a NP (a, b) or a verbal argument (c). Examples (d
and e) show the adnominal demonstrative modifying de-verbal
nominalizations.

a. An example of the distal adnominal demonstrative in

nominal predication:
 159

iɳandsu felei, iɳandsu.

the sister ADEM, the sister
‘That was the sister, the sister.

b. This example shows a proximate adnominal

demonstrative modifying a NP to create an attributive
predication:

ku-mu-ŋe-tu fegei
1+2-son-VI-ATN DEM‘one of our youths’

c. The proximate adnominal demonstrative follows an intransitive

construction in this example, marking S:

auGї-nda fegei
lie-CI ADEM
‘That’s (3p) lying’.

d. An example in which the proximate demonstrative

appears with a deverbal nominalization, marking S

ukw-ege=su fegei
1-lazy=PEJ ADEM
‘my unwillingness to work’

e. In another verbless clause, a proximate adnominal

demonstrative following a nominalized transitive verb
marks P:

ti-ŋene-ti-ñe fegei
REF-fear-VT-EXN ADEM
it’s being frightened of something this is (i.e., ‘This one is afraid
of something’)

f. An example of the indefinite proximate adnominal

demonstrative:

ah u-te-lu segei tafiɳa-i

EXP 1-go.away-PI ADEM caiman-CL
‘Surely I once went away like this as a caiman’.
Note: the expression ‘caiman’ refers to a man going from
house to house looking for a lover (as the caiman goes from
female to female throughout its territory.)

5.4.2. Adnominal demonstratives as relative clause function markers

In this function, the proximate adnominal demonstrative (or a homonym)

marks a focalized NP that precedes a nominative-accusative clause
construction, following the verb. The demonstrative directly follows the
verb even if there is a subsequent oblique argument (as in example (a).
A point of interest is that the verb in the main clause is always in
160

continuous/indicative aspect/mood. A final feature is a pause between the

two clauses.
The following (a) is one example of this type of construction. In
this example, the O noun phrase is modified by the adnominal
demonstrative appearing after the verb. As expected the clause in this
example is in continuous indicative inflection. The adnominal
demonstrative is modifying the NP in focus, tolo ipugu. The example is
taken from a story about the trickster Taugi, who will turn himself into
a woman in order to deceive a powerful being whose house he covets
(see also example c).

O S M
a. teh! tolo ipugu, ule ka-gu-nda fegei
nice! bird feather, AFR talk.about-VT-CI ADEM

Oblique
Taugi-iña
Taugi-BEN/DAT
‘“How beautiful the cover of bird feathers”. That’s what
someone told Taugi.’

b. In this example, there is a cleft construction involving a copular

clause built with the active equative ‘be’ verb ata-. This clause is
followed by a complement clause (in brackets). The adverbialized
copular subject igei-fuɳu (IDEM-unlike), ‘unlike this’, is separated
from the adnominal modifier fegei by the copular construction.

S M
igei-fuŋ≈ata-lї-a fegei
IDEM-unlike≈EQA-CI-U ADEM

complement clause
[ŋiko-mbogu-feke u-e-ŋalu].
food-W-ERG I-shoot-REV
“When there’s something different from this very thing, the
lack of food bothers me.’

c. In this example, a relative clause is marked by the class inclusion

copula suffix (CL) on the relative NP. The adnominal demonstrative
precedes the relative clause.

S M RC
Taugi e-ñїgї figei [Nakika fitsu-i]
Taugi EX-TR ADEM Nakika wife-CL
‘Taugi turned himself into a wife for Nakika.’

d. In this example, the main clause is highly abbreviated as

there is only a discourse lexeme, ‘ready.done’ and no
explicit argument, but there is no ambiguity as the
 161

preceding line of the story describes a woman going to

see the piled-up remains of a snake she has cut into
pieces; it is these piles that are moldering, ‘growing
hair’. The adnominal demonstrative follows the transitive
clause, referencing the O component of the explicit
argument structure marked by the pronominal prefix its-
(3S>3P). Again, the transitive verb is inflected in
continuative indicative aspect/mood:

aifa, its-upu-Gi-ta fegei

ready.done, 3S>3P-mould-VT-CI DEM
‘This was the result, the hair was growing on it.’

5.4.3. Referencing a noun phrase as P argument

In some instances, the adnominal demonstrative references a noun phrase

as P argument, of either an object-backgrounding (valence decreasing)
clause, or a verb phrase in middle-voice construction.
In (a), the adnominal demonstrative (in boldface) references the
preceding noun phrase as a P argument and as head noun of a relative
clause This is possible because the immediately following valence
decreasing object-backgrounding (OB) clause is actually a de-verbalized
nominalization. As a de-verbal derivational construction,this is a type of
subordination strategy (described further in Chapter 13:13.3.4). The
distal adnominal demonstrative felei follows the noun phrase which is
subsequently ‘backgrounded’ in the final subordinate relative clause
nominalized verb, ‘what was carried back’ (bracketed). Again, as in
preceding examples, the nominalized relative or subordinate clause verb
is in continuative/indicative aspect/mood.

a. ifaki ekugu ete-lï-ko=fata eGi-po-i-dyï-ko,

far fully go.away-PI-PL=SIM carry-VT-EP-PI-PL
‘They went away for some distance carrying him,

[fïge-p≈iŋo tu-fisua-gï felei

arrow-SAL≈LOCN REF-OBr-POSS ADEM

[Ø-ñ-ige-ta-nïmi]
[3-OB-bring.back-CI-CONS]
‘bringing back their older brother with the arrows sticking out of
him.’ (lit., ‘stick-out arrow their older brother whom they
brought back’)

b. In this example (similar to 5.4.2c) the inanimate or situational

adnominal demonstrative figei references the preceding middle
voice verbal construction as the argument of the relative ‘be’
clause that follows (in brackets). The verb ‘to change, transform
oneself’, like the other relative clauses in these examples, is
inflected in continuative indicative aspect/mood. The relative
162

clause describes an action that has resulted in the copular main

clause. This main clause construction is a de-verbal ‘transformed
state’ (TR) nominal perfective NP.

Taugi et-iŋ-ki-ta figei, [itau e-ñïgï=lefa].

(name) MV-change-CAUS-CI ADEM, woman EX-
TR=MT
‘Taugi changed himself, he became a woman’.

c. Use of the third person indefinite distal adnominal demonstrative

selei following a semantic verb.

ohsi-fa Ø-nїgi-feke,
HORT-PTP 3-PS-ERG,

ai=lefa te-ɳe-lu=mbedye selei-fa.

final=MT eat.flesh-VT-PI=SSE ADEM-PTP
‘Go ahead’, he said to him, and so finally he ate (what was
offered him), whatever that was,

teɳe-lu≈le feke. aifa

eat.flesh-PI≈AFR ERG, done.
‘he ate it. That’s all.’

5.4.4 Summary of relative clause marking by adnominal

demonstratives

The following are the features of the use of adnominal demonstratives as

relative pronouns, to mark relative clauses:

-The shared argument may be explicit in each clause, or

only present in the relative clause, but not present only
in the main clause.
-The arguments are either S or P; the main clause may
have an extended argument but that is not shared with
the relative clause.
-The verb is always in continuative/indicative
illocutionary force/aspect inflection
-The verb is always either middle voice intransitive, or if
transitive it is nominative-accusative, or ‘de-transitive’
valence-decreased (patient backgrounding). This use
of the adnominal demonstrative clause marking is thus
an important aspect of the ergative split in the
language (see Chapter 6.3).
-The main clause may be substituted for by a discourse
morpheme (a single lexical word) or an ideophone,
that is, constructions with no explicit argument or
verbal structure.
 163

- Either the main or the subordinate clause can be a de-

verbal nominalization, but not both.

5.5 Identificational demonstratives

There are three identificational demonstratives: egei (3p proximate, elei

(3p distal), igei (inanimate or situational). The set distinguishes the same
three types of entities found in the adnominal demonstrative set, the
fourth member of this set, selei, does not have an adnominal equivalent.
As shown in Table 24, the stems of identificational
demonstratives are the same as for pronominal and adnominal
demonstratives. Identificational demonstratives show final glide as do
adnominals, but unlike adnominals they lack the initial /f/ element. With
emphasis on the second syllable, there is an emergent glide as with
adnominal demonstratives. However, the morphophonemic shape differs
as there is no initial /f/.
Identificational demonstratives appear in association with
verbless, imperative or interrogative, or copular verb clauses, less
commonly with finite transitive verb clauses. These demonstratives
appear to mark the change of function of a NP appearing in two different
clauses. They appear clause initially when followed by an adverb or at
the end of copular verb clauses. As with other demonstrative types,
identificational demonstratives may also appear at the end of verbless
clauses.

5.5.1. Referencing copula subject (CS)

Where the identificational demonstrative follows an adverbial adjunct, it

references that adjunct as the situational condition of the existential
copula verb in the clause. The copula construction in this case is always
in continuous indicative aspect/mood (itsa).

a. Here, the situational demonstrative igei first directly follows an

adverbial adjunct, then follows the NP in an oblique (locative)
case construction preceding the main copula verb. The
predication has two components: a) the speaker has no doubt
about what is going on, and b) the person she married has turned
out not to be human. Igei references both clauses as sharing the
S argument of the copular verb. In this complex construction,
the speaker uses the identificational demonstrative twice,
because the predication has two components: The first instance
of use is in the initial adverbial clause (bracketed), the second is
the main existential copular (i-) verb clause with the locative
adverbial adjunct. As the demonstrative morpheme is non-
animate, but at least the second NP is clearly animate, I interpret
igei as a ‘situational’ demonstrative:

[afïtï-ku=maki igei] kuge-fïŋï-kai

[denial-INT=EM IDEM] person-unlike-beside
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igei u-its-a
IDEM 1-EX-CI
‘There’s no doubt at all, that this thing I’ve come to
live with isn’t human.

b. Another ‘situational’ predication in which a de-adverbialized

nominalization and a second NP both reference an animate
entity. These are linked to each other and to the final copular
clause by the situational demonstrative. The de-adverbial
nominalization occurs with the class inclusion and negative
suffixes on the adverbial atutu, ‘good’. As the demonstrative
references the initial NP as the S of the copular verb, it appears
to have scope over both NP; however the second NP (efisї, ‘your
younger brother’) is the head of this construction.

atutu-i-la igei, e-fisï its-a

good-CL-NEG IDEM, 2-YBro EX-CI
‘This is not a good situation that your younger brother lives in.’

c. Here, the first clause has a fronted ergative NP that is referenced

by the proximate demonstrative as the shared argument of the
second de-adverbal nominalization clause (bracketed). There, the
argument is S.

i-ñandsu-feke egei e-lu,

3-sister-ERG IDEM anger-PI
‘It was his sister who was angry with him,

[tї-ko-ti-ñї ege ñandsu-i].

[REF-anger-VT-EXN PDEM sister-CL]
the angry one was one of his sisters.’

d. This is an example of the identificational demonstrative

referencing a shared argument in a complement and subordinate
clause. The argument in the main clause is S, but in the
subordinate clause it is P. In this complex clause construction,
the main ‘reason’ complement clause includes the existential
copular verb construction in continuous indicative mood. The
subordinate clause is marked as such by the anaphoric topic
referent in essive nominalization (ule-pe) appearing at the end of
the utterance. This subordinate clause (bracketed) includes a
fronted NP, the ideophone + local demonstrative + NP; the latter
is an P argument. The third person copular verbal argument
(elided) is marked by the proximate identificational
demonstrative egei as A of the pseudo-transitive ideophone tsiuk
(referencing the action of the arrow slicing through the head of a
fish).
 165

eŋï=tsa≈l≈egei, [u-fïgi-feke egei tsiuk

reason≈EX=UT≈IDEM 1-arrow-ERG IDEM (sound of slicing
through bone)

inde ti-tsï-gï ule-pe]

here REF-head-POSS AFR-SAL
‘What was happening was my arrow cut right through its head
here.’

e. In this interrogative example, the proximate

identificational demonstrative egei hosts a class
inclusion copula suffix and references the action of the S
of the existential copular verb as reflexive:

uwa=su-ki apa-dyu-ko i-tsa-ko egei-i

Q-PEJ-MIR father-END-PL EX-CL-PL IDEM-CL
‘What in the world are our dear fathers doing to themselves?’

f. An example of a rhetorical question construction with

the proximate identificational demonstrative:

ah, tї-n≈egei u-figї agi-ɳo-pe-i-la

EXP, RQ-CONT-IDEM 1-grandson like-SN-ESS-IRR-NEG
‘Surely this can’t be someone like my grandson, can it?’

5.5.2 Referencing fronted NP as former S or A of a de-verbal

nominalization

In these constructions, the clausal argument has been preserved

even though the verb has been nominalized. The
identificational demonstrative following the NP seems to
be referencing a former S or A clausal argument.
a. An infomational question with the equative copular
verb in active verb imperfective aspect nominalization:

uwa igei at-ïfïgï

Q IDEM EQ-IMP
‘How is this being done?

b. With intransitive verb nominalization:

ifaki-la ekugu Aulukuma igei fuɳ-i-nїgї

far-NEG fully (name) IDEM breath-VI-PS
‘Not much farther on Aulukuma was gasping for breath.’

5.5.3. Identificational demonstrative follows the semantic or copula verb

The identificational demonstrative also appears in clause final position.

As seen in the following examples, a lexical or existential copular root in
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verbal construction is often followed by the identificational

demonstrative (a and b). This may also occur where a NP in a preceding
clause is linked to a subsequent verbal predication (as in b).

a. The identificational demonstrative elei, a remote or distal

animate referent, is shown here linking the initial NP (in
brackets) to the final (bracketed) noun, which is followed by a
clear pause (marked with ‘,’). Although the speaker pauses, the
noun is not really ‘free floating’. The entire nominal predication
is also linked as S to itsa, the existential copular root in
continuous indicative aspect/mood:

[aŋi-folo muku-gu-pe] its-a elei, [kaidyë].

original-N son-POSS-CL EX-CI IDEM, monkey
‘The son of an Ancient woman was a monkey.‘

b. The following is an example of the use of the identificational

demonstrative in two interrogative constructions, where it
appears at the end of each construction. A leader calls others out
to the plaza and is asked for the reason:

uwa-m≈igei, uwa-ma≈ki-ta igei?

Q-EM≈IDEM, Q-EM≈2-utter-CI IDEM
‘What’s this (situation), what are you talking about?’

c. Here the identificational demonstrative follows the copular verb.

The copular verb + demonstrative participates in an auxiliary
construction. The utterance is monoclausal. The copular verb is
marked with first person S and continuous indicative
aspect/mood, while the semantic verb is marked with 1st person
plural S and continuous indicative aspect/mood. (More
discussion on auxiliary constructions is found in Chapter 8, ‘Be’
Verbs and Copularity and Chapter 13, ‘Complex Clause
Constructions’).

ah, kup-iñano-ko ku-pulu-nda-ko u-itsa igei

EXP, 1+2-OBro-PL 1+2-travel-CI-PL 1-EX DEM-CL
‘I’m (in this situation) as our brothers travel around.’

5.5.4. Identificational demonstratives in other kinds of constructions

a. An verbless rhetorical interrogative example with an

identificational demonstrative:

tu-itigi-ma igei?
who-hammock-POSS-EM IDEM
“Whose hammock is this one here?”
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b. This is an example of the often-used identificational

demonstrative+adverb+ interclausal reference marker (IRM)
construction distinctive to the identificational demonstrative:
igei-ku=dya, ‘just like that but...’ The initial head noun is
followed by a deverbal relative clause, then the argument
referencing construction. Use of the IRM =dya (DE) predicts
new event descriptions in the final clause (bracketed).

tu-ge-ki-ñe ku-kwi-tofo igei-ku=dya

REF-fishy-ADV-EXN 1+2-utter-USIN IDEM-INT=DE

[si-te-Ø u-an-їgї]
PITY-VT-RES 1-EQS-PS
‘The result was that ‘the fishy ones’, just as we call them, took
pity on me.’

5.5.5 Identificational demonstratives and comparative constructions

The identificational demonstrative also appears in comparative

constructions. In the following example, the speaker is naming two
flutes, as a way of distinguishing them from each other. In (a), the
identificational demonstrative is simply linking the name of one of the
flutes to the existential copular verb (inflected with the “uninterrupted
event” taxis clitic =ale; bearing a name is an active relation, one that will
be used ‘forever’.) In (b), the first (identificational) demonstrative is not
associated with the copular verb. This NP is followed by a second (in
brackets), which includes the adnominal demonstrative (fige-i); this
second demonstrative links the named second flute to the idea of an older
sister. In both lines, the final predicational element is made clear by a
pause following the demonstrative. In (b), this is a repetition of the
predication at the outset of the declarative.

a. kagutu≈ts≈al≈igei, kagutu, Taugi ki-lï

flute≈EX≈UT≈IDEM, kagutu, Taugi utter-PI

b. kuluta-fa igei, [ifasï figei, kuluta ]

flute-PTP IDEM, OZ ADEM, kuluta

ikene=hale kagutu.
YZ=NO kagutu.
‘This is the kagutu, kagutu, Taugi declared. And THIS
is the kuluta, the older sister, kuluta. The younger sister
though is kagutu.’

.
5.6 Local adverbial demonstratives

There are four local adverbial demonstratives: inde ‘location

close to speaker’, ande ‘location medially near the speaker’, wende
‘location far from speaker’), unde ‘where’. These demonstratives point
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(from the speaker’s perspective) to the spatial relation of an object or

person to a head noun. Local demonstratives usually appear clause
initially with both verbal clauses and in locative NP predications. The
local demonstrative may be used directly to refer to the person who is
being situated. In this regard local demonstratives are syntactically
similar to the free personal pronouns. However, they differ syntactically
from personal pronouns in being able to host epistemic as well as
interclausal reference marking clitics. Apparently the local
demonstrative is always focalized as it always appears clause initially.
(Lexical adverbs may occur in clause initial or clause final position).

5.6.1 inde, ‘location close to speaker’

a. In this example, the initial local demonstrative modifies an

oblique argument of the verb which occurs in clause final
positiion (in brackets). The locative demonstrative is a
compound of a locative and intensive ‘manner’ adverbial suffix
(-kugu), followed by the clause chaining IRM clitic mbe (SS)

[ inde-kugu-mbe] t-eŋe-lï-ko mbučina-feke [ ts-apïgï-ko-kai.]

here-fully-SS REF-eat-PI-PL boot-ERG 3-foot-POSS-PL-on
‘All over here it was done, they were rubbed raw by the boots
that were on their feet.’

b. The following example illustrates a common way to describe the

time of day of an event being described (with a gesture of the
arm extended upward ):

inde Giti ata-ni

here sun EQ-ANT
‘The sun was moving over here’.

5.6.2. wende, ‘location far from speaker’

a. wende ake uge

there 2/COM me
“I’m with you there”.

b. wende ake-tsaŋe u-aka-nd-ofo-pe= gele

there SD-DEO 1-seat-VI-USIN-ESS= PT
‘I’ve decided to keep my seat over there still’.

5.6.3 ande, ‘location medially near the speaker’

There is also a present temporal reference, hence the translation

‘here and now’.

a. ande=mak≈a-nïgï
here.now=EM≈EQS-PS
‘I’m wrong, it’s around here.’
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b. ande la-ikugu itsa=lefa

here.now like.that-fully EX-CI=MT
‘(3p) been like that here and now’.

c. iŋ-ge-apa egei, ande idyï i-tsa, iñoño.

see-I-CONF IDEM here.now daughter EX-CI, the little one
‘Consider this, now Little Daughter is experiencing it here .’

5.6.4 unde, ‘location unknown to speaker’

a. Locative demonstrative as head of an ‘unknown’ complement

clause:

iŋko-m≈unde a-nïgï
unknown-EM-unknown.location EQS-PS
‘I don’t know where it is now’.

b. As shown in example (b), the ‘unknown location’

demonstrative functions as a question word (These are
described in Chapter 10, Interrogatives).

unde-ma e-w-ato-go-ko a-n-ïgï

where-EM 2-1-friend-PAU-PL EQS-PS
‘Where is our friend located?’

5.7 Manner demonstratives

The two manner demonstratives are distinguished deictically. Igea ‘this

way, like this’ references a proximate manner or situation, while ila ‘far
away’ references a deictically distant manner. Both are used from the
perspective of the speaker (who may be quoting a character in a
narrative). The manner demonstrative always occurs clause initially,
and always with the –a ‘unique’ copula suffix. It may be followed by
another adverbial suffix.

5.7.1 ila, ‘distal manner’. Note there is a similar morpheme: la:,

reference a far, distant location.

a. ila u-te-ta-ni Ø-nïg ≈i-feke

far.away 1-go.away-CI-ANT 3-PS≈3-ERG
‘I’m about to travel a long way’.

b. tuk tuk tuk ila kafu-kaiɳa, kapehe ekugu

(sound of hitting object) far sky-DEST, high fully
‘Slapping it, it shot up as far as it could go, up to the
sky.’

c. This example is taken from a women’s song (itolo):

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ila-fa tsi-tse-lu-iŋo
far.away-PTP 1+3-go.away-PI-POT
‘We’re planning to travel far away from here

5.7.2 igeia, ‘proximate manner’ demonstrative.

This operator may be translated as ‘manner’, ‘this way’, ‘like this’.

It is always formed with the ‘unique’ copula. Sometimes the
morpheme is pronounced igia with stress on the first syllable. It is
not clear what the difference is between these and igea. Igia is
currently treated as a variant pronunciation. An example is (e).

a. igea≈kugu=mbe i-foso-gu aga-kï-iŋalï

manner≈fully=SS 3-sediment-POSS take.out-VT-
REP
‘That’s just how she was again able to take out so much
sediment.’

b. igea≈k≈egei ise-ite-lï i-feke-ni

manner-EM≈IDEM heat.-up-PI 3-ERG-PL
‘You can see can’t you , this is how they heat it up.’

c. igea i-ñ-їu-fїgї its-a,

manner 3-look.behind-VI-VPE EX-CL
‘He looked (over his shoulder) like this,

d. igea=ɳapa tї-Gitalo-ki-ñї, its-a

manner=EM REF-wide-ADV-SN EX-CL
probably like this, (up) the wide path, like this.’

e. igia i-mï-ne-ta i-feke-ni, igia.

manner 3-soak-PTPI 3-ERG-PL, manner
‘This is how they were soaking it, this way.’

5.8 Summary of the functions of Kalapalo demonstratives

1. Pronominal demonstratives mark the following

predications:
a. nominal predications
b. adverbial predications
c. arguments of finite verb constructions
d. relative clauses of verbal arguments

2. Anaphoric pronominal demonstratives:

a. Simple anaphoric pronominal reference (ule ,
uɳele as free pronouns)
b. Mark shift of topic in narrative discourse (ule-)
c. Mark subordinate clause (-ule)
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3. Adnominal demonstratives:
a. de-verbal nominal predications
b. referencing relative clauses and relative clause S
or O arguments
c. reference P arguments of nominative-accusative
constructions in continuous-indicative
aspect/mood

4. Identificational demonstratives:
a. mark the preceding NP as S or A of a subsequent
nominal-accusative clause
b. are used in comparative constructions

5. Locational adverbial demonstratives:

a. reference head of the subsequent verbal clause
b. reference head of the subsequent or preceding NP

6. Manner demonstratives:
a. reference head of the subsequent verbal clause
b. reference head of the subsequent or preceding
(rare) NP
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Chapter 6
Verbs and Verbalizations

6. 1. Overview

This chapter deals with Kalapalo verbs and verbalization structures. The
preliminary overview discussion includes sections on syntax, grammatical
features, and phonology of verb stems. Separate sections that follow concern
intransitive and transitive constructions, the issues concerning ergativity, voice,
position of constituent segments in the verb phrase and in the verbal clause,
valence changing constructions, non-finite constructions, speech act verbs and
quotatives, verbs used in temporal deixis predication, and derivational processes.

6.1.1. Syntax

Kalapalo verbs appear in both nominative-accusative and ergative-absolutive

constructions. Nominative-accusative constructions involve a) the imperative
and hortative illocutionary forces; b) two valence-decreasing processes (inverse-
marking, and object-backgrounding) in which O is backgrounded in favor of
transitive subject (A) by a prefix on the verb phrase); and c) (as described in the
Chapter 5, second 5.4) the use of demonstratives to mark a focalized NP as A
when preceding the continuous indicative inflected verb stem. Ergative-
absolutive constructions include all other indicative aspects and the irrealis
statuses as well as the transitive non-finite thetic construction (the thetic may
also occur as intransitive).
In Kalapalo, as many as three arguments in one transitive clause can
occur. Usually one of these (O) is referenced with either a NP preceding the
verb, or a pronominal prefix on the verb stem, with the second verbal argument
marked as a semantic oblique by one of several possible case markers.
Kalapalo also exhibits split-intransitivity, with a distinction between
‘plain’ (one argument) and ‘extended’ intransitive constructions with two
arguments. Extended intransitive clauses include the second argument NP in
dative/benefactive -iña or instrumental –ki case; this argument NP follows the
verb phrase, unlike core O and oblique arguments of transitive verbs which
precede the verbal constituent. Extended intransitives often exhibit prefix
diathesis marking of middle voice.

6.1.2. Constituent order

Syntactically, verbal predication is connected to constituent clausal order. The

type of alignment constructions in main verb clauses is indicated by 1) phrase
order and 2) argument marking. With respect to phrase order, core syntactic
relations follow the order SV or OVA. Oblique arguments normally follow the A
NP (or the verb phrase in the case of extended intransitives.). When an oblique
argument is focalized, it is placed in first position in the clausal word order;
otherwise it appears following the O NP. Similarly, focalized A is left-shifted or
fronted to create an SOV order. The ergative alignment construction follows an
OVA construction, while nominative-accusative follows AOV. With regard to O
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argument plurality, O agreement marking occurs on the verb phrase with the –ko
suffix on the verb phrase in final position. (This is an absolutive, that is, there is
identical marking of O and S plurality). A plurality agreement is marked on the
syntactic ergative and comitative case suffixes by the suffix -ne(i) (the same
suffix occurs with the benefactive/dative case suffix). The instrumental –ki and
semantic case markers (mainly different kinds of locatives) do not exhibit
plurality.

6.1.3. Grammatical features

There are several degrees of finiteness. In order of finiteness, the list of verb
constructions includes: a) fully finite clauses that involve aspectual or irrealis
suffixes and core argument marking b) valence decreasing processes involving
an unmarked argument (via grammatical object-backgrounding construction);
inverse-marking, c) in clause chains, a repeated clause often omits the ergative
argument; d) non-finite thetic constructions where verbal aspect or irrealis
inflections are absent and there are no A or O prefixed arguments; (if transitive,
A is preserved in the clause as a lexical noun phrase if intransitive, there is
usually a lexical S noun phrase); e) non-finite supine purpose of motion
constructions with no explicit arguments nor any aspect or irrealis suffixes (these
only occur in subordinate clause combinations, describedin Chapter 13.3.2).
Both non-finite constructions have distinctive discourse as well as syntactic and
grammatical functions.
The three types of illocutionary force in Kalapalo are indicative
(unmarked), interrogative (constructed with preposed morphemes), and
imperative (marked with a verbal suffix). The indicative may be constructed
with several aspectual suffixes, or irrealis suffixes some of which occur only in
subordinate clauses. A resultative aspect in Ø marking occurs with a limited
number of verb stems. Discussion of the illocutionary force, aspectual, and
irrealis inflections are found in sections 6.8.6-8, this chapter, and also (with
regard to subordination) in Chapter 13, section 13.3. The imperative and
interrogative illocutionary types are treated separately in Chapters 8 and 9
respectively.

6.1.4 Phonology of verb stems

Table 20 shows the distribution of phoneme initial stems in sample of verbal

morphemes. This sample of approximately 256 verbal stems used with examples
in this grammar show approximately 1.5 times the number of stems beginning
with vowels than consonant initial stems. However, of the vowel initial
morphemes, an overwhelming number (89 + 1 nasalized of 168) are /i/ initial,
with a total of 87 examples showing /a/, /e/ ,/ї/, /o/ or /u/ initial (nasals shown on
Table 20 are included in this count).. Both vowel initial and consonant initial
stems are subject to diathesis marking of middle voice, described in section 7.3.2.
Among verbs, /ї/ and /u/ initial stems are very unusual, and their common rarity
may have to do with the allophonic character of these two sounds. Despite their
phonological rarity, the verbs in question are very commonly used. The
following is a list of these stems.
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/ї/ initial stems: /u/ initial stems:

їɳї-‘sleep’ ufi-, ‘look for’
їgїɳGu-, ‘feel sick’ ui-, ‘make’
upuGi-, ‘grow body hair, mould’
umi- ‘tie up’

The following table shows the distribution of stem initial phonemes. The sample
is taken from the vocabulary listed in Appendix 2.

Table 21. Distribution of phoneme initial stems in sample of verbal

morphemes
Initial vowel Number in
phoneme Sample
a 31
e 28
i 89
ĩ 1
ї 2
o 12
õ 2
u 3
Initial consonant Number in
phoneme Sample
f 27
g 4
k 12
m 3
n 8
ɳ 7
p 2
t 23
w 1
Ø 1

total 168 88

6.1.5 Alignment structures

Kalapalo alignment is complex. There are seven types of main and independent
clause constructions, distinguished by word order and the treatment of core
arguments and prefixed and suffixed inflexions. These alignment types are:
1.plain intransitive: S marked as full NP, pronoun, or absolutive prefix
(Ø for third person); the verb is inflected with indicative, irrealis, or imperative
inflection. Clausal constituent order is SV.
2.extended intransitive: S is treated morphologically (Ø marking) as
with the plain intransitive; there is an oblique O marked with dative/benefactive
case (if animate) or instrumental case (if inanimate); the verb is usually an active
motion verb. Verbs are inflected with an indicative or irrealis aspect/modal
suffix; there may be a goal subordinate clause. Clausal constituent order is SVO.
3.transitive with ergative marking of S and absolutive marking of O;
the verb is inflected with an aspect or irrealis suffix. Constituent order is OV with
postposed S. With ditransitives, S is in ergative case marking, O is a full NP,
pronominal prefix, or pronoun, and the oblique argument is marked with a
locative case suffix; the verb is inflected with indicative or irrealis aspect/modal
suffix. The verbal phrase is OV, the clausal constituent order is OVA. The
oblique argument noun phrase normally follows OVA construction.
4.transitive with nominative marking of A (pronominal prefix) and
accusative marking of O (full noun phrase); verb is inflected in imperative
illocution. Clausal constituent order is AOV.
5.inverse marking: In nominalization structure, the verb is prefixed by a
portmanteau A/O morpheme; the verb is inflected with an aspect or irrealis
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suffix; the verb may be in nominalization derivation with perfective or

imperfective inflection. Clausal constituent order is A/OV
6 object-backgrounding: the verb stem is prefixed by a valence-
decreasing compound formed from the absolutive person prefix + the object-
backgrounding ñ/ɳ prefix; A is not included in the verb phrase; there may be a
co-occurring full NP referencing the O; the verb may be a finite construction or a
de-verbal nominalization with a perfective or imperfective inflection. Phrasal
constituent order is OV.
7. non-finite thetic: t- is prefixed to the verb stem, while one of several
possible suffixes follow the stem; where the verb is intransitive, there is no S
argument marking, but when transitive the ergative transitive subject often occurs
with the clause; but the verb has no aspectual or irrealis inflection, nor any
pronominal prefixes . The non-finite thetic may occur as an independent or main
clause.

6.2. Intransitive constructions

As noted above, there are two general types of intransitives. The plain
intransitive with SV clausal order and the less common extended
intransitives with SVO clausal order, of which there are several sub-
types based on the semantics of the oblique argument.

6.2.1 Plain intransitive

The Kalapalo plain intransitive occurs with a single argument (S) preceding the
verb, either as a full NP, or marked by an absolutive person prefix on the verb
stem. The verb stem is constructed with a semantic root and an intransitive verb
radical. (See Table 22 for intransitive radicals). In (a) the intransitive verb
radical is –mbe, appearing on roots expressing ideas of voluntary motion.

S
a. isi i-ti-mbe-lu
3.mother 3-arrive-VI-PI
‘3p’s mother arrived’

6.2.2 Extended intransitives

These are somewhat less common than plain intransitives. In addition to the
intransitive S marked with a full demonstrative pronoun NP or pronominal prefix
on the stem (Ø for 3rd person), there is an oblique argument (case marked as
such) following the verb phrase. Verbs with this type of construction include:
think, stir, tell about/teach, shoot, kill, bring, run, put on, marry, bring, shave,
paint, and make (in the sense of, ‘cut out’). Many occur as imperatives.
Several of these verbs (6.2.2.g,h) show diathesis marking of middle voice, with
the prefix et-, or e when the verb stem begins with /t/. Where the argument is
human as in examples given in 6.2.2.1, the NP is marked with –iña,the
dative/benefactive case suffix, or by the ‘target’ suffix -pe. Where the argument
is inanimate as in examples in 6.2.2.2., the instrumental case suffix –ki is used.
 176

With intransitive ‘motion’ verbs, as described in 6.2.2.3, there is often an oblique

semantic argument or an adverbial referencing location and direction.

6.2.2.1 Animate extended arguments

Animate extended arguments are marked with –iña, the dative/benefactive case
suffix on a NP or pronominal prefix. The first three examples (a-c) are in
imperative illocution.

a. Ø-iŋu-Gi-ke tis-iña
3-see.think-cause-I 1+3-DAT/BEN
‘Think on our behalf’.

b. a-liŋu-tu-ete a-ko-iŋo-ko-iña
2-stir-DIS-URG 2-PL-POT-PL-DAT/BEN
‘Go ahead and stir it up for both you and your companion.’

c. ukw-oto fe-tsaŋe-iña i-fa-ke ukw-oto-iña.

dual-parent OD-DEO-DAT/BEN 3-tell-I dual-parent -DAT
‘Our parent has to be told about it, our parent.’

d. This example is a hortative imperative; the verb has three arguments.

ogi e-ŋe-te u-iña

HORT 2>3-bring-I 1-DAT/BEN
‘You should bring that to me.’

e. This is a cleft construction; the O noun phrase is modified by the

adnominal demonstrative appearing after the verb phrase.
The clause in this example is in continuous indicative inflection.
(The example is repeated from Chapter 5: 5.4.2a where it is used to
demonstrate the use of the adnominal demonstrative fegei as a relative
clause modifier, RM). The adnominal demonstrative is modifying
the NP in focus, tolo ipugu, ‘bird’s feather’.

O S RM
teh! tolo ipu-gu ule ka-gu-nda fegei
nice! bird feather-POSS, AFR talk.about-VT-CI ADEM

Oblique
Taugi-iña
Taugi-BEN/DAT
‘“How beautiful the cover of bird feathers”. That’s what someone told
Taugi.’

f. Here the verb is in imperfective potential aspect, with adverbial denial

of predication marked by the circumfix afïtï .... –la (see Chapter 10,
section 10.7 for discussion of this construction):

afïtï-fa itau-iña itsa-ki-lu-iŋo-la

denial-PTP woman-DAT/BEN run-VI-PI-POT-NEG
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‘You won’t run after a woman.’

6.2.2.2 Inanimate extended arguments

Inanimate extended arguments are marked with the instrumental case suffix –ki.
A simple example is (a). Example (b) shows the verb fiti- ‘blow on’ with a
second oblique argument placed at the beginning of the utterance. As described
in Chapter 4: 4.3.16.4b-c, with certain verbs the same instrumental suffix is used
to mark human O argument. In this section, (c) is one such example.

a. uege=kaɳa te-ta=tiga u-fïgi ï-ki.

you=EM go.to-CI=HAB 1-arrow take-INST
‘You will regret it when you keep taking away my arrows’.

b. t-iña fi-ti-ñïgï kefege-ki=mbe=hale

REFL-DAT/BEN blow.on-VT-TR spell-INST=SS=NO
‘On her behalf it had been blown on with the spell (so that could happen
later).

c. Here the oblique argument is human; unusually the –ki suffix is used
with this this verb, as normally it occurs only with inanimate arguments.

is-atu-nda=lefa itau≈gu-pe-ki
3→3-marry-CI=MT woman-POSS-SAL-INST
‘He married one of his own women.’

d. kukw-efu-ki ŋu-ndï-ŋi-fofo
1+2>1+2-canoe-INST make-VT-I=IM
‘We should make canoes for ourselves right away.’

e. lepe uwã-ki=lefa ete-lï.

next enclosure-INST=MT go.away-PI
‘Then he went away for the enclosure.’

f. tamitsi-la=gele agi-ke-nïgï=lefa
long.time-NEG=PT cut.hair-VT.-PS=MT

feŋi-ki=dye≈tsa
scissors-INST=SA≈EX;CL
‘Still not very long after, her hair was cut with a cutting tool. ‘
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6.2.2.3 Motion verbs with oblique arguments

These are interesting because the oblique arguments are directional or locational
places.

a. Here the oblique is an adverbial construction, ‘on the way (path) down to
the water’. Note the use of the special directional suffix –ka used for
water.

fotugu-i=lefa iñ-їɳgo=lefa tuwa-ka -ga-tu-nda-ti.

first-CL=MT arrive-POT=MT water-to-PERL-path-on-ADV
‘He intended to be the first one to arrive on the path leading down to
the water.’

b. In this example there is an allative marked NP, ‘towards Kutsu’:

pupupupupu, ete-lї-mbe,
(sound of paddling) go-away-PI-SS,

at-ake-i-lї=lefa,
MV-curve.around-EP-CI=MT,

atake-i-lї=lefa, kutsu-na
MV-curve.around-EP-PI=MT, Kutsu-ALL
‘Paddling fast, he went away after that, curving around (the bend in the
river,) curving around (the bend in the river), towards Kutsu.’

6.3. Transitive constructions

Kalapalo transitive constructions include nominative-accusative and ergative-

absolutive constructions. Most Kalapalo transitive verb stems are constructed
with a transitivizing marking radical (sometimes this is Ø marked). Reflexivity
on transitive verbs is marked by the reflexive prefix t(ї). This section illustrates
the different types of alignment in transitive main clauses. Word orders
associated with indicative, interrogative, and focalized S are included.

6.3.1. Ergative-absolutive constructions : general features

The ergative-absolutive is generally seen with all persons in A and P, and in all
illocutionary types except the imperative. O is marked on the stem with a person
prefix or by the full NP placed before the verb phrase. The following are
characteristic of these constructions: 1) the person prefix on the verb stem marks
O (Ø for 3rd person; reflexive for anaphoric argument); 2) the person prefix on
the ergative post position marks S, 3) Plurality agreement of O on the verb
phrase is the absolutive –ko; plurality agreement on S is the ergative –ni/ne; and
4) the word order is OVS unless, as in (e), the S noun phrase is fronted for
emphasis.
The ergative construction does not always reference active agency. In
some cases, the ergative case is hosted by an inanimate or geographic setting NP.
 179

This may be interpreted as a ‘causal’ use of the ergative in Kalapalo, but as will
be seen ‘causality’ itself may express different kinds of events involving A and P.

6.3.1.1 A as active agent . These A are presented in boldface in the examples.

Examples in singular A bearing ergative case marker:

a. ta-t-e-ŋa-lu-ko u-feke
CONT-REF-shoot-VT-PI-PL 1-ERG
‘I won’t kill any of them’

b. lepe okoge-funda Ø-iki-dyu-fa i-feke.

next next.day-ADV 3-cook.flatbread-PI-PTP 3-ERG
‘So the next day she made some flatbread.’

Example with plural 3 person plural A with ergative case marker:

c. iño-go-te-ga i-feke-ni=lefa
skewer-PAU-VT-CI 3-ERG-PL-MT
‘They skewered a few pieces, one by one.’

Example with A as full NP, bearing ergative case marker:

d. te-ŋe-ta=mukwe is-uwï-feke=lefa.
eat.flesh-VT-CI=EM 3.father-ERG=MT
‘3p father trying to eat it.’

e. A NP with ergative case marker fronted for emphasis:

isi-feke i:ña nde-ta=lefa.

3;mo-ERG 3-DAT/BEN prepare.flatbread-CI=MT
‘It was her mother who made flatbread for her, piece by piece.’

‘When that was done after a while she touched it from time to time to
see if the griddle was heating up.’

Example in anticipated/inchoative (ANT), ‘about to’.

a. Inflection is on the active equative copular root:

inde uagiɳo=mukwe at-ani

here 1-resemble-N=EM EQA-ANT
‘In vain he would be like me.’
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b. Inflection is on an active intransitive verb:

lepene u-te-tani kïŋamukwe

afterwards 1-go.away-ANT children
‘Afterwards, “I’m leaving Children”.’

c. Inflection on an active transitive verb:

lepe ku-ñi-tani i ŋi-l≈i-feke-ni.

next 1+2=see-ANT 3-OB-PI≈ERG-PL
‘Next, “Let’s go look”, and they saw him’.

d. Ergative-absolutive constructions with interrogative , 2nd person plural A

(not plural suffix follows the ergative):
.
aŋi=nika inde u-oku-ŋgi-ta i-ŋi-lï e-feke-ni?
result=EM here 1-liquid.food-prepare-CI 3-see-PI 2-ERG-PL?
‘Could it be that you all have seen those who make my drinks around
here?’

e Another interrrogative ergative-absolutive example with 1st person

plural ergative:

uwa=ma=laka t-ïi-lï kupehe-ne

what=EM=EM REF-do-PI 1+2.ERG-PL
‘What in the world can we do with (it)?’

6.3.1.2 Ergativity and causation

In cases where the ergative marks clearly non-animate arguments of transitive

verbs, the ergative morpheme seems (for semantic reasons) to reference
causation. In some cases the cause is in some way active (a). However (b)-(f)
express the idea of A influencing the action of P in some direct, causal manner.
None of the verbs are constructed with causal suffixes on the stems.

a. mbučina-feke teŋe-ta-ko ts-apï-gï-ko.

boots-ERG eat.flesh-CI-PL 3p-feet-POSS-PL
‘The boots were tearing at their feet.’

b. ifïgi-feke=ŋapa ta-fi-ta, Ø-nïg≈i-feke.

arrow-ERG=EM burdened-VT-CI, 3-PS≈3-ERG
“Probably caused by the arrows being so heavy,” he answered.

c. The example is taken from a story about canoes with a slippery substance
inside that makes the owners slip and fall down.

is-ama-ki-ta-ko figei efu-feke, [ñ-efu-gu-ko]

3p-fall-VT-CI-PL IDEM canoe-ERG, OB-canoe-POSS-PL
“Their canoes making them fall down like that, their own canoes”
 181

d. Here, the speaker states that the lack of his food is what makes him
hungry, even if there is something else available. Metaphorically, A
(absence of food) is ‘shooting’ or ‘killing’ P.

igei-fuŋ≈ata-lї-a fegei
IDEM-unlike≈EQA-CI-U ADEM

ŋiko-mbogu-feke u-e-ŋalu.
food-W-ERG I-feel-PR
“When there’s something different from this very thing, the lack of food
bothers me.’

e. In this example, the ergatively marked subject in lines ii and iii is soup (in
iii referred to as ‘liquid food’), which has caused the drinker (who
previously was afraid of it) to be pleased.

. i. [kuigiku etu-ki-lï] [li-tsa≈le-t≈i-feke-ne].

hot.soup finished/ready-VI-PI drink-CI≈MT-DES≈3-ERG-PL
‘When the hot soup was ready, one by one they all sought to drink
some.

ii. [i-fe-ki-pïgï=mbedya-fa i-feke=lefa.]

3-nice-like-VPE=SSDE-PTP 3-ERG=MT
‘That was why when he drank it it was something that pleased him.’
iii. ku-m-iñaŋo-feke=mbe, uŋele-feke ki-pïgï,
1+2-C-liquid.food ERG-SS, ANA-ERG like-VPE,

iñaŋo-feke, Afanda iñaŋo-feke.

liquid.food-ERG, Afanda liquid.food-ERG
‘(That same) liquid food of ours, that was what pleased him, the liquid
food, Afanda’s liquid food’.
f. A mother is about to cry for her warrior son who is leaving on a very
dangerous mission. Most likely he will be killed. But before she can weep,
he cautions her:

u-fїgi efisau-te-lї=keñi e-ɳa-kugu-feke

1-arrow soak-VT-PI=PREV 2-tears-fully-ERG
‘Don’t let your tears of grief soak my arrows.’

6.3.1.3 Ergativity on locative or directional noun phrases

In several examples the ergative suffix appears to mark S on a NP that is

not an active agent, but some kind of locational or directional feature.This
interesting use of the ergative occurs with both active and stative verbs.
More data are needed to construct a clear explanation of this usage.

a. In this example, the ergative-hosting deictic noun uña ‘outside the house’
complements the noun ‘last one of them’. The ergative case marker on
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the deictic noun ‘outside’ marks that noun as a verbal argument; it is also
a complement of the noun upїgї-ko, ‘the last one of them’.

tok tok, ifakila kugu=lefa

(sound of shooting arrows), far-NEG fully=MT
uña-feke upïgï-ko
outside-ERG last.one-PS- PL
‘Tok tok, shooting not at all far from him, the last of them, just outside
the house’

b. In this example, the middle voice diathesis marker e- appears on the

intransitive consonant-initial verb te-,‘go away’. Second, the river name
Taɳgugu is followed by the ergative feke. While the river is a
directional semantic argument of the verb, the question is why the
allative –na is not used. The only explanation can be that the river has
been an influence (a kind of cause, perhaps) that diverted the travellers
(who had no canoe) into unknown territory, where they disappeared.

ɳiko-munde=ɳapa-fa Taɳgugu-feke e-te-lї-ko.

unknown-where=EM-PTP Taɳgugu-ERG MV-go.away-PI-PL
‘I don’t know where but maybe they were made to go that way by the
Taɳgugu.‘

c.. The verb is a nominalization of the lexeme idyagї, ‘the(possessed) rope’.

The main de-nominalized verb is re-nominalized with the VPE
(voluntary process resultative) aspectual suffix. In this example ERG is
hosted by a non-animate NP. The non-animate ‘on the path’ is clearly a
spatial deictic with a causal functon, complementing the noun ‘father’.

igea=lefa ifaki-la aña-feke isuwï

manner=MT far-NEG path-ERG 3;father

i-dya-te-pïgï
3-rope-VT-VPE
‘And this way, not far from the path where her father’s hammock was
hung’.

6.3.1.4 Marking speech act recipients with the ergative suffix

While I use the syntactic symbol A to reference a transitive subject NP marked

with the ergative case, there are numerous examples in which the NP is
semantically speech act recipient or hearer in a speech act quotative. Seemingly
semantic object arguments take the ergative case marker with other non-quotative
speech act verbs such as ‘grieve’, ‘get fed up with’, and example (c) “discuss”,
“try to figure out why” etc.:
In this section I present different kinds of uses of the ergative of this type.
These data support Franchetto’s. recent analysis (2010) of the Kuikuro ergative
as ‘not syntactic’ and referencing ‘cause’. A polysemous interpretation of –feke
seems justified by the Kalapalo data.
 183

a With the simple quotatives:

u:m, ah, Ø-nïg=i-feke, o-to-ke-fofo, o-to-ke-fofo,

EM, EXP, 3-PS=3-ERG, 2-smoke-I-IM, 2-smoke-I-IM,
Iɳgeu-feke
Iɳgeu-ERG
‘ “I’m thinking, certainly”, she said to him, “you must smoke right now,
smoke right now”, to Iɳgeu.’

b. u-ige-lї ake-tsaɳe igei, ah Ø-nїgї t-ufitsu-feke

1-take-PI SD-DEO IDEM, EXP 3-PS REF-wife-ERG
“ ‘I must take this one!’ surely, he said that to his wife.”

c. kogetsi=gele fu-ni-ta=mbedya i-feke tï-ño-feke.

next. day=PT miss-VT-CI=SSDE 3-ERG REFL-husband-
ERG
‘And still on the next day, she grieved for him, for her husband.’

6.3.1.5 Different types of ergative-absolutive constructions.

The following examples illustrate different types of constructions involving the

same transitive verb iGiku-, ‘envy.’ I have presented the examples in order of
their appearance in a narrative. First, the verb in continuous indicative aspect
and its arguments are presented, with the verb phrase topicalized (a). Then one of
the arguments is foregrounded (b). Following that, the root is used in a causal
construction with a change of radical to signal a detrimental action (c). Later, the
same verb appears with the agentive NP focalized (d), and right after that, in a
‘rhetorical question’ with reversative aspect (e). Finally, the verb appears in the
narrative conclusion, where it becomes nominalized as a usitative construction,
in a reprise of the main situation in the story (f).

a. First, the verbal clause is fronted because of a topicality shift. The shift
of topic itself is indicated by initating the clause with the anaphoric focus
referent ule, together with the ‘new and overlapping’ taxis clitic =fale. O
(a complex situation described in much detail in the immediately
preceding segment of the narrative) is made explicit here through the
adnominal demonstrative fegei, while the ergative marked S NP is in
final clause position.

ule igiku-ni-ta=fale fegei Taugi-feke

AFR envy-VT-CI=NT ADEM Taugi-ERG
‘Because of all that, now Taugi is being made to envy him’.

b. The speaker then foregrounds S by shifting the S NP ahead of the VP:

Taugi-feke iGiku-ni-ta.
Taugi-ERG envy-VT-CI
‘Taugi being made to envy him’.
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c. A subsequent utterance presents the verb in a causal construction

followed by the existential copular verb in continuous indicative aspect.
The verb radical changes from -ni (used with stative verbs) to -nu
(referencing a detrimental action) followed by the valence-increasing
causal morpheme -ki:

iGiku-nu-ki≈tsa fegei i-feke.

envy-VT-CAUS ≈EX;CI ADEM 3-ERG
‘He was in a state of being made envious of that’.

d. Here, the object of envy is directly spoken to and, by means of the

epistemic clitic =kafa, is asked to agree with the speaker. The verb root
encorporates the second person prefix e-, changing the meaning slightly
from ‘envy’ to ‘envy you’.

efiñano-feke=kafa fegei e-Giku-ni-ta, efiñano-feke.

OBR-ERG=EM ADEM you-envy-VT-CI, OBR-ERG
‘It’s you isn’t it whom your older brother envies that (thing).’

e. Here is the verb in reversative part of a rhetorical question construction.

tï-tomi-n ≈egei efiñano-ko iGiku-ni-nalï

RQ-PER-CONT≈ADEM OBR-PL envy-VT-REV

efeke-ni?, Kwatïŋï ki-lï

2-ERG-PL, Kwatïŋï utter-PI
“Is there some reason why you all made your older brother (feel) envy
again (lit, ‘re-envy’)?” Kwatïŋï asked.

f. In a characteristic means of ending a narrative, the story-teller once again

reprises the main situation. The verb is now in a usitative nominalization
(USIN); the S NP is no longer present, and O is referenced by the
adnominal demonstrative preceding the de-verbal nominalization:

its-olo-gu fegei iGiku-ni-ta-tofo-i, its-olo-gu.

3-pet-POSS ADEM envy-VT-CI-USIN-CL, 3-pet-POSS.
‘Hisi pet was what was making himj envious, that pet of hisi

6.3.2 Nominative-accusative constructions

These are two argument constructions. Three argument constructions are always
ergative-absolutive. Here I discuss the constructions with both arguments
presented; other nominative-accusative constructions are the two valence-
decreasing constructions discussed in 6.4 (inverse-marking) and 6.5 (object-
backgrounding).

- Word order is (S)OV. S is either a pronominal demonstrative, a full

NP, or a personal prefix on the verb, but like O, there is no case
marking unless S is a comitative subject (with the sense of ‘included’).
In some constructions, there is no explicit S.
 185

- Where O is a NP, there is a coreferential pronominal prefix is- on the

verb (Ø otherwise for 3p).
- Where S is plural, the absolutive –ko suffix is used.

a. Here S is a nominalized verb (‘filler’, bracketed) that is subordinate to the

intransitive clause te-ga-ni, ‘about to go away to do X’. One could also interpret
this construction as a de-verbal nominal that is re-verbalized as an imperfective
intransitive active verb through the –te verbal radical (‘voluntary motion away’)
followed by the ‘sociative causative’ –ga valence-increasing radical. (See 6.9
Valence-Increasing section).

Akwakaŋa nduku-gu [ u-ke-ŋi-ŋï]

name gourd.container-POSS 1>3-fill-VT-N

te-ga-ni
go.away-SCAUS-ANT
‘I’m determined to go be the filler of Akwakaŋa’s container.’

b. This example illustrates nominative-accusative in the invitational type of

imperative illocution.

uege-fa ku-pi-dyau i-ge-ta, uege.

you-PTP 1+2-brother-PL 3-take-CI, you
‘You take our brothers away, you’.

c. Example of the simple positive imperative, first person O, 2 person S:

u-ki-ŋu-te-ke=fofo
2>1-head-uncover-VT-I=IM
‘May you uncover my head right away’ (i.e., ‘help me take off my
carrying basket’).

d. Example is 2nd person S, 3rd person O:

i-ka e-te-ke
wood-collect 2>3-go.away-I
‘Go get firewood’.

6.3.2.1 The comitative subject

Where there are two semantically co-acting clausal arguments , one is either an
absolutively marked NP, or appears on the verb stem with the pronominal prefix,
while the second hosts the comitative suffix. The suffix thus coordinates two
separate but syntactically equivalent noun phrases, the second with the meaning
of ‘included’ in the action. The two NP may act as a single intransitive reciprocal
or dual subject (a) or as a co-participant pair in a transitive clause as in (b).
 186

a. Ø-giku-tsi-lї-ko t-ato-ake.
3-nudge-VT-PI-PL REF-friend-COM
‘He and his friend nudged each other.’

b. dyadya-ko-ake tis-ige-ga-tïfïgï ama-ñu-feke.

OZ-PL-COM 1+3-carry.away-SCAUSE-IMP mother-END- ERG
‘Dear mother had us gather them up, I and my older sister.’

6.3.3 Ditransitive Verbs.

Three arguments are possible with Kalapalo verbs. With some verbs, the
presence of a third argument involves ‘rearranging’ the syntax of the arguments
so they appear differently from those in other transitive constructions.
Ditransitive verbs code two objects, one as theme (T), marked either with a zero-
marked person marking prefix on the verb stem or as full NP suffixed with -pe,
and the other as recipient (R) or goal (with –iña). In these constructions, the
human recipient argument is marked with the dative case suffix –iña or if the
theme is plural, the recipient argument is marked with the comitative case suffix
–ake (7.3.2.1). If the recipient NP is inanimate, it is marked with the instrumental
suffix –ki; no plural is possible with this case morpheme. The transitive S verbal
argument receives ergative case marking. These features of Kalapalo
ditransitivity suggest the language is an example of what Haspelmath (2005)
calls “indirective” ditransitive marking.
In Kalapalo, it is possible as well to have causative constructions not
only on regular transitives (as described above) but also on ditransitives (these
are described later in this chapter in 6. 9 Valence changing operations).
The following are examples of the ditransitive verbs ‘give’, ‘blow on’,
‘take’, ‘carry away’, ‘bring’, ‘steal, abduct’, and ‘eat’.

a. tu-, ’give‘: The verb in a) is in voluntary action resultative aspect

nominalization. The DO theme is in absolutive case, the oblique
object recipient in dative case, the plural A in ergative case.

ifi-pïgï tu-nïgï, isi-ña i-feke-ne,

payment-VPE give-PS 3/mother-DAT/BEN 3-ERG-PL,

uguka, endifegiku, kafoko-kugu.

shell.belt, parrot.feather headdress, toucan.feather. ornament.
‘They gave the payment to their mother: shell belts, parrot feather
headdresses, toucan feather ornaments.’
 187

b. Here the verb fiti- ’blow‘ has a co-referential reflexive t-prefix on

the noun-incorporated verb, and postposed A (with ergative case
marker). the recipient is inanimte, thus marked with the instrumental
case operator -ki.

lepe t-indisï ti-ña-fiti-nd≈ifeke

next REFL-daughter Refl-hands-blow.spell.on –CI≈3-ERG

iŋgi kefege-su-ki,
bee spell-POSS-INST
‘Next she blew that little black bee’s spell all over her daughter’s hands.’

c. In this example, the ditransitive verb –tun(ŋ) 'give, share’ is constructed

in consequential nominalization (-nїmi). Note that despite the
nominalization, the verbal arguments are preserved.

ñalï-ma tïnï-min≈i-feke kagutu tïn-ïmi ñalï.

none-EM give-CONS≈-3-ERG, flute give-CONS negation
‘ But it wasn’t given by him after all, he didn’t give the flute.’

d. Another example of the non-human recipient, with the verb t‐iŋ-,

‘cover, dress onself’:
 
t‐iŋïnd ≈ i- feke aGi-ki
REF-covered.up-CI ≈ 3-ERG fungus-INST
‘He covered him with fungus’.

e ge- ‘carry, take away’; ‘gather up’

i. e-ge-ke-papa kuigiku Ø-nïg≈i-feke.

2-take. away-I-CO manioc.soup say.to≈PS=3-ERG
“ ‘I agree you should take this soup,’ he said to her,

ukwoto-iña, ukwoto-iña.
dual-parent-DAT/BEN, dual-parent-DAT/BEN
‘For our parent, for our parent’.”

ii. ukw-oto-fo-ko-feke u-ige-ta igei

dual-parent-RECIP-COLL-PL-ERG 1-take-CI IDEM

fïgey-ki
arrow-INST
“It is our older relative who is taking me away (in this situation) to get
arrows.”

f. iŋi-‘bring’: Here the verb is derived as a perfective nominal, with the

pronominal demonstrative uege, ‘you’ as the relative complement to the
de-verbal noun. There is another oblique argument in semantic locative
case:
 188

kuaku iŋi-tïfïgï=nika-fa uege, tuwa-kuati

nightjar bring-IMP=EM-PTP you, water-into
‘You’re the person the Nightjars brought into the water.’ (i.e., ‘You, the
Nightjar brought person aren’t you, into the water.

g. ife-, ‘steal’, ‘abduct’. This is a nominative-accusative construction as P is

first person (exclusive plural). The thematic target is marked with –pe.
there is also an oblique argument marked with –ki (INST).

unago e-ti-dyi-pïgï=kaha
those.people MV-take.out.of-VI-PS=EM

tis-ife-nugu-ga-tiga
1+3-abduct-PS-SCAUS-HAB

ti-ñoŋo-gu-pe tis-etu-pe-ki-tifa
REF-land-POSS-SAL, 1+3-settlement-SAL-INST-EM
‘His offspring made a practice of having us stolen for our land, with our
settlements, I recall (being told)’.

h. eŋe, ’eat’: This verb can be a simple transitive, or as here, a ditransitive

with the -ki instrumental case suffix on a 2nd argument inanimate
recipient

kaŋa eŋe-ta=lefa ifeke-ne tseta kine-ki-mbefa,

fish eat-CI=MT 3-ERG-PL there flatbread-INST-AV-PTP,

kine-ki-mba-fa,
flatbread-INST-XS-PTP
‘They were eating fish there, they did that with the flatbread, they did
that with flatbread.’

6. 4. The inverse-marking constructions

In this alignment construction, inverse marking occurs with a portmanteau prefix

marking S > O relationship. This reflects a person hierarchy from which S is
“hidden” in relation to O as follows

1, 2>3

1+2, 1+3>1, 2,3

As 1st and 2nd persons are higher than 3rd persons, they are normally marked
higher than any 3rd person, both as S and O. When 1st or 2nd persons interact
with each other, the accusative O is marked by the relevant person morpheme; 1st
person is marked ahead of 2nd person S. For 3rd person S acting on 1 or 2, 1 or
2 pronominals are used even though they are O. Normally 3rd person O is
marked Ø, but 3rd person S acting on 3O is marked is- or its- in nominative-
accusative clauses; with the OB construction (discussed in this chapter, section
 189

6.5) the affix appears as –nz-/-ns-. Finally, plural inclusive and exclusive ‘we’
have precedence over 1 and 2 (as well as 3) singular. Table 26 summarizes these
processes.

Table 26. Inverse-Marking Processes

Agent Person O1 O2 O3 O 1+2
1 u e u ku
2 u u a ?
3 uk e is/its tits-

In the following examples, the glossing of S acting on O uses ‘>’ to show the
association. I only have a few examples of this process, so much more needs to
be done to fill in the blanks, so to speak, especially with elicited data.

6.4.1. 1S>3O→u-

but 3S>1O →u-

a. eŋï=mbe-ti fe-tsa-ŋe u-ine-ni

reason=SS-DES OD-DEO 3S>1O-be.poisoned-AN
“If I do what you want, right away it will poison me.” (‘be my
poisoner’)

b. katote ago-feke u-fu-nïgï

all these.people-ERG 3>1-know-PS
‘All these people here know about me.’

6.4.2. 2S>3O →e-

This example shows 2nd person S in imperative, with O in third person:

e-li-tse-apa
2>3-drink-I-CONF
‘Drink it if you want’.

6.4.3 *3A >2P unattested.

6.4.4 3A>3P→is-; its-

a. kok, fes-iñï-pe
(sound of placing a covering), ugly-AN-SAL

its-i-ŋalï=mbedya i-feke
3>3-EX-REP=SSDE 3-ERG
‘Kok, he always looked ugly after he put that on him.’

b. lepene Ø-ŋ-upu-Gi-lï=fata=lefa. aifa,

finally, 3-OB-mould-VT-CI=SIM=MT ready/done,
 190

its-upu-Gi-ta fegei
3>3-mould-VT-CI ADEM
‘Then it began to grow mould. Finally, mould was growing on it.’ (i.e.
body hair).

c. Example showing 3plural>3 singular marking.

at-aŋa an-їgї ts-i-mba-ta=lefa,

EQA-REP EQS-PS 3>3-come.to-VI-CL=MT,

ɳene mba-ta=lefa.
animals come.to-VI-CI=MT
‘As he already did that again, they approached him, animals approached
him.’

6. 4.5. S2>O1+3→tits-

a. igei-ku-dya tits-ï-Gi ≈ñu e-feke-ni

IDEM-INT-XA 2>1+3-wait-CAUSE≈SN 2-ERG-PL
“You all have made us wait too long for them.”

6.4.6. S1>O2 →e-

This is the,same as 2p absolutive e-

6.4.7 S2>O1 →u-

This is the same as 1p absolutive u-.

a. telo-a ikugu-ake u-їi-ga≈tïfïgï

another-E fully-COM 2>1-do.to-SCAUS-IMP
‘Someone completely different for you to mess with than me.’

6.4.8. S3>O1+2 →ku-

This is the same as 1>2 absolutive. There is no contrast bet. 1+2 and 1+3
as absolutive.

reciprocal → ukw (same as absolutive dual)

uk-iŋa- ŋa-pi-tse
3>1+2-eye-cause-ADV-N
‘the cause of our dizziness’

6.4.9. S1+2>O1 → ku-

a. iŋ-ge ata-i-ti ku-ta-ŋï≈tehe
see-I EQA-EP-DES 1+2>1-help-VT≈EQ-PER
 191

iŋu-te-gomi
eye-VT-PURP
‘Consider if perhaps your working on me so as to ‘do’ the eyes could
happen.’ (i.e., help me replace my eyes)

b. 1+2>1+2 → ku-
ohsi-apa ukw-oto ku-ñ-iɳu-Gi-ni
HORT-CONF dual-parent 1+2>1+2-OB-eye-PERM-

ige-tsї-fa
ADEM-M-PTP
‘I agree with you we will allow ourselves to think about our parent doing
this to us’

6.5. The object-backgrounding construction

The object-backgrounding construction uses a prefixed compound (OB), that

consists of an inflectional pronominal prefix marking S (Ø for third person) and a
semantically empty derivational velar nasal prefix which co-references an
unnamed patient. By means of this 2-feature compound, a 2-argument ergative-
absolutive clause ‘conceals’ the O argument and there is no longer an S marked
with the ergative case suffix. Franchetto (1990) has referred to this as a ‘de-
ergative’. While both arguments are still referenced, the process is valence-
decreasing insofar as the O is backgrounded and only marked by the person
prefix in the prefix compound. The use of this compound seems important when
S is hierarchically lower than O, and also when the speaker wishes to emphasize
S. The semantic result is to make O an unspecified element in the description of
the event.
The object-backgrounding compound is placed in the absolutive
position. This occurs before the verb stem, which may be nominalized. There are
several phonological variants: ŋ-, ñ-, and ns/nz (which appears where 3rd person
O occurs with 3p A). The pronominal prefixes used with this prefix are all
members of the transitive paradigm. To review, these are:

1st person u-
1+2 inclusive ku-
1st person 1+3 exclusive tis-
2nd person e-
3rd person Ø

The expected 1p singular pronominal prefix u- does not appear with the patient-
backgrounding prefix, even where the context indicates 1st person A (see
example 4.2.1.d). More examples are needed to determine if it has been elided
as interpreted for this example. Other than the absent u-, these pronominal
prefixes are the usual prefix forms for S person marking in absolutive case (Ø),
and on ergative (-feke), dative/benefactive (-iña), and comitative (-ake) case
suffixes; they appear as well when needed to mark the possessor of possessed
nominals.
With regard to the object-backgrounding construction, the agency
hierarchy (powerful beings> human beings> living things> inanimates; plural
1>singular 1/2; 1/2>3) influences use of this compound in relation to O
 192

reference. If S in the immediately preceding clause, or the main clause, is lower

on the hierarchy, O is referenced only by the prefix. If S is higher, O may be
optionally referenced explicitly as NP as well as by the prefix; with two
arguments at the same hierarchic level, explicit NP reference is optional.
As a compound form that is prefixed to the verb stem, the process is
syntactially somewhat similar to the reflexive construction with t- described in
section 4.2.2, insofar as the transitive construction is preserved but diminished by
O not being made explicit. The co-referent does not appear with ergative
marking, nor is there oblique marking of any other participant. When O is plural
it is also co-referenced by the absolutive plural suffix –ko (this contrasts with the
ergative plural suffix -ni/ne).
The object-backgrounding compound can appear on independent clause verbs,
subordinate verbs, de-verbal relative clause nominals, or adverbials. In (a)
(same example Chapter 5: 1.3.2b) the OB clause precedes a nominative clause in
the chain. While there is no overtly expressed S, it is referenced by the proximate
adnominal demonstrative fegei. As in this example the use of this compound
seems important when S is hierarchically lower than O, and also when the
speaker wishes to emphasize S.

a. lepene Ø-ŋ-upu-Gi-lï=fata=lefa aifa,

finally, 3-OB-mould-VT-CI=SIM=MT ready/done,

its-upu-Gi-ta fegei
3>3-mould-VT-CI ADEM
‘Then it began to grow mould. Finally, mould was growing on it.’ (ie,
body hair).

In (b) the object-backgrounding compound (1+2-n) co-references the possessors

in the relative clause (bracketed) and the unnamed A referenced by the proximate
adnominal demonstrative fegei. The plural possessors function in the recipient
role in the action so the 1st and 2nd person plural prefix precedes n- on the verb.
As this 3rd person singular S is lower on the hierarchy, reference to S is only
made through the n- affix.

b. [kukw—eŋi-ko-gu fegei] ku-n-ipï-te-ga-nïmi

1+2-things-PL-POSS ADEM 1+2-OB-pay-VTVT-SCAUS-CONS
‘These things of ours were the result of his paying us one by one.’

The example in (c) is a complex construction in which the speaker at first uses
the adnominal inanimate, situational demonstrative figei to reference S (efu,
‘canoes’), which he makes explicit with the postposed ergative NP construction
in the verb clause. But then in what seems to be a relative clause, the speaker
uses the object-backgrounding construction. Again, slippery canoes are S in this
relative clause (in brackets) as a possessed noun (“their canoe on them”). In the
relative clause, the 3rd person possessor O marked by ñ- is also pluralized and
thereby co-referenced with the –ko absolutive suffix on the initial VP, as well as
the co-referencing prefix on the final non-verbal clause. Because (in the main
clause) S (canoes) is hierarchically lower that O (the powerful beings, who are
being acted upon by the canoes) O is only referenced as ñ-. S has lost the
ergative case marker in the final clause and appears as S in absolutive position
 193

(Ø- prefix because O is 3rd person). Note also the valence-increasing causative
verb stem and use of ergative case marker –feke on the postposed NP in main
clause. Having clearly specified the inanimate canoe as a causative S, the speaker
then decreases valency by omitting O (the powerful beings) and focusing upon S
(the canoes).

c. is-ama-ki-ta-ko figei efu-feke, [Ø-ñ-efu-gu-ko]

3-fall-VT-CI-PL ADEM canoe-ERG, [3-OB-canoe-POSS-PL]
‘That was their being made to fall down by the canoe, (by) their canoes’.

Example (d) shows the compound e+ŋ- on the copularized nominal derivation
from the verb (ili- “drink”.) A appears as S with second person singular
pronominal prefix e- preceding the co-referencing affix. However, as S is
hierarchically higher than P, the latter are made explicit (for pragmatic reasons)
with NPs.

d. uŋu-fuŋu-ne itopu-i e-ŋili-ñale-i,

Q-like-N squash-CL 2-OB-drink-MAL-CL,

batata e-ŋ-ili-ñale-i
sweet.potatoes 2-OB-drink-MAL-CL
‘How can squash or potatoes serve as some kind of a weird drink for
you?’

Example (e) shows the Ø-ŋ- compound on the verb in imperfective inchoative
aspect (normally absolutive). S and P are hierarchically equivalent, so P is
explicit. 1p prefix (u-) is most likely elided due to the final /u/ on the preceding
word.

e. o-ka-ŋi-fofo Ø-ŋ-ita-ni
2-wait-I-IM 3-OB-go.get-ANT

e-ŋis-au≈ŋ-ita-ni
2-grandmother-PL≈1-OB-go.get-ANT
“Wait a while longer, while I go get your grandmothers, go get (them).”

f. This example shows the 1+2- ñ- compound on the verb also in

anticipation aspect. The 3rd person P and 1+2 S are hierarchically
equivalent; the speaker has taken the option of not using an explicit noun
in the main clause.
eŋï ku-ñ-itsa-ke-ti-ni itau-feke
reason 1+2-OB-cut-VT-DES-ANT woman-ERG

Ø-iŋi-tomi
3-see-PURP
‘The reason why we’re about to cut it off is so the women will be able to
see it.’
 194

g. This pair of examples from a narrative includes several instances of the

same verb (-aŋu-:play an instrument), and same pragmatic context. The
first line shows use of the ergative case; the finite verb complements the
main verb ‘go away’. There is a plural agent ergative suffix –ni. The
radical -ŋe transitivizes the verb.

i. takwagï aŋu-ŋe-ta te-lu-fa i-feke-ni=lefa

long.flute play-VT-CI go.away-PI-R 3-ERG–PL=MT
‘They went away to play the long flutes.’

ii. This second line shows the clause immediately following g.i with
OB co-reference construction with explicit O (bracketed) in the final
clause. It includes the same verb and plurality of S, which is now
marked in absolutive plural suffix on the verb (-ko). Since S is 3rd
person, there is Ø prefix.
Ø-ñ-aŋu-nda, [takwagï] Ø-ñ-aŋu-nda-ko=lefa.
3-OB-play-CI long.flute 3-OB-play-CI-PL=MT
‘Playing them, they were playing the long flutes.’

i. This is an example of an OB clause with a de-verbal nominalization

(derived through a suffixed class inclusion copula inflection); the
examples also have 3p. Ø prolitic on the ŋ- prefix:
i. eh, inde nago-faka
yes, here they-EM

Ø-ŋ-amba-dyogu-i
3-OB-drink.porridge-EM (inapprop)-CL
’Yes, in this place they really don’t drink correctly.’ (lit., ‘yes, here
those people, their own incorrect drinking’)

j. This example appears at the end of a major narrative clause-chain

segment. S has been specified in the preceding clause so is not
mentioned in line i. Line (ii) may also be supporting agency hierarchy
with animals < humans, therefore the human P wouldn’t be explicitly
mentioned.
i. kohotsi te-ŋe-lu-iña
afternoon eat.flesh-VT-PI-DAT/BEN

ete-go-k=omi, Matїga eŋe-lu-iña.

go.away-VT-PURP Matїga eat.flesh-PI-DAT/BEN
‘That afternoon the pair of them resolved to go to eat him, to eat
Matëga.’

ii. namunde=fale uŋele Ø-ñ-eŋe-lu=fale,

darkness-NO same person 3-OB-eat-PI=NO

Ø-ñ-eŋe-folï-fa kuge, telo, imït-oŋo

3-OB-eat-PHY-PTP person, someone else, face-EP-PREC
 195

‘But when it becomes dark that person eats, he tries to eat up the
person, someone else, his enemy. ‘

k. An example with imperfective aspect and the adnominal distal

demonstrative pronoun to reference S.
Ø-ñ-iŋi-g≈at-ïfïgï felei
3-OB-see-CI≈EQA-IMP ADEM
‘He had already been watching her.’

l. In this example, the adnominal demonstrative references S in the

preceding topical segment marked by ule.
ule fegei Ø -ñu-fitsa-nomi.
AFR PDEM 3-OB-search for-CONS
‘Consequently, that kind of thing was what he found.’

m. In this example, the compound ku+ ñ is on an adverbialized noun

derived from the stem: eŋe “eat flesh”. Line i.shows the verb in
anticipation aspect, while line ii.shows the derived adverb from the
nominalization of the same verb. Plural 2nd person requires explicit S
person marking.

i. itsetiŋe ku-ñ-e-ŋe-tani-ni
finished 1+2-OB-eat.flesh-VT-ANT-PL
‘As soon as (he’s) finished, we’ll eat him right up.’

ii. ku-ñ-eŋe-tu-ŋi-fa
1+2-OB-eat flesh-N-I-PTP
‘With respect to our eating him.’

n. This set of examples show a contrast between Ø- ŋ- and 1+2-ñ- on same

transitive verb (ipo- “cut out, extract”). The object-backgrounding
construction here seems to feed a P/A pivot. Note: Ø- ŋ =3>3; kuñ-
1+2>3

i. afedyo Ø-ŋ-ipo-ga-ni i-po-ga=lefa

bee honey 3-OB-take.out-SCAUS-ANT 3-cut.out-CI=MT
i-feke
3-ERG
‘He’s planning to take out the bee’s honey, he’s planning to cut it out.’

ku-ñ-ipo-ga≈ke-tsa-ŋe
1+2-OB-take out-CI =DEO-EX-I
‘I want us to take out the bee’s honey.’

ande iŋe Ø-ŋ-iŋi-pïgï

here/now bee’s.nest 3-OB-see-PS
‘There’s a bee’s nest that’s been seen around here.’
(ambiguous bec. 1p A is omitted in this construction)
 196

ah, ku-ñ-iso-komi itsuni-ta.

EXP 1+2-OB-eat.sweet-PL;PURP forest-DIS
‘Surely we could eat it in the forest.’

6.6. The thetic non-finite construction

Kalapalo non-finite constructions are defined by the absence of the usual verbal
inflections and argument complements. Neither pronominal prefixes nor verbal
aspect or irrealis inflectional suffixes appear on the stem. Lexical argument NPs
(S, A, O and oblique O) are preserved in the clause. In this regard Kalapalo non-
finite constructions behave similarly to the nominalized de-verbal derivational
constructions in which the nominalizations (which reference the O arguments of
the original verb) show verbal S or A arguments in the clause. There are two
types of non-finite clausal constructions:

-supine participle-like clauses, transitive clauses subordinate to voluntary

intransitive action clauses. These are constructed with a special supine
suffix, and only occur in third person.
-thetic clauses. Depending on transitivity,S,A and O are included in the
clause as lexical NPs.

In this section I discuss the thetic construction, as the supine is only found in
subordinate clauses; it is described in detail in the section on subordination in
Chapter 13, Complex Clause Constructions.
As noted by Eithne Carlin and Sergio Meira, characteristic of Northern
Carib languages are certain non-finite verbs in thetic construction, where a
semantically bleached reflexive prefix t- is followed by the verb stem, ending
with –i or other allophonic suffixes (2004:485). Thetic constructions seemingly
cognate to those in the Trio and Tiriyo languages occur in Kalapalo.
In Kalapalo, thetic intransitive constructions show no S argument as a
pronominal prefix. There is only a semantically bleached t-prefix. Immediately
following the verb stem is a noticable absence of any aspect or irrealis suffix.
Instead is found a ‘thetic’ suffix (glossed TH).
Kalapalo thetic constructions have the following possible forms:

1) t-√ -ti (where the stem ends in a consonant);

2) t-√ -te (where the stem ends in a vowel); and
3) t-√ -Ø (where the stem ends in /a/ or /i/ ).

The Kalapalo thetic verb is non-finite insofar as there is no marking of arguments

on the verb phrase nor any aspect or irrealis suffix. However, where the verbal
construction is ergative-absolutive the ergative case S NP is preserved (as in
examples 6.6c, line iii; and 6.6.3a). S in intransitive constructions also may
appear as a full NP. In the examples, the thetic is shown in boldface.

1. t-√ -i.
This example involves the verb tit- ‘touch’. A finite version of the verb is
shown in (a).
 197

a. i-tita i-feke
3- touch 3-ERG
‘He touched her.’

Example (b) shows a thetic construction of the same verb:

b. wagiti t-it-i tu-eu-ki

Formatted:Indent: Hanging: 0.5"

mAFRinchaREF-touch-TH REF-tail-INST
‘The mAFRincha fish touched it with its tail’.

2. t-√- te.
In the example (a) the thetic clause is a main clause followed by an oblique
(allative) argument:

a. t-u-te tu-nago-kuGi-na
T-come,to-TH REF-them-people-ALL
‘came towards his own people’

3. t-√-Ø.
The zero morpheme on the thetic consruction is distinguished from the Ø
resultative verbal suffix by the presence of the t- prefix. I have no examples of a
resultative aspectual inflection with this prefix on the verb stem. (see 6. 5.7.3 for
discussion of the finite resultative)

a Afuseti-pe t-imbi-Ø
Afuseti-SAL REF-steal-TH
‘Afuseti is the one who has been stolen’.

b. agetsi-ŋu akuGi t-ifi-Ø idyonda-niŋa t-atsaku-Ø.

one-only agouti REF-flee-TH leg-between REF-run.away- Ø.
‘Only one agouti escaped by running between his legs.’

c. tuwa-ti t-apa-Ø i-feke,

water-EV REF-spread.apart-TH 3-ERG

toh, tiki tiki

(sound of emergence), (sounds of 2 people arriving)
‘He spread apart the water and toh, tiki tiki, they emerged and arrived (at
a place on land).’

d. afi-kuegї mugu-pe tu-e-Ø i-feke

dogfish-AUG son-SAL REF-shoot-RES 3-ERG
‘He shot Dogfish’s son.’

6.6.1 Verbal arguments and thetic constructions

The thetic transitive verb may occur with the transitive subject (A) ergatively
marked NP preserved in the usual postposed position in the clause:
 198

a. lepene t-iŋi-Ø≈feke Taugi-feke.

afterwards REF-see-TH≈ERG Taugi-ERG
‘Afterwards he, Taugi noticed it.’

b. tĩ-teñiñĩ-gĩ t-agi-Ø i-feke

Formatted:Indent: Hanging: 0.5"

REFL-tobacco-POSS REF-throw-TH 3-ERG

‘he threw himself (i.e., travelled on) his own tobacco smoke; (his own
tobacco, he threw himself)’

tĩ-teñiñĩ-gĩ t-agi-Ø i-feke

REFL-tobacco-POSS REF-throw-TH 3-ERG
‘he threw himself (i.e., travelled on) his own tobacco smoke; (his own
tobacco, he threw himself)’

6.6.2 Thetic constructions and repetition in discourse

Some speakers follow their use of a thetic construction with a repetition of the
description using finite constructions. The following are two examples of this
practice. In each example, line c contains the finite verb, which is followed by
the adnominal demonstrative, apparently functioning to highlight the action.

6.6.2.1. Context: In a story, line a sets the scene in which a man is about to speak
shamefully to his mother-in-law. Line (b) contains the thetic
construction, line c the fully finite ergative verb construction.

a. ifaki=dyeta=fale ah te-pïgï ata-ni

far=SO=NT EXP go.away-VPE EQA-ANT
‘Their having gone on further that way,

b. tufïgi t-iŋi-Ø≈feke
REF-penis REF-see-TH≈ERG
he looked at his penis.’

c. tu-fïgi iŋi-lï fegei i-feke

REF-penis 3-see-PI ADEM 3-ERG
‘He looked at his penis. ‘

6.6.2.2 Context: Trickster uses a string tied onto King Vulture’s leg to be able
to reach his location in the sky:

a. lepene etiñï tï-ilu i-feke Taugi-feke.

afterwards string tie.on-PI 3-ERG Taugi-ERG
‘Afterwards he Taugi tied on a string,

tiñi te-lu- lefa.

string go.away-PI-MT
and the string went away.’
 199

b. ule-pe-kai tu-te-Ø Taugi te-lï fegei.

AFR-SAL-DEST REF-go.away-TH Taugi go.away-PI ADEM
‘While (holding) onto that he went away, Taugi went away that way .’

6.6.2.3. In the last example, both the thetic and supine constructions appear in the
same complex clause. The verb t-e-ti, “go towards, within view of
someone” is very unusual in Kalapalo insofar as it only seems to be
inflected in a non-finite construction.

te-ti u-et-igi,
come.within.sight-TH 1-come.to.get-DES-ADV
“Coming into sight to get me.”

6.6.3 Thetic constructions and clause chaining

Certain types of verbs may occur as thetic constructions in complex clause

constructions, including clause chaining with switch-referencing. (Clause
chaining is described in detail in Chapter 14.)

a. This example shows a simple construction involving two chained

clauses.

lepene sïŋï-lu tilako lepene

afterwards sleep-PI three afterwards

t-iŋi-Ø-feke-ni, teh, atïtï-i-lefa intsene

REF-see-TH-ERG-PL, INTER, nice-CL-MT fermented.piqui
‘After three days had passed, then they looked at it, and it was something
very nice, fermented piqui.’

b. This is an example of a thetic clause occuring in a clause chain. The

thetic clause is the main ‘go away to do X’ clause, where the subordinate
clause is only marked with the ‘same subject’ inter-clausal reference
marker mbe (SS). The thetic clause is followed by the final, controlling
clause.

lepene ito-mbe t-ẽt-i, apu-ŋu=lefa

following that fire-SS go.away-TH, die-VI=PL
‘Afterwards when they did that the fire went away, and so (3p) died.’

6.6.4 Discourse functions of thetic constructions

As we see in the examples above, in thetic non-finite constructions, the verb does
not carry any argument, except for the ergative A NP where the verb is transitive.
No aspect morphology occurs. It is the event itself which is ‘thematic’. As in
other languages, the Kalapalo thetic construction has a ‘descriptive’ function
which must be understood from a discourse point of view. Kalapalo thetic
constructions have typologically interesting functions in narratives, where they
 200

typically occur as descriptions of accidential or surprising events, often ending

such episodes. Often thetic statements occur in connection with the narrator’s
description of the consequence of preceding events. The Kalapalo thetic
construction typically occurs at the end of an episodic chain, when the narrator
makes reference to an unexpected or non-presupposed thematic event, often
involving an object that is accidentially or involuntarily involved in the scene.
Kalapalo thetic constructions, which are both transitive and intransitive, thus
involve foregrounding or topicalizing an event. This functions much like Sasse’s
description of the thetic: ‘a new situation is presented as a whole’. (2006: 256). In
this regard there is remarkable similarity to the discourse functions of thetic
constructions in Indo-European languages.
Thetic constructions often appear at the end of episodic clause chains, in
which a surprising or unexpected conclusion occurs. (See text 1, line 7). Another
way to end episodes is with the expression, ‘laitsani’, but this implies an
intentional result, not something accidential or surprising. (An example is 3.2.h
in Chapter 14: Grammar and Discourse). There is no aspect suffixing as would
occur in finite constructions, and the subject or object is only represented by a
'bleached' use of the reflexive. The following lines show the placing of thetic
constructions (boldfaced) in clausal chaining.

a. ŋike-fa u-iŋi-nu e-feke api,

look-PTP 1-see-CN 2-ERG Gf (voc)
‘Think about how I look to you now, Grandfather’.

b. buh, ah, sandagï-pe etukwe-nï-ko

(ideo), 3-followers-SAL fly.away-TH-PL
‘Buh, well, all this followers suddenly flew away’.

c. lepene ito-mbe t-ẽ-ti, apuŋu-lefa

following that fire-SS REF-go.away-TH, die-PI-PL
‘Afterwards when they did that the fire went away, and so (3p) died.’

d. lepene t-iŋi-Ø≈feke Taugi-feke.

afterwards REF-see≈TH-ERG Taugi-ERG
‘Afterwards he, Taugi noticed it.’

e. i. lepene etiñï tï-ilu i-feke Taugi-feke.

afterwards string put.on-PI 3-ERG Taugi-erg
etiñi te-lu-lefa
string go.away-PI-MT.

ii. ule-pe-kai t-u-te Taugi te-lï fegei

AFR-SAL-on REF-come.to-TH Taugi go.away-PI ADEM
‘Afterwards he Taugi tiedon a string, and the string went away, then
(holding) onto that he came, Taugi went away that way.’
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f. lepene s-ïŋï-lu tilako lepene

afterwards 3-sleep-PI three afterwards

ti-ŋi-Ø≈feke-ni, teh,
REF-see-TH≈ERG-PL, (nice),

atïtï-i=lefa intsene.
good-CL=MT fermented.piqui
‘After three days had passed, then they looked at it, and it was something
very nice, fermented piqui.’

6.7. Voice

Kalapalo features three voices: active, reflexive, and middle. Active voice is
marked with S prefix on the intransitive verb stem or marked with the ergative
case marker in a post-posed construction following the transitive verb phrase.
The reflexive voice is marked by the prefix t(ї)(u)-. The middle voice is marked
on extended intransitives by one of several possible diathesis prefixes on the verb
stem according to the initial vowel or consonant. In this section I review the
reflexive, and middle voice constructions.

6.7.1 Reflexivity

Reflexivity on transitive verbs and NPs is marked by the reflexive prefix t(ї,u).
This prefix has three distinct functions: It has a reflexive co-referential function
on both nominal and verbal phrases. Without co-referential meaning it
contributes to the non-finite thetic verb construction, and also appears on certain
adverbializations. In this section, I review the co-referential and adverbial uses of
the reflexive prefix, omitting the thetic contructions as the reflexive is bleached
of its semantic function in those cases. More data on the thetic constructions
appears later in this chapter, and the t-prefixed adverbials without apparent
reflexive meaning are discussed also in Chapter 10.

6.7.1.1. Co-referential reflexivity

As seen in these examples, the prefix can appear on noun incorporated verb
phrases, de-verbal adverbial clauses; and verbal clauses.

a. This example shows the tu- prefix on a nominal argument of a verb in

resultative construction. The co-referenced arguments are A, possessor of
the arrows, and P of the final subordinate clause, a person who is about
to be shot.

tu-fїgi foka-Ø tu-fet-omi≈feke.

REF-arrow set.in.bow-RES REF-shoot-PURP≈ERG
‘He had set his own arrow in the bow in order to shoot him.’

b. Here the nominalization construction t-etu-ki-ñї-fїɳї, ‘not having their

own settlements’ contains the reflexive prefix:
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ɳene iñalї t-etu-ki-ñї-fїɳї

animals negation REF-settlement-INST-N-unlike
i-tsa ele, ɳene-i.
EX-CI PDEM, animals-CL
‘Animals out there don’t live in their own settlements, they’re animals.’

c. Reflexive on verb phrase; the co-reference is a prior O.

t-ifogi-tsa=kafa e-feke.
REF-find-CI=EM 2-ERG
‘You’re looking for her, aren’t you?’

6.7.1.2. Adverbial use of the reflexive prefix

Certain de-verbal adverbials are initiated with the reflexive prefix. These do not
appear to be reflexive. In example (a) there are two instances of this type of
construction.
 203

a. lepene t-ipoi-si feke kuge-na

afterwards REF-carry-ADV ERG human-ALL

t-uGi-kї-mi e-feke
REF-destroy-CAUS-ADV 2-ERG
‘Following that, while carrying it to the person, “As for this human
being, you are the cause of his own destruction.”’

6.7.1.3 The t- and ñ- prefix OB compound

.
These examples show the common use of t- to disambiguate S from the two 3rd
person oblique arguments of the transitive verb “search.for”, constructed as an
object-backgrounding clause.

a. ande-dyaka ti-ñ-enïm-iŋo efiñano-ake

here/now-EM REFL-OB-search for-POT older bro-COM
’Now I’ve decided searching with the older brother will take place

Ø-opi-dyï-ko-iña
3-avenge-PI-PL-DAT/BEN
so they can be avenged.’

b. With a plural S (“exclusive we”) referenced:

tisuge-fa ti-ñ-indu-te-ga-ni inde,

we (excl)-PTP REFL-OB-share-VT-SCAUS-ANT here,

iŋadyo-mo-ake,
brothers-COLL-COM
` ‘We and the other group of brothers are about to share it

6.7.2. Middle voice

Middle voice in Kalapalo involves a prefix operator (MV) that occurs with bodily
active or stative verbs, in which A and P are virtually the same and may be
considered a simultaneous ‘undergoer’. Middle voice prefix may be inherent in
verbs referencing motion involving the whole body or inherent body parts;
examples include: 'looking up ('lifting up one's face'), 'coiling up one's body' (as,
a snake), 'cutting one's hair', 'rising up out of the water', 'being tied up'; a group
forming itself into a pattern, 'lining up'; 'forming into a circle', illness events
such as, 'vomiting', 'purging', 'having eye problems'; also, 'feeling shame', 'used
up', 'finished', 'softening', 'avenging oneself', 'making an image of
oneself'. Middle voice is also used with verbs that occur also in active voice.
Examples are: 'shooting each other', 'painting the body', 'falling sick', 'looking
for', 'leave'. Some middle voice diatheses are applicative objects (e.g., 6.7.2.4a
where the verb is derived by the malefactive suffix).
I use the expression 'middle voice diathesis' in reference to the use of
MV on the verb root in both active and stative cases as the semantic effect
appears to be important. The prefix always takes the form V(t). Because of the
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presence of /t/ in this prefix, middle voice marking may be diachronically related
to the reflexive prefix t(i,e).

a. An example with the verb with middle voice e- diathesis which occurs
when the verb is consonant initial, as here. The speaker is talking about
using a piece of bamboo to shave a man’s neck.

ule-ki aŋifolo e-tsu-mbi-tsi-ga

AFR-INST first.people MV-shave-VI-CI
‘With that thing the first people were shaved.’

b. Another extended intransitive verb ï, ‘do’ with middle voice et- prefix:

uŋele-fa tï-kiŋo-ki et-ï-i-lï

same.person-PTP REF-design-INST MV-do-EP-PI
‘He was painted with his own design.’

To mark middle voice undergoer, with roots beginning with /a/, the diathesis
marking at- prefix occurs. With roots beginning with /i/, the diathesis marking et
prefix occurs. With the very few roots beginning with /u/ and /i/, the diathesis
marking ut prefix occurs. Finally, roots beginning with a consonant have
diathesis e-. Stems with a verbal radical often become nominalized, in which
case this middle voice diathesis persists. Occasionally an adverb also exhibits
diathesis (see 6.7.2.1d).
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6.7.2.1 Diathesis prefix at- on /a/ initial stems

I have several examples of middle voicing diathesis at-. The verbs are agi-
‘throw’, ai-, ‘curl up’ and aGi- ‘cut woman’s hair’ (make bangs). There is one
adverbial example (d).

a. This pair of examples illustrates diathesis with the root aGi- ‘women’s
hair’. In the first construction, the transitive verb aGi-pi-tsi-, ‘shorten a
fringe’ (‘make bangs’) is nominalized by the usuitative nominalizer,
which is re-verbalized by the potential aspect morpheme. The ergative
argument appears clause finally.

aGi-pi-tsi-gofo-iŋo u-feke
bangs-SAL-VT-USIN-POT 1-ERG
‘I’m planning to cut (make) her bangs’

Here, diathesis occurs with the at- prefix. The construction is a

nominalized clause.

eŋifolo at-aGi-ke-ta-nïmi
ancients MV-bangs-cut-CI=CONS
‘When the Ancients wanted to cut (shorten) their bangs.’

b. Another pair illustrates diathesis with the root agi, “throw away’, ‘shoot
a gun’., Here is a simple use of the root as a reflexive transitive
construction:

t-agi-lu tifeke
REF-throw.away 1+3-ERG
‘We threw that away’ (i.e., no longer made it).

The following illustrates the diathesis marking construction on the root

with the intransitive radical -ɳa:

Kohotsi ekugu=ɳapa-fa iñїɳgo=lefa,

sunset fully=EM-PTP come.to-POT-PL=MT
is-їɳї-pїgї-nafa ege-na-fa ukw-iga-tїfїgї-na,
3-sleep-PS=EM, ADEM=ALL-PTP dual-name-IMP-ALL

at-agi-ɳa-tїfїgї-ko-na
MV-shoot-VT-IMP-PL-ALL
‘It could have been that they came to where they slept, to there, to the
place we’ve been naming, to where they had been shooting at each
other.’

c. An example with the nominalized construction of the verb ai-, ‘curl up’:

at-ai-pïgï eke-fa.
MV-curled.up-VPE snake-PTP
‘That curled up snake.’
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6.7.2.2 Diathesis prefix et- on /i/ initial stems

a. et-i-mi-, avenge. The example shows the verb stem nominalized with the
‘usitative’ nominalizer (USIN).

ah, Ø-ŋ-i-tomi et-imi-tofo-iŋo, Ø-ŋ-i-tofo

EXPL, 3-OB-see-PER MV-avenge-USIN-POT 3-OB-see-IM
‘Surely, you should let me see what you use as your avenging yourself
tool, I want to see it now.’

b. This example involves the transitive verb imï-ke, ‘look up’, ‘show one’s
face’, with diathesis on the root imї- ‘face’:

ene-fa et-imï-ke-i-folï,
suppose-PTP MV-face-VT-EP-PHY

tu-e-folï=lefa i-feke, tu-e-folï.

REF-shoot-PHY=MT 3-ERG, REF-shoot-PHY
‘If he had looked up, he would have been shot by it, he would have been
shot.’
Formatted:Indent: Left: 0.04", Hanging: 0.02"
 207

c. Example with diathesis on the verb iñaɳGi-‘come up’ (to the surface):

uwa-ma et-iñaɳgi-ɳalї
Q-EM MV-rise.up-REP
‘How could he bring himself up again?”

d. Diathesis on the verb їi- ‘put on’:

et-ïi-lï: ‘put on (design); paint onself’

e. Diathesis on verb ïgi, ‘fall sick’:

et-ïgiŋ-Gi-tsa
MV-fall.sick-VT-CAUS-CI,
‘He made himself fall sick’.

f. Diathesis on ufi-, ‘find’:

ito et-ufi-dyu=fata ku-pehe.

fire MV-find-CI=SIM 1+2-ERG
‘While we were also looking for fire.’

g. Diatheis on ufu-, ‘know’:

et-ufu-tofo, ‘something used for knowing’ (image, sign)

et-ufu-tofo-nde-Ø ‘made an image (left a sign) of oneself‘kuk-iŋandsu-
ko et-ufu-tofo-nde-pïgï
1+2-sister-PL MV-know-USIN-VT-VPE
‘Our sister’s sign that she made (left) a of herself’.

h. et-u-ma-ki , ‘make soft’:

etu-ma-ki-tsïgï ata-ni.
soft-Va-CS-IPE EQA-ANT
‘made itself into something soft’ .

i. etiɳaɳi- , ‘vomit’:

tsefu-ku-ma-ki-lї i-feke, Taugi-feke

3>3;stomach-INT-motion-CAUS-PI 3-ERG, Taugi-erg,

et-iɳaɳi-lї
MV-vomit-PI. ,
‘He, Taugi tickled him on his stomach, (and) he vomited.’

j. ato et-iɳu-ki-ta
2;friend MV-eye-VI-CI
‘Your friend has eye problems’
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6.7.2.3. Diathesis prefix ut- on /a/, /e/ and /i / initial stems.

a. This example shows MV with a second person reference.

e-iŋï-pïgï ut-a-Gi-ma-nïmiŋo
2-poison-PS MV-die-CAUS-VI-POT
‘Your poisoning will make you die.’

As these all have 1st person reference, the u- first person prefix may be involved.

b. imi- , avenge
ut-imi-lu-iña u-enïm-iŋo (take revenge)
MV-revenge-PI-DAT 1-come-POT
‘I plan to come and avenge myself.

c. ike-, ‘snap’, ‘break’. The speaker is referring to his broken bow cord:

ut-ike-nïgï ake-tsa-ŋe:
MV-break-PS SD-DEO
‘My having had to break myself’..

d. igiñu, ‘sing’. This illustrates the MV prefix with a verb in inchoative

or anticipated aspect and potential status:

ut-igiñu-nda-ni, u-t-igiñ-ïŋo
1-REFL-sing-CI-FUT, 1-REFL-sing-POT
‘I’ll soon sing about myself, I plan to sing about myself.’

e. eku, ‘paint body’

ut-eku-Gi-ts-omi
MV-paint. body-PCAUS-CI-PURP
‘I intend someone to paint me.’

6.7.2.4 Diathesis prefix ut- on initial / u/ stems

These examples reference a third person P experiencer of a bodily state verb. The
examples are of the stem umi- tie up.
Example (a) is a malefactive construction with applicative effect on the verb. The
applied object is marked with the MV

a. ut-umi- ñalї gehale i-feke

MV-tie.up-MAL again 3-ERG
‘He was tied up again by her’.
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Example ( b) shows the same transitive verb stem inflected with the reversative
suffix.

b. ut-umi-tsi-ɳalї i-feke
MV-tie.up-VT-REV 3-ERG
‘His being re-tied by her.’

6.7.2.5 Diathesis prefix e- on consonant initial stems

Most of these stems begin with /f/ or /t/. Example (a) is the only attested
example of an /m/ initial stem with diathesis marking, and this is a noun
incorporated verb stem.

a. This example shows diathesis e on the usually person marked time

noun, mitote ‘at dawn’:

e-mitote-ku=mbedye-ta=fale egei, ai-mbe-fa.

MV-dawn-IN=PSA-DIS-NO IDEM, finally-SS-PTP
‘Even so just before dawn this time, finally that happened (to him)’.

c. In this example, diathesis marking occurs with e on the stem futisu-, ‘feel
shame’, and the stem pї- ‘shoot’ which has been nominalized. This is a
typical clause chain construction. In the chain, there are three different
constructions using futisu. The first, initial utterance is intransitive; 3p S
is marked by the i-prefix. The second clause (bracketed) shows the
diathesis marking of middle voice construction with the immediately
following O NP, then the ergative case marked A. The immediately
following third construction is an adverbialization with the –ki suffix on
the verb stem; this adverbial is an adjunct of the existential copular verb
which is subordinate to the final main clause in the chain.

i-futisu-nda. [e-futisu-nda-fa ekege

3-shame-CI. [MV-shame-CI-PTP jaguar
e-pїgї-feke].
shoot-VPE-ERG]
‘It felt shame. It felt shame as it had shot the jaguar’.

e-futisu-ki-tsa, te-lu=mbedya.
MV-shame-ADV≈EX go.away-PI=SSDE
‘Being ashamed, it went away (unexpectedly).’

d. ande ake-tsaɳe e-pigї-ko-ake e-fogi-tsa-ko,

here.now SD-DEO 2-grandson-PL-CM MV-find-CI-PL,

t-ifogi-tsa=kafa e-feke.
REF-find-CI=EM 2-ERG
‘This time I and your grandsons want to look, you yourself are looking
for them, aren’t you?.’
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e. e- diathesis on a noun incorporated verb with /t/ initial stem:

e-tuwa-ki-tofo-ko iɳi-ta
MV-water-VT-USIN-PL bring.to-CL
‘He was bringing the purgative’.

f. e-tsimbuki, ‘finished up’:

itseke-pe e-tsimbї-ki-lї afefa-ti-dyї-ko

powerful.being-SAL MV-use.up-cause-PI ?-ADV-PI-PL
‘The powerful being has been used up’, they were greedy for more .’

g. e-tukilu, made ready:

kuigiku et-u-ki-lï li-tsa-ule-tï i-feke-ne.

hot.soup MV-finished-PI drink-CI-AFR-EV 3-ERG-PL
‘When the hot soup was ready, it’s said they all drank it. ‘

h. e-tiñamba: eat a meal

ina=fofo kukw-e-tiña-mba-t≈ïŋi
this.place=IM 1+2-MV-eat.a.meal-CI≈I
‘The next thing we’ll do is we’ll prepare something to eat for ourselves
right here.’

i. e-te-, the diathesis appears on the common verb te- ‘go away’, ‘leave’.
This example shows the use in this context, with cases on non-diathesis
marking as well.
unde=ma e-ikene unde
Q=EM 2-yz Q
’Where is your younger sister, where?’

tuwa-ka.iɳila=mbale e-te-lu, iɳila. eh he

water-to early=CAT MV-go.away-PI, early. agreement
“She went away to the water because it was early, early. ‘All right’.”

ah una=seku=ma-na e-te-lu Ø-nїg≈i-feke

EXP Q=MIR=EM-CONT MV-go.away-PI 3-PS≈3-ERG
“‘Surely she must have gone somewhere else,’ she answered.”

isi te-lu tuwa-ka-ga.

3;mother go.away-PI water-to-down
‘Her mother went down to the water.’

6.8. Position of constituent segments in the verbal word

In this section, I describe the verbal constructions and the coordinations possible
between various inflections and derivational morphemes. I will begin with a
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schematic description of the morphological properties of the finite verbal word.

A discussion of non-finite constructions concludes the chapter.
The core element of a verbal word is the stem, consisting of a root with
semantic function, and a radical indicating ambitransitive, transitive or
intransitive status of the stem. In the case of a finite verb, the stem is preceded
by an optional preventative prefix and a required absolutive pronominal prefix.
There is finally an unusual optional prefix ga- referencing downward activity.
Following the stem of a finite verb is of of several possible optional valence
increasing ‘causative’ affixes, and an aspect suffix which may be inflected for
plural number. A schematic representation of this simple finite verb construction
is shown in Diagram 2. When “or” appears in constraint* column, a feature
may not be followed by the next numbered feature (i.e. the pronominal prefix and
reflexive prefix do not co-occur).

Position Gramamtical Constraint*

feature
1 preventative
prefix
2 pronominal or
prefix
3 reflexive
4 downward
direction
prefix
5 root
6 radical
7 valency
increasing
suffix
8 aspect or
irrealis or
applicative
suffix
feature
suffix
9 plural suffix
10 desiderative or
suffix
11 evidential or
12 modifier
suffix suffix

Diagram 2. Order of constituents in verbal words:

[Preventative-Person Prefix-reflexive-STEM (root-radical)-valency increase-aspect or
irrealis suffix+plural suffix]

6.8.1. Preventative prefix, ke-. (PREV)

This prefix always occupies the first position in the verbal word. In the
following example, there is also an oppositive -ne preceding the final
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desiderative adverbializer –ti. ke- appears as ka- where vocalic assimilation

occurs (see Chapter 2: Phonology.)

a. e-ge-te fetsaŋe a-fameti-gï

2-go-I DEO 2-Bro.in.law-POSS

ke-ti-ŋe-ŋe-tsa-ne-ti
PREV-REF-eat.meat-VT-CI-AN-DES
‘You must leave, so that you won’t feel like eating your brother-in-law’.
(lit.,’ your brother-in-law, you must not want to be his eater’)

6.8.2. Personal pronominal prefixes

Personal pronominal prefixes are generally the same as those on the possessed
nominal word, with the exception of the reflexive t(i,u)- prefix. The reflexive
prefix may have several different functions when appearing on verbal words (see
section 7.3.1, above).

6.8.3 Downward motion prefix ga-

This is quite unusual as it is the only prefix with a semantic function to operate
on the verb stem. Its use is very limited.

a. ga-ma-ki-lї, ‘fall down’ cf, alamakilї ‘fall’

b. tuwa-ka-ga-tunda-ti
water-contain-D-lead.to-CI-ADV
‘the path down to the bathing place’.
 213

c. ule-ki-fa kaɳa ga-pi-dyu-kita

AFR-INST-PTP fish D-open.up-PI-EV

ɳikogo api-dyї-kita
fierce.people open.up -PI-EV
‘With that thing, fish were cut into, people who were there said,
Formatted:Indent: Left: 0.5"

the fierce people opened (them) up, people who were there said.’

6.8.4. Intransitive and transitive radical suffixes

Kalapalo verbs consist of stems formed from a root plus a morpheme referred to
here as a “radical”. These radicals appear as suffixes immediately following the
root. They include a large number of possiblities, establishing the status of the
verb, including changing an intransitive verb to a transitive. For transitive verbs
the radicals include speech acts, benefactives, positive manipulative, inchoative,
malefactive, action on a patient, and oppositive. (see Table 23) For intransitives,
the possibilities include: delocutive, bodily action, utterances, pass from one
state to another, motion, directional motion (to or away from a reference point),
psycho-benefactive, adversative, benefactive bodily action, reversative,
benefactive stative, consciousness events, and possibly activity involving water.
There is also an ambitransitive radical -ki which is listed in the intransitive table.
(see Table 22).
Applicative formation through the malefactive suffix occurs with both
intransitive and transitive verbs. Transitive status may be changed by derivational
processes as described in the sections on the valence decreasing (object-
backgrounding) (6.5) and valence-increasing (6.9) constructions. The following
tables summarize the types of radicals and their usage. Some radicals appear in
the intransitive paradigm, but may also be used as valence-increasing causatives
in a position after the intransitive verb stem. These cases are noted. The full set
of causatives is discussed spearately in the valency-increasing section in this
chapter (6.9).

Table 22. Intransitive Radicals
-te-: “voluntary motion away”;
delocutive
(if incorporated noun = purpose of
motion)
-ka,-ke, -ki; - ɳa, -ɳi involuntary
bodily action verbs (seem to be
phonologically conditioned: after u
or uŋ
-tsu--: utterances
-ti-: pass from one state to another
-mba/mbe-motion verbs
-nï-: directional motion verbs (to or
away from a reference point)
- ñe /ñu/ne/nu-: psycho-
benefactive: 1) affective action 2)
ceremonial action:
-ŋa/ŋe/ŋi/ŋu-: voluntary bodily
action
-ma, mi-: adversative
214
te-lï: he goes away; akua-pï-te-lï: go to
a “separated consciousness” (shamanic
rite); itau itolo-tetako: the women are
(moving about) singing; fiputelï: make
payment, exchange
uikegilu: I fart; ei-ki-ta: you are
shitting; eikaŋilu: you vomit; ekitsa;
scrape;; etsiŋita; join up; tidyakaŋilï
stretched oneself out; eguwakita:
kneading activity; eñekidyu: rotting
activity; etïkilï: be ready; fuŋGilï: gasp;
breathe; sïŋïlï: she slept; igeŋimbïŋko:
he who had taken them before; efïŋïŋï:
be without you; ; imbiŋiŋo (fa): he was
going to steal (her); efiŋaŋgu, ‘you’re
perspiring’ ; atagiketa, ‘to have one’s
hair cut shorter’; etimїkeifolї, ‘if he had
glanced up’; itiɳaketa, ‘lying in the
hammock’
ikatsunda: calling out (humans);
itsunda; calling (animals)
ifatilï: go outside, leave a place;
afegitilï: sunrise; afugutilï: sun set;
etidyu: move away, get up, clean;
isiketilï: try something out; iŋotilï:
ripen; teti: come into view; ifuti: come
to know
timbelï: arrive at a place; timbalï:
accept to drink; efuambalï: travel in a
canoe; embeta: to meet (come together
with); ifiña-mba-lï=fata i-feke, ‘while
he leaned over her’
sinïgï: come towards; enïgï: come to;
etukwenïŋgo: fly away noisily in a
group; etukwenïgï: cheered ; ifenï: grab;
eñïmiŋo: end up; reach
1) otonunda: miss someone; atañeta:
forgetting; funita: cherishing someone;
fonunda; crying; b) atakaneta: to give
out gifts; iñenïgï: invited ceremonially;
ikiñunda: wrestling ceremonially;
apokinenïgï: give up practice (lit, put
down); ekeutinu: feeling cold
eŋelu: 2p eat meat; iŋilï: 3p looks;
eŋalï: 3p.berates; iŋatilï: 3p share
space. ; ikaŋunda: 3rd person ia
collecting firewood;; ukweŋuita: we
(incl) are heating; isїɳї: 3p sleeps
aŋunda: 3p is playing a musical
instrument;
eŋulï: travel on water; etiŋufelu: get up
and out (from hammock)
etimita: loose interest in, divorce, be
fed up with; faŋamita: forget; fumilï:

-ku-:effortful body action (from –
ku-“intensive” infix?)
-pe/pi/po-: reversative action
-nda/nde/ndi-: stative
-tu-: consciousness event
-lu-: activity involving water
-fo/wo-: involuntary effort?
-su: emotional action
215
send away; itsamitsa: rolled up inside
something (hidden); utaGimanїmiɳo:
you will be made to die
bodily action: i-ku-lu: have sex; atsa-
ku-lu: run away; igi-ku-ni-ta: being
made to feel jealous of X’
ogo-pi-dyu: turn around; elipoilï: rise to
the surface; egupoilu: used up; epelï:
crack open; ifopitsa: make the fire
smaller; iñepenïgï: trapped the fish ;
ŋipi: have, own
atu-ndi-lï: boiling (water); ekeu-ndi-nu:
your feeling cold
eni-tu-nda is dreaming; fitsa-tu;
ñafitsatunda (DE) is hallucinating;
eŋe-tu-nda: is afraid; itsotununda: is
angry; ifetunalï: cry out ; ifuŋatunda:
trembling with fear; etetuidyï: rubbing
(bespelling); igikutuidyï: beat up
iŋutuidyï: spread out (poison in water)
gitalunda: river meanders; iŋilunda:
weep (Wagifïtï word?; from iŋi-, see?)
ituwolï: burst, flood over, explode; oto-
go-fo-ko-iŋo:(for) their fighting each
other
ifutisunda, ‘feeling ashamed’

Table 23. Transitive Radicals
-Ø-mainly speech act verbs
-nda/nde/ndi-: benefactive
-ni: stative verbs
-nï/nu/ŋa/ŋe/ɳu-: perform a
detrimental, unfavorable action on X
-ki, -Gi-: causative; make
someone/thing do something;
to get something (see also in Table
22)
-kї: positive manipulative; verbs of
handling
-tsi/tse: activity on or with body
parts or other patients
nasal: malefactive
-fїfi/fe-: action on a patient
pa, cyclical or turn taking action
-ñe, na-: oppositive
216
say to; tell to (zero roots); itëidyu
answer:; ifata listening to; fidyu touch
someone
atundilï: involve oneself with;
iñondelï: remove basket from a
woman’s head; iñundita: make fun of
iGikunita: envying
iñalï funum=ifeke: he didn’t know
anything about it; inenïmiŋo: planning
to poison her; uiŋuŋGiŋalu: be
disappointed with me; apinu:made to
be a candidate for being clubbed ; e.
afasï ŋiso-feke u-faŋa-tuŋ-gi-s-ote.
2-oZ husband-ERG 1+2-C-food-VT-
DET-C?-CONC ’when your older
sister’s husband insult me’. ; igiku-nu-
ki-tsa: ‘make X envy Y’
ifekidyï: pleasing someone; itsefukilï:
make the guts emerge; ifakilï: awaken
someone; afekidyu: whip someone;
alamakilu: make someone fall down;
fukilï: rub (hands) over; igïGitsa:
surrounding; ipikilï: fish pulling on a
hook; akulakukilï: to make someone
collect arrow cane iŋguGita: think
eguakilï: squeeze ŋugupuGilï: growing
hair on itself; iŋgaGidyï: spread apart;
iŋGuGidyï: thinking; itsupuGita;
growing body hair; isekaŋilï: make
ceremonial request;
iga-kї-ilï: take out of a container
apitsilu: sun going down; afutsilu: plant
crops; eŋukweĩ-tsi-lu: question
someone; etemitselï: unwind
something; fopotsilï: light a fire
õta: ignore someone; isoĩdyï: wind up
something (witchcraft); idyoĩdyï: tie up
something
etsufitsa: moisten something; fifitsa:
write; ifukefidyï: track an
animal/person;
iñotakefenïŋgo: taken by their wrists;
isafitsilï: pull her hair; teñuɳgefїki, ‘her
bleeding’ (menses)
igepagїte-Ø: ‘set out in different piles’
ifuñeta: reject someone; ititsïñeta:
lower down, tunalu, ‘refuse to give’
 217

-Gi: personation; action in relation ifoGidyï: find someone; emïtoŋGitsa:

to another (see also in intransitive confront;
radical table); also a valence-
increasing causal suffix
-ga: ‘sociative causative’
-ke: deontic, ‘need to do X’ ete-ke-ɳalї: ‘needed to keep going’

6.8.5 Valence increasing suffixes

Valence increasing constructions involve increasing the number of arguments in

a clause by 1) the use of a transitivizing ‘causative’ radical on an intransitive or
transitive verb stem, or 2) an inflectional process involving use of the ergative
suffix -feke to mark a second verbal argument (not necessarily A). Kalapalo
valence-increasing suffixes include the transitive –ŋe/ne radicals, and what in
general I call the ‘causative’ suffixes : -ki, -Gi, -ku, -ga and -nu. Here I give a
simple example of the use of the permissive causative suffix –Gi, ‘to allow/have
someone do something to X’ on the verb tseku-, ‘paint the body’:

a. u-tseku-tsomi
1-paint..body-PURP
‘I want to paint my body.’

b. u-t-eku-Gi-tsomi
1-MV-paint.body-PCAUS- PURP
‘I intend to have someone make me painted.’

Further discussion and detail regarding valence-increasing operations on

Kalapalo verbs appear later in this chapter in section 6.9 Illocutionary force,
aspect and irrealis status: overview

6.8.6 Ilocutionary force, aspect and irrealis status: overview

In Kalapalo, the three types of illocutionary force are marked differently in finite
constructions. Indicatives are marked through distinctive suffixes on the verb
stem, many of which are aspectual. Imperatives (including hortatives) are
marked with one of several imperative suffixes on the verb stem; imperative
constructions are discussed in Chapter 8. Interrogatives are referenced by a
nominal complement construction preposed to the verb, containing an
interrogative lexeme. These are discussed in Chapter 9. In addition, there is a
small set of irrealis status conditions with aspectual distinctions, also marked on
the verb stem. The malefactive suffix has an applicative effect, discussed in
6.8.9.
As I discuss in the section on epistemic modality in Chapter 12, I make
a strict distinction between the term ‘‘status’ which in Kalapalo refers to irrealis
grammatical features suffixed to the verb, and ‘epistemic’ which in Kalapalo is a
cliticized category that has to do with the point of view or judgment of the
speaker regarding the proposition under consideration. Note there is also a
separate sub-class of expressives that are epistemic, described in 11.2.2. As
 218

noted in chapter 12.3.7, Kalapalo ‘epistemic’ clitics may sometimes reference

modality in the sense of ‘degrees of confidence’, but have a larger range of
general features than that term would allow. I use the term ‘status’ to avoid
using ‘modality’ for these two very different types of operators as well as for the
deontic word type described in Chapter 11: 12.5.
To make the contrast between the epistemic and the conditional marking
of events clear, I use the term ‘irrealis’ to refer specifically to an inflectional
feature on the verb stem referencing varieties of conditions that precede events
which have not, or not yet, occured. (I do not, however, use the term
‘conditional’ for any grammatical feature). Future is not always implied by
irrealis nor is it marked as a tense with these or any other forms suffixed to the
verb stem.
Finally, Kalapalo ‘aspect’ is an inflectional feature that marks the
quality of the whole of an action in regard to time. I use the term ‘aspect’ to refer
not only to indicative inflections, but also some which occur as irrealis operators,
as well as de-verbal nominalizations. As I have already described in Chapter 5,
the aspectual suffixes and semantic references in nominal constructions are
different from those seen in verbal constructions.
Many, though not all of these indicative and irrealis inflections also
appear on the ‘be’ roots that are described in Chapter 7. As I show in that
chapter, there is at least one copular inflection, atehe that is not present on the
semantic verb, being distinctive to the active equative ‘be’ root at- (EQA).
In Kalapalo there are no specific verbal markers of tense. Contextual
indication of tense reference comes from adverbial and nominal temporal deixis,
from the interclausal reference marker clitics, and to a lesser degree, from some
epistemic clitics. Future is implied by some irrealis forms and by the perfect
inflection of the active equative verb, atehe when cliticized with a certain
cataphoric interclausal reference marker (see Chapter 14.3.4) , but is not overtly
marked as such. Table 24 presents the verbal illocutionary force/ aspect/irrealis
paradigm.
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Table 24. Illocutionary force/ Aspect/ Irrealis Verb Paradigm

Illocutionary Aspect Gloss Suffix Supplemental
Force taxis
marker**

Indicative
Punctual PI lï/lu; simultaneous
dyï/dyu =fata (SIM)
ContinuousC CI ga; nda; habilitative
ontinuous ta; tsa =iga (HAB)
Resultative RES Ø
Repetitive REP iɳalї
Reversative REV nalï
Malefactive MAL iñalї
Anticipated or Imperfective ANT tani
inchoative
(certainty)
Potential Imperfective POT luiŋo ;
(uncertainty) plural:
ïŋgo-iŋo
Counter-factual Punctual CF tsolї
Interrrogative n/a Q, RQ n/a
Imperative n/a IMP ke,ge,tse,
ɳe
Irrealis
Hypothetical Punctual PHY folï
Hypothetical Continuous CHY fota

* See Chapter 9: Interrogatives for a full description of these preposed morphemes.

** These two are used to supplement the punctual and continuouscontinuous aspect
suffixes so are shown here. Other taxis clitics have greater flexibility.

6.8.7 The indicative

The Kalapalo indicative distinguishes six contrasts, including the unmarked

punctual and continuous aspects, the resultative, repetetive, reversative, and
malefactive, and two imperfectives, the inchoative or anticipated, and the
potential. I use the term ‘indicative’ to reference illocutionary force type,
where the listener is expected to take what the speaker says as described. With
this inflection, speakers frequently use the epistemic ‘assertive’ expletive ah
‘surely’ (EXP), a kind of realis marking (see example6.5.7.1.d). The temporal
meanings of these inflections are indicated by the adverbial, taxis (phasal), or in
some cases the epistemic clitic occuring in the clause. Tense itself is not
conveyed by the indicative morphemes.

6.8.7.1 Punctual indicative suffixes, -lï/lu; dyï/dyu

These suffixes reference a single, usually spontaneous event. If there is a plural

subject or patient, the aspectual suffix is followed by the absolutive plural suffix
–ko. In the following examples, temporal contexts occur with epistemic , taxis, or
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adverbial features. Non-past is conveyed in (a;b;c;e;h); future in (f;g) ; past in

(d;g). Example (i) appears to be future preventative construction.

a. isi ot-ïŋi-dyï fidyo-pe-feke

3;mo miss-VT-PI skin-SAL-ERG
‘His mother grieved for his skin (i.e.shell)’.

b. itseke ekugu-na ete-lï

powerful.being fully-ALL go.away-PI
‘3p went to the truly powerful being’.

c. inde ekugu=mbe Giti ata-ni i-ñ-opi-dyï

here truly=SS sun EQA-ANT 3-OB-come.back-PI
‘The sun was (moving) right over here when he came back’.

d. The punctual suffix is followed by the simultaneous taxis clitic –fata

(SIM); The anaphorical focal referent ule (AFR) marks the final
subordinate clause:

lepene indi-ga-tїfїgї ule-mbe

afterwards drop.down- SCAUSE-IMP AFR-SS

tsu-lu=fata i-feke, api-lї≈le i-feke

gather.up-PI=SIM 3-ERG, beat-PI≈AFR 3-ERG
‘Afterwards he made (the fruit) fall down and while he (did that), (the
other person) went to pick it up and so he was crushed by one of them.’

e. aifa fїgi afe-te-lї

over arrow use.up-VT-PI
‘The arrows were all used up’.

f. aɳolo=nika ete-lї-ko
true=EM go.away-PI-PL
‘Is it true you are going away?’

g. iɳila wãke ata-ko ifi-dyї wãke enitsї-ko-feke wãke

long.ago EM 2;MO-PL kill-PI EM 2-GM-PL-ERG EM
‘Long ago your mother was killed by your grandmother’.

h. titititi tatakeGi-s=ale ete-lї-ko=fata

(sound of walking) on.all.fours-CO=UT go.away-PI-PL=SIM
‘While they they crept away on all fours.’

i. ku=le-mi-la keñi kup-aguwї ifi-dyї ɳikogo-feke

1+2-UT-ADV-NEG beware 1+2-nephew kill-PI fierce.person-ERG
‘We must take care that a fierce person doesn’t kill our nephew.’
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6.8.7.2 Continuous indicative suffixes, -ga, -ta, -nda,- tsa, -sa

The suffixes -ga, -ta, -nda,- tsa, -sa may be understood as progressive
(especially with first person actor), or iterative with some transitive verbs in the
case of plural patient, where the event affects ‘one by one’ of a collectivity; (d)
is an example. Temporal contexts are future (a;i); non-past (b;d; e;f;g; j), past (c;
h).

a. kogetsi ku-tufi ku-ñi-ta

tomorrow 1+2-crops 1+2-see-CI
‘Tomorrow we’ll look at our crops.’

b. ti-foGi-tsa=kafa e-feke
REF-find-CI=EM 2-ERG
‘You certainly have been finding them.’

c. ifaki-la-ko-ŋapa is-ïŋï-ta-ko-lefa
far-NEG-PL-EM 3-sleep-CI-PL-MT
‘Probably they were all sleeping nearby.’

d. Perhaps because the verb, ika-, ’share, give out’ implies plural P, there is
no plural absolutive suffix (otherwise expected) on the verb phrase.

fikutafa fu-i ika-nda i-feke-ni-lefa

turtle egg-CL share-CI 3-ERG-PL-MT
‘They gave out the turtle eggs (one by one)’.

e. With supplemental ‘habitual’ taxis clitic =tiga (HAB):

 
tï-n=ege e-fiGa-ŋu a-pi-sa=tiga
Q-CONT≈PDEM 2-hot-LT 2-hit-CI=HAB
‘It’s just you who are always sweating?’

f. tï-n≈ege e-keu-ndi-nu-ma e-ta=tiga

Q‐CONT≈PDEM  2‐cold‐ADV‐VI‐EM  2‐feel=HAB 
“It’s just you who are feeling cold?’
 
g.  tï-n≈eni-ki-sa=tiga
RQ-CON≈dream-cause-CI=HAB 
‘Is it the case that something makes you dream?’

h. efitsu-mbїɳї elei tu-e-foga=tiga fїgei-ki

wife-FO IDEM REF-shoot-CHYP=HAB arrow-INST
‘That was his ex-wife who had been trying to shoot him with her
arrows’.

i. From a narrative, this example is a challenge to an enemy:

ami gehale tututu ah,

once again (sound of stamping foot), EXP
 222

agakatu. agakatu, agakatu

Agakatu, Agakatu, Agakatu
‘Once again he stamped his foot and shouted, “Agakatu, Agakatu,
Agakatu”.’

uege=kana te-ta=tiga u-fïgi ï-ki.

you=EM go.to-CI=HAB 1-arrow bring-IMP
‘If you think you can show yourself bring some arrows to me.’

j. isi-ko iɳi-lu-nda=lefa
3;MO watch-VI-CI=MT
‘And their mother watched.’

k. ande titegaleni ti-tegunda-ko fegei.

here.now smiling REF-laugh-CI-PL ADEM
‘Now they were smiling, they were laughing.’

6.8.7. 3 Resultative indicative, Ø

This aspectual construction occurs with a Ø suffix morpheme, following

verbs with transitive radicals e-, shoot, –te ‘do’ and -ɳe ‘perform a
detrimental action’. It references a successful completion of an action.

a. ogi e-ŋe-te-Ø u-iña

HORT 2-bring-I-go-RES 1-DAT/BEN
‘You should bring that to me in the end.’

b. uge-tsїgї-tse iɳi-te-Ø agetsi.

me-only-M 3-see-VT-RES one
‘I’m the only one who has seen it.’

c. Same example chapter 5: 1.4.c.

tu-ge-ki-ñe ku-kwi-tofo
REF-fishy-ADV-SN 1+2-utter-PN

igei-ku=dya si-te-Ø u-an-їgї

IDEM-INT=XA PITY-VT-RES 1-EQS-PS
‘The result was the fishy ones, just as we call them, took pity on me.’

d. Same example as 7.2.6.1.1d

ah, u-fitsu-pe te-ŋe-Ø-feke

EXP 1-wife-SAL eat-VT-U-ERG
‘Surely, he has eaten this wife of mine.’
 223

6.8.7.4 Repetitive aspect -iŋalï (REP)

The suffix -iŋalï may occur on the transitive or intransitive verb stem, marking a
repeated event with active or stative verbs.

a. is-iki≈ŋalï-fa fitsagu iki≈ŋalï,

3-defecate-REP-PTP cuckoo defecate≈REP
‘When he relieved himself again, Cuckoo relieved himself again,

iñe=lefa at-iŋalï=lefa.
thatching.grass=MT EQA-REP=MT
more thatching grass appeared again.’

b kwiginu-pe et-sufu-ki≈ŋalï=lefa.
starch-SAL MV-used.up-Va≈REP-PI=MT
‘Again, their starch was all used up.’

c. ule-ta-mbe egua-ki≈ŋalï.
AFR-DIS-SS knead.mash-Va≈REP
‘From out of that (which she had brought from that other place) she
kneaded mash again. ‘

d. ige-a-kugu-mbe ifoso-gu aga-kï-iŋalï

DEM-E-INT-SS sediment-POSS take.out-VA-REP
‘That’s just how she was again able to take out so much sediment.’

e iŋ-iŋalï-tï i-feke,
see.REP-EV 3-ERG
‘she kept looking back at her, they say’

f. kok, fes-iñï-pe
(sound of placing a covering), ugly-AN-SAL

its-iŋalï=mbedya i-feke.
3>3-REP=PXA 3-ERG
‘Kok, he always looked ugly after he put that on him.’

g ai-gehale ete-ŋalï bom,

ready-again go.away-REP (sound of person falling),

alama-ki≈ŋalï gehale.
fall.down.Vi≈REP again
‘So when he was ready again he went and bom, he fell again. ‘

h. ta-ma ku-ogo-pi≈ŋalï. ah ki-ge-papa.

CONT-EM 1+2-return-VI≈REP. EXP 1+2-go.on;I-CO

k-ige-fa.
1+2-go.on;I-PTP
‘Why should we think of turning back again? Surely we should keep
going the way you wanted us to, let’s keep on going.’
 224

i. lepene iŋGu-ki-ta=lefa ofiña-ki-lї-iña

afterwards grow.up-VI-CI=MT beneath-ADV-PI-DAT/BEN

ete≈ŋalï-ko tu-fitsu-ake.
go.away≈REP-PL REFL-wife-COM
‘Then to nurture it by clearing beneath it (weeding) he went again with
his wife.’

j. utu-mi-tsi≈ŋalï i-feke
tie.up-VT≈REP 3-ERG
‘She tied him up again.”

6.8.7.5. Reversative aspect–nalï (REV).

This suffix occurs on active or stative verb stems. It has the sense of an event that
is reversed, or ‘backwards’ from the original.

a. kïtsï Ø-nïg≈i-feke agi-nalï=lefa i-feke.

IJ say.to-PS≈3-ERG, throw-REV=MT 3-ERG
“‘Disgusting’, she said to him, and she pushed him away.’

b. Ø-ife-nalï-feke, is-ama-ki-ŋalï
3-grab-REV-ERG, 3>3-fall.down-VT-REP
‘She snatched him back, he pushed her down again.’

6.8.7.6 Potential, - iŋgo (POT)

The potential indicative is marked with the suffix -iŋgo (POT). The ‘uncertainty’
of this imperfective references a plan but without an on-going (inceptive)
initiative. If the S argument is plural the –go suffix precedes the potential suffix
as: ŋgo-iŋo. The morpheme contrasts with the anticipated (inchoative) suffix
(6.5.7.8) which marks greater certainty as the action as been initiated in some
way.

a. si-n-ïŋgo=lefa
3-come -POT=MT
‘3p comes’

b. lepene koso-na Ø-nїɳo.

afterwards Koso-ALL 3-come.to-POT
‘Afterwards he planned on coming to Koso.’
 225

c. ino-ŋo-pe=mbe etiñu-pe-feke
this.direction-PREC-SAL-SS messenger-SAL-ERG

dyope-nïŋgo feŋi-feke, kagikagi-ake.

approach-VT-POT:PL piranha-ERG barbed.catfish-COM
‘Right in this direction as before, some messengers met them, Piranha
with Barbed Catfish.’

6.8.7.7 Anticipative or inchoative, -ta(ga)ni (ANT)

The anticipative indicative is marked with the suffix -(ta)(ga)ni (ANT). This
imperfective operator references an event that might actually have begun or
which is about to begin with certainty, for example, where there has been an
initiated process consisting of several “steps” the others of which have been
completed. Thus the anticipative expresses the idea that an event will occur as
the end point of the process, as a specified goal. It thus differs from 6.5.7.7
(potential), which has the sense of a planned, but not yet initiated or fully
confirmed, action.
If S is plural, accusative -ni suffix follows the aspect suffix. With the
active equative copular verb stem at-, the suffix is –ani (b); with the existential
copular verb stem in continuous indicative (i)tsa- (a) and with stems followed by
the causative suffix –ga (f), the root is simply –ni.

a. ege tsa-ni u-fitsu

DEM EX-ANT 1-wife
‘She will be my wife’.

b. ule-kua at-ani-ni
AFR-inside.water EQA-ANT-PL
‘They were inside that (lake).’

c. e-ine-tani-tsï-fa i-feke-ni,
2-poison-ANT-M-PTP 2-poison-CR-AN-PTP 3-ERG-Pl,

Ø- ta i-feke tu-fitsu-feke.
tell-CI 3-ERG REF-wife-ERG
‘ “Those things, I mean, will poison you”, he kept telling his wife.’

d. ah, u-agi-ŋo=mukwe at-ani et-iŋa-ka-ta

EXP 1-resemble-LOC=EM EQA-ANT MV-lie.down-VI-CI

u-te-tani e-fasï ŋiso ki-ŋalï

1-go.away-ANT 2-Oz husband utter-REP
‘Surely in vain he’ll try to be like me since he’s lying down in his
hammock while I’m on my way.’ ’

e. ohsi-fa iga-tani iga-ke=fofo

HORT-PTP name-ANT name-I=IM
‘Go ahead, he’s about to be named, name him right now.’
 226

f. With the sociative causative suffix –ga (boldfaced) on the noun-

incoporated –te verb stem:

ama Akwakaŋa ofiñati

mother(voc) Akwaka beneath

t-idya-te-ga-ni.
REF-.tie.up hammock-VIVI-CI-ANT.
‘Mother, I’m determined to be underneath where Akwakaɳa has tied up
hisown hammock’. (as a wife would tie her hammock beneath that of her
husband)

6.8.7.8 Counter-factual, -tsolї (CF)

.
The counter-factual is an inflection referencing an event that almost, but
never occured. The inflection morpheme is –tsolї; I interpret this to be
in punctual aspect. The following is an example where the speaker uses
the epistemic clitic =aka, expressing strong assurance based on personal
experience:

u-apїɳї-i-tsolї=aka igei
1-finish-EP-CF=EM IDEM
‘That nearly finished me off.’

6.8.8 Irrealis status

As stated earlier, I use the term ‘irrealis’ to refer specifically to semantically non-
indicative inflectional features on the verb stem that express conditions preceding
events that have not occured. Kalapalo has two irrealis markers on the verb
stem, which I call ‘hypothetical’. These are aspectually distinguished. Future is
not always implied nor is it marked as a tense with these forms. In addition, the
final class inclusion copula suffix –i is sometimes used as an irrealis nominalizer,
often appearing with negative, malefactive, desiderative, and hypothetical verbal
constructions. The following are two examples of the use of this suffix:

a. In this example the malefactive adverbial clause is then nominalized with the
class inclusion copula –i.

uŋu-fuŋu-ŋe itopu-i e-ŋi-li-ñalї-i?:

how-resemble-OP squash-CL-drink-PI-MAL-CL?
‘How can squash be something you drunk?
 227

b. In this example where the malefactive is used on the the common verb root ili,
‘drink’, the construction takes on the sense of ‘gulp down pathetically’

is-ag-iŋo-fïŋï i-tsa ele

3S+3O–similar-PREC-unlike EX-CI PDEM

e-ŋ-ili-ñalï-i
2-OB-drink- MAL-CL
‘That is nothing at all like what you gulp down so pathetically’.

6.8.8.1 Hypothetical

The hypothetical is marked with the suffix –fo on the verb stem, followed by a
punctual or continual aspect suffix. Many examples appear on main or
subordinate clauses of complementation strategies. (See Chapter 13: Complex
Clause Constructions)

6.8.8.1.1 punctual-hypothetical status, -folï (PHY)

a. On the main verb in a ‘suppositional’ completation strategy

ena-ha u-agage e-u-i-folï u-feke,

suppose-PTP 1-same 2-make-EP-CHY 1-ERG,

apuŋu-mb≈olu=lefa
finish-VI≈PHY=MT
‘But if I were to make you like me, you would die. ‘

b. In an interrogative clause:

unde-ma u-ki-folï
where-EM 1-utter-PHY
‘Where do I speak?’

6.8.8.1.2 continuous-hypothetical status, -fota (CHY)

a. On the subordinate clause of a ‘reason’ complement strategy:

eŋu fe-tsaŋe taloki=muk≈ake-tsaŋe

reason 3-DEO-EX no.reason=EM≈1:DEO

awa-dyu i-ndisï-na u-te-fota.

uncle (voc)-END 3-daughter-ALL 1-go.away-CHY

“The reason for this is that for whatever it’s worth, I propose I go to
Uncle’s daughter.”
 228

b. Same example, this chapter; 5. 2.8.f:

ama Akwakaŋa ofiñati t-idya-te-ga-ni.

MO(voc) Akwaka beneath REF-.tie.up hammock-VIVI-SCAUS-ANT.

eti-dya-te-fota ofiñati.
hammmock-tie.up-CHY beneath.
‘“Mother, I’m determined to be underneath where Akawakaŋa’s tied up
his own hammmock. I suggest I tie up (my) hammmock beneath him.”.’
(as wives would do)

6.8.9 Malefactive applicative, -iñalї

The malefactive indicative suffix is the same negative form used as a

monomorphemic ‘negation’ adverb preposed to the main clause. As a suffix on
the intransitive verb stem, the malefactive has an applicative effect marking the
verb as having a second unnamed predicate argument. Examples in this section
illustrate the malefactive applicative effect on the existential ‘be’ verb i- as in
examples (a), (i) and (j); and on a compounded verb (e) . The other examples in
this section illustrate the malefactive on transitive verbs; example (f) illustrates
the malefactive on an object-backgrounding verbal construction. Example (e)
illustrates a ditransitive effect.
Semantically, the malefactive suffix references a realis action that often
involves the use of intentional force (‘try hard’, ‘force’, ‘punch’) and/or which is
‘pathetic’ or ‘pitiful’ to the speaker or onlooker. This inflection occurs on both
transitive and intransitive active verbs, and on intransitive stative verbs. Where
the preceding suffix ends in a consonant, an epenthetic /i/ (EP) appears before the
malefactive suffix (as in examples b, e).

a. In this interrogative example, the malefactive appears on the existential

‘be’ verb i-. The copular subject is the same as the preposed clausal
question nominal (boldfaced).

uma≈l≈ige-i igea=nika=lef≈igei e-i-ñalï-ko.

Q- AFR-DEM-CL manner=EM=MT≈I DEM- 2-EX-MAL-PL
‘Something happened to you, didn’t it, while this was going on?’

b. Here the malefactive clause is transitive, and is subordinate to the main

intransitive clause in a reversative construction that initiates the
utterance. The sense of the applied verb is of a violent action, leaving
the sister badly bruised.

is-i-nalï-ti,
3;come.to-EP-REV-DES,
‘When she wanted to come back,

t-iŋandsu-ko ugu-pe ipi-ñalï i-feke-ni.

REF-sister-PL on-SAL hit-MAL 3-ERG-PL
they punched back on their sister.’
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c. Another example with a clear use of the malefactive to create a transitive

verb and to emphasize an unwished for forceful action:

lepene, i-li-ñalï=gele i-feke.

afterwards, 3-drink-MAL=PT 3-ERG
‘Later on, he was still forcing him to drink .’

d. An interesting example of the malefactive on a verb stem igi-fes ‘head-

ugly’ used to express the idea of ‘bother’, or ‘trouble’ someone:

e-mugu igi-fes-i-ñalï u-feke

2-son head-bother-EP-MAL 1-ERG
‘I never troubled your son.’

e. The malefactive used on the stative causative transitive verb faŋa-tuŋ-Gi-

‘insult’results in a ditransitive applicative effect on a valence-increased
(causal-marked) stem, bringing in a second predicate argument that is
semantically revealed in the compounded verb stem.. Although stative,
the use of the inflection suggests the action of ‘insulting’ is an effortful
one on the part of the speaker.

is-agi-ŋo-fïŋï=kila=su figei
3-similar-PREC-unlike-EM=PEJ ADEM

a-fasï-ŋiso-feke u-faŋa-tuŋ-Gi-ñalï.
2-older sister-husband-ERG 1-ear-hurt-CAUS-MAL
“You’ll soon realize this is nothing at all like that stuff your older
sister’s husband insults me with”.

f. In this example, with the malefactive, the common verb ili, ‘drink’,
takes on the sense of ‘gulp down pathetically’

is-ag-iŋo-fïŋï i-tsa ele e-ŋ-ili-ñalï-i

3S+3O –similar-PREC-unlike EX-CI PDEM 2-OB-drink-MAL-CL
‘That is nothing at all like what you gulp down so pathetically’.

g. In this example with the active transitive verb iki-, ‘make manioc flat
bread’, there is also a sense of effortful work, somewhat in vain.

toki=lefa i-fitsu-feke iki-ñalï

remaining=MT 3-wife-ERG make.bread-MAL
‘There was hardly enough left for his wife to eke out some bread.’

h. In this example both the preposed adverbial negation and the

malefactive suffix appear. The verb ifi-, ‘touch’ is often used as a
euphemism for the male role in copulation. Here the malefactive again
lends a pejorative sense to the construction:
 230

iñalï-ma Ø-ifi-ñalï i-feke

NEG-EM 3-touch-MAL 3-ERG
‘He was never able to force himself on her.’

i In this example the malefactive appears on the existential ‘be’verb i-.

u-ma≈l≈igei ige-a=nika=lef≈igei e-i≈ñalï-ko.

Q- EM≈UT≈IDEM PDEM-U=EM=MT≈IDEM 2-EX-MAL-PL
‘Something bad kept on happening to you, right, while this was going
on?’

j. This segment of a conversation illustrates the use of the malefactive in an

applicative construction. The focus on the 1+3 person undergoer occurs
with the construction in the second utterance.

i. e-mugu-ko=ale et-undupe-si-to emu-gu-ko.

2-son-PL=UT MV-guard-VI-REC 2- son-POSS-PL
‘You must always watch out for your son, your son.’

ii. afїtї, nї, uɳu-ale kugu-ma tis-i-ñalї

denial, say.to, Q-UT fully-EM 1+3-EX-MAL
‘That’s wrong. What ever happens to us?’ (‘Does anything ever
happen to us?’)

6.8.10 Plural concordance suffixes

The verbal plural concordance suffix is absolutive –ko or accusative –ni. They
follow the indicative aspectual or irrealis inflectional suffixes.

6.8.10.1 absolutive,- ko

a. s-їɳї-lї-ko Kambїgape-ge.
3-sleep-PI-PL Kambїgape-still
‘They slept again at Kambїgape. ‘

b. at-afi-tse-ko=lefa ata-ɳa
MV-circle-VI-Ci-PL=MT EQA-AN
‘They formed themselves into a circle again’.

6.8.10.2 accusative –ni

a. This occurs on the ergative and comitative case markers, as well as the
dative/benefactive morpheme (see discussion of plural case marking in
6.3.1.5):

kawĩ ige-lї i-feke-ni kaɳa-mbe-fa.

cold.porridge bring-PI 3-ERG-PL fish-SS-PTP
‘They brought cold porridge, the Fish did that.’
 231

Note: as one of the speaker’s dead relatives has the Kalapalo name for
cold manioc porridge, telisiñu, she substitutes the Portuguese-Tupi word
kawĩ.

b. Accusative –ni on active ‘be’ root at- in ANT:

Ø-at-ani-ni=lefa ifo-dyї-ko.
3-EQA-ANT-PL=MT approach-PI-PL
‘They were all approaching.’

6.8.11 –ti (Des), desiderative clause constructions

Desiderative clause constructions occur with the suffix –ti (DES) following the
indicative (punctual or continuous) suffix on the verb stem. The clause may be a
subordinate or main clause. Where the verb is nominalized, the desiderative may
follow the nominalizer (6.5.1a)
In the first example, the –ti suffix on the verb is complemented by a
complex NP (in brackets). Note the difference between the transitive verb fote-,
‘burn’ and the causativized itote-‘set fire to’; the latter is clearly a de-
nominalized verb:

a. [itsu-fu-pe fo-te-lu-a] ito-te-ga-ti ≈feke.

slash-VT-SAL burn-VT-PI-U fire-VT-SCAUS-DES≈3-ERG
`He wanted to set fire to what he had cleared earlier for burning.’

b. inde=taka a-po-lu=fata-ti-≈feke e-indisï-apa

here=EM 2-pierce-PI=SIM-DES-3-ERG 2-DAU-CONF

po-lu-ti-feke
pierce-PI-DES-ERG
‘Now at the same time you should begin trying to pierce her, I agree you
want to pierce your daughter.’

6.8.12 Evidential suffixes

There are four Kalapalo verbal evidential suffixes, tї, fї, kilї, and kita. These
evidentials function to reference the speaker as a kind of authoritative source of
information about the past. They also function to signal focus of the information
being asserted. None of these seem to be required. Rather, they are used for a
kind of rhetorical effect. It is important to know who is using these evidentials,
as ‘source of information’ is only one element in their semantic functions.
Kalapalo evidentials are generally used in special contexts involving the
transmission of knowledge, such as traditional narrative discourse and a hereditary
leader’s public speech making. Thus the ‘status’ of the speaker (as hereditary
leader or ordinary person) is important for knowing why a particular evidential is
being used. If there is an evidential suffix on the verb, it may not be followed by
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the modifer –tsї. This would seem to support Franchetto’s interpretation of the
two morphemes as variants of an authoritative hearsay evidential (6.5.10.1).
However, there is considerable evidence to support the idea that these are two
functionally distinct morphemes. (One simple example is 5.3.2b, where -tsї cannot
be understood as a hearsay—or any kind of—evidential, as the speaker is giving
the listener more information about a phenomenon that is being observed by both
speaker and listener).

6.8.12.1 ‘authoritative hearsay’, -tï

What I call the “authoritative hearsay” suffix is an evidential that is commonly

used by narrators of mythic stories and in some didactic contexts. If the speaker
is an experienced hereditary leader, the quotative complement after speech about
the anetu itagiñu, ‘leader’s talk’, is marked with this evidential suffix. This
quoted speech is knowledge that cannot be personally attested to by the speaker,
but has been learned from another authority. The value of –tї, often used with
the quotative or suffixed to an adverbial introductory narrative segment marker,
comes from the quoted speaker being indexed as an expert performer of the
ancestral knowledge about which he is speaking. (Both men and women use it in
narrative discourse.) Pace Franchetto (2003), the morpheme –tsї is a relativizing
modifier in Kalapalo, not an allomorph of the present evidential.

a. ah, nïgï-t≈i-feke
EXP, say.to-EV-3-ERG
‘Surely, that’s what 3p said, they say’.

b. The following example is taken from a leader’s discourse, impressing on

his listeners the traditional nature of his knowledge about leaders from
the distant past, using the –tї suffix in the final quotative clause.
inde fegei at-iñe a-tagi-mba-tofo=mbedya=lefa
here ADEM ask-SN 3-tell-VI-USIN=PXA-MT

egei-fa, ta-wa-t≈i-feke
IDEM-PTP tell-PPT-EV≈3-ERG
‘This is what (they) use for telling about what those others did, and they
even tell about what has been learned about them. ’

c. Here the hereditary leader Kambe suffixes the evidential with the primary
topical participant suffix –fa while he names several persons.

teh, atutu=mba ele. Ukwaka-tufa itsëgë-i.

nice, good=DS PDEM Ukwaka-EV aunt-CL
‘A nice, beautiful person (whom I’ll be speaking about). They say his
aunt was Ukwaka’.

indisï-tïfa Ñuku, indisï-i, itau.

daughter-EV Ñuku daughter-CL, woman.
‘They say her daughter was Ñuku, her daughter, a woman.’
 233

6.8.12.2, ‘non-authoritative hearsay’,–fi

This suffix is only used in narrative discourse on the ‘say.to’ quotative.
None of the four speakers who used this in their narratives were hereditary
leaders, though they were certainly competent and respected persons whose
knowledge came from hereditary leaders, and three were ritual experts. I
therefore interpret this provisionally as a ‘non-authoritative’ hearsay
evidential in contrast with form 7.5.10.1, which is always used by hereditary
authorities.
a. This example was a speaker’s introduction to his story:

ah Ø-nїgї-fi-feke
EXP, say.to-PS-EV-ERG
‘Surely, this was what was said.’

b. ah Taugi nїgї-ki-tani taifa, Ø-nїgї-fi-feke,

EXP Taugi say.to-CAUS-CI URG, say.to-PS-EV-ERG
‘Surely the utterance ‘Taugi’ will be made urgent, it’s said he said to
him.’

Ø-nїgї=mbembe-fi≈feke.
say.to-PS=RSA-EV≈ERG
‘It’s said he repeatedly said that to him.’

6.8.12.3 ‘inherited knowledge’,-kilï, kita

These two morphemes mark authoritative inherited knowledge, and are only used
with leadership oratory and historical narratives. However, not all authorities use
them. It does not seem to be restricted to speakers in a direct line of hereditary
leadership, but the speakers were certainly authoritative figures.
While they are inflected with an indicate aspect suffix, each occurs suffixed to a
different verb construction. Kita occurs with the punctual indicative verbal
inflection, while kila occurs on a de-verbal nominalization.

a. kita, with continuous indicative inflection

While this evidential appears to be in continuous inflection, the verb upon which
it occurs is in punctual indicative aspect. In the following example, the verb
imbi-, ‘steal’ is inflected with the punctual indicative suffix –lï, while the
evidential is in the continual indicative form.

i. katote=lefa kagaifa-feke imbi-lï-kita

everyone=MT Christians-ERG stole-PI-EV
‘And those who were there said that the Christians stole everyone’.

ii. From the description of a bamboo cutting tool no longer made. The verb
gapi-, ‘open up’, is inflected with the punctual indicative suffix -dyu.

iii ule-ki-fa kaɳa ga-pi-dyu-kita, aɳikogo

AFR-INST-PTP fish D-open.up-PI-EV fierce.people
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api-dyї-kita
open.up -PI-EV
‘With that, fish were cut into, those who saw it said, the fierce people
opened (them) up, those who saw it said.’

b. kilï, with punctate indicative inflection

This evidential appears in examples with de-verbal nominalizations.

i. This example comes from a historical narrative told by the late Kofoño, a
very old woman, and an expert in ritual and narrative traditions.

tipaki=gele kagaifa e-nïgï-kilï i-na, i-na.

again=PT Christians come-PS-EV 3p-ALL, 3p-ALL
‘Over and over the Christians came this way, this way, those who were
there said.’

ii. The following two lines are from a hereditary leader’s ceremonial
speech

U-wifu-gu ah tu-wigu-mbїgї-kilï eŋoku

1-ancestor-POSS EXP REF-grandson –FO-EV messengers
‘That’s what those who were there said about my ancestor’s grandsons
from the past, the messengers’

Eusagu-fa tu-wigu-mbї-kilï eŋoku

Eusagu-PTP REFL-grandson-FO-EV messenger
‘What those who were there said about Eusagu’s grandsons from the
past, the messengers.’
 235

6.9. Valence increasing operations

There are four strategies for increasing the number of arguments taken by a verb.
The first is applicative derivation of the verb with the malefactive suffix as
described in 6.8.9. As shown by the examples in that section, this suffix occurs
in final position with intransitive and transitive verbs. Three other valence
increasing operations can occur by 1) the inflection of an intransitive root by a
transitivizer radical, 2) the use of a causative suffix on the stem, and 3) the
presence of the ergative argument to mark a new verbal argument when the verb
stem has the suffix -ki. Table 25 summarizes the functions of the six morphemes.
 236

Table 25. Valence increasing suffixes

Morpheme Gloss Translation Function

-iñal(u)ї MAL malefactive, applicative

ŋe/ne VT n/a operates on ambitransitive

verbs to change stem from
intransitive to transitive

ki VA ‘to cause operates on ambitransitive

involuntarily’ active verbs that are
‘involuntary’ or ‘inherently
caused’; used as causative
with ergative marked
argument.
Gi PCAUS ‘to let or have operates on stative transitive
happen voluntarily’ verbs, and as a causative
with permissive or voluntary
semantics (first person O/P)
ga SCAUS ‘do X with operates on transitive verbs
someone/something’ as a voluntary causative; this
is a sociative causative in
which the causer participates
or at least assists in the event
caused
nu PREV ‘prevent X from operates on intransitive verbs
doing something’

6.9.1. Use of –ŋe/ne radical.

There is one transitivizer verb radical which operates on ambitransitive verbal

roots, changing an intransitive to a transitive. These processes include:

a. SA, where S in intransitive becomes A in transitive derivation:

aŋu-‘perform→ aŋu -ɳe- play instrument’; tseku-, ‘paint one’s body’ →

tseku-Gi- ’let someone paint one’s own body’, its-umbu-ɳe, ‘catch in
one’s throat’.
 237

b. SP, where S in intransitive becomes P in transitive derivation:

alamaki-, fall → alamaki-ɳa- drop (something)

Example (a) shows the verb –aŋu (“play an instrument”) in intransitive

construction related to a valence-decreasing process (marked by object-
backgrounding affix –ñ-). (b) shows the same verb in transitive construction
with A in ergative case.

a. Ø-ñ-aŋu-nda-ko-lefa
3-OB-play-CI-PL-MT
‘And so (they) played.’

b. takwagï aŋu-ŋe-ta te-lu-fa i-feke-ni-lefa

flute play-VT-CI go away-PI-SR 1-ERG-PL-MT
‘And so they went away to play the flutes.’

Another pair (c, d) shows a similar contrast. (c) shows the verb –ti- “get up” in
nominative-accusative imperative form and then in (d), the same verb in ergative-
absolutive construction with the transitive radical -ne.

c. e-ti-tse
2-get.up-I
‘Get up.’

d. i-ti-tsi-ne-nalï e-feke
3-get.up-VT-REV 2-ERG
‘You woke her up again.’

e. This example shows the transitivizer ɳe as a causative on the

nominalized verb, ‘catch in throat’ in purposive construction:

õ, kaGikaGi-fa, idyakї-gї
and kaGikaGi-PTP, spiny.fins-POSS
‘And spiny catfish,

its-umbu-ɳe-tomi-feke Taugi-feke
3-throat-VT-PURP-ERG Taugi-ERG
in order that he, Taugi would make its spiny fins catch in his throat.’

6.9.2. Use of causative suffixes –ki ,-Gi, -ga

These are event- or state-changing operations that add one more argument to the
predicated event that is caused. This is a derivational process that makes an
intransitive verb into a transitive verb, or a “two argument” transitive verb into a
three argument verb. There are several possibilities. I treat -ki, ‘involuntarily
cause X’ as an ambitransitive radical (glossed, VA) that may appear with both
intransitive and transitive active verb stems. However, it also occurs after a stem,
in which case I consider it a valence-increasing morpheme. -Gi, is a transitive
radical on stative verbs which may occur as a voluntary causative, ‘cause X’
(glossed CAUS), sometimes with a permissive sense (glossed PCAUS). Thus
 238

-Gi often has the sense of ‘let, allow’, or ‘have’. The suffix –ga is a sociative
causative with the sense of ‘involved with doing, or determined to do X to
someone’. Which of these three is used as with a particular verb is based on verb
and argument semantics, especially whether the causee is animate, human, plant,
or inanimate.

6.9.2.1. –ki-: transitivizer. ’make someone do something to someone else’, ‘make

someone be X‘ (VA)

This morpheme is most often seen as a radical on the stems of active intransitive
verbs. Many of these verbs are ‘inherently caused’ body action verbs such as
“vomit”, “fart”, “shit”, ‘stink’. It is also seen on the voluntary verb ‘squeeze’
(manioc mash). This morpheme may be also used with ambitransitive verb roots
as a transitive radical, and on the existential ‘be’ verb its-. Note that the same
homophonous morpheme is used as the instrumental case suffix marker on
oblique arguments (example c) and as a negative mirative clitic. The following
examples show the use of the –ki radical on ‘inherently caused’ intransitive
verbs.

a. On the root ẽ- “stink”:

kanasï eñe-ki-tsa figei

giant.deer stink-CAUS-CI IDEM
‘This (situation) is the giant deer is made to stink’.

b. The following three examples show the use of the radical –ki as a
“bodily action” verb radical (Va) on the verb root egua- ’to squeeze
(manioc mash)’. At the same time, it is an example of the loss of
ergative NP when the verb is repeated in a clause chain (see Chapter 14).

i. egua-ki-lï-lefa
squeeze mash-CAUS-PI-MT
‘So she squeezed the mash.’

ii. egua-ki-tomi
squeeze mash-VA-PURP
‘Intending to squeeze the mash.’

iii. ah kum-iñaŋo egua-ki-ta-fa =fameti-dyau-feke.

EM 2+food squeeze-VA-CI-PTP =Z-inlaw+PL-ERG
‘Your sisters+in+law are really (working at) squeezing it.’

c. Here is an example with the ‘inherently caused’ intransitive verb, iŋgu-,

‘grow’ becoming a transitive, ‘nurture’, ‘make grow’. The radical is also
used with the adverbial complement of this verb.

lepene iŋgu-ki-ta=lefa [ ofiña-ki-lї ] i:ña

later grow-VA-CI=MT beneath-VA-PI 3-DAT/BEN
 239

ete-ŋalï-ko tu-fitsu-ake.
go.away-REP-PL REFL-wife-COM
‘Then to nurture it (make it grow) by clearing beneath it (i.e., weeding)
he and his wife went away again.’

The ergative case may be used to mark a new verbal argument with –ki
radical stems. This syntactic argument process involves valence-increasing
ambitransitive verbs, to mark a new verbal argument. The process involves use
of the ergative suffix –feke (+ne, plural) to mark the A argument. Examples with
the ‘inherently caused’ stem ama-ki, ‘fall, slip’are shown in (d) and (e).
Formatted:Indent: Left: -0.5"
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d Intransitive:

is-ama-ki-ɳalї
3-fall-VA-REP
‘She made herself fall again’.

e. Transitivized: The example is taken from a story in which canoes with a

slippery substance inside makes the owners slip and fall. The canoes are
A, the beings falling are P.

is-ama-ki-ta-ko figei efu-feke, Ø-ñ-efu-gu-ko

3-fall-VA-CI-PL ADEM canoe-ERG, 3-OB-canoe-POSS-PL
‘They were made to slip by the canoes, their canoes did that to them.’

6.9.2.2 –Gi permissive causative ’let, have someone do/feel X’ (PCAUS)

The verbs on which this causative appears all involve changes of bodily state the
causer wants or allows the causee to perform. The examples show –Gi as a
permissive causative valence-increasing suffix.

a. Example of a valence-increased intransitive verb ‘be painful’.

faŋa-tuŋ-Gi ≈ñalï i-feke

ear-pain-PCAUS-MAL 3-ERG
‘He lets my ears hurt (insults me).’

b. An example of the same reflexive verb (s)eku- (paint one’s body) in two-
and three- argument transitives with the causative –Gi.

u-tseku-ts-omi
1-paint.body-CI-PURP
‘I intend to paint my body’.

ut-eku-Gi-ts≈omi
MV-paint body-PCAUS-CI≈PURP
‘I intend to let myself be painted.”’
 241

c. Example of a –Gi verb that has been nominalized. The verbal argument
is preserved:

igei-ku-dya tits-ï-Gi ≈ñu e-feke-ni

DEM-excessive-DE 2>1+3-wait-PCAUS≈SN 2- ERG-PL
‘You all have let us wait too long for them.’

d. apu-ŋu-lefa sï-fuŋ-Gi-nïgï
Over.with-N-MT 3>3-stop-PCAUS-PS
‘It was all over, they let it stop’.

e. kum-iñaŋo is-ag-i-ŋo-fïnï=ki-la elei

1+2-food 3-likeness- EP- PREC-unlike=ADV-NEG IDEM
‘Not at all like the kind of food we have,

a-fasï-feke ukw-ituŋ-Gi-nalï tu-iñaŋo-ki.

2-OZ-ERG 3>1+2-stingy-PCAUS-REV Refl-food-INST
“Your older sister returns very little food to us.’

f. e-fiñano-feke ka figei e-i-ka-Gi-pїgї

2-OBR-EREG FRUST PDEM 2-tree-put.on-PCAUS-PS
‘Too bad you let your older brother put you on the tree’.

6.9.2.3 –ga, sociative causative, ‘involved with doing X with someone’, or

‘assists someone or something to do X’ .

This morpheme indicates that the causer also participates in the action that is
caused, or at least assists in the action the causee performs, if not actually doing
the same thing as the causee (Guillaume and Rose 2010). The later type of
sociative causative seems most common with Kalapalo as the following
examples show. There appear to be two semantic types of verbs that host this
morpheme: one is a set involving the physical handling of people (as in examples
a, b, c) ; the other involves handling of plants and non-human natural items (as in
examples d, e, f,g,h). The construction, te-ga- ‘go away to do’ often appears with
this causative (as in c,d,f).

a. Here –ga is suffixed to the de-verbal aspectual nominalization: The

actor is third person acting on first person exclusive (1+3):

unago e-ti-dyi-pïgï=kaha
that.person MV-take.out.of-VI-PS=EM
‘I recall his offspring

tis-ife-nugu-ga-tiga ti-ñoŋo-gu-pe ,
1+3-abduct-PS-SCAUS-HAB REF-land-POSS-SAL,
made a practice of abducting us from our land
 242

tis-etu-pe-ki-tifa
1+3-settlement-SAL-INST-EM
and our settlements’. (lit. ‘the practice of causing our abduction’)

b. telo-a ikugu-ake u-їi-ga≈tїfїgї

another-U fully-COM 2>1-do-SCAUS≈IMP
‘Someone different from me for you to mess with.’

c. [kukw—eŋi-ko-gu fegei] ku-n-ipï-te-ga-nïmi

1+2-things-PL-POSS ADEM 1+2-OB-pay-VTVT-SCAUS-CONS
‘These things of ours were the result of his paying us one by one.’

d. . Akwakaŋa nduku-gu u-ke-ŋi-ŋï

Akwakaŋa gourd.container-POSS 1>3-fill-VT-N

te-ga-ni
go.away-SCAUS-ANT
‘I’m going to go fill (lit, ‘be the filler of’) Akwakaŋa’s container.’
Formatted:Example Style 1, Right: 0", Tab stops: Not at 0.5"
 243

e tï-seku- ma egei u-etigite-gï-ki-ga=tiga.

Comment [ERB1]: could this be the sociative causative??

RQ-MIR- EM ADEM 1-peanuts-POSS-INST-SCAUS=HAB

‘What do I see here? Someone's been messing with my peanuts. ‘

f. itsu-fu-pe fo-te-lu-a] ito-te-ga-ti ≈feke.

slash-VT-SAL burn-VT-PI-U fire-VT-SCAUS-DES≈3-ERG
`He wanted to set fire to what he had cleared earlier for burning.’

g. ka-ga-gapa-ga-tsi-ŋe, u-iku-gu ke-ti-fi-ñe

PREV-D-broom-SCAUS-Vi-PRO,1-sap-POSS PREV-REF-touch-SN
‘Stop trying to keep things swept up”,(so) you don’t touch my semen.’
(lit, my semen touch-er}

h. lepene indi-ga-tїfїgї ule=mbe tsu-lu=fata i-feke,

afterwards fall.down-SCAUS-IMP AFR=SS gather.up-PI=SIM 3-ERG,

api-lї≈le i-feke
beat-PI≈MT 3-ERG
‘Afterwards he made (the fruit) fall down and while he (did that), (the
other person) went to pick it up and so he was crushed by one of them.’
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6.9.3. The preventative –nu (PREV)

This suffix, glossed PREV, carries the sense of ‘prevent X from doing
something’. It may be homophonous with the contrastive suffix –nu (CONT), or
this may be a separate function of that suffix.

a. u-ti-mbe-nu-kila u-i-ñїgї ata-ɳe-la=gele

1-arrive-VI-PREV-NADV 1-EX-TR

inde Giti ata-ni

EQA-I-NEG=PT here sun EQA-ANT

u-ti-mbe-lu-iɳo=tale
1-arrive-VI-PI-POT=NT
‘When I still haven’t been able to arrive as I should when the sun is
moving over here, I’ll arrive some other time! ’
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6. 10. Speech act verbs and quotatives

Verbs that reference types of speech-acts and quotatives are somewhat unusual in
several ways. First is that the quotatives, commonly used, have no roots, only
used with a very limited number of aspect suffixes. , They are also restricted as
to the pronominal prefixes they may take. The first three in the list below are
direct report quotatives, important in all kinds of discourse as there is almost no
indirect reporting of speech. The first two ‘say to’, and ‘tell to’ only occur in
third person and usually with quoted speech from the ancient or historical past.
They are unusual insofar as there is no verb stem morpheme, only an aspectual or
nominalizer inflection. The third quotative is used with recent speech involving
the speaker or listener, so it only occurs in first or second person. Intransitive
speech act verbs may have their valence increased by the use of the ergative case
marker on the target, such that P becomes ergatively marked.

6.10.1 -nїgї, -‘say.to X’

This quotative occurs only with a 3 person A (often pluralized) and the
perfective ‘passing state’ nominalization. There may also be a taxis clitic
included (as in example d) but there is no verb stem. The quotation appears to be
the O in this construction, the third person speaker A. However, the person being
spoken to is often mentioned in a subsequent ergative NP.

a. This is the standard construction:

(quotation)-nïgï i-feke (-ni)

-PS 3-ERG (-PL)
 246

b. Very often speakers use the following vowel elision construction:

nïg≈i-feke

c. Also common in rapid speech is the complete nullification of both the

aspect suffix and the ergative NP, as:

‘X....’, nï, ‘X....’, nï.

d. The following example gives a full discourse segment using this

quotative:

takugugu takugugu takugugu takugugu,

(bird call)

ah Ø-n-alï ≈-tsï la i-feke

EXP say.to-UT≈M like.that 3-ERG
“‘takugugu takugugu takugugu takugugu”, believe me, that’s what it
would say to them over and over’
Formatted:Indent: Left: 0.06", First line: 0"
 247

6.10. 2 -ta. ‘tell to X’.

This is also a quotative, always in third person. Its use is in contexts that are less
conversational that (1) and more ‘declarative’ in feeling. The quotative occurs in
a continuous indicative aspect, also with the zero realized 3p prefix:

a. Ø-ta i-feke, tu-fitsu-feke

3-CI 3-ERG, REF-wife-ERG
‘He told her, his wife.’

b. eɳї ak≈igei e-limo-si-ko ufi-dyu-iña

reason EM≈IDEM 2-child-mother-PL find-PI-DAT/BEN

t-iñe-ta, Ø–ta figei.

REF-come.to-CI, tell-CI ADEM
‘”The reason we wanted to do this was to find your children’s mother, so
we came,” that’s what he told (him).’

6.10.3 ki-, ‘utter’:

This is a ‘neutral’ speech act verb that simply means ‘utter’ or ‘speak’. When a
speaker wishes to emphasize the person who has spoken, this may be used after
one of the preceding quotatives. There is an overt stem. This quotative may
occur as an intransitive (a), or as in (b) a transitive construction. In the case of
first or second person speech acts, an intransitive root is used. This verb can use a
wider range of aspect suffixes than (7.8. 1) and (7.8.2). The verb may also be
used for playing a musical intrument, in which case it is transitive (c):
 248

a. e-fiñano-feke e-їi-lї-ki-tani, efiñano-feke.

2-Obr-ERG 2-do-PI-CAUS-ANT, 2-OBR-ERG

Kwatїɳї ki-lї
Kwatїɳї utter-PI
‘ “Your older brother always made that happen to you, your older
brother”, Kwatїɳї said.’

b. ki-dyu-iŋo e-feke
utter-PI-POT 2-ERG
‘you will sound it (play it)’

6.10.4 fa- ‘tell about X’

a. tï -to-nїmi i-fa-ta i-feke

RQ-RQ-NPURP 3-tell.about-CI 3-ERG
‘Why did you have to tell him about it?’ (why were you the teller of it to
him)

b. ñalï-fofo ifa-nïŋo-i i-feke

NEG-IT tell.about-POT-CL 3-ERG
‘It was not yet the teller about it’.

The following two lines show the verb in two different forms. Example (a) shows
an adverbialization with taxis clitic, and (b) an irrealis.

c. keñi fa-ta-ni-ti-ni-fofo kw-oto-mo-ña,

PRV tell.about-CI-VT-DES-PL-IT 1+2-parent-COL-DAT/BEN
‘You must not want to tell our parent about it,’

d. kw-oto-mo-ña=fofo=keñi fa-ta-i
1+2-parent-COL–DAT/BEN=IT=PRV tell.about-CI-CL
‘You must stop being a teller for our parent now.’

6.10.5 ika- ‘teach, talk about X’.

The example shows the verb in a subordinate supine construction.

a. lepe, ah Taugi=ña ti-ka-gi.

next EXP Taugi= D REF-tell.about-SUP
‘Then surely, someone told Taugi’

6.10.6 Other speech act verbs.

These verbs are descriptive and noun-like, not used as quotatives. They usually
appear in continuouscontinuous indicative aspect as in the following examples:

tagiñunda-ko, ‘conversation’ (talking to each other)

i-fata-fis-unda, mourning chants
 249

ai-li-ta, ‘eremonial ‘noise’, ‘cheering’

ifetunalї, ‘repeatedly crying out’, ‘shouting’

ifetu-nalï. Akiŋi fetu-nalï.

shout-REV Vinegaroon shout-REV
‘He shouted back. Vinegaroon shouted back.’

6.11. Verbal constructions for times of year

The following is a set of terms for the times of year as they were distinguished in
former times, before the use of Portuguese words for times of day and
calendrical terms were introduced. A number of words are used to reference the
appearance of Kalapalo astrological constellations, in so doing expressing the
idea of different times of year when rain falls. These words occur with the
simultaneous taxis clitic =fata, ‘while’, ‘during’ (SIM)

a-kofoŋo nakiŋufata: while Duck is bathing himself

b-undïtï nakiŋufata: while Motmot is bathing himself

c. Tiŋu-fisugiñe nakiŋufata; while the Red-Eyed One is bathing himself

O-eyes-red-N

d. Ambisa nakiŋufata: while Ambisa is bathing himself

e. Tute nakiŋufata (igifïkïgï= in the middle)

f. Ogo nakiŋufata
while Grill is bathing

g. To etimi-koŋilï-fata
Ema face-wash=SIM
‘while Ema is washing her face’

h. fikutafa etsuitsilïfata
‘while turtles are laying their eggs’

i. isoa-ti (lefa): beginning of the dry season

j. kukw-aku-fis-ale: ‘when we look for turtle eggs (?)’ (time just before the rains)

6.12. Second level derivational processes

Second level word class changing derivations include verbalizations of nouns and
adverbs, and a few rare examples of ideophonic verbalizations. Compared with
nominalizations, Kalapalo word class changing verbal derivations are far fewer.
Noun incorporation is probably the most important second level derivational
process involving verbs.
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6.12.1. Nominal incorporation

Verbs constructed from nouns are derived using one of several possible verbal
radicals on a nominal morpheme, as well as with radicals paired with valence-
increasing suffixes. These stems are then inflected with aspect suffixes.
Arguments of transitive noun-incorporated verbalizations occur in the usual word
order. Several semantic types nouns are frequently used in these constructions.
These are 1. body parts (such as stomach, eye, head, ear, tail feathers); 2.
personal functions (including the akua, ‘interactive self’, and images of the self)
3. material objects that are handled; 4) words for times of day.

6.12.1.1 Verbal constructions for times of day

There are some commonly used expressions for times of day that are
verbalizations of nouns and adverbs, inflections with indicative aspectual
suffixes.

a. From afugu, a root that may mean ‘turning dusk’. This example is a
middle voice construction.

at-afugu-idyï-ko
MV-dusk-PI-PL
‘When they experienced their sunset’

b. From the same root, which has been adverbialized, then verbalized with the
punctual indicative suffix:

afugu-ti-lï
sun.set-ADV-PI
‘When the sun had set...”

c. From mitote, ‘time of crepuscular light’, ‘just before sunrise’:

okogetsi imi-nïŋgo
next.day dawn-PI;PL
‘The next day at their dawning’

6.12.1.2 Examples with body part words

a. akah, u-gupu-ñe-nalï i-feke

FRUST, 1-stomach-VT-REP 3-ERG
‘I’m tired of that trying to destroy my stomach.’

(There is an ambiguity: he may be talking about a person serving him bad food
or the food itself as active agent).
 251

b. Ø- ŋ-upu-Gi-lï-fata=lefa
3-OB-mould-VT-PI-SIM-MT
‘While it was growing mould.’

c. ato et-iɳu-ki-ta
2;friend MV-eye-VI-CI
‘Your friend has eye problems’

d. lepe t-indisï ti-ña-fiti-nd≈ifeke iŋgi

next Refl-daughter Refl-hands-blow.spell.on – CI≈3-ERG
kefege-su-ki,
bee spell-POSS-INST
‘Next she blew that little black bee’s spell all over her daughter’s
hands.’

6.12.1.3. Examples with words for handled material objects

a. efu-amba-lu-lefa ifekeni ege-te

canoe-launch-PIMT 3-ERG-PL over.there-at
‘from there they launched the canoe’

b. igea=lefa ifaki-la aña-feke isuwï

manner=MT far-NEG path-ERG 3;father
i-dya-te-pïgï
3-rope-VT-VPE
‘And like this, not far from the path where her father’s hammock was
hung’

c. aŋi-nika inde u-oku-ŋgi-ta i-ŋi-lï e-feke-ni?

EQ-EM here 1-liquid.food-prepare-CI 3-see-PI 2-ERG-PL?
‘Could it be that you all have seen those who make my drinks around
here?’

6.12.1.4. Examples with words for personal functions

a. From akua: ‘interactive self’ (often incorrectly translated ‘soul’):

akua-ki-nïŋgo:
self-ADV-EX;TR;PL
‘They were surprised’

b. from ufutofo, ‘sign, image’:

kuk-iŋandsu-ko et-ufu-tofo-nde-pïgï
1+2-sister-PL MV-know-USIN-VI-VPE
‘Our sister’s sign that she made of herself’.
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6.12.1.5 Examples with natural species names.

In the first example, the species name has become adverbialized, then, the
construction verbalized:

a. s-itafiɳa-ki-ɳu-nda si-ta=mb≈idyogu-nda
3-caiman-ADV-VI-CI 3-ALOC=SS≈3;uncle-CI
‘Go around alligatoring, as he did that he came across his uncle.’

Note: the expression ‘alligatoring’ refers to the young man going from house to
house looking for lovers. Similarly does the male caiman go from one female to
another.

b. In the second example, the indicative verbal suffixes are simply attached
to the species name in the first two verb phrase. In the final phrase, the
species name is followed by -ɳe, the intransitive ‘bodily action’ verbal
radical, adverbialized, and then re-nominalized as a performer of the
action.

tafitse-ga-ko, tafitse-lї, tafitse-ɳe-ki-ñe

macaw-CI-PL, macaw-PI, macaw-VI-ADV-AN
‘One by one they entered macawing, macaw-ed, the macaw-ers.’

Note the expression ‘macawing’ refers to the young men entering a settlement in
their ceremonial regalia, fully decorated in their macaw and toucan feather
headdresses, feather earrings, body and face paint, cotton and beaded belts, shell
belts and collars, ankle rattles, cotton armbands. their cheers evoke the sounds of
a flock of magnificent macaws flying overhead.

6.12.2 The –te, ’go.away to do X’ derivation

While many complex clause constructions involve a verbal or adverbial clause

subordinate to the main verb te-, ‘go.away’, the suffix –te- may be used to create
a distinct derivational construction with a similar meaning, ‘go away to do/be X’.
It may also be used to create verbs from nouns, particularly body part words:

a With the root, indu-, ‘distribute’, 1+3A, oblique comitative argument

and absolutive plural concordance on the verb phrase

tisuge-fa ti-ñ-indu-te-ga-ni inde,

1+3-PTP REFL-OB-distribute-VT-CI-PL, here,

iŋadyo-mo-ake,
brothers-COLL-COM
‘We and the other group of brothers here will soon share it.’

b. Many –te verbs end with a Ø marked resultative inflection. In this

example, there is an subordinate clause -te derivation on a noun
incorporated verb with resultative inflection.
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i-faŋa =fesu=fale fegei te-lï≈feke

3-ear=bad=DT ADEM go.away-PI≈ERG

Matїga i-mï-te-Ø.
Matїga 3-face-go.away-RES
‘But he went away not understanding him well, set against Matїga’. (i.e.,
‘as his enemy. ‘)

c. Here is another –te verb with Ø resultative; the speaker repeats the verb
phrase but in punctual indicative inflection:

lepene kogetsi ah, fipї-te-Ø

afterwards next.day EXP, pay-VT-RES

i-feke, fipї-te-lї.
3-ERG, pay-VT-PI
‘Afterwards the next day, surely in the end he paid him, he paid.’

d. In this example, the transitivizer radical –pa, referencing cyclical or turn

taking action (CYC) precedes the -te derivational resultative
construction:

tï-ge-pa-te-Ø i-feke,
REF-pile.up-CYC-VT-RES 3-ERG
‘She set them out in several different piles as a result.’

Note the nominal form: is-e-pa-gï, ‘it’s set out portions, groups’ (e.g. of
something larger that has been cut up);

6.12.3 Verbalizations of ideophones

I have three examples, heard in casual conversations. Undoubtedly there are

more as ideophones are most probably a semi-closed class used in creative
speech.

a. takatakatelï: ‘make the takataka sound’ (ideophone representing the

cracking of gourds that are drying out). This example shows the
speaker’s use of the –te ‘motion’ intransitive verb radical.

b. This example shows the speaker’s use of the –ki verb stem
transitivizing radical, followed by the punctual indicative
aspectual suffix.

mboki-lï: put down something heavy (from mbok’, the ideophone for
bodily action)

c. tuk, tuku, sound of bones being broken

i-tuku- fe-is=a-le i-feke,

3-(sound of breaking bones)-bad=UT break-CI=UT 3-ERG,
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inene tuk, tuku. ts-apї-gї-ku-fe-nїgї i-feke.

one.side tuk, tuku, 3-foot-POSS-INT-break-PS3- ERG
‘Tuku, he broke it, on the other side tuk tuku, he really broke it.’
248

Chapter 7
‘Be’ roots and copularity
In Kalapalo, there are four morphemes with copular functions belonging to two
grammatical sets: the class inclusion copula suffix -i and the three ‘be’ roots a-
(EQS), ‘stative equative’, at- (EQA), ‘active equative’, and its- (EX), ‘existential’.
These morphemes are copular insofar as they are able to link a copular
complement to a copular subject. The copular roots have, in addition to their
copular functions, other non-copular uses. They can be inflected as finite
intransitive verbs, with one S argument, using indicative aspectual or irrealis
verbal suffixes; with these inflections there is no linking of a copular complement
to a copular subject. Additionally, when in intransitive or copular verbal
construction these roots can also become nominalized or adverbialized with
derivational suffixes. Both copular and non-copular functions of the four
morphemes are discussed in this chapter.
Both verbal inflections and word-class changing derivational features
used with all three ‘be’ roots are limited compared with the large sets that occur
with referential verbs, nouns and adverbs. Kalapalo copular verb constructions
involve permanent or temporary active and stative equative and existential
predicates, which include the semantic properties of logical attribution,
association, feeling, location, condition or situation. Naming and possession are
predicated by demonstratives, while quantification predicates are of the less
common “zero copula” (Givon 2001: 120; Stassen 2007), or ‘verbless clause’
(Dixon 2010, II: 159-182) constructions in which two predicational elements are
juxtaposed without a linking copular morpheme
There are also a few copular verb predications involving non-finite verbs
and subordinate verb constructions in which case I use the expression ‘auxiliary
copular verb’.

7.1. The class inclusion copula suffix -i

The class inclusion copula suffix –i (CL). has both copular and irrealis functions.
As a copula, it appears suffixed to the copular complement, which may be a
proper noun that is the head of a noun phrase (a,d,e,f), or an identificational (b) or
pronominal demonstrative (c), but not other kinds of demonstratives. The copular
subject may be the person marking prefix of a possessive nominal construction
(a), the A NP that follows a usitative de-verbal nominal construction (d), or a free
pronoun (b).

In the first example, the copular complement hosts the class inclusion
copula suffix (CL). An adverbial adjunct katote ‘all’ follows.

a. ukw-iñatї-gї-i katote
1+2-hand-POSS-CL all
‘All our hands are this kind’.

In the next example, the copular suffix marks an identificational

demonstrative referencing the complement, a full intransitive middle voiced verb
+ adverbial adjunct ekugu, ‘everything’. The copular subject is the identificational
demonstrative.

b. et-їɳa-ɳi-lї uege≈kugu igei-i

MV-vomit-VI-PI you≈fully IDEM-CL
 249

‘This is [everything] that you’ve vomited up.”

c. In this example, the class inclusion copula occurs on the proximate third person
pronominal demonstrative (ege) copular complement, which is P argument of a
transitive verb clause. The copular subject is the demonstrative igea ‘this way’.

igea-ts≈ege-i imї-ne-po-lï u-feke

this.way-M≈ EX≈PDEM-CL toss.off-VT-HYP-PI 1-ERG
‘I mean, this is how I would toss you off.’

d. In this example, the copula suffix appears on a complement that is a proper

noun, which hosts two interclausal reference marking clitics. The complement
subject is a third person S (zero marked on the verb, ‘go away’).

kaɳa-i=mbele=mbale e-te-lї
fish-CL=CU=CAT MV-go.away-PI
‘Finally in the end he went away as a fish.’

e. The class inclusion suffix appearing on the copula complement, a deverbalized

transitive verb nominalization, the head noun. A function is preserved with
this nominalization, and the A NP is the copular subject.

tї-ti fu-tofo-i i-feke

REF-mother know-USIN-CL 3-ERG
‘what he used as his mother’s memorial.’

f. In an interrogative construction, the class inclusion copula suffix occurs on

another de-verbalized transitive verb, this time derived with an ‘experiencer’
nominalization suffix. The complement subject is the ‘rhetorical’ question
subject tї. The speaker is asking about a fire that appears to be drawing near.

tї-feke ≈lei tї-te-ñu-i, tї

RQ-ERG-PDEM REF-go.away-EXN-CL, RQ
“Is there something over there moving around itself, is there”?

g. –i used as renominalizer

In this example, the copula suffix appears on a copular verb, with the resultant
form: i-tsa-i.

tu-fe-ku-go-ki ñeti-pïgï =mbedya-fa,

REF-wound. intensive-MAL-ADV rot-VPE-PXO-PTP
‘The awful open wounding, that had become a rotten thing,

ñundu-ŋe i-tsa-i=mbe=dya-fa.
pus-N EX-CI-CL=XA-PTP
and so it was filled with pus (“a rotten pus-filled existence”).

The class inclusion copula –i (glossed in all examples CL) is sometimes used as
an irrealis, often appearing with negative (h), malefactive (i), interrogative (j), and
hypothetical verbal constructions (k).

h. ñalï-ma s-ïŋï-lu-i,
NEG-EM 3-sleep-PI-CL
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‘I don’t think he ever slept.’

i. isagi-ŋo-fïŋï i-tsa elei e-ŋi-li-ñalï-i

same-PREC-unlike EX-CI IDEM 2-OB-drink- MAL-CL
‘This is nothing like what he over there offers you to drink. ‘

j. In this example the copula appears in a de-verbal (-mbuɳu, ‘without’) (W)

nominalization:

uwa-eku-ki≈gei e-ima-gu-mbuŋu-i?
Q - INT-MIR-ADEM 2-give.birth-VI-W-CL
“Why in the world haven’t you given birth yet?”

k. In this example of an active verb ‘contrastive’ nominalization -nu), the

class inclusion copula suffix –i follows the contrastive –nu. The narrative
context of this statement would not have allowed a positive
nominalization. (Jaguar is cautioned not to run after women).

ule-fa itaű-iña itsa-ki-nu-i

AFR-PTP woman-DAT run.to-VI-CONT-CL
‘(He was warned before) about not being someone who runs after a
woman’

7.2. Zero copula

The absence of a copula suffix may occur in a quantificational predication with

juxtaposition of the initial numeral adjective preceding the head noun. An
example is illustrated in 7.2a. Pustet 2003:31-2 notes that cross-linguistically the
latter are unusual.

a. takiko efu
two canoes
‘two canoes’

7.3. ‘Be’ root functions

The three Kalapalo roots that can be used in copular verb constructions may be
inflected as intransitive verbs, with verbal suffixes and pronominal prefixes and
single S arguments. In their copular functioning, they join the clausal complement
argument (CC) to a copula subject (CS). Influencing the choice of the particular
root are semantic differences regarding the stative or active character, temporary
or permanent character of the predication. However, such a choice does not seem
to be based on the grammatical word class of CC and CS (i.e. whether they are
noun, demonstrative, adjective, adverb or derivational forms). In this regard the
copularity functions of these ‘be’ roots is of typological interest, and must be
understood in terms of the attributive and identificational predications of both
Kalapalo adjectives, adverbials and nominals.
In addition to their intransitive and copular functions, the three roots in
question appear in de-verbal, and adverbial constructions. All three roots have
nominalized forms. In the case of the stative equative copular verb root a- there
are several of these nominalized forms and in the case of the active equative
copular root ata- in addition to verbal constructions, the root has both
nominalized and adverbialized forms. The existential root its- appears in both
 251

nominalization and verbalization constructions. All three of these copular roots are
thus subject to many of the same (though far more limited) kinds of verbal
inflectional processes and verb → noun/adverb derivational constructions as other
roots.
In terms of word order, a copular verb construction generally follows CC
+ CS which are simply juxtaposed. In complex constructions with two adverbial
predications, the copular verb may occur between the two (see example Chapter 3,
example 3.1.4b); it is not uncommon for complex Kalapalo adverbials (i.e.,
adverbs with their own adjuncts) to be circumfixed around a verbal
construction.(see examples in Chapter 13). Like other verbs, some copular verb
constructions can even be nominalized with the class inclusion copular suffix –i.
Copular verbs use the same person inflectional categories as other verbs with the
exception of the reflexive t-. In addition, plural marking suffixes are used to co-
reference the plurality of the predicated NP. Table 27 illustrates the person
prefixes and plurality suffixes used with copular roots.

Table 27. Person marking on ‘be’ roots

Root Gloss 1 person 1pl 1 pl 2 3 person plural
inclusive exclusive person suffix
a- EQS u- kuk- tis- a- is- -go
its- EX u- kuk- tis- e- i- -ko, ni
ata- EQA u- kukw-- tis- a- Ø -ko,ni

7.3.1. The verb-like character of ‘be’ roots

‘Be’ verbs may function as either copular verbs or non-copular intransitive verbs.
Like semantic verbs, ‘be’ verbs appear in clause final position (SV).

a. non-copular intransitive inflection of ata- root (EQA)

eŋu-pugu ata-ni
landing.place-VPE EQA-ANT
‘(3rd p) arrived at the landing place’

b. copular construction of ata- root (EQA)

inde Giti ata-ni

here sun EQA-ANT
‘The sun was (moving) over here’.

The active equative root ata- and the existential root its- as intransitive verbs take
the accusative plural suffix –ni (c), (d); the absolutive suffix –k(g)o is used with
the stative equative root a(n,ɳ)- (f) and the existential root in copular predication
construction (e).

c. ata-ni-ni, plural active equative in irrealis anticipation inflection

aga-i-fa ata-ni-ni, aga-i, aga.

aga-CL-PTP, EQA-ANT-PL, aga-CL, aga.
‘They’re doing an aga (performance), an aga, aga.’
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d. itsa-ni-ni, plural existential in irrealis anticipation

lepene ama Ø-nïg ≈i-feke,

afterwards “Mother”, 3-PS≈3-ERG,
‘Following that’, “Mother”, she said to her,

la-fa awa-dyu-ko itsa-ni-ni.

like.that-PTP uncle-END-PL EX-ANT-PL
“May my dear uncles stay this way forever”.

e itsa-ko: existential root as copular verb in continuous indicative inflection:

la fegei itsa-ko. la-tї fegei itsa-ko.

like.that ADEM EX-PL. like.that-EV ADEM EX-PL
‘That’s how they did it. That’s how they did it, it’s said.’

f. anĩɳgo, plural stative equative

This example shows a plural S with potential irrealis inflection:

et-iñaŋo-ne-ta an-ïŋgo-iŋo
MV-food-VI-CI EQS-PL-POT
‘what you will have for your own consumption.’

‘Be’ verbs subject to nominalization often appear with their original arguments

g. efitsu adyo-i an-ïmb-iñe i-ge-ta i-feke

wife lover-CL EQS-FO-EXN 3-carry away-CI 3-ERG
‘He was taking away the person who had been his wife’s lover.’

Like many semantic verbs, ‘be’ verbs may also be nominalized with derivational
morphemes. In this case, the absolutive suffix –ko will be used in pluralization if
in accord with their plural P. In the following example, O of the de-verbal
nominalized ‘be’verb in imperfective aspect is plural.

h. ukw-oto-feke=kiŋi [at-ïfïgï-ko] ige-tomi.

dual-relative-ERG=EM EQA-IMP-PL take.away-PURP
‘Unfortunately it is our relative who is doing this to us to take us away”.

The active equative ‘be’ verb at- in perfect aspect (atehe) has a special function
as an causal adverbial adjunct, described later in this chapter (7.5).

i. ñalї-ma o-wї-ko te-lї atehe otu-ko ufidyu-iña

negation-EM 2-FA-PL go.away-PI EQA-PER food-PL find-PI-
DAT/BEN
‘Because it seems as if your father hasn’t gone away to look for your
food.’

Copular verb clauses as auxiliary clause heads, often with non-finite lexical verbs.
The latter are discussed in section 7.6.
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7.3.2 The noun-like character of ‘be’ roots

’Be’ roots in copular construction take a lexical NP or pronominal absolutive

prefixas a CS argument but when in de-verbal aspectual nominalizations, they
may function as relative complements or nominal modifiers. When nominalized,
the ‘be’ roots take the –ko nominal plural suffix.

j. ukw-oto-feke=kiŋi [at-ïfïgï-ko] ige-tomi.

dual-relative-ERG=EM EQA-IMP-PL take.away-PURP
‘Unfortunately it is our relative who is doing this to us to take us away”.

7.3.3. The adverbial-like character of ‘be’ roots

Derived roots in adverbial construction appear in clause initial position much like
lexical complementations described in 13.1, whereasthe position of copular verb
constructions in clausal constituent order is typically clause final.- The stative
equative a- root often appears as an initial clausal complement construction, aɳi
‘result’, and this itself may be re-adverbialized with the adverbial attributive
suffix, -pi, as uŋipi,’possessed’. All three roots a-, at(a) and i(ts)- occur as
adverbial adjunct constructions; in desiderative construction, the first two
convey a sense of extra politeness and are often used in the affinal civility register.
The root a- may be fused to the epistemic clitic =nika, with lengthened initial
vowel, as a:h=nika: ‘is that so?’.

7.4. ‘Be’ roots in copular constructions

In this section I review examples of how the three ‘be’ roots are used as copular
constructions, and their inflectional and derivational forms, both copular and non-
copular. These roots may only occur with the inflections discussed in this section.
In copular clauses, the order of copula complement, copula subject and
copular verb is always CC+CS+CV, unless the copular subject is an
identificational demonstrative and the copular complement is a verbal clause. In
those cases the order is CC+CV+CS (IDEM). Copular complements may include
manner and locative demonstratives, identificational demonstratives, pronominal
demonstratives (including the anaphoric), adjectives, adverbs (including de-
verbal adverbializations), proper nouns, lexical NPs (lexical nouns with their own
complements or adjuncts) and verbal clauses. Copular subjects include
pronominal prefixes, proper nouns, possessed nouns, and the shift reference clitic
=dya(XA) ‘new eventuality’; they do not include demonstrative or free pronouns
unless the copular complement is a verb clause, when the identificational
demonstrative serves as the copular subject. Copula subjects may be first, second
or third persons.
Copular clause constructions appear in indicative, imperative, and irrealis.
In addition, the three roots may be used in indicative and irrealis main intransitive
clauses, in subordinate clauses, and as nominalized and adverbalized
constructions.
The active equative and existential roots have the most verbal inflection
possibilities, while the stative equative root occurs in only one attested inflection,
three nominalizations and one adverbialization. The active equative and the
existential roots have both copular and non-copular functions; the stative equative
is mainly a copular verb but also occurs in intransitive constructions. The roots
at(a)- (‘equative’) and i(ts)- (‘existential’) each show a alternant form occurring
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with some inflections. There is no alternate for the root a- . Table 28 is an

overview of these features. Plurals are in brackets.

Table 28. Inflectional and derivational ‘be’ root paradigm

at(a) - a- its-
active equative ‘do’, stative equative existential
‘act as’, ‘reach’, ‘be as’ ‘live, exist’
‘move to’
Copularity copular and copular functions copular and
non-copular functions intransitive
verb functions
Alternative root ata-, at- n/a its-, i-
formation
Gloss (EQA) EQS EX
Indicative ata-lï (-ni) its-a(-ni)
(plural -ni)
Irrealis: anticipated/ ata-ni-(-ni) its-ani(-ni)
inchoative ; (plural –ni)
Irrealis: hypothetical its-olï
Irrealis: desiderative ata-iti a-titi its-ati
Subordinate: purposive itso-(ko)mi
Nominalization: a-nïmi itsa-nïmi
consequential
Nominalization:   its-ïfïgï
imperfective (plural –ko)
(‘not achieved’)

Nominalization: at-ïfïgï
imperfective
continuative

Nominalization: ata-nïgï; a-nïgï; plural: i-nïgï

passing state plural: a- nїiŋo plural: -ko
ata-nїɳgo
Nominalization:   i-ñïgï
change of of state plural:iñïɳgo
Nominalization: a-pїgї
end result of voluntary
action
Nominalization: ata-ɳa its-iɳa
stative attribute
Nominalization   aɳi  
of result
Adverbialization   aɳolo  
of veracity
Perfect aspect at-ehe

Urgent imperative its-ue;

imperative itsa-ŋe
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7.4.1 ata- active equative root (EQA)

The active equative root has both copular and non-copular functions. It is often used
in copular predications involving inherently moving objects, such as the sun
(7.4.1.1.a) and growing plants (7.4.1.1.b), and to relate a person to a particular way of
acting (for example, clearing land, arriving at a canoe landing, becoming exhausted;
see example (d)). Also, this root can predicate counting – but apparently only in
connection with the verb uŋ-,‘sleep’, where ‘counting’ refers to the number of nights
slept, or days ‘passed’ in a particular place or situation. A special adverbial form of
ata- is used in affinal and other strong civilities (see 7.3.1.5). Senses of the root
include: ‘do’, ‘act as’, ‘reach’, ‘move to’

7.4.1.1. ata-ni, anticipated or inchoative (ANT)

The sense of this construction is, “X has just begun or will be
accomplished shortly”. This inflection is the only form of the root at- that
occurs in copula clause constructions.

a. inde Giti at-ani

here sun EQA-ANT
‘The sun was (moving) over here’.

b. inde-la=fale ife-gï ata-ni, inde.

Here-like.that=NT clearing-POSS EQA-ANT, here
“But here is the place where the clearing will reach, here.”

c. agetsi-ŋu-fa idyogu-ko isi-ŋu=wele-tsï-fa ata-ni.

one-only-PTP uncle-PL mother-only=also-M-PTP EQA-ANT
‘Only one of her uncles and also only her mother would be left.”

The following examples show this construction as a regular intransitive verb:

d. eŋu-pugu ata-ni
landing.place-VPE EQA-ANT
‘(3rd p) arrived at the landing place’

f. Here the emphatic suffix on the intransitive verb ( –a) seems to operate as an
active verb nominalization “his weakening”, permitting the resultant deverbal
derivation to modify the copula (the clause is bracketed):

[tu-fi-lï-a ekugu=lefa ata-ni=lefa] te-lu=lefa

REF-weak-PI-U complete=MT EQA-ANT=MT go.away-PI=MT
‘When he was almost completely exhausted, she went away.’

7.4.1.2 at-ehe, perfect aspect

While aspect is somewhat off topic, I include discussion of perfect aspect as it

only occurs with the active equative root. Some examples are given here with
more extended discussion of the form in 8.9

a. An example is given here of a negative perfect of persistent

situation. In the example, the copular complement is the
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nominalized verb, while the copular subject are the vegetables listed,
followed by the ‘be’ verb at- in perfect inflection.

ah teku-ne-fïŋï=mbale mukutsi,
EXP eat (soft food)-N-unlike-CAT sweet potatoes

teku-ne-fïŋï=mbale, melanzia. teku-ne-fïŋï topu at-ehe,

eat-CONT=CAT, melons. eat-N-unlike squash EX-PER,

Ø- ta i-feke, Ø- ta i-feke.
tell.to 3-ERG, tell.to 3-ERG
“Yes, finally we’ll no longer be always eating those sweet potatoes, we’ll
no longer be eating those melons, we won’t be eating his squash you’ve
been using”, he told her, he told her.

b. ule-pe at-ehe-fa agafafa-feke kagikagi eɳe-lї

AFR-SAL EX-PER-PTP afafafa-ERG kagikagi eat.flesh-PI
‘Because that happened, (the bird called) agafafa eats spiny catfish.’

7.4.1.3. ata-nïgï, perfective passing state nominalization

Both of the following examples are taken from the register called anetu itagiñu,
‘leader’s talk”. The copular complements are initial complex NP with their own
complements (bracketed), followed by the copular subject (ulimo), ending with
the copular clause.

a. ah, [ukwoto-ko=mukwe=gele-al≈igei eŋoku]

EXP, dual-parent-PL=EM=PT=UT≈IDEM messenger
‘Surely, still our parents, now as before in the past the messengers,

u-limo ata-nïgï=mukwe igei.

1-children EQ-PS EM IDEM
‘my children as they did in the past perhaps in vain.’

b. [kïŋamukwe-i-la agetsïkï ei-ŋoku-gu]

our/children-CL-NEG even.more 2-messengers-POSS

u-limo ata-nïgï
1-children- EQA-PS
‘Not our children, even more messengers my children as they did in the
past’.
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7.4.1.4. at-ïfïgï, imperfective nominalization

This nominal (IMP) references an animate or inanimate entity that continues to

experience a process as S or P.

a. In an interrogative regular intransitive de-verbal nominalization:

uwa-ma≈l≈egei at-ïfïgï.
Q-EM ≈UT ≈IDEM EQA- IMP
“What’s this that’s happening to you?”

b. This is an example of a lexical complementation strategy in which the

main verb is in continuative indicative patient backgrounding (valence
decreasing) construction, while the copular verb has been nominalized.

iŋke≈pa, ande-na-hi-la
look≈CONF, here/now-CONTR-?-NEG

kwigi figei ti-ñ-ike-ta

manioc ADEM 1+3-OB-clear.away-CI

at-ïfïgï, ti-ñ-ike-ta at-ïfïgï itsuni-pe,

EQA-IMP 1+3-OB-clear.away-CI EQA-IMP forest-SAL
‘Consider, as you know, that we’re uprooting all the manioc somewhere
else, not here, we’re clearing away some forest.’

c. u:m! uwa-ku=male igei at-ïfïgï?

EXP Q INT=DAD IDEM EQA-IMP
"I’m thinking, what strange thing has been happening to you?”

7.4.2. Non-copular functions of ata-

The nominal construction at-ïfïgï is frequently used in complex complementation

clause constructions involving body action and emotion complements as the
following examples attest. These are not copular constructions as there are no
copular complement arguments.

a. eŋiko-na- ŋapa-fa ukw-iŋandsu-ko at-ïfïgï

unknown.reason-CONT-EM-PTP dual-sister-PL EQA-IMP

tugukumi-sa-ha i-tsa.
black and blue-ADV-PEJ-PTP EX-CI
‘Who knows what made our sister the way she is, bruised all over.’

b. ige-tomi-kaŋa-fa igei,
take.away-PURP-EM-PTP IDEM
‘This was why to my regret,

ukw-oto-feke kiŋi ≈tïfïgï-ko ige-tomi.

dual-relative-ERG EM≈EQA-IMP-PL take.away-
PURP
unfortunately our relative had to take us away’.

c. ti- tafo-ŋa=lefa, at-ïfïgï=lefa, ñeti-lu=lefa

REF-lie.down-SN-MT EQA-IMP-MT, rot.-PI-MT
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‘Lying in his hammock, he has been rotting away’

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7.4.2.1 ata-i-ti, desiderative adverbialization adjunct

Here at- appears to have the following construction: EQA-IRR-DES, that is the
root is followed by the irrealis suffix and the desiderative suffix. This is not a
copular form but interpreted here as an irrealis adverbial adjunct, having the sense
of ‘perhaps might want to do X’. ataiti is a politeness marker used with direct
(second person) requests, but also commonly heard in triadic communication, that
is, permission requests regarding a third party, especially a respect relative
who may not be directly addressed. As such ataiti appears as an adjunct to a
purposive construction, discourse particle, or a lexical complement.

a. An example from the affinal civility register in which a mother-in-law

asks her daughter to make a request to the daughter’s husband. The
adverbial complements the main purposive clause, and is followed by the
supine subordinate clause:

efisï te-tomi ata-i-ti

2-ybr go.away.PURP EQA-EP-DES

u-tiŋa-gï i-ti-gi
1-split.open.fruit.POSS 3-go.get.SUP
‘Perhaps your younger brother might want to get some split open (i.e.,
ripened) fruit for me.’

b. Jaguar, whose eyes have been gouged out by Anteater, politely asks one
of his little bird enemies to help him replace them . Here the politeness
morpheme is an adjunct to the initial lexical ‘consideration’ complement
(this complex clause construction is described in 13.1.2). Note the
presence of the perfect active equative verb (also in boldface), indicating a
future perfect.

iŋ-ge ata-i-ti ku-ta-ŋï≈tehe

see-I EQA-IRR-DES 1+2>1-help-VT≈EQA≈PER

iŋu-te-g≈omi
eye-VT-CAUS≈PURP
‘Consider if you want to help me the eyes could be remade.’

c. A warrior’s father greets some men he thinks are his brothers-in-law, who
seem to have begun eating without him and his son. He is referring to the
fact they have not brought fish with them to share as they have
approached on foot, away from the water.

kїɳamukwe aluale ata-i-ti a-fatuwĩ-ko

children instead EQA-IRR-DES 2-nephew-PL

efїgi fo-po-alї-pe
arrow aim-HYP-EP-CI-ESS
‘Children, instead perhaps your nephew’s arrows might have been aimed’

d. Much like some epistemic morphemes, the politeness adverbial may be

post-posed to more than one impermeable phrase in an utterance.
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kogetsi ata-i-ti efisu-feke ata-i-ti

tomorrow EQ-IRR-DES Ybr-ERG EQA-IRR-DES

kuk-ige- tomi mufitsofo alï-iña

3>1+2-take-PURP fish.trap throw-DAT/BEN
‘Tomorrow if he wants, perhaps your younger brother might take us all
to throw the fish traps ‘

Note: The speaker uses the metaphor mufitsofo, ‘used for your finding’ in
place of the Kalapalo fish trap name kundu, used by one of his respect
relatives.

e. Here the morpheme occurs in a second person imperative (urgent or

encouraging) construction.

u-iti-tï ata-i-ti e-i=tsïe

1-name-POSS EQA-IRR-DES 2-EX-URG
‘If you want, use my name.’

7.4.2.2.. ata-lï, punctual indicative intransitive verbal construction

Here, the active equative root appears as an intransitive verb with the sense of
‘grow up’. In this single example from my data, there are two copula
morphemes: atalї, active equative copular verb in punctual indicative inflection
and the existential copular verb in continuative indicative inflection itsa. The latter
is the head of the construction. The equative, punctate indicative verb +unique
suffix –a constitute a nominal predication (‘without anything growing like my
special food’) that is the complement to the existential copular verb itsa. The
copula subject is the first person prefix u-.

a. u-iñaŋo-fïŋ=at-alï-a inde u-itsa

1-food-unlike=EQA-PI-U this place 1-EX
‘I’m living here without anything growing like my special food’.

7.4.2.3. ata-ŋe, precise, exact nominalization; this ‘precision’ morpheme appears

as – ŋo on lexical verb nominalizations (see Table 17, Chapter 4).

a. ɳoŋo-kaiŋa=mbele ata-ŋe=mbe gehale, tu-fitsu

ground- DEST=ANA EQA-PREC=SS again, REFL-wife

te-ŋalї. tuik! ɳoŋo-kaiŋa-mbe.

go.away-REP (sound of hitting the ground) ground-DEST-SS
‘But when again she tried to do as he did , right away his wife hit the
ground , tuik! she hit the ground when she did that’.
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b. This is an example of ataɳe following a preventative existential copular

construction, suffixed with a negative and hosting a PT clitic, ‘still’. The
de-verbal nominalization with its preceding preventative adverbial
adjunct (bracketed) constitute the copula complement (‘my prevented
from arriving’), while the complement subject is the first person prefix u-.

[ u-ti-mbe-nu-kila u-i-ñїgї ] ata-ɳe-la=gele

1-arrive-VI-PREV-NADV 1-EX-TR EQA-I-NEG=PT

inde Giti ata-ni u-ti-mbe-lu-iɳo=tale

here sun EQA-ANT 1-arrive-VI-PI-POT=NT
‘If I still haven’t been able to arrive (i.e., ‘my not being able to arrive’) as
I should when the sun is moving over here, I’ll arrive some other time! ’

7.4.1.8. ata-ŋa, attributive nominalization

This is another type of nominalization construction of the active equative root that
may complement a main active verb.

a. In the example, the active equative nominalization ‘is doing’ and active
stative in passing state nominalization ‘had been’ are juxtaposed. Together
they complement the final clause verb, imbata-, ‘approach’.

ata-ŋa a-nїgї ts-i-mba-ta=lefa,

EQA-AN EQS-PS 3>3-come.to-VI-CL=MT,

ɳene mba-ta=lefa.
animals come.to-VI-CI=MT
‘While he was working , they were approaching him, animals were
approaching him.’

7.4.3. a-, stative equative root, “be associated with”

All constructions of this root (EQS) have copular functions. This root relates
stative conditions or situations with human beings. My data show a somewhat
limited number of inflections, with the root appearing in consequential,
former, and passing state nominalization, desiderative adverbialization, and the
potential irrealis. There is one example of the root a- occurring fused to an
epistemic clitic. While I use the gloss “have”, this root does not predicate
‘possession’; though it does form the root of the nominal construction,
‘possession’, where it takes the possessive suffix. More usually it predicates
abstract notions of association, as in, ritual knowledge or competence (7.4.2.7.a,
e); a state of being (7.4.4b,d) or a feeling (7.4.2); bearing a certain name (this is
different from the naming predication in which the name is linked to the head
noun) (7.4.2.4c) or a relationship of some kind (7.3.3).

7.4.3.1 a-nïmi, consequential nominalization

The gloss for this form is CONS.

a. lepe uwĩpi an-ïmi

then 1-have-SUP EQS-CONS
‘Thus I became associated with it’
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b. In negative predication:

iñalï-ma igei a-nïmi.

not-EM DEM EQS-CONS
“I don’t think he ever became like that”.

7.4.3.2. a-titi desiderative adverbial

This construction is often used to form polite requests.The gloss is EQS-DES.

a. The little quails who agree to help Jaguar politely ask him to not go after
them later on.

eŋi-ke a-titi fe-tsa-ŋe tï-fi-lu-ŋi-ga-ke

2-consider EQS-DES OD-DEO REF-touch-PI-EN-VT-I
“We ask that you think about your own touching anyone.”

b. A woman who earlier rejected her husband-to-be now wants to marry

him.

Akwakaŋa ukw-ita-gi-ñi≈ke a-tit≈apa. .

Akwakaŋa dual-converse-VI-N≈COM EQS-DES-CONF
“Akwakaŋa let’s talk together as I’m asking you.”

c. e-ɳi-ke a-titi u-kwai iku-i-ke

2-see-I EQS-DES 1-on pull.out-EP-I
“Please look at what’s on me and pull (them) out.”

7.4.3.3. a-nï-mb-iñe, de-verbal ‘former state’ nominalization

Here is a somewhat unusual example of a nominalized copula; the apparent

deleted syllable or shortened form of –mbïŋï, “former, past” clearly references a
past relationship, not an activity that was deliberately ended.

a. efitsu adyo-i an-ïmb-iñe i-ge-ta i-feke

wife lover-CL EQS-FO-EXN 3-carry away-CI 3-ERG
‘He was taking away the person who had been his wife’s lover.’

7.4.3.4 a-nïgï passing state nominalization

a. eh, ai-ŋa-fa a-nïgï

yes, finish-LOC-PTP EQS-PS
‘Yes, just a little of it’s been achieved’.
b. unde-ni, eŋï, a-kupï-te-pïgï-ko a-nïgï, unde?
Where-EM, reason 2-last born-V-VPE-PL EQS-PS where
‘Where is she, the reason you have someone who (was born) after all of
you, where?’

c. tiki, ku-pigu≈sï titï-i an-ïgï

IJ, 1+2-child-mother name-CL EQS-RES
iga-pïŋï u-feke.
tell.name-NEGN 1-ERG
‘Tiki, that’s what our children’s mother had for a name so I refrain from
using it. ‘
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d. okodyo-feke-lefa tu-Gi-gï ke-ti

grandmother (voc)-ERG-MT REF-head-POSS cut off-ADV
amañu an-ïgï
Mother EQS-RES
‘Grandmother has cut off dear Mother’s head.’

e. uum, u-fameti≈ŋi-pi=lefa u-taŋa-gï-pe

EXP, 1-brother-in-law ≈keep-ADV=MT 1-long.flute-POSS-
SAL
a-nïgï EQS-PS
‘It seems to me my brother-in-law is keeping one of the long flutes’.

f. uk-oĩ-tso-ko-ɳo-i a-nїgї
1+2-thirst-VI-PL-PREC-CL EQS-PS
‘We are the ones who always get thirsty right away.’

7.4.3.5 a-pїgї, end result of a voluntary process.

While the inflection (VPE) in perfective nominalizations occurs with active

verbs, here it is occuring with the stative copular root. The following
example is a frequent utterance concluding a long narrative.

a. aifa a-pїgї figei

done EQS-VPE ADEM
‘This is how it ends’.

b. A variant of the above example in deontic construction.

aifa a-pїgї ake-ts-igei

done EQS-VPE DEO-EX-IDEM
‘This is how it should end.’

7.4.3.6. a-nïŋgo-iŋo, imperfective, potential aspect/mood

The example shows plural S:

a. et-iñaŋo-ne-ta an-ïŋgo-iŋo
MV-food-VI-CI have-PL-POT
‘what you will have for your own consumption.’

7.4.3.7. a:nika, a:+nika (epistemic clitic)’

This morpheme is usually a response) lexeme ( ‘is that so?’) with no further
commentary.

7.4.3.8 – (a,)ŋ, ‘ownership’

This form of the stative equative root appears in an adverbialization and as the
root of a nominalization, referencing ownership or association.

Examples (a) and (b) in adverbialization

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a. ñalï-ma katote=fale kuge ŋipi

NEG-EM all=NO people have
‘But not all the people have it.’

b. ule-pe-fa kefege-i, katote-tsï-fa tis-ago ŋi-pi, padye

AFR-SAL-PTP spell-CL, all-M-PTP 1+3-people have-ADV, shaman

ŋi-pi
have-ADV
‘The result is a spell, something that all of us have , something the shaman
has.’

Note: the speaker uses the Tupian word for shaman used in Brazilian Portuguese,
pajé)

c. Another nominalized form of this root (the nominalizer is a stative),

acting as a lexical complement with a nominal ‘resultative’ clause:

a-ŋi iŋe ŋ-iŋi-pïgï

EQS-SN bees’. nest OB-see-VPE
‘There’s a bees’ nest, he’s seen it’.

d. The stative equative root as possessive in a possessed nominal,

constructed with the pronominal possessor prefix and possessed suffix:

katote ye-ŋi-ko-gu
all 3-own-PL-POSS
‘all their things’

7.4.3.9 aɳ-olo

The precise meaning of this construction is not clear, but it is used with the
hypothetical sense of ‘it can be’, and also with an adnominal demonstrative .
Kalapalo translators speaking Portuguese said it meant verdade, ‘true’. I treat it
here as an adverbialization.

Example (a) shows how it is used to initiate a question:

a. aɳ-olo=nika ete-lї-ko?
EQS-HYP?=EM go.away-PI-PL
‘Is it true you are going away?”

b. The construction is used here in the introduction to a story:

tsa-ke-fa. ah nїgї-fi-feke. aɳ-olo fegei

listen-I-PTP. EXP 3-EV-ERG. EQS-? ADEM
‘Listen to what has been told. This is true.’

c. Here the speaker is trying to determine if her husband has been lying to
her, but faced with evidence to the contrary (which she suspects, correctly, is a
deception), she wants to agree with him.

ah, aɳ-olo=dye-tsї=makina≈k≈igei.
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EXP, EQS-HYP?=SA-M=EM≈EM≈IDEM
‘Surely what I’m seeing suggests he must be right after all about what
happened to her. ’

7.4.4 its-existential copular verb (EX)

This could be translated, ‘live as, exist as’.

A particularly large range of verbal aspect inflections and nominalizations appear

with this root. It is generally and productively used for predications on NP
involving a temporary state of existing, living, or a manner of being (such as
qualities of self and feeling); 8.3.4.2b is a strong exception as there is a sense of
permanence (even death) anticipated. The indicative inflections are
morphologically different from semantic verb inflections. The four derivational
and inflected forms of this root (the change of state nominalization, the passing
state nominalization, the irrealis malefactive, and the desiderative) loose the /ts/
element on the root. The suppletive e- form of this root is described in 7.3. Section
7.3.4.1. shows examples of the root in plain intransitive construction.

7.4.4.1 its-a, intransitive continuous indicative aspect

a. lepe its-a-ko itse-ta..

next EX-CI-PL same place-DIS
‘Then they stayed there.’

b. lepene its-a-ko ule-ti ikine eku-ta

afterwards EX-CR-Pl AFR-DES flatbread chew-CR
ule-ti i-feke-ne,
AFR-DES 3-ERG-Pl
‘The next thing that happened was that as they stayed there they wanted to
eat some flatbread, what the others had been making.’

7.4.4.2 its-a in copular constructions

These may occur with subordinate desiderative clauses constituting the copular
complement.

a. In this example, the subordinate clause S is marked with the

identificational demonstrative.

una kaɳu-ti=tale≈gei u-i-tsa

Q bathe-DES=NO≈ADEM 1-EX.CI
“When I want to bathe, where is it?’
b. In this and the following example (c), the subordinate clauses are
followed by deontic postpositions.

e-fi-dyï-ti ake-tsa-ŋe u-its-a.

2-touch-PI-DES DS-DEO 1-EX-CI
‘I’ve decided I want to touch you.’ (i.e., ‘I desire you’)
c. u-te-lu-ti ake-tsa-ŋe u-its-a.
1-go.away-PI-DES DS-DEO 1-EX-CI
‘I’ve decided I want to leave’’.
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7.4.4.3 itsa-ni, anticipated indicative

This is a copular construction with the existential root in indicative anticipated

inflection. The copular complement is an adjective, the copular subject the shift
reference clitic dya (DA):

a. intsoño ekugu=dya itsa-ni. intsoño, Ø-nïg≈i-feke

small fully=DE EX-ANT. small 3-PS≈3-ERG

tu-fitsu-feke.
Refl-wife-ERG
‘”But this one is going to be an extremely small one. A small one,” he
said to his wife.’

b. This example illustrates a common curse. The copular complement is the

adverb, ‘like that’, the copular subject is 3rd person plural marked with Ø
prefix and plural suffix on the verb.

la-fa itsa-ni-ni
like.that-PTP EX-ANT-PL
‘So they will remain’.

c. Here the copular complement is another adverb, the copular subject is first
person (marked with prefix on verb).

ina u-itsa-ni, Ø-nïgi,

here 1-EX-ANT 3-PS
ina u-itsa-ni.
right.here 1-EX-ANT
“I”ll stay right here”, he answered, “I”ll stay right here”.

7.4.3.4. its-omi, enabling purposive

a. The speaker describes the outcome of his magical actions:

ah, a-tolo-gu-i-tsu-fa its-omi, e-tolo-gu-i.

EXP, 2- bird-POSS-CL-M-PTP EX-PURP, 2-bird-POSS-CL
“Surely, it’s for being a pet of yours, a pet of yours.”

b. The form used with plural suffix –ko to mark actors, i-tso-ko-mi.

Ø- ŋ-ame-nïŋgo etiñï-pe-feke
3-OB-escort-POT;PL messenger--SAL-ERG

uŋ-ati its-o-komi
house-ADV EX-HYP-PURP;PL.
‘The askers planned to escort them so they could stay inside.’

7.4.4.5 i-ñalï, malefactive.

This could be translated, ‘wrongly, malevolently doing X’

The example is a response to the imperative statement of 8.3.4.9 (a).

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a. uma-ku-tifa efisua-gï iŋ-ati u-i-ñalï

EXP-INT-EV 2-OBR-POSS hammock-ALOC 1-EX-MAL
“In my experience it’s very wrong to lie down in older brother’s
hammock.”

Sections 7.4.4.6-11 show the EX root used in non-copular constructions. These

occur as irrealis, imperative and nominalizations.

7.4.4.6 i- ñïgï, transformed state perfective nominalization

(TR)

a. inene- i-na=lefa i-ñïgï-ko, i-ñïgï-ko.

this side 3-ALL=MT 3-become-TR-PL, 3-become-PS-PL
‘And (coming) back to this side, they changed (back), they changed.’

b. tik, enene=mbe≈le-ti
(sound of arrival), other side-SS≈AFR-EV

i-ñïgï ete-lu=mbele,
EX-TR go.away-PI=ANA
‘Tik, in the end they say he became a person on the other side, going away
like that’.

c. lepe i-ñïgï-tifa atïtï-ki=mbe-le-tsu Ø-ñ-e-nïgï.

next EX-TR-EV good-ADV=SS≈AFR-M 3-OB-multiply-PS
‘And so (as I myself have seen), it was transformed into something good
as she kept doing all that, it multiplied (spread).’

7.4.4.7 its-olï: hypothetical irrealis

a. inde-ne e-its-olï tamitsi

here-DIS 2-EX-HYP-PI long.time

u-fu-polï=lefa e-feke-lefa
1-know-HYP=MT 2-ERG-MT
‘If you had been here a long time you would have known about me.’

7.4.4.8 its-iŋa, stative attributive nominalization

This type of nominalizaton of the existential root is used with the contra-spective
epistemic clitic =mukwe to express a state of existing that the speaker knows is
being wished for perhaps in vain (see discussion of this epistemic morpheme in
Chapter 3: 3.4.3.E).

a. u-fitsu its-iŋa=mukwe ukuge

1-wife EX- =EM human
‘If only she were human she could be living as my wife’.
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7.4.4.9 (i)tsa-ŋe, deontic imperative (DEO)

The root in this inflection is used as the stem of first (a-d) , second (e-f) and third
(g-i) person subject deontic postpositions (note second and third person deontic
prefixes are the deontic post-position class The translation could be ‘must, should
be X’. (See Chapter 11: 11.5 for discussion of this word class).

1. Examples in first person:

a. uge≈tsaŋe:
me≈DEO
“It must be me”.

b. With the on subject deontic prefix ake-:

u-te-lu-ti ake-ts-aŋe u-i-tsa.

1-go.away-PI-DES SD-DEO 1-EX-CI
‘I’m feeling I have to leave’.

c. Another example with the first person deontic prefix following the
adverbial, ‘my direction’:

ñafe≈ke-tsaŋe e-fisu-feke te-ku-tomi.

my.direction≈DEO 2-ybro-ERG eat-VT-PURP
‘I want you to come over here so your younger brother can eat this.’

d. Sakatsuegï e-ki-lï-ko-iŋo ake-tsa-ŋe u-feke

Sakatsuegï 2-utter-PI-PL-POT SD-DEO 1-ERG
‘I want you to say ‘Sakatsuegï’ (when you talk) about me.

2. Examples in third person patient deontic prefix fe- (OD)

e. ke-uŋu- ŋe fe-tsa-ŋe ke-uŋu-ŋe.

PREV-sleep-I OD-DEOI PREV-sleep-I
“I want you to stay awake, don’t fall asleep”.

f. Ukw-oto fe-tsaŋe i:-ña i-fa-ke

dual-parent OD-DEO 3-DAT 3-tell.to-I
ukw-oto-i.
dual-parent -CL
“I want you to tell our parent, to let the one who serves as our parent
know.’

g. e-i-ka-ŋu-ŋe-tu fe-tsaŋe, e-i-ka-ŋu-ŋge.

2-wood-collect-VT-I-N OD-DEO 2-wood-collect-VT-I
‘You’re wanted to collect firewood, (so) go get wood for your fire.’

3. An example in third person:

h. Ande fe-tsaŋe e-fisï ê-ta.

Here.now OD-DEO 2-ybro 2:come to-CI
“Your younger brother wants to come to you here now. “
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7.4.4.10 i-ti adverbial desiderative

The translation could be, ‘want to be as X’.

a. u-agage ake-tsaŋe ke-i-ti

1-similar.to SD-DEO PREV-EX-I
’I don’t want you to be like me”, or ”I can’t allow you to be like me.’

7.4.4.11 its-ue urgent imperative

This form is used as an imperative, meaning ‘stay’ (URG)

a. eŋï et-iŋati e-its-ue et-iŋ-ati

reason 2-in.hammock 2-EX-URG, 2-lie.in.hammock-ADV

e-its-ue e-ipe-gï
2-EX-I 2-affine-POSS
‘The reason is you should be in the hammock, you should be in the
hammock of your mother-in-law.’

7.5. The active equative copular and perfect aspect atehe Comment [ERB1]: once paper is finished, redo
this section

The active equative perfect is a distinctive aspect in Kalapalo, relating an existing

or prospective state to a preceding situation. The perfect can express present, past
or future perfects. In addition, atehe functions as a causal adverbial, much as
described by Diessel and Hetterle (2011). I have about forty examples of the use
of atehe, always in conversational speech; the contexts of use appear to clearly
conform to several distinctions described by Comrie (1976). These different
temporal contexts may be referenced by the presence of an interclausal reference
marking clitic or a de-verbal nominalization seen in a clause that precedes the
active equative copular verb form atehe (PER). Perfect constructions also often
appear with negative or interrogative main clauses, suggesting these are important
means of constructing stance positions that require a causal explanation.

7.5.1. Perfect of experiential situation

Comrie defines the ‘perfect of experiential situation’ as a construction that

“indicates that a given situation has held at least once at some time in the past
leading up to the present” (1976: 58).

a. Example with atehe following the topic shifting anaphoric topic referent
ule, the following verb “come” in imperfective nominalization, ‘my
coming’.

ule atehe ku-ak=igei u-e-tïfïgï.

AFR PER INT-DEO-IDEM 1-come-IMP
‘Because of all that (going on before) I decided to come’.
(lit., ‘that cause just why I decided to be a come-r’)
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b. The lexical verb root їi-, ‘do, make’ is in continuous indicative:

tï-me=male ige-a ukw-ïi-g≈at-ehe.

RQ-FACS=DAD PDEM-U 1+2-do-CI≈EQA-PER
‘How could something like this be done to us?’

c. An example of the perfect following the copular use of the equative

stative verb in passing state perfective nominalization (this clause is
bracketed). The lexical verb tu, ‘give’ is also inflected by a passing state
perfective nominalization. This also may be interpreted as a ‘perfect of
experiential situation’.

[ u-ĩfo-gu a-n-ïŋgo at-ehe] e-iña-ni tu-nïgï

1-respect-POSS 2-EQS-PS;PL EQA- PER 2-DAT-PL give. to-PS
‘As you all have been my respect relatives (i.e., affines), it’s something
that’s been given to you all.’

d. Another perfect of experiential situation example with the stative

equative copular verb in nominal passing state perfective aspect:

ku-ñïgï tï-faŋa-gï ekege akiti-ŋo fegei

1+2-EX-TR REF-ear-POSS jaguar like-ADV ADEM

lepe a-nïgï at-ehe

. next EQS-PS EQA-PER
‘We became able to understand the jaguar well, so that’s what the result
has been (since then).’ Comment [ERB2]: retranslate

7.5.2 Perfect of persistant situation

Comrie descibes the perfect of persistant situation as “a situation that started in

the past but continues (persists) into the present” (1976: 60). The use of atehe in
these contexts complements a lexical verb in punctual (a) or continuous indicative
(b) inflection. There may also be, in place of the verb, the interclausal reference
marker =mbe referencing ‘same event’ (c).

a. Here the lexical verb with a negative preposed adverb is in punctual

indicative inflection (‘doesn’t seem to go away to do X’). While the event
is punctual, the perfect complement suggests it continues not to occur.

ñalї-ma o-wї-ko te-lї at-ehe otu-ko ufidyu-iña

negation-EM 2-FA-PL go.away-PI EQA-PER 2;food-PL find-PI-
DAT/BEN
‘It seems your father doesn’t go to find for your food.’

b. In this example, the lexical verb timbe- ‘arrive’ is inflected in continuous

indicative aspect/mood.

ah timbe-ga≈tehe tï-iñaŋgo kusiugu at-ehe,

EM arrive-CI=EX≈EQA-PER Refl+food sweet. manioc EQA-PER,
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Ø-ta-ifeke, tu-fitsu-feke.
tell+3+ERG, Refl+wife+ERG
‘“Really, you show up day by day with that food of his, those sweet
manioc roots’ he told his wife.’

c. In this example the interclausal reference marker mbe (same event) may
be the referent to the particular ‘persistant situation’ .

të-iñaŋo-i-mbe ege at-ehe, Ø-ta i-feke.

REF-food-CL-SS PDEM EQA-PER, tell-CI 3-ERG
“Because of that food of his that you’ve been using,” he told her

Lines (d) and (e) occur in a narrative sequence that illustrates the perfect of a
persistent situation that is a punctual event that is repeated. The lexical root ‘pull’
(line e) is inflected in punctual indicative. The persistant situation ‘ a beautiful
thing that comes up quickly’ is referenced in a complex manner. First, is the
ideophonic clause in (d) in which the ideophone expressing the idea of something
very nice is followed by the adverb ‘quickly’ which is followed by –fa which
shows the nominal referent suggested by the ideophone is the ‘primary topical
participant’; in other words, the speaker clarifies what he has meant by the
ideophone. Then in (e) the perfect construction complements the ‘anaphoric
focus referent’ demonstrative ule. The lexical verb indicating repeated action
(which is the punctual event of pulling out a plant by its roots) then follows, with a
final ideophone references the act of repeating pulling on something. This
allusive discourse was especially characteristic of the complex poetic style of the
late narrator.

d. teh heh heh! agetsïkï-f≈-at-ehe.

very nice! quickly-PTP≈EQS-PER
‘Teh heh heh ! It came up very quickly.

e. ule atehe i-ño-ki-lï-t≈i-feke, tïdï, tïdï

AFR EQA-PER 3-pull-VT-PI-DES≈3-ERG, (sound of pulling on
something)
‘Because of all that was going on, when he wanted to pull it out, tïdï, tïdï
(it came out readily).’

f. Here the perfect construction follows a de-verbal ‘end result of a

voluntary process’ (VPE) nominalization.

iɳila-su aikaku ɳ-eɳe-pїgї at-ehe

long.time-PEJ Aikaku OB-eat.flesh-VPE EQA-PER
‘He’s already been eaten up a long time ago by the Aikaku monsters.’

g. In this example the perfect construction follows a stative intransitive

nominalized construction in essive case.

iɳila=su t-agut-iñu-pe at-ehe

long.time=PEJ REF-thin-SN-ESS EQA-PER
‘That fool has been starved long ago’.
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h. An unusual active equative perfect inflected with first person prefix:

ta-ɳo-i-ti-ma u-at-ehe
CONT-PREC-CL-DES-EM 1-EQA-PER
‘Why would I have wanted to do that at all?’

7.5.3 Future perfect

The Kalapalo future perfect references a result that will continue in the future,
with the cataphoric interclausal reference clitics =mbembale (SSCAT) ‘same
event, shift of location’ (examples a, b) or =mbale, ‘consequential’ new
argument’ (CAT) (example c).

a. la=mbembale kagayfa a-nïgï at-ehe.

far.place= SSCAT Christians EQS-PS EQA-PER
‘If you were to go way over that way (i.e., go in that other direction),
(that’s where) the Christians are (as they have been)’.

b. igea=lefa a-ŋakafu-gu-a at-ïfïgï tamaki,

this.way-U=MT 2-hair-POSS-U EQ-IMP soft
‘Just like your special kind of hair, it’s become soft’.

ule-pe at-ehe-tsï-fa.
AFR-SAL EQA-PER-M-PTP
And so, it has remained (and will continue to be) that way.’

ule at-ehe-fa tu-tefu-andi kukwat-ani,

AFR EQA-PER-PTP REF-stomach-full 1+2-EQA-ANT

afїtї kagikagi teɳe-lu-la ku-pehe.  

denial kagikagi eat.flesh-PI-NEG 1+2-ERG
‘As that has continued to this day, when one of us becomes pregnant, we
won’t eat spiny-finned catfish.’

c. This example is in a contrastive predication, thus the speaker’s use of the

‘consequential’ new argument’ IRM clitic =mbale (CAT).

ah teku-ne-fïŋï=mbale mukutsi,
EXP eat (soft food)-unlike=CAT (roots),

teku-ne-fïŋï=mbale, melanzia. teku-ne-fïŋï topu at-ehe

eat-N-unlike=CAT, melons. eat-N-unlike squash EQA-PER
“Surely, we won’t be eating those roots any longer, we won’t be eating
those melons, we won’t be eating that squash of his you’ve been using”

7.6. Auxiliary copular verb constructions

The ata- ‘active equative’; an- ‘stative equative’, and i(ts) ‘existential’ roots
when verbalized are also used in auxiliary constructions with thetic non-finite
lexical verbs. These are presented in boldface in the examples below. As
described in Chapter 7, the thetic type of verb construction does not include either
aspect, or irrealis suffixes, nor person prefix marking, but when theticity occurs in
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a transitive clause, A will be preserved.. Person prefixes and aspector irrealis

suffixes appear on the auxiliary verb. Following G. Anderson’s (2006)
terminology, such auxiliary verb constructions fall into his split, split/double and
AUX head construction types. Anderson’s split type means the lexical verb and
auxiliary are constructed (in Kalapalo, inflected) differently. Anderson’s
split/double construction type means the lexical and auxiliary verbs share some
but not all inflections.
The AUX head construction involves an auxiliary in finite verb construction,
which in Kalapalo are person and aspect suffix

a. In this following example the active equative copular verb in imperfective

anticipation aspect atani, ‘entering into a process,’ is auxiliary with the lexical
verb tsa-, ‘listen’ in a thetic construction. This is an example of Anderson’s AUX
head construction, as the auxiliary carries the imperfective ‘anticipated’ aspect
marker and person marking features (3rd person, as here, is Ø), not present in the
lexical verb. When in a copular verb construction, the CC and CS are shared.

iŋila=lefa ta-tsa-ti Ø-ata-ni

long.time=MT REF-listen-TH 3-EQA-ANT
‘She was going to be listening for a long time.’

The following is an example of the i(ts)- existential root in 2nd person

imperative used as auxiliary with the non-finite thetic form of the verb fo-ŋi, ‘cry’
in an intransitive clause construction. This is an example of Anderson’s ‘split
construction’ as the negative morpheme appears only on the lexical verb and only
the auxiliary is constructed as an imperative. This is not a copular verb
construction as there is no sharing of argument between the lexical and existential
‘be’ verb.

b. i-ñuku-gu fo-nu-nda to-fo-ŋi-Ø-la e-its-ue

her son-POSS cry-VI-CI REF-cry-cause-TH-NEG 2-EX-I
‘Her son was crying. ‘‘Stop crying”.’

The next example shows the existential its- copular verb as an auxiliary
on the transitive fully finite lexical verb in a subordinate clause. The lexical verb
is fuke-: ‘track’, ‘look for the trail of someone’ in punctual indicative mood.
However, the existential copular is in continuous indicative, indicating a
progressive activity. The construction falls into Anderson’s ‘split/double’
construction type as the aspect/mood inflections are different for each verb but the
person prefix is repeated. The full clause chain is given in (c).

c. Taugi-feke fuke-fi-dyï, Aulukuma fuke-fi-dyï i-feke.

Taugi-ERG track-VT-PI, Aulukuma track-VT-PI 3-ERG
‘Taugi tracked him, he tracked Aulukuma .’

ule-pe-ts≈ale efiñano-feke figei fuke-fi-dyï i-tsa, efñano-

feke
AFR-SAL-EX ≈UT Obr-ERG IDEM track-VT-PI EX-CI , Obr-ERG
‘That’s what he kept on doing, that was what the older brother was doing,
tracking him in one place after another, the older brother.’
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7.7. Contrasts between demonstrative and ‘be’ root predicational

constructions

There are many instances of a ‘be’ root used in predicational function with de-
verbal aspectual nominalizations. In these verbless clausal constructions, the
de-verbal nominalization predication is constructed by means of a main copular
verb (sometimes itself nominalized). These predicational constructions are
distinct from predications involving Kalapalo demonstratives, as described in
Chapter 6. Here, I summarize the main features of the two types of
predicational constructions, emphasizing their differences.

- ‘Be’ root constructions may predicate other nominalized copular stems with both
non-aspectual and aspectual derivational suffixes. As nouns, these copular
derivational constructions seem to operate similarly to the pronominal or
adnominal demonstratives. However, such constructions link two different
situations, predicating their relationship, whereas demonstratives function to
predicate nominal constructions, including referencing A or S.

In the following example, the copular complement is an adverbial de-

nominalization. In brackets is the full copular clause headed by the
existential stative ‘be’ verb in continuous indicative inflection.
‘

a. ŋuŋi-ŋu-fïgï its-a udyimo [eke-ts-efu-fwesu-ki its-a

lie.to-VT-VPE EX-CI 1-child.PL snake-REF-stomach-bad-CAUS EX-CI
i-dyi-mo-ki]
EX 3-child-PL-INST
‘Being lied to by the children who have made me feel sick to my stomach,
by the children’ (lit., being sick to my stomach as a result of the children)

- Unlike demonstratives, ‘be’ root subjects and complements often host

interclausal reference markers specifying continuity or discontinuity of
arguments, thus participating in clause chaining. This is especially the case with
regard to referencing the consequences or outcomes of stative and active events,
including new clausal arguments.

A useful way to see the differences is through examples in which both

demonstratives and ‘be’ root inflected constructions appear.
 275

b. In this example the identificational demonstrative is a relative clause modifier

that references the initial lexical NP as S of the final verbal predication, in which
the stative equative an- root (‘association’)—in first person passing state
perfective nominalization—references the experience of the speaker. There is no
subordinate clause. The immediately preceding interclausal reference morpheme
=dya marks a new, successive event. Here the initial ‘experiencer’ intransitive
verb nominalization becomes the S of the final de-verbalized ‘be’ verb.

i-Ge-ki-ñu ku-ki-tofo igei=ku=dya si-te-Ø

3-fishy-VI-EXN 1+2-utter-USIN IDEM= INT=XN pity-VT-
RES
u-a-nïgï
1-EQS-PS

‘By a ‘fishy person’ (as we say)*, I was thus shown real pity. ‘

Note: In other words, humans would see, and therefore call the being a ‘fish’,
but in the other underwater world it appeared human.

c. Here, there is also a change of argument function but the de-verbal

nominalization has been used to create a subordinate clause (bracketed) so
a demonstrative is not necessary. ere The active equative verbal
construction ata-ni follows a ‘voluntary process end result’ de-
verbal nominalization, the subordinate clause that is followed by the main
verb te-‘go away’ in potential aspect. The active equative copular verb
appears in imperfective anticipation aspect ‘enter into an activity’. The
construction links the initial subordinated state of affairs (sleeping) with
the subsequent main event, ‘going away’.

[ñatui ake-tsaɳe tis-їɳї-pїgї ata-ni] te-lu-iɳo

five SD-DEO 1+3-sleep-VPE EQA-ANT go.away-PI-POT
’We must finish sleeping five days before going away’.

d. In this example, an interrogative utterance includes both the consequential

nominalization of the equative stative copular verb followed immediately
by the identificational demon-strative. The latter marks the preceding
copular verb predication, ‘what happened to dear mother’ as the
complement of the main verb igi-, ‘sing’ (which has become
nominalized). The speaker is expressing shocked surprise that the singer
of a mourning song knows how her mother died.

uwa-su-ki ama-ñu a-nїmi igei s-igi-ɳu-i

Q-PEJ-MIR mother (voc)-END EQS-CONS IDEM 3-sing-VI-CL
‘Why in the world is what happened to dear mother serving as his song?’

7.8. Summary: Copular predicate sets

The material presented in this chapter can be summarized in terms of the semantic
types of predications associated with each of the copula morphemes belonging to
the two syntactic types: suffix and verb.

Predications with copula suffix -i

- pronominal attributive
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- identificational attributive on nouns and nominalizations,

- active verbs in desiderative, malefactive, hypothetical and negation
constructions
- existential copular verb constructions

Copular verb predications

The predicational types of ‘be’ roots in copula function can be summarized as

follows:

a-: - resultative state, involving a human being

-entry into a state

at: - ‘possession’ of inalienable body parts (“head”),

- relationships (as kinship)
- feelings,
- association with ritual practices
- events, practices, experiences carrying over from past into
present and future

its- - temporary existential states (nominalized)

- transformative states (nominalized)
- living, existing
- state of mind

Some of the copula stems appear to be losing their copular function and taking on
the functional character of adverbs. This is perhaps most true of the adverbial ag-
root discussed in Chapter 10. Further study of adverbs that refer to ‘possession’ or
‘ownership’ and especially the logical character of a verbal predication (“reason”
or “result”; contrast or comparison, and perhaps also denial and negation) is
needed to discern possible past copular functions of some roots.
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Chapter 8
Imperatives and Imperative Strategies

Kalapalo has a variety of both positive and negative imperatives, several hortative and
invitational forms, and a didactic form. All these may be classified as ‘imperative’ as
verbs are inflected with one of several possible imperative suffixes. This type of
construction is nominal-accusative. There are also numerous imperative strategies,
distinguished by the fact that they have persuasive semantic functions but do not use the
imperative inflection on verbs. Such utterances carry the intention of asking someone to
do something (positive strategies), or to avoid or stop doing something (negative
strategies). The contexts in which imperative strategies appear provide important
information on the stance-forming interpersonal relations governing speaker’s choices of
particular forms, and the responses of interlocutors. There are no “direct” third person
imperatives. Negative imperatives for third person are actually strategies that involve the
use of the “rhetorical question” prefix tï-. Positive third-person imperative strategies
often use a deontic and are associated with registers which involve special politeness on
the part of speakers. Overall, imperative types may be ordered in terms of degrees of
politeness or “softening” of a request, a pragmatic function of considerable importance
for interpersonal relations of all kinds. The data in this section are taken from private
conversations, didactic speech, and leaders’ talk; some examples have been taken from
narrative discourse Table 29 shows the set of preposed imperative interjections. There are
two degrees of prohibition, and the hortatives are distinguished according to a
proximate/distal contrast. In addition, there is an advisory which is usually neutral in
sentiment.

Table 29. Preposed Imperative Interjections

Prohibitives Hortatives Advisory

odyo ‘stop’, ohsi ‘we should do okaŋi ‘wait’

‘be careful’ X here’
oko ‘you’d better not’ ogi ‘we should do
X over there’

8.1. Positive imperatives

Positive imperatives make use of “simple” suffixes on the verb stem: ke/ge; tsi/te and a
pronominal proclitic in 2nd person singular (e-/a-/Ø); or 1st person plural: ku-, kukw, ukw.
Word order is SV, with second arguments either before or after the VP. I am not sure
what the differences are between the four ‘simple suffixes’, as there are no clear cut
differences in meaning and use, nor are there phonological contrasts in their usage. I
therefore consider them allomorphic.
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8.1.1. -ke suffix

a. e-te-ke:
2-go.away-I
”go away”

b. e-fa-ti-ke
2-open up-Vi-I
‘open up (the door)’

c. ifa-ki-ke,
awaken-IV-I
’wake up’

d. a-kwi-n-ke
2-crouch down-IV-I
‘crouch down’

e. i-ka te-ke
wood-get go away-I
’Go get firewood.’

f. iga-ke-fofo i-iña
name-I-IMM 3-ALL
’Tell her the name right now.’

g. a-tsa-ke-fofo u-ki-lï
2-listen-IMP-IMM 1-utter-PI
‘Listen now to what I say.’

h. u-ki-ŋu teke-fofo,
1-INST-REV go-I-IMM
‘Lift it off me (i.e.my basket) right now.

i. ku-ñi-ta-ke
1+2>3- OB--look-Vi-I
’We must go look for them.’

j. kogetsi ku-ŋondi-ke
tomorrow 1+2-separate-I
‘Tomorrow we’ll separate.’

k. kogetsi-tsa-ni ku-limo-ko oto-mo ku- ñ-i-ga-ke

tomorrow-EX-ANT 1+2-children-PL parent-PL 1+2>3-OB-see-I
‘The next day let us look for our children’s fathers.’

8.1.2. –ɳ(g)e(ї) suffix

a. e-tu-ŋe
2-give-I
‘give (it)’;
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b. u-kw-aGi-ke-ge
dual-cut.hair-CAUS-I
’Let’s make my bangs.’

c. e-i-ka-ŋu-ŋe-tu fe-tsaŋe, e-i-ka-ŋu-ŋge.

2-wood-collect-Vt-I-N OD-DEO 2-wood-collect-Vt-I
‘You must go collect firewood, go get wood for your fire.’

d. ke-uŋu- ŋe fe-tsaŋe ke-uŋu-ŋe.

NEG-sleep-I OD-DEO NEG-sleep-I
’I don’t want you to fall asleep, don’t fall asleep.’

e. o-ŋi-s=apa
bury-I=PEJ=CONF
’Bury him since that’s what you want to do.’

f. Akwakaŋa nduku-gu u-ke-ŋi-

Akwakaŋa gourd.container-POSS 1>3-fill-Vt-I

ŋï te-ga-ni
go.away-SCAUS-ANT
‘I’m determined to go fill Akwakaŋa’s container.’

9.1.3. -tse suffix (URG)

This suffix appears to reference urgency.

a. ti-kai-tse
REF-on-URG
“Get up”.

b. e-li-tse-apa
2-swallow-URG-CONF
“Go ahead and swallow it if you want to”

8.1.4. -te suffix

a. ke-te-apa, ke-te-fa.
come.along-I-CONF, come.along-I-PTP
“Come along if you wish, (you) come along.”

b. o-ño-te-tïe fe-tsaŋe
2-boil-I-URG OD-DEO
“(He) wants you to boil it right away”

c. iŋge-te ku-ñ-iŋe-tomi,
bring-I 1+2-OB-look-PURP
‘Bring it so we can see it,’
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d. ige-fa a-fu-t≈ue
this –PTP 2-pound-I-URG
‘Pound this up right away.’

iña-fa e-te-te:
this.direction-PTP 2-go.away-I)
“Come over here”.)
(informal is: ñafe, ‘come here’)

e. i-tsei-te i-tsi-pïgï-ki ≈ke-tsaɳe e=feke-ne

build.fire-I wood-die-VPE-INST≈SD-DEO 2-ERG-PL
i-gaka-nïmiŋo
3-first-POT
‘I want you to be the first to build a fire from dead wood.’

8.1.5. –tïŋi , suffix with first person plurals

ku- ñi-kimba-tïŋi
1+2-OB-wrestle-I
‘Let’s all start wrestling him.’

ina-fofo kukw-etiña-mba- tïŋi

this.place-IMM 1+2-eat.a.meal-I‘The next thing we’ll do is we’ll prepare
something to eat for ourselves right here.’

ohsi-fa ku-ñi-ge-tïŋi-fa
HORT-S 1+2-OB-take.back-I-PTP
“Let’s all start to take him back”.

ohsi-fa kukw-etimba- tïŋi-fa

HORT-S 1+2-drink-I-PTP
’Let’s take something to refresh ourselves.’

8.2 Second and third person deontic constructions

Deontic constructions express the sense of ‘I need to, have decided to do X’, or ‘I want
you/3rd person to do (or ‘X must do’) X’. These locutions are somewhat more polite or
less abrupt sounding than the examples in the preceding section, with the second/third
object deontic fesaŋe used together with the verb in imperative inflection. There is no
use of 1st person A or S deontic ake- ”need to”, or the adverbial desiderative suffix –ti.

a. agetsi fe-tsaŋe e-fïgi e-ŋige-ke,

one OD-DEO 2-arrow 2-take-I
’You need to take only one of your arrows ‘

b. In this example the imperative follows the urgency clitic:

iŋi-tue=ge fe-tsaŋe,
see/think-URG=R OD-DEO
’You need watch out for that again!’
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8.3 Negative imperatives

Negative imperatives in Kalapalo are initiated with the preventative prefix ka- (roots
beginning with /a/) or ke- (all other roots). They do not necessarily all show an imperative
suffix.

8.3.1 Preventative

The preventative imperative uses the preventative prefix ke- on the verb. Some
constructions use the imperative suffix on the stem (a,c), but not all. Example (b) has the
preventative prefixed to a purposive construction, while examples (d) and (e) have
nominalized verbs that are prefixed.

a. ke-te-ŋa:
PREV-go away-I
‘Don’t go’

b. ah, ke-nde-fi-tsomi a-titsï-fofo

EXP, PREV-scrape-ADV-PURP 2-all over-IMM
‘Be sure to prevent him from scraping you all over’

c. ke-ki-ge-fa
PREV-come.along-I-PTP
‘Stop his coming along.’

d. ke-itsi-ni-tsa≈le
PREV-bite-PL-EX-UT
‘Keep them from biting.’

e. ke-ŋe-ni≈ts-ale
PREV-eat-PL≈EX-UT
‘Keep them from eating.’

8.3.2 Prohibitive

The second negative imperative, a strong prohibitive, ‘stop’, ‘don’t’, is more commonly
used than the first. Prohibitives are formed with the preventative prefix ka-, ke-, or ku-
(elision of /e/ and assimilation following /a/ or /u/), the negative imperative suffix –ŋe on
the verb, negative nominalization -iɳi and the deontic. These are distinguished from
preventatives in their use of the deontic and are all addressed to a second person, often
regarding the actions of a third person.

a. ka-g≈atsa-ki-ŋe ake-tsaŋe
PREV-downward - run-Vi-I SD-DEO
‘I don’t want you to try and run away.’

b. uum, ke-ki-ŋi fe-tsa-ŋe

EXP PREV-utter-NN OD-DEO
“It seems to me that you must stop saying that.”
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c. ete-ge ki-ŋi fetsaŋe

ouch-again utter- NN OD-DEO
‘You must not say ‘ouch’ again.’

Note for (c) and (d): kiŋi can also be used as a negative counterfactual epistemic clitic
(see Chapter 12: Clitics and Particles for discussion).

d. inde fetsaŋe ke-te-ŋa,

here OD-DEO PREV-go-SN

u-ki-ta-ti-taka egei
1-utter-CI-DES-EM IDEM
‘You must stop going around here’, I’m sure I wanted to say that.’
(i.e., ‘you’re not being a go-er’)

e. ka-ga-gapa-ga-tsi-ŋe, u-iku-gu ke-ti-fi-ñe

PREV- downward-broom-SCAUS-Vi-PRO, 1-sap-POSS PREV-REF-
touch-SN
‘Stop trying to keep things swept up”,(so) you don’t touch my semen.’
(lit, my semen touch-er}

f. u-agage ake-tsaŋe ke-i-ti

1-similar to SD-DEO PREV-EX-DES
‘You must not want to be like me.’

8.3.3 Cautionary, odyo

The third negative imperative type is a cautionary, initiated by the interjection odyo,
“stop” or “do no longer” (which can be reduplicated for emphasis and suffixed by the
conformative taxis clitic =apa). This important way of giving caution references actions
that have already been performed and thus potentially could be continued by the
addressee. There is no pause between this interjection and the rest of the clause.

a. This example shows the interjection followed by a finite transitive

indicative verb e-, angry.

odyo-apa kuaku e-ŋalï e-feke

stop-CONF nightjar angry-REP 2-ERG
‘Don’t be angry with the nightjars any longer the way you want to.’

Note: This example is ambiguous because it could also mean, ‘Don’t make the nightjars
angry with you.’; and also because the conformative taxis can mean ‘as I do/want’: ‘Do
what I say and don’t get angry with the nightjars.’

The next example shows an intransitive verb in punctate indicative mood, and (c) shows
a verb marked as a simple positive imperative.

b. odyo-apa ege-a e-ki-lï.

stop-CONF DEM-E 2-utter-PI
“Don’t talk any more like this, the way you want.”
283
284

c. odyo-apa egea la-fa e-i-tse, odyo.

stop-CONF this way-NEG-PTP 2-be-I, don’t
‘You mustn’t want to do that any longer, stay like this, stop.’

My data include one example, shown in (d), that seems to combine the first and second
types of negative imperatives; this example also shows how the initial lexeme can be
reduplicated for intensification effect and also that with this reduplication there is no
further inflection as there is a pause before the rest of the clause.

d. odyo-dyo, ke-ila-ki-ni
EXP-EXP, PREV-like. that-utter-ANT
‘Stop, stop, don’t speak that way any longer.’

8.3.4. Warning, okoh

This is a similar construction to 9.3.3, but the warning is stronger because it is introduced
by the the more intensive warning expressive okoh.

okoh-mbe-ni afïtï
EXP-SS-ANT denial
“You’d better not want to do that, no.”(Be careful what you wish
for).

8.3.5. Adversative, afïtï

The fifth negative imperative is an adversative, using the “denial” adverbial afïtï (which
in clausal constructions appears as a circumfix” afïtï...la. (“I disagree that, it’s not so
that...”).; This morpheme can occur with first person (a) and (b) or second person (c) (in
indicative inflections the third person is also possible). Example (b) also has the clause-
chaining materials affixed to the adverbial; the special use of the copular verb in the final
clause is a kind of curse “Let it be as it is”, or “so it shall remain”

a. afïtï uge-la, afïtï uge-la

denial me-NEG, denial me-NEG
‘I won’t, I won’t.’

b. afïtï=mbekudy=ake-tsaŋe la-mbe≈tsa-ni.
denial=NOMR=SD-DEO like that-SS≈EX-ANT
‘And that’s why it looks like it would be bad for us to (eat it)
when it’s like this, leave it as it is.”(i.e., “Because it’s so bitter to
eat), leave it as it is.’

c. afïtï-fa itau-iña itsa-ki-lu-iŋo-la

denial-PTP woman-DAT/BEN run-Vi-PI-POT-NEG
‘You won’t run after a woman/’
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8.4. Hortative and invitational forms

These begin with the proximate ohsi (action close by) or distal ogi (action away from the
speaker) (both glossed HORT). They are always singular or plural (the latter with –ni
suffix) second person (probably marked by the initial o proclitic). The inclusive/exclusive
second person plural distinction is collapsed to inclusive; plural forms are commonly
used to address a group of people. These initial forms are often inflected with the
immediate taxis clitic =fofo "right now"; "before anything else", and apa, confirmational
taxis. The verb is usually in imperative inflection.

8.4. 1 Proximates

a. The first example is a 2nd person singular hortative.

ohsi e-ĩ-tse-apa efitsu ki-lï

HORT 2-eat fruit-I-CONF wife utter-PI
“Go ahead and eat if you want (like everyone else),” his wife said.

b. The speaker here uses an interesting idiomatic plural word ña-fe-ne formed with
normally suffixed dative/benefactive - iña + what may be an irregular imperative
suffix –fe + plural -ne. (“you all move in my direction”.)

ohsi =ña-fe-ne, uwa-ma i-kugu-pe i-nïgï?

HORT DAT-I-PL, what-EM 3-arm-SAL do-PS
‘Let’s all get together here, should something be done with one of his
arms?’

c. ohsi-ni itsa-ke-ge
HORT-PL measure-I
“Go ahead and measure it, you all”.

Examples (d) and (e) are second person plural as marked with ne/ni accusative suffix on
the verb.

d. una-ni ipï=wï te-ŋalï

where-PL son-father go.away-MAL-PI
’To where did our son’s fathers go off?’

e. ohsi-fa te-ke-ne ŋi-ta-ko-fofo

HORT-SR go.away-I-PL see-CI-PL-IMM
‘You should all go away to look at them right now.’

f. ohsi-fa kukwe-timba-tïŋi-fa
HORT-SR 1+2-drink-INC-I-PTP
‘Let’s all drink it.’
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8.4.2. Distals

The distal hortative, using ogi, involves a first person plural action to be performed
elsewhere than the speech event.

a. ogi-fa k-ige-ke, Ø-nïg=i-feke

DH-S 1+2-go back-I, say to-PERF=3-ERG
‘Let’s all go back together now.’

b. ogi ña ogi la-iña e-ge-tue.

HORT-DAT HORT over there-DAT 2-come.along-I-URG
‘Go over there, all of you, come along quickly.’

8.4.3 Leaders’ hortatives

In the leaders’ talk or shamanic oratorical style, rather than ohsi, hortatives regarding
action to take place away from the settlement are often imperatives in which the second
person collective is preceded by the vocative use of the word for “children”; and a first
person inclusive imperative suffix –(t)ndïŋi co-referencing the 1+2 prefix.

The following example is taken from a shamanic leader’s talk:

a. kïŋamukwe, kïŋamukwe
‘Children, children’

ah, ukwa-iku-ndïŋi-fofo, ukwa-iku-ndïŋi-ni

EXP, 1+2-perform-INC-IMM, 1+2-perform-INC-ANT
’Believe me, the very next thing we will do is perform, we’ll be
performing very soon.’

The following are some examples of a woman leader’s oratorical style, in which the
group is addressed vocatively as “my younger sisters”:

b uum, u-ikena-mo, la-ña-fofo e-ge-tuete.

EXP, 1-YZ-PL, over.there-DAT-IMM 2-come.to-URG
‘I’m thinking my younger sisters, you should all come over there right
away.’

c. uum u-ikena-mo, ipa-gï-fofo ku- ñui-tïŋi

EXP 1-YZ-PL, lake-POSS-IMM 1+2-make-I;PL
‘I’m thinking my sisters, the very next thing we will do is begin to make a
lake for ourselves.’

8.5 Didactic warnings

The fourth general type of imperative is a didactic warning, urging the listener to do
something correctly or well. These constructions begin with the complement iŋge
“look/think/consider” in imperative inflection, followed by a verbal clause or noun phrase
describing action over which the addressee will have some control.
 287

a. iŋge-fa u-iñaŋo
look/think-EMP 1-starchy.food
‘Think about my own food.’

In (b) the complement “look/think about”, with its primary topical participant suffix and
deontic, precedes the action desired by the speaker. That action is not framed directly in
imperative mood, but in potential mood on the finite verb.

b. iŋ-ge-dye fe-tsaŋe, api-lu-iŋo e-feke

look.think-I-SE OD-DEO, club-PI-POT 2-ERG

e-iña isi-tote.
2-DAT 3-come.towards-HYP
‘You’ll have to (I want you to) look right at them (because) you will club them if
they come towards you.’

8.6 Imperative Strategies

Most of the imperatives described in the preceding sections are associated with extreme
familiarity and informality, with speech to young children or intimates. This informal
speech sounds somewhat abrupt in the context of the need for special civility to visitors
and especially to relatives by marriage. (Abruptness may also be marked by the use of
the “affective” clitics marking urgency or frustration). Negative strategies in third person
make use of the yes-no “rhetorical question” interrogative, but in contrast to these, most
imperative strategies are politeness strategies of one degree or another. This conforms to
the reluctance of Kalapalo to make overtly strong demands on one another, to the
question of to whom one may legitimately make requests in the first place, and what
those requests may concern. Other pragmatic functions, such as triadic communication
associated with affinal avoidance (Basso 2007), and hortatory discourse associated with
both hereditary and shamanic leadership influence the actual use of imperatives. More
polite imperative strategies (including negatives) may add deontics (as in earlier
examples), or frame the required activity as a potential or anticipated/inchoative event,
avoiding the simple imperative form entirely (8.6.1-2).

8.6.1 Polite negative imperative strategy

The following example illustrates how a negative imperative strategy with 2nd person
uses a negative adverbial prefix

a. With the temporal negative adverbial and purposive verb

inflection –tsomi on the equative copular verb:

opïgï ege its-omi

last time you EX-PURP
‘This is the last time you’ll want to be this way.’
288

b. This example illustrates a speaker’s use of the denial circumflex adverb. There is
an apparent negative emphasis with this form, as if the speaker is rejecting an
idea of the addressee:

afïtï-fa itau-iña itsaki-lu-iŋo-la

denial-PTP woman-DAT/BEN run to-PI-POT-NEG
‘You will NOT try and run towards (i.e., in pursuit of) (any
woman).’

8.6.2. Positive imperative strategies

Use of the construction, okaŋi: , ‘you wait’, is an advisory imperative strategy; the verbal
construction is not necessarily in imperative mood, as in the following example.

a. o-kaŋi-fofo ŋ-ita-ni e-ŋis-au ŋ-ita-ni

2-wait-T OB- get-ANT 2-grandmother-PL OB-get-ANT
‘Wait just a while longer, while I go get your grandmothers, go get
(them).’

b. In a positive first person suggestion, the speaker states the reason in a dependent
clause.

uge=fofo fotugu-i, ñ-i-tomi-fofo

me=IM first-CL OB-see-PURP-IMM
“I’ll go first, in order to watch them”

Examples (c) and (d) illustrate another second person strategy with the use of the first or
second person S or A deontic postposition aketsaŋe

t-ufitsu-feke, u-te-lu≈ke-tsaŋe fuati-fofo u-te-lu

REFL-wife-ERG, 1-go.away-PI≈SD-DEO shaman-IM 1-go away-PI
‘To his wife he said, “I must go (have decided to go) away to do my
shamanic work, I’m going”

(the wife answers:

te-ke=apa, Ø-nïg≈i--feke) go.away-I=CONF, say.to-PS≈3-ERG

‘”Go if that’s what you want to do”, she answered.’

d. ande-fa ake-tsaŋe e-me-ŋe-te

here/now-PTP SD-DEO 2-soak-CAUS-I
’Now it would be good for you to (or, ‘I want you to’) soak this.’
 289

e. In this example, the first person polite positive imperative strategy (i) is followed
(ii) by the reason complement:

i. kogetsi ake-tsaŋe u-te-lu-iŋo a-fatuwї-ake.

tomorrow SD-DEO 1-go.away-PI-POT 2-nephew-COM
‘Tomorrow I’ve decided to leave with your nephew.’

ii. eŋï u-guwa-ki-tomi,

reason 1-squeeze.mash-Vt-PURP
‘Because I want to prepare some starch.’

f. Another example in which the purposive verbal construction suggests a first

person imperative, not overtly marked:

ah, Ø-ŋi-tomi et-i-me-tofo-iŋo, Ø-ŋi-tofo

EM, 3-OB-see-PURP 2-kill-Vt-USIN-POT, 3-OB-see-USIN
‘I surely want to see what you will use to kill (people), I want to see that.’

g. In this example a woman’s mother agrees with the intention of her daughter:

.
ah, efisï- tomi-papa ege-na e-iña
INT, 2-BR-PURP-CONF PDEM-ALL 2-DAT/BEN
‘If you want him to go to you as your little brother (i.e., new husband),
that’s certainly all right with me.’

A second person plural or dual imperative strategy is a polite strategy used with triadic
communication typical of the affinal civility register. The deontic postposition fetsaŋe
implicitly references a third person who requests that the addressee perform an action. In
this example the imperative is formed with the existential copula + desiderative deontic
postposition followed by the intransitive verb describing the event in question. Since the
daughter is speaking to her father, it is all right for her to use the casual imperative.

h. apa, Ø-nïg≈i-feke. e-iko-ŋuŋGe-tu

father (voc), say.to-PS≈3-ERG 2-firewood-collect-I-DIS

fe-tsaŋe, eiko-ŋuŋ-Ge
OD-DEO, 2-firewood-collect-I
‘“Father”, she said to him. “You need to go get your firewood somewhere,
collect your firewood”.’

In the following examples, the speakers use a kind of very soft first person suggestion in
which the contra-factual epistemic clitic =mukwe (‘hope in vain’) is used. This imperative
strategy is particularly associated with leader’s talk.
290

i. A leader speaks to the father of a child expressing the wishes of their

community:

taloki= mukwe figei eŋï= mukwe-fa e-mugu tï-i-lï ku-pehe,

no reason-EM ADEM reason-EM-PTP 2-son put-VT-PI 1+2-ERG,

Ø-nïg≈i-feke
say.to-PS≈3-ERG
‘“Although there’s no reason to hope this will work, we could perhaps place (i.e.,
prepare, train) your son”, he said to him’.

j. From a leader’s public ceremonial dialogue describing his provision of food to

the community in the role of a kagutu oto, ‘flute sponsor’. His use of the initial
adverbial construction is a form of humbling himself:

taloki=mukwe-ku=aka eGitse e-ui-ta u-feke

useless=EM-INT=EM unfortunate 1-make-CI 1-ERG
“Unfortunately although there’s no reason at all, as you can see I
am making it badly.”

k. In this example it is not a leader speaking, but a mother to her daughter. Here the
use of the epistemic marker seems to convey the sense of a mild suggestion
rather than an epistemic “wish in vain”:

ohsi-muk≈aitaifa ifiŋu ka-ŋ-api-ga

HORT-EM≈URG-PTP water hyacinthe CONT-OB-beat-CI
“Perhaps we should hurry before the water hyacinthe plants have been
beaten (i.e., processed for salt).”

8. 7. Grammatical features of imperatives

In this section I review the features of imperatives that are shared with other illocutionary
force constructions, and those that are distinctive or particularly common to imperatives.

8.7.1. Shared features with the same meaning

Several features are shared by imperative constructions with the indicative mood. These
include the affective clitic =su (compulsory, pejorative); the affective particle Gitse,
‘unfortunate’; and the taxis clitic =fofo (immediately following); c) the negative
circumfix afïtï...la (“wrong about X) and negative iñalï (‘didnt/isn’t...X’).

8.7.2. Features distinctive or particularly common to imperatives

a. Clitics: the conformative taxis =papa (past ref, ‘I agree’);=

apa (potential reference, ‘as you wish’; ‘do as I/others do’’);
affective clitics: impatience or frustrative copular verb –ata-i and
the encouraging or “urging”=tïe.

b. Use of the imperative suffix (and the ‘urgency’ affective clitic

–tїe) precludes presence of other aspect/mood suffixes; however,
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indicative, anticipated/ inchoative, and potential suffixes on the

verb appear in imperative strategies

c. As seen in many examples above, the deontics aketsaɳe and

fetsaɳe occur frequently with imperative strategies.

d. The epistemic clitic =mukwe is sometimes used with a particular

“soft” imperative strategy, as a “suggestion” rather than a
counter-factual as in other moods.

e. Split ergativity influences imperatives, which do not take

ergative features; indicative and declarative ergative-
absolutives becomes nominative-accusatives.
292

8.8. Comments

Imperatives share most pronominal prefixes with finite verbs, ,. but some pronominal
prefix categories are not shared (particularly, the second person exclusive plural).
Imperatives also share verbal inflections. Some of the shared forms take slightly
different extended meanings in the imperative: =fofo can convey the sense of satisfaction
with an action; (EM) conveys the sense of the speaker making a mild suggestion. There
is no motion/non-motion distinction in positive imperatives (nor prohibitives) as in the
Northern Cariban languages Apalaí or Hixkaryana (Derbyshire 1999). However, there is
a proximate-distal contrast with hortatives. Kalapalo hortatives would be interesting to
compare with the proximate-distal pronominal and adnominal demonstrative contrast.
 293

Chapter 9
Interrogative Constructions

This chapter reviews the types of Kalapalo questions and the different
kinds of constructions used in each type. Kalapalo question types
include 1) “polar” questions requiring yes or no answers; 2) information
questions, which use preposed u- initial ( “wh-”) lexical roots requiring
specific indicative answers, and 3) ‘rhetorical questions’ using the tï-
root on preposed grammatical words. Each of the question words
appears in clause initial position. The terms used by Carlin to describe
similar material in Trio (2004: 229) are useful here, although the
‘rhetorical question’ type was not distinguished for that language (some
cognates do appear in her Table 7. 1, p. 234). As Carlin described for
Trio, each question type in Kalapalo has both distinctive syntax and
discursive function, as seen by the fact that each type of question tends to
be answered in a particular way.

9.1. Polar questions

Polar questions only require an agreement response (eh he), a simple

“yes” response (eh), or a “denial” (afïtï), though each of these may be
followed by a repeat and elaboration of some of the content of the
original question. Polar questions are shaped by a distinctive
intonational contour, with rising intonation in final syllables (marked by
“?” in the examples). Example (a) is a very common question of this
form, consisting of the resultative complement adverb aɳi, ‘anything?’
’result?; has it been accomplished?’ in initial clause position. Lines (i-
iii) are taken from a conversation between a small child and his aunt:

9.1.1 Polar question examples with responses

a. i. aŋi tuwa a-fi-ta?:

result water 2-pour.in-CI?
‘Are you pouring water?’

ii. eh, tuwa a-hu-ne-ta u-feke:

yes, water pou..in-CAUS-CI 1-ERG
‘yes, I’m making the water pour in.’

iii. eh, a-hi-ta=lefa.

yes, 2-pour-CI=MT
‘Yes, you’re pouring.’

b. Another brief conversation in which the result adverbial is used:

i. aŋi fogi-kafa fekite uege?

result find-EM nice you
‘You were all right, weren’t you?’
294

ii. eh, ama,

yes, mother (voc)
‘Yes (I was), Mother.’

c. This example shows a more complex complement construction. The

question in (c) has two parts: a) have the interloctors seen some third
parties, and (b) have those persons come to the present location. The
answer thus involves both parts: the responders haven’t seen the third
parties, and those persons haven’t come to the present location.

i. aŋi-nika inde u-oku-ŋi-ta i-ŋi-lї

result-EM here 1-liquid food=make-VT-CI 3-see-PI

e-feke-ni
2-ERG-PL
‘Could it be that you’ve all seen those who make my food
around here?’

ii. ñalï, ñalï inde s-in-ïŋ;go

denial denial here 3-come-PS;PL
‘We haven’t, no-one’s (they haven’t) come here.’

d. This example shows the same adverbial copular root in the form
aɳ-olo. It is not clear what the function of the final suffix may
be.

aɳ-olo=nika ete-lї-ko?
EQS-true?=EM go.away-PI-PL
‘Is it true you are both going away’?

e. A common greeting that is a kind of polar question involves the

use of the epistemic clitic =nika, ‘probably, appealing to the
listener’s own experience’ hosted by the local demonstrative
ande, ‘here.now’. The speaker is asking for assurance that the
person she sees is really her brother (not some dangerous
powerful being in disguise, as Kalapalo thought could happen ).
The man arriving answers his sister using the conformation
epistemic clitic =taka:

i. dyadya ande=nika uege

OBR, here.now=EM you
‘Older Brother, are you here now?’

ii. Eh ande=taka u-e-ta e-iŋi-lї-ko-iña.

yes, here.now=EM 1-come-CI 2-see-PI-PL-DAT/BEN
‘Yes, as you see now I’m coming here to see you all.’
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9.2. Informational and rhetorical question constructions

Information content questions and rhetorical question constructions

(including the contrastive type of construction, which may be considered
a rhetorical subtype) all use a variety of preposed lexical ‘question
words’ or prefixes.
Table 34 gives a list of the attested Kalapalo question words. Distinctive
to these question words is the epistemic generalized ‘uncertainty’ clitic –
ma. Monomorphemic informational question words are all glossed ‘Q’;
the initial morpheme in rhetorical question words is glossed ‘RQ’. There
are in addition two contrastive question words listed in the Table. The
initial morphemes of these words are seemingly related to RQ, and this
gloss is used to mark them.
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Table 30. Preposed interrogative words

Word Gloss Translation
Question words
uwa Q ‘what, why?’
uwa-ki Q-MIRN ‘what in the world?’
uwa=ma Q-EM ‘that what ?’
uwa=me-ni Q-FACS-AN ‘what sort of thing did...?’
uwa=mbe Q=SS ‘done what?’
uwa=mbe-ki Q=SS-MIRN ‘done what?’
uwa-ne Q-CONT ‘what difference?’
uwa-su-ki Q-EM-MIRN ‘what ever in the world?’
uwa-su=ma Q-PEJ-EM ‘did what in the world?’
unde Q ‘where?’
unde-le=ma Q-DEM-EM ‘that one where?’
unde=ma Q-EM ‘that where?’
unde=mbe Q=SS ‘where done’?
unde=mbe-kaah Q=SS=FRUST ‘where in the world done’?
unde-ni Q-AN ‘where is the doer’?
und-oɳo Q-LOC ‘from what place?’, ‘what source
or origin?’
und-oɳo-pe Q-LO C-source ‘what source?’
und-oɳo-peɳine Q-LOC-ABL ‘from out of where?’
uɳu Q ‘how?’
uɳu=ma Q-EM ‘how what?’
u-na Q-ALL ‘to where?’
u-na=ma Q-ALL-EM ‘where to?’
u-na-ni Q-ALL-PL ‘where is the doer?’
uŋu Q ‘who?’

uŋu-fuŋu Q-resemble ‘what kind’, ‘how many, how

much?’
uŋu-fuŋu-ne Q-resemble-OP ‘how can this kind ...?’
uɳu-fuŋu=ma Q-resemble ‘that kind of who?’
uɳu-me=ma Q-FACS-EM ‘t what kind of what?’
Rhetorical question
words
t ≈aɳo-pe RQ-LOCN-SOU ‘so that was from where?’
tї-ki RQ-MIRN ‘so that was what?’
tї=ma RQ-EM ‘so that was it’?
tї-tomi RQ-PURP ‘so that was the reason,
purpose?’
tї-tomi-ti=ma RQ-PURP-ADV- ‘so that was the reason?’
EM
tї=to-nimi RQ-PURP-CONS ‘so that was the consequence?’
tї-ko=mbe-ki RQ-PL-SS-MIRN ‘so that’s what they’ve been
doing?’
tї-eku-ni RQ-INT-PL ‘so why ever did the doer..-?’
tї-su-na RQ-PEJ-ALL ‘so that was where that fool...’?

Contrastive question
words
ta-ɳo-ti=ma RQ-LOCN-ADV- ‘so that was where it was?’
EM
ta-me-ma RQ-FACS-EM ‘so it was that kind of thing?’
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9.2.1. Information content questions

Speakers using u- (wh-) words (Q) emphasize the wish or need for
information by setting the u- initial word this is always in first position in
the clause. .. These words are usually compounded with an adverbial
suffix and/or an epistemic and affective morpheme. Intonational contours
are similar to indicative utterances, with a falling intonation at the end of
the utterance. Furthermore, answers to questions using Q tend to be
more elaborate, insofar as the question is a request for information about
reason, source, location, time, direction, amount, identity. Q words often
(but not invariably) host epistemic clitics, most frequently the
‘uncertainty’ clitic =ma, which marks uncertainty about the topic (S, A
or O), and the negative mirative suffix -ki . Also attested are
constructions with the interclausal reference marker =mbe, (SS), the
‘facsimile’ suffix -me, and a variety of nominal and adverbial suffixes.
There is no pluralization marker on the question word even if the
argument is plural.

9.2.1.1 uwa, ‘what’, ‘why’ questions

Use of the question word in isolation. This usage occurs without any
immediately following pejorative, epistemic, negative mirative or
interclausal reference morphemes:

a. uwa u-e-ŋal-ï e-feke-ni

Q 1-shoot-REV 2-ERG-PL
‘Why did you all shoot back at me?’

b. uwa fitsa-tu=kiŋi fegei-i, Ø-nïg≈i-feke

Q hallucination-N=EM ADEM-CL, say. to-PS≈3-ERG
‘“Why is this hallucination here?”, he asked himself.’

Use of uwa with the negative mirative suffix -ki, ‘what in the world’:

c. uwa-ki i-ña-l=igei
what-MIR 3-ALL-UT=IDEM
‘What in the world is that which keeps coming here?’

With the ‘uncertainty’ epistemic clitic =ma:

d. uwa=ma uk-iŋandsu t-ï-i-ŋalï-lefa ku-pehe-ne

Q=EM 1+2-sister REFL-do-VT-REV-MT 1+2-ERG-PL
‘We’re to do what again with our sister?’

e. uwa=m≈igei ñï=ŋo igei

Q=EM=IDEM EX-POT;PL IDEM
‘That’s how long to plan for?’ (i.e., ’how many days...’)f.
298

uwa=ma a-famo-ko ata-ni-lefa u-te-ŋalï

Q=EM 2-nephew-PL EQA-ANT-MT 1-go.away-REV

i-dyi-mo a-nïgï=mbedya
3-children-COLL EQS-PS=SSDE
‘What will happen to your nephews if I should go back, happen
to the children after that?’

f. This example shows reduplication of the uwa-ma-word in a

situation of puzzlement:

Uum, uwa=ma-wa=ma its-a≈le egei

EXP, Q=EM-Q=EM EX-CI=UT IDEM
‘I can’t understand why in the word he’s always like that.’

g. uwa=ma=laka t-ї-i-lï ku-pehe-ne

Q=-EM=EM REF-do-VT-PI 1+2-ERG-PL
‘Is there anything at all we can do with this?’

h. A conversational example:
i. uwa=ma e-i-ñïgï ege.
Q=EM 2-EX-TR you
‘What’s become of you?’

ii. iɳ-ge=nifa uge. tafiŋa-feke-fa fegei u-itsi-lï

look-I=EM me, alligator-ERG-PTP ADEM 1-bite-PI
‘Look at me and you will see that an alligator bit me.’

i. uwa=mbe-ki, ‘what in the world is going on’.

This construction uses the interclausal reference clitic =mbe (SS)

marking continuity of arguments, and the negative mirative suffix –ki.:

uwa-mbe-ki ku-tsa-ko figei

Q-SS-MIRN 1+2-EX;CL-PL ADEM
“What ever got us here?”

j. uwa=me-ni, ‘what sort of thing did..X’.

Showing the facsimile suffix –me and active agent nominalization –ni in
the question word construction: ’

uwa-me-ni tu-i-pïgï i-feke

how-EM-AN REFL-kill-VPE 3-ERG
‘What sort of thing killed them?’
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k. Showing the question morpheme with the contrastive suffix –ne,

forming the construction uwa-ne (Q-CONT) , ‘what difference’ :

uwa-n≈e-itsa. u-ïgï-nu-nda=mbe.
Q-CONT≈ 2-be. 1-sick-PI-SS
‘What’s wrong with you?’ ‘I’m sick is what’s happening.’

l. The construction uwa=su-ki, ‘What in the world is this fool

doing?’, showing the use of the pejorative, compulsive
affective clitic =su, a means of marking the S head of the
mirative’ –ki suffix:

uwa=su-ki apa-dyu-ko i-tsa-ko egei-i

Q-PEJ-MIRN FA-END-PL EX-CL-PL IDEM-CL
‘What in the world are those fools our dear fathers doing to
themselves?’

m. Here is an example of the construction uwa=su=ma , ‘ does this

fool always do this??’which shows the Q word hosting the
pejorative, compulsive clitic followed by the uncertainty
epistemic clitic, so not used with a surprised response to an event
as 9.2.1.5.

uwa=su=ma-ku-tsa-ko
Q-PEJ=EM-INT-EX;CL-PL
‘Why are they always like this?’

n. The same construction as example (m), with the contrastive

suffix – na:

uwa=su=ma-na etsi t-u-i-lï=mbe-s≈i-ñïgï

Q=PEJ=EM-CONT auntie (voc) REF-do-VT-PI=SS-PEJ≈EX-TR
‘Instead he kept doing what to Auntie?, He’s always doing
something weird to himself.’

9.2.1.2. unde, “where” questions

This question word belongs to the set of local adverbial demonstratives

described in Chapter 5.6.

a. unde ‘where’ hosting clitics, no inflections

These constructions involve unde hosting epistemic and affective
clitics, without inflectional suffixes:

i. unde=ka:h a-nïgï
where=FRUST EQS-VPE
‘Where in the world could he be?’

ii. unde=laka saŋakafi Ø-nïg ≈i-feke

where=EM bamboo say.to-PS ≈3-ERG
‘ “Is it possible there’s some bamboo around here?”, he
asked her.’
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iii. With plural S, the plural suffix follows immediately

upon the Q word:

unde-ko-ka:h=nïŋgo
where-PL-FRUST-EX-PI;PL
‘Where could they all be?’

iv. Plural S is marked but there is also the pejorative suffix

following the plural suffix. In this case, the former
maintains its pejorative meaning:

unde-ko-su=ma
where-PL-PEJ-EM
“Where are those fools?”

b. unde=ma
This is a question word that references doubt about a place.

i. unde=ma e-fisï-ko a-nïgï

Q=EM 2-Ybr-PL EQS-VPE
‘Where could your younger brother have gone?’

ii. This example has a declarative meaning though it is

formed with the unde=ma question word, translated here
“where-ever”:

unde=ma fïgi ata-ni a-pi-ŋa-lï i-feke

where-EM weapon EQA-PL 2-attack-NEG-PI 3-ERG
‘Where-ever my gun will be, he will (never?) attack
you.’

iii. In this example, the third person distal pronon ele

follows immediately upon the Q word:

unde≈le=ma
where-PDEM=EM
“Where is he?’

c. unde=mbe, ‘where done?’

This construction includes the interclausal reference marker =mbe
(SS) referencing continuity of argument.

i. unde-mbe=k≈an-ïgï
where=SS=FRUST≈be-PERF
‘Where can he be after that?’
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ii. upï, unde=mbe-ku-ki a-nïgï

EXPL, where=SS-INT-MIRN EQS-VPE
‘It’s been a long time, where in the world could he be (having
gone away)?’

d. unde-ni, ‘where is the doer?’

This construction uses the active nominalization derivation (-ni)
suffixed to Q.

i. unde-ni ku-pasï-ko a-nïgï

where-AN 1+2-nephew-PL EQS-VPE
‘Where is our nephew?’

ii. unde-ni, eŋï, a-kupï-te-pïgï-ko a-nïgï, unde?

Q-AN, um, 2-last.born-VI-VPE-PL EQS-PS, where
‘Where is she, that one who came after you, where?’

e. und-oŋo, ‘from what place (whence)’; asking about a source,

origin
This is a compound in which the question word is joined with the
nominative locative –oŋo (NLOC); the speaker requests
information about a source or origin.

i. und-oŋo-pe-ki, ‘where in the world ?’

und-oŋo-pe-ki≈gei u-fameti
where-NLOC-SOU-MIRN≈IDEM 1-brother-in-law

ilï-i
necklace-CL
‘Where is the place where my brother’s necklace is
located?’

ii. und-oŋo-pe=ma, ‘from what place’

und-oŋo-pe=ma igei
where-NLOC-SOU=EM IDEM
’From what place has this come?’

iii. A conversational example:

und-oŋo-peŋine i-sin-a-lï
where-NLOC-ABL 3-come.to-VI-PI
‘Out of where has this come?’

la-ŋo-peŋine
far. way-NLOC-ABL
‘The source is located far from here.’
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f. unde-ti=ma, ‘where is it at?’

unde-ti=ma-ne
where-DES-EM-CONT
“But where is that thing?”

response: ande
“Here by me”.

9.2.1.3. uŋu ,‘who’, ‘what questions

a. uŋu uninfected.
This Q word is often used alone, followed by the ergative suffix,
thereby reference a question about a transitive subject (A):

uŋu-feke k≈ege, Ø-nïg≈i-feke,

Q-ERG FRUST≈ADEM, 3-PERF-3-ERG
‘Who’s that (you’re talking about)?” he asked to her.’

b. uŋu-fuŋu, ‘what kind’, ‘how many’, ‘how much’

This is a nominalization of the Q word, with the ‘resemble’
suffix -fuɳu.

i. uŋu-fuŋu e-їɳї-lu-iɳo inde

Q-resemble 2-sleep-PI-POT here
‘How many days will you be here?’ (lit, what kind of
your sleeping here?)

ii. uŋu-fuŋu=ma≈lak≈ige-i
Q-resemble=EM≈EM≈PDEM-CL
‘What kind of thing could this be?’

iii. uŋu-fuŋu=ma=lak≈ago-i
what-resemble-EM-EM=person-CL
‘What kind of person could he be?’

Note: When requesting a person’s ethnic identity, a Kalapalo speaker

would say, uŋu-fuŋu=ma uege, “what kind of person are you?”

c. uŋu-fuŋu-ne, ‘what kind of X does...’?

This construction uses the contrastive suffix –ne. The predicate is
contrasted with something else the speaker has already referenced.

uŋu-fuŋu-ne itopu-i e-ŋ-ili-ñalї-i

Q-resemble-CONT squash-CL 2-PB-drink-MAL-CL
‘How can squash serve as your beverage?’
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d. uŋu-me=ma, ‘how could something like that do X’?

uŋu-me=ma koko-ŋo-te-Ø-ne eti-ku-lï-ko,

how-FACS-EM night-NLOC-VT-RES-OP copulate-VI-PI-PL,

iño-fa-nïgï=lefa.
pregnant-VI-VPE=MT
‘How could such a thing happen? This is what happened when
throughout the night they wrongly copulated, so she became
pregnant.’

9.2.1.4. una, ‘where to’ questions

This Q word seems to be constructed from an archaic interrogative
prefix u- and the allative case marker, -na.

a. una uninflected

una kaŋu-ti=tale≈gei u-itsa

Q bathe-DES=DD ≈IDEM 1-EX-CL
‘Where can I go when I want to bathe?’

b. una-ma, ‘to where?’

The examples are from conversations.

i. una-m ≈e-i-ñïgï
Q-EM ≈2-EX-TR
‘Where will you be (i.e., stay)?’

ege-na u-its-omi, tafumi-ñï

over.there-ALL 1-EX-PURP shade-N
‘I want to be over there, in the shade’ (lit, shady one)

ii. eh he Ø-nïg≈i-feke, una=ma?

agreement 3-PS≈3-ERG, Q-EM
‘ “All right”, he answered, “To where?” ’

ah, takwagï aŋu-ne-tigi ete-lï-ko

EXP, long.flute play-VT-SUP go.away-PI-PL
‘Surely we’ll leave to play the flutes.’

u-te-ta-ko figei
1- go away-CI-PL ADEM
‘That’s why we two will go away.’

c. una-ni., ‘Why do you do X’?

This is an active nominalization of this question word. The

active subject (S or A) is marked on una with –ni, active verb
nominalizer (‘doer’)
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una-ni e-ta igei, e-te-ke-fa

why-AN 2;come.here IDEM, 2-go away-I-PTP
“Why are you coming here, go away!”

9.3 tï “rhetorical questions’

What I call ‘rhetorical questions’ are interrogatives used when the

speaker does not seem to want or need a specific answer, either because
(s)he knows the answer, or because there is simply no appropriate
response. Often the response to such a question is: eh, la-tsï, “yes, that’s
how it is” or, eh alati, ‘yes, that’s what is wanted’. However, responses
do sometimes contain information (9.3.2.a,b; 9.3.3.b,c). Like the Q
words, the rhetorical question morpheme is always initial in the clause
construction. It may stand alone, but more usually it is followed by
nominal and adverbial suffixes as well as the facsimile suffix -me. Like
Q words, the tï forms are often immediately followed by the
“uncertainty” epistemic marker –ma and the negative mirative suffix –ki.
The assertive expressive ah, ‘surely’, also often appears before the tï-
compound. The intonational contour in the rhetorical type of question is
the same as the indicative statement contour, that is, without a rising tone
at the end. These locutions are not requests for information or
explanations, and are often responses to events the speaker cannot
understand (for example, unexpected mourning by people entering a
settlement). Rhetorical questions can also be used rather scornfully,
when the speaker’s approval is lacking. In the following examples, I use
the preceding utterance to make it clear why the speaker wishes to use
the rhetorical question form.

9.3.1 t≈aɳo-ti=ma, ‘so that’s where X was?’

This seems to be a t-√-ti adverbial construction, but the presence

of the ‘doubt’ epistemic clitic =ma turns it into a rhetorical
question.

a. t ≈aɳo-ti=ma u-at-ehe
RQ≈NLOC-ADV=EM 1-EQA-PER
“So this is where I’ve ended up?’

9.3.2 tï-eku-... ‘so why ever did X? ’

In this construction, an adverbial eku-,‘intensive’ suffix follows

the RQ morpheme, followed by an active nominalization (as in
1) or an epistemic clitic (as in 2) . Examples show the question
followed by a response.
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a. tï-eku-ni la ake-tsaŋe u-iñ-ïgï

RQ-INT-AN like.that SD-DEO 1-EX-TR

ku-ki-lï-fata-le
1+2-utter-PI-SIM-ATR
‘Why didn’t you ever say you had to to do that while we
were talking to each other?’

la u-i-tsa e-ki-nu-i
far.away 1-EX-CI 2-urinate-N-CONT
‘I was far away when you urinated.’

b. tï-eku=male et-ufu-puŋu-ko-i
RQ-INT=DAD MT-understand-W-PL-CL
‘Is it that you all can’t understand them?’

akah. ai-mbembegedya=ka: u-fu-ta-ko u-feke

EXP, finally=PERPDO-FRUST 1-know-CI-PL 1-ERG
‘We’ve finally become so tired of trying to understand them
over and over when they do that to us.’

9.3.3 tï-ki, rhetorical question with the negative mirative –ki, ’so that
was what?’ Examples show the conversational or discursive
context of the question.

a. context: same speaker

ñalï-tsï=ma Kalapalo-feke fu-nïmi
NEG-M=EM Kalapalo-ERG know-CONS
‘I don’t think the Kalapalo came to know about that”.

tï-ki-tsu=ma fu-nali≈feke-ni
RQ-MIRN-M-EM know-REP≈3-ERG-PL
‘How could they know about it again?’

b. context: different speakers

tikii, uum, ah, tï-m≈igei
(sound of arrival), EXP EXP, RQ-EM≈DEM
‘Coming into the river’s entry, “Surely there’s something
here?”’

ah Taɳgugu figei
EXP Taɳgugu ADEM
‘Surely this is the Tanguro River (you’re asking about).’

c. context: different speakers

tï-ki tis-ifu-nïg=e-feke
RQ-MIRN 1+3-send to-PS≈2-ERG
‘Is there some reason you were sent to us?’

afïtï. taloki e-iña-ko u-ẽ-ta

denial. no.reason 2-DAT/BEN-PL 1-come.to-CI
‘No, I just came to be with you.’
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9.3.4 tï-ko=mbe-ki, ‘so that’s what’s been done’?

The example shows mbe, the ‘same subject IRM cliticied to the
question morpheme. There is a content answer by a second
speaker to what appears to be a rhetorical question.

a. ah, tï=koh=mbe-ki akago-i

EXP, RQ-PL=SS-MIRN those.people-CL
‘Surely it be something was done to them?’

afïtï, wende tu-fata-fis=al≈oŋo-ko

denial, over.there REF-mourn-PI≈NLOC-PL
‘No, that’s where we kept on mourning him.”

9.3.5 tї-ma, ‘so that was it?’. The example shows a second speaker’s
responses to the questions.

a. uum, tï-m≈ale uege, tï-m≈ale uege

EXP, RQ-EM≈UT you, RQ-EM≈U you
“I don’t think I know you, do I? I don’t think I know you.”?

uge=dye-ta
me=SE-DIS
‘It’s me from before (that other place)’.

9.3.6 tï-me, ‘so that kind of thing’?

a. tï-me ititï-ko, Ø- nïg≈i-feke

RQ-FACS name-PL, say.to -PS≈3-ERG
‘So you have some kind of names’, he asked him.

iñalї, iñalї u-ititї

negation, negation 1-name
‘None, I don’t (use) any names.’

9.3.7 tï-tomi, ‘so for that purpose, reason?’.

a. tï-tomi=male-i
RQ-PURP=DAD-CL
‘Why should that have been done?’

Example (b) shows a reduced purposive suffix followed by the

consequential nominalization –nїmi (CONS).

b. tï to-nїmi i-fa-ta i-feke

RQ-PURP-CONS 3-tell-CI 3-ERG
“Why did he have to tell him in the end?”

c. tï-tomi-ti=ma kaiŋa u-iña-lï

RQ-PURP-ADV-EM at 1-ALL-PI?
‘So there’s a reason why I should be together with her?’
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eh, Ø-nïgï-tï i-feke, iño-pe ki-lï

yes, 3-PS-EV 3-ERG, 3;husband-SAL utter-PI
‘ “Yes, he answered him”, it’s said, that husband of hers
spoke.”’

9.3.8 tï-su-ki, ‘so that’s being done’.

This is a very strong pejorative expression.

tï-su-ki egei u-ike-mbu-ta-tiga

RQ-PEJ-MIRN ADEM 1-spit-VT-CI-HAB
‘So you’re in the habit of spitting at me, are you?”

9.3.9 tї-su-na, ‘so does this fool come?’

uumaa, tï-su-na ege-i u-mugu

EXPL, RQ-PEJ-CONT PDEM-CL 1-son-POSS

taŋu-ki-ga-tiga
hold. hands-VT-SCAUS-HAB
‘Oh no, this fool of a child of mine is used to holding hands?’

9.4 Use of contrastive prefix ta-

Closely related to these rhetorical question constructions are others

constructed with the contrastive prefix ta- (CONT); this is described in
Chapter 4: 4.3.2. Constructions using this prefix resemble rhetorical
questions insofar as the speaker is not really asking for information. Thus
when in a question context, the prefix is used for different pragmatic
reasons that the nominal contrastive suffixes –ne/nu (see Chapter 4:
4.1.5).

a. ta-me=ma kuluta atati tu-iŋa ≈i-feke

CONT-FACS-EM flute inside put-REV≈3-ERG
‘How could he have put it back inside the flute?’

b. ta=ma ogo-pi-ñalï
CONT-EM turn.back-VI-REV
‘Why should we turn around and go back?’

c. ta-ɳo-i-ti-ma u-atehe
CONT-NLOC-IRR-DES-EM 1-EQA-PER
‘Why would I have wanted to do that in such a place?’

9.5. A conversational example

The following conversational excerpt is taken from a narrative told by

Kudyu at Aifa in 1982, about a man who changed himself into a painted
catfish. This example illustrates how different interrogatives are used and
responded to. The excerpt also illustrates (in lines h-i) how epistemic
markers are used to express puzzlement within the indicative mood.
Line (b) illustrates people questioning sounds of grieving. Line (c) is the
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response of the mourners to them, that they are truly grieving for their
relative. Line (d) begins with a Q word (uwa “what”), in which the
speakers ask for concrete information about what happened to the man,
followed by the indicative answers in lines (d-f). In line (g), those who
remained behind in the settlement ask the returning mourners for more
information, followed by the puzzled responses in lines (g-i).

a. ati-ko-mbe-fa tu-fata-fis-ale,
approach-PL-SS-PTP REFL-mourn-VI-UT

tu-fata-fis-ale-ni=lefa
REFL-mourn-VI-UT-PL=MT
‘While coming towards the others after that, all the while
grieving for him., they were all grieving for him.’

b. ah, tï-ko-mbe-ki a-kago-i

EXP, RQ-EM-SS-MIRN 2-that. person. over.there-CL
‘Surely something unusual was done to that person over there
(a polite way of saying ‘your relative’)?

c. afïtï, wende tu-fata-fis-al=oŋo-ko

denial, over.there REF-mourn-VI-UT≈-NLOC-PL
‘No, we kept mourning for him back there.’

d. uwa-mï-le, Ø-nïg ≈i-feke

what-EM-PDEM, say.to-PS≈3-ERG
‘Did something happen to him?’

e. afïtï la ≈ketsaŋe ukw-augu-fuŋu=lefa

denial like that SD-DEO 1+2-lie-resemble=MT

e-fisuagï a-nïgï-la=lefa
2-OBRO EQS-PS-NEG=MT
‘No, we had to do that because your older brother had deceived
us.’

f. te-ti-ki kaŋa-i
REFL-change-ADV fish-CL
‘He changed himself into a fish.’

g. unde-le=ma
where-MT-EM
‘He did, where?’

h ifaki=laka, Ø-nïg ≈i-feke

far.away=EM, say to-PS ≈ 3-ERG
‘Far from here, who knows why”, she answered them.’

i. eh, tugufi=laka at-ïfïgï=lefa

yes, painted.catfish=EM EQA-IMP=MT
‘Yes, for some reason he’s now a catfish.’
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9.6 Summary

The polar, informational, rhetorical, and contrastive types of questions

may be distinguished both by the initial morphemes used and by their
discourse settings, particularly, the pragmatic goal of the speaker and the
type of response from a listener. Yet all four appear in clause initial
position, and are subject to similar syntactic and grammatical inflectional
features. Finally, interrogative constructions reference S, A or O.
As seen from Table 30, the question morphemes uwa, unde,
uɳu-, una, and tï-, and the contrastive ta- may be easily constructed
further with nominalizer, epistemic and adverbial suffixes. One set of
nominalizers include: -ni, active S or A nominalizer; fuŋu, ‘resemble’,
locative –(o)ŋo, -ne, oppositive nominalizer. Also used are the facsimile
–me and =mbe, the ‘continuity of arguments’ (SS) interclausal reference
marker, and several epistemic and affective morphemes including the –ki
negative mirative, and -su pejorative. Attested in these data are: the
epistemic clitics =ma, ‘doubt’, =male (adversative), =taka (agreement),
and =laka (puzzlement) and the epistemic expletive ka:h (frustrative).
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Chapter 10
Adverbs and Adverbializations

As in many languages, Kalapalo adverbs, one of the smaller word

classes, is heterogeneous morphosyntactically, semantically, and
grammatically. The class is essentially defined according to semantic
features, including the usual adverbial meanings: time, place, manner,
purpose, reason, and condition. In this chapter, I discuss
monomorphemic adverbs, adverbial suffixes, adverbial postpositions,
and three types of adverbial clauses. Many “adverbial meanings” in
Kalapalo are conveyed through members of other word classes, including
verbs, nouns, and especially affective and taxis clitics (the latter
referencing phasal relations between events, described at length in
Chapter 12.4) The place of adverbialization in word-class changing
derivations is important. There is a closed sub-set of underived adverbs,
but many Kalapalo adverbs have been derived from verbs and from
nouns. At the same time, Kalapalo adverbs may themselves be
nominalized, or re-nominalized, when they have been derived from
nouns.

10.1. Distinctive features of Kalapalo adverbs

While heterogeneous, there are certain syntactic features which justify

thinking of adverbs as a distinct word class. These special adverbial
features are listed as follows:

10.1.1 Adverbs in clause constituent order

- The most important and distinctive feature is the place of the

adverb in clause constituent order. Most adverbs and
adverbializations appear in utterance initial or final clausal
position (but preceding an ergative-marked transitive
subject NP). The following example shows the use of the
adverb ‘no reason’ initiating a single clause construction:

taloki ekugu-ŋu igia u-ife-tu-ndomi.

useless fully-DIM IDEM 1-clear a planting area-N-PURP
‘It’s completely useless my trying to make a clearing like this.’.

When in final clausal position, adverbs modify the specific VP

they follow, as in the following example (modified VP in
brackets):
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tsiu tsiu tsiu

(sound of scraping body)

[is-aupï-gï fifi-dyu] katote ekugu tu-fa-ti

3-GF-POSS scrape-PI all fully REF-completely-ADV
‘Tsiu tsiu tsiu, his grandfather scraped him completely all over
his body.’

In utterance initial position, adverbs have scope over

complex clause constructions that involve more than one
clause. The next example shows the adverb aɳi, ‘result’
initiating a complex chain:

aŋi-me -s-i-tïfïgï takwagï aŋu-ne-tigi,

result-FACS 3-come.to-IMP long flute play-VT-SUP,

aŋi.
result.
‘It seems as if they have come here to play the flutes,
that’s why

In constructions initiated by an interrogative, interjection,

demonstrative, or ideophone, the adverbs immediately follow.
There are two adverbial constructions that appear as
circumfixed.

The ‘denial’ adverbs (afïtï V-la, which modifies verbs, and afïtï
N-fïŋï, which modifies nouns) seem to be true circumfixes, the
only ones attested in Kalapalo.

afïtï itau-fïŋï
denial-woman-unlike
‘No, not women.’

10.1.2 Adjunct functions

Adverbs function as adjuncts of noun phrases and verb phrases

(including ‘be’ verb phrases) and of ideophones. Noun phrases
that accept adverbial modifiers are demonstratives and de-verbal
aspectual nominalizations.

a. The example illustrates the use of an adverbial adjunct with a

demonstrative (this is the anaphoric demonstrative (ANA):

tï-po-ngo uɳele-fa ñïm-ingo.

REF-on.top-ADV ANA-PTP EX-TR-POT
‘He will be on top of him’.
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b. This example shows an adverb as a verbal adjunct:

lepe kuG-iti=lefa ifa-ga-ki-ga≈tïfïgï i-feke-ni.

next all.together-ADV=MT pull.on-VT-SCAUS≈IMP 3-ERG-PL
‘Next, they had pulled up everything together.’

c. This example is of an adverb adjunct of ‘be’ verb:

ata-ni titafo, ata-ni.

EQA-ANT standing, EQA-ANT
‘standing up there’,

Adverbs can modify one another by simple juxtaposition, in

which case one adverbial morpheme occupies first position and the other
second position in the (single) clause that is being modified. There are
some adverbs which may be followed by an adverbial suffix. The
following example shows a string of adverbial morphemes: first the
monomorphemic adverb ifaki, ‘far’, followed by the negative suffix –la,
and finally the postposed ekugu ‘fully, completely’. In this example the
first adverb is marked with the metonymic taxis clitic =lefa (MT); the pair
modifies the final de-verbalized noun.

d. tok tok, ifaki-la≈kugu=lefa

(sound of the bow being shot), far-NEG≈fully=MT

uña-feke u-pïgï-ko
person.outside-ERG last-VPE-PL
‘Tok tok, shooting not at all far from him, the last of
them, someone outside the house’

10.1.3 t-√-ADV constructions

There are certain suffixed morphemes (-ki, -fi, -ti, -mi) distinctive to
adverbializations in their position in the grammatical word. However,
many adverbial roots appear to have lost any cross-class meaning.
Associated with these adverbial suffixes is the ‘reflexive’ construction
[t-√-ADV], in which the semantically bleached reflexive prefix occurs
on the root, which is followed by one of these adverbial suffixes. The
root may be a verb, noun, or adverbial construction. These
constructions reference attributives of the head.

verbal root: t-ugupo-tsi,

REF-fill.up-ADV
‘filled up’
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adverbial root: t-uguku-mi

REF-bruise-ADV
‘the bruising’

reflexive nominal root: t-imï-fisu-gi!

REF-face-red-ADV
‘the sunburned faces’

compounded nominal root:

eke-tsefu-fwesu-ki its-a idyi-mo-ki

snake-3-stomach-bad-ADV EX-CI child-PL-INST
‘Made her sick to her stomach by the children.’

10.2 Inflections on adverbs

- Most adverbs may not host the important nominal and verbal
inflectional features, but because of their clausal functions,
adverbial words are like nouns and verbs insofar as they may
host clitics, including interclausal reference markers, and
several taxis, affective, and epistemic clitics. Because of this
feature adverbs are clearly able to function not only at the
clausal level, but also to manifest scope at a clause chain
level.
- Adverbs have special discourse functions when serving
as adjuncts to an entire proposition (when part of a full
agentive NP) and fronted/foregrounded in the utterance.
Kalapalo time adverbial words often introduce a new clause
chain. The adverbial words lepene, ‘afterwards, later on’,
lepe, ‘next’, and aifa, ‘ready. done’, are important narrative
segment markers and form a separate word class described in
Chapter 12.

itsu-Gi-ŋa ete-lï-ko popopopo,

stream-on-go away-PI-PL (sound of paddling a canoe),

ta-ke-i-lï, ta-kei-lï.
canoeing.around. the. bend-EP-PL, canoeing.around. the. bend-
EP-PI
‘As they went on paddling on the creek, they went around the
bend, went around the bend,

ifa-ki-tsetse-ku=dye-fa, untsi.....
far-ADV-slightly-INT=SN-PTP, young. male.relative
when only a short distance farther along, that very person, “Hey,
Kid...”’.

- Unlike nouns, with one sub-class exception (“likeness” words),

adverbs cannot accept pronominal prefixes or possessive
suffixes and are never inflected for aspect or irrealis status.
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Unlike verbs and nouns, no adverbs host plural suffixes. Only

object-backgrounding (de-transitive) verb adverbializations
may host person prefixes, as in the following example,
wherein the de-transitive verb itso, ‘marry’, has been
nominalized, transitivized, then adverbialized:

. u-itso-ɳo-mb≈isi
1-marry-N-VT-ADV
‘my marrying’

10.3. Adverbial derivations

Adverbs are often derived from nouns and verbs. De-nominal

adverbial clauses may host the relative clause modifier suffix
–tsï and ‘switch-function’ primary topical participant suffix –
fa (Van Valin, Jr. and La Polla 1997:287); described at length
in Chapter 14.3). Some adverbs are inflected with the
“facsimile” suffix –me (described in Chapter 5.3.11)
.
Adverbs may also be de-adverbialized and derived as nouns
and verbs. The following example shows an adverb that has
been verbalized, then de-verbalized as an imperfective
nominalization, which serves as the head of a copular verb:

mbi:,
(sound of things thrown about),

t-apa-ga-lї=mbe-tїfїgї a-tani
REF-thrown.about-PCAUS- PI=SS-IMP EQS-CI
‘Mbi: (having been thrown away) they were
scattered about.’

To illustrate these syntactic features, I show the various uses of a

very common Kalapalo adverb, ekugu, whose meanings include ‘fully’,
‘completely’, ‘perfectly’, and ‘exemplary’. At first sight this appears to
be a nominal derivation from the root –ku ‘intensive, excessive’, with
what appears to be the possessive nominal suffix -gu. Example (a)
shows this suffix -ku with the sense of ‘intensive’ or ‘excessive’ (INT)
hosted by an interrogative (Q).

a. uwa eku-ki igia anïgï agu-ti-ta-tofo-i?

Q intense-MIR IDEM EQ-PERF thin-VI-CI-USU-CL
‘What in the world made her become so thin like this?

However, ekugu does not function like a noun as it never heads a NP, nor
occurs as host to case marking or any person possessor prefixes Also,
like adverbs, ekugu only occurs juxtaposed to another member of a main
word class: a verb (example b), a noun (examples c, d, e, f ) or another
adverb (g.ii).
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b. As an adjunct to a verb phrase, ‘made to feel shame’. The

adverb follows the existential copular verb phrase, preceding the
ergative NP, which generally appears in final position in the
clause:

ifutisu-ki-tsa ≈kugu i-feke

shame-cause-CI≈fully 3-ERG
‘(3p) had made (3p) feel thoroughly ashamed.’

c. ekugu is the adjunct to a simple adnominal demonstrative NP:

anetu ekugu fegei.

leader-fully ADEM
‘3p is fully (‘a real’) leader.’

d. ekugu as an adjunct to another simple NP, where it hosts the

metonymic-taxis clitic:

mitote ekugu=lefa, aifa.

before.dawn completely=MT, ready.
‘And just before dawn, they were ready.’

e. ekugu as an adjunct to another simple NP, where it hosts the

interclausal reference marker =mbedya (SSDE).

adafa-foto-fïŋï ekugu =mbedya.

dove-nest-resemble exemplary =SSDE
‘It's just like a dove's nest (when it's made).’

f. semantic subclasses of adverbs (‘distance’ and ‘manner’). These

constructions may be used independently of any clausal feature
(particularly example ii):

g. i. ifaki ekugu
far completely
‘really far’

ii. iñalu ekugu

negation completely
‘each and every one’, ‘none left out (or, over)’ (of a large
number of items)

h. Appearing with the interclausal reference marker clitic mbe (SS):

kïtsï =mbe ekugu ndisï ki-lï

(expression of disgust) =SS fully 3:daughter utter-PI
‘“That’s really disgusting doing that,” her daughter said.’
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i. Here ekugu hosts the interclausal reference marking clitic mbe

(SS), the adverbial phrase being an adjunct to the initial adverb
igi-tati ‘right inside there (i.e., watery environment)’:

igi-tati ekugu=mbe Ø-igifïkï-gï-na,

inside-ADV intensive=SS 3-center-POSS-ALL
‘He had gone right inside its center (when he said that).’

10.4. Underived adverbs

There is a small subclass of underived monomorphemic adverbs. These

include locative indexicals, some manner (speed and time) adverbials,
and negation adverbs. As for the other semantic categories often
associated with adverbs, Kalapalo grammatical words referencing time,
dimension or size, physical properties, age, color and pattern, quantity
and order, and human propensities are in general nouns, often de-verbal
nominalizations or re-nominalizations. However, it must be emphasized
that virtually all these semantic subsets also include derived adverbials,
both lexicalized derived morphemes and clear-cut derivational
constructions from members of other word classes discussed. A list of
underived adverbs follows:

10.4.1 Adverbs of manner

a. iñafe, ‘quickly’ (urgency)

iñafe ata-i-fa e-te-te

hurry EQ-SUB-PTP 2-go away-I
‘Hurry up and leave’

b. agetsïkï, ‘further’, ‘more of same’ (note, there is a numeral

agetsi, ‘one’)

c. ekugu, ‘completely’, ‘fully’, ‘perfectly’ (as described above)

d. nzage,, ‘alone’, ‘by one’s self’. This is a rare example of an

adverb inflected with the person proclitic: uinzage, ‘by myself’,
einzage, ‘by yourself’, inzage, ‘by 3p self’ are attested.

e. iñalï, ‘negation’

i. iñalï owï-ko–feke e-ñaŋo-ko ufi-dyï at-ehe.

negation 2-FA-PL-ERG 2-food-PL look.for-PI EQA-PER
‘Your (pl) father doesn’t ever look for your food.’

ii. iñalï inflected with facsimile copula –me, followed by deontic

postposition, with the resultant sense of ‘nothing like that
wanted’:
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iñalï-me-tsaŋe Ø-nïg≈i-feke, iñalï

negation-FACS-DEO 3-PS≈3-ERG, negation
‘“I couldn’t do anything like that,” 3p said, no.’

f. afïtï.V+la, ‘no, not do X’

The ‘denial’ adverbial verb complement is a circumfix

construction, very unusual and possibly unique in the language.

g. afïtï ake-tsaŋe u-iño titï-pe-la=lefa

denial DS-DEO 1-husband name-SAL-NEG=MT
‘No because I don’t want to use that (particular) name of my
husband.’

h. Denial adverbial NP complement afïtï N-fïŋï, ‘no, not X’:

afïtï itau-fïŋï
denia woman-unlike
‘No, not women.’

i. (t)aifa, ‘finished/ready’

This is an adverbial completive, “once and for all” . This

adverbial has a sense of urgency.

i. e-uŋï-t-aifa
2-sleep-VI- ready.done
‘You go to sleep once and for all’

ii. Ø-ñ-o-ta-ni-mba-taifa:
3-OB-return-VI-CI-at.last
‘They returned to 3p once and for all’

j. fogu, ‘benefactive’

igei- fogu fegei u-e-ga-tiga kum-iñaŋo-fogu

IDEM- BEN ADEM 1-want-CI-HAB 1+2-food-BEN
‘I haven’t stopped craving this wonderful food of ours.’

k tami-tsi, ‘a long time’

tseta itsa, tami-tsi-mbedya Pañeta

same.place EX-CL, a.long.time-ADV=SSCAT Pañeta
‘He, Pañeta, stayed there for a long time doing something else.’

l. dyogu:, ‘thoughtlessly, uncaringly’

a-fatuwї-wї-ko dyogu=mbebale wãke

2-nephew-father-PL thoughtless=SSCAT EM
‘It turned out in the end this father of your nephews was
thoughtlessly going to do that, I assure you.’
318

m. telo, ‘another one’ (of the same kind)

n. otohoɳo, ‘another (of a different kind)

o. atupohoɳo, ‘replacement’ (as a leadership position).This adverb

references an old leadership ritual in which the new leader has a
tonsure made.

ai=lefa tupohoɳo at-ani=lefa.

ready.done=MT replacement EQA-ANT=MT

tї-Gimiɳu-Gisi, kuguagi
REF-pull.out.hair-ADV, vulture.
‘And so they were replacing him by pulling out his hair, the
vulture’. (that is, creating the leadership insignia, a tonsure).

p. sususu, ‘falling apart, decrepit’

u-iti-gї sususu
1-hammock-POSS decrepit
‘my decrepit hammock’

q. tufugu, ‘all of them’, no exception.

The position of the adverbial in this example is as a usual NP

adjunct.

uwã-ko=tufugu=mbedya
surround-PL=everyone=SSDE
‘All of them were competely surrounded.’

In this example, tufugu occurs compounded with the interclausal

reference marker =mbe. Further discussion of this compound occurs in
Chapter 14: 14. 3.3.10.

kine ki-tsïgï uŋa-fi=mbetufugu

flatbread make-IPE house-ADV=SSTOT
‘Flatbread had been made, that was done by all of the
neighbors’.

10.4.2 Adverbs referencing the movement of the sun

These adverbs refer to the movement of the sun, with arm gestures
pointing to the sky showing the sun’s trajectory. The motion of the sun is
a copular verb predication, using the active equative copular verb in
anticipation (inchoative) irrealis status.
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a. inde Giti atani, ‘the sun was about to move over this way’.
Used in a narrative, the initial adverb, ‘here’ may host the clause
chaining metonymic taxis clitic, as in this example:

inde=lefa Giti ata-ni. lepene a-ti-su-fa

here=MT sun EQA-ANT. afterwards EQ-ADV-PEJ-PTP

isiŋi-ni s-ita, isiŋi-ni tago e-ta.

behind-PL 3-come-CI, behind-PL otter come.to-CI.
‘And the sun was about to be over this way when next, someone
was following behind them, the otters came up to them,
following from behind.’

b. kapoga Giti at-ani,

high.position sun EQA-ANT
‘from high in the sky the sun is about to fall’

10.4.3 Basic color terms

There are four traditional basic Kalapalo color terms. These are found in
adverbial form, as shown here, but are more often used in their
nominalization forms with the –iñe ‘experiencer’ suffix; these noun
forms appear in the third column.
At least one of these color terms appears to have a semantically
permeable root. Talaki, ‘white’ appears to be a t-√-ki adverb formed
from the root for ‘pale’, ‘ala-’, thus, ‘it’s paleness’. The others do not
appear to have roots that are any longer meaningful to contemporary
speakers.

talaki white talakiñe ‘the white (light) one’

fuseuki black fuseukiñe ‘the black (dark) one’
tukumilu green/blue tukumiluiñe ‘the green/blue one’
tupisuGi red tupisuGiñe ‘the red one’

In addition, Kalapalo people sometimes used the term kwadyapiɳo for

yellow, with the root referencing a plant with a carrot-like root (kwadya)
that could be used for dye of this color.

10.4.4 Other lexicalized adverbs

1. akїɳi, ‘many’
2. katote, ‘all, everyone’
3. amïnde, ‘alone’, ‘empty’

10.5. Adverbial suffixes

Most adverbial constructions occur with suffixes in grammatical word-

final position There are a large number of these suffixes, some of which
appear to have lost their meanings. However, many adverbials are
derived from other adverbs, nouns, and verbs. The core of the derived
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adverb is a nouns phrase, verb phrase, or free pronoun plus a de-

nominalizing, re-adverbializing, or de-verbalizing adverbializer.
Negative adverbials are characterized by one of several circumfixed
features, involving a prepositional adverb and a suffix that appears on the
modified verb or noun. The following diagram is a schematic
representation of the adverbial grammatical word construction.

existent, NP, free adverbializer negative suffix

denial or pronoun, or suffix (optional)
negation VP
morpheme
Diagram 4. Order of constitutents in adverbialized words

10.5.1 The degree suffix –tsetse, ‘somewhat more’

The degree suffix can appear with monomorphemic adverbial lexemes:

ifaki-tsetse te-lï-
far-somewhat go.away-PI
‘She went on somewhat farther’.

10.5.2 –la, ‘negative’ in antonym constructions

This suffix may be a simple negation copula or used to create antonyms

kapehe, ‘tall kapehe-la, ‘short’

katote, ‘alot’ kotofo-la, ‘not alot’

10.5.3. Attributive adverbial suffixes

There are a number of attributive adverbializer suffixes. These appear on

roots that, in the main, no longer have independent meanings; most
resultant constructions have become lexicalized. The suffixes include –
ki, -mi, -pi, -ti, -fi, -tu, -tsi/tsu, -ku, -ɳu. The suffixes –mi, -pi, -ti, -fi, and
-po appear to be non-productive. The adverbial suffixes –ki, -kila, -ku,
and -ɳu include sub-classes of derivational constructions. Many of these
suffixes are also seen in the [t-√-ADV] construction. Table 31 lists these
suffixes with their meanings. I use ADV as the gloss for all these with
the exception of the intensive and diminuative suffixes.
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Table 31. Adverbial suffixes

Suffix Gloss Meaning Productivity?

–ki ADV existent qualities yes
-kila ADV negation of existent qualities yes
-mi ADV ? no
-pi ADV ? no
-ti ADV manner, from weather, times of day no
-fi ADV attributive actions, from intransitive no
verbs
- ADV attributive states yes
tsi/tsu
-ku INT intensive yes
-ɳu DIM small yes
-isi ADV experience of undergoer of transitive yes
-itsi verb actions, or of experiencer of
extended intransitives.
-leni ADV attributive actions of intransitive verb yes

10.5.3.1. Lexical –ki adverbials

There are both lexical –ki adverbs, most without semantically transparent
roots, and other -ki adverbs that are clearly word-class changing
derivations: de-verbalizations and de-nominalizations. The –ki
morpheme is homophonous with the instrumental case morpheme and
the negative mirative clitic. Here I list some lexical –ki adverbs:

a. tama-ki, ‘soften’

igea=lefa a-ŋakafugu-a at-ïfïgï t-ama-ki

like.this=MT 2-hair-U EQA-IMP REF- soft-ADV
‘Like your hair that is softened.’

b. ifa-ki, ‘distant, far’

i. Ideophonic pseudo-intransitive clause complemented by a

compounded adverbial clause:

titititititi, upïh ifa-ki ekugu.

(ideo), alot far-ADV fully
‘We walked titititititi, oh, it was far!’

ii. Negative construction of the same adverb ifaki:

igea=lefa ifa-ki-la aña≈feke isuwï

this.way=MT far-ADV-NEG path≈ERG 3.father
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i-dya-te-pïgï
3-tie.hammock-VT-PS
‘And this way, close to the path her father had hung his
hammock’.

c. tipa-ki, ‘repeatedly’

tipa-ki=nafa eGitse tsi-ts-elï

frequently-ADV=EM unfortunately 1+3-go.away.PI

pokiti la
often like.that
‘We others go like that, frequently, easily, and without trouble, I
assure you.’

d. taloki, ‘useless’. This adverb is often used by speakers as a

marker of modesty, in effect expressing the imminent
performance of an amazing feat. The root talo cannot be
used without the suffix.

i. taloki ekugu-ŋu igia u-ifetu-ndomi.

useless intensive-DIM this.way 1-clear.area.for.planting-
PURP
‘It’s completely useless for me to clear a place for planting this
way.’

ii. taloki-to iña=fofo tsi-lї-iña=fofo

useless-CONC holes=IM plant-PI-DAT/BEN=IM

e-limo otomo et-omi.

2-children relatives come-PURP
‘Even though it’s useless, your children’s relatives could
come here to plant some holes.’
iii. la taloki e-ge-tїe. la-su taloki e-ge-tїe
far.away useless 2-leave-I far.away-PEJ useless 2-leave-I
‘There’s no reason, but you must leave for someplace far away,
stupidly, useless that you should go someplace really far.’

iv. From an older leader’s arrival speech to his host:

fisua-ndau iŋi-ta u-feke taloki undsi

brother-PL bring-CI 1-ERG useless young.relative(voc)
‘I’m bringing the brothers for no special reason, my child.’

e. toki, ‘remaining’

toki=lefa i-fitsu-feke iki-ñalï.

remaining=MT 3-wife-ERG make.bread-MAL
‘There was hardly enough left for his wife to eke out some
bread.’
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f. atutu-ki, ‘slowly’, ‘carefully’

atutu-ki te-lї
good-ADV go.away-PI
‘She walked slowly away.’

10.5.3.2. Derived–ki adverbials

These adverbializations are derived from nouns and verbs. There are two
subgroups: a) –ki, positive adverbializer used on both intransitive and
transitive verbs; adverbialized nouns, and re-adverbialized adverbs; b) -
kila, negative adverbializer operating on nouns and demonstratives, as
well as other adverbs.

1. positive –ki adverbializations of intransitive verbs:

a. atsakuŋeki, ‘the manner of his running’

b. utelïki, ‘the manner of my going’

c. feitsїki, ‘twined around’

d. tufotufo-ki, ‘his floating’

e. aifa ake-tsa-ɳe i-ñandzu te-ñuɳge-fї-ki

ready.done SD-DEO 3-sister REF-blood-VI-ADV
‘Finally as you want, the sister is bleeding.’ (polite reference to a
young wife’s first menses)

f. te-ti-ki kaɳa-i
REF-change-ADV fish-CL
‘changing himself into a fish’

g. This example is an adverbialization of the root ifutisu- ‘shame’:

ifutisu-ki its-a ekugu i-feke:

shame-ADV EX-CL intensive 3-ERG
. ‘He was truly ashamed (of that).’

An example of a positive adverbialization of a noun, kaɳa-ki, ‘fishing’

h. una-ma e-te-ta? kaɳa-ki u-te-ta

Q-EM 2-go.away-CI? fish-ADV 1-go.away-CI

2. Example of the bimorphemic negative -ki-la adverbializations on

nouns (note there is also a monomorphemic evidential suffix -kila).
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a. t-ïño-ki-la
REF-husband-INST-NEG
‘her lack of a husband’

b. igei fungu-fïngï-ki-la-su figei

IDEM resemble-unlike-INST-NEG-PEJ ADEM

a-fasï≈ŋiso-feke
2-OZ≈husband-ERG
‘This isn't anything like what your older sister's husband
(makes/does) all the time.’

c. is-ag-iŋo-fïŋï=ki-la-su figei a-fasï-ŋiso-feke

3-similar.N-unlike=INST-NEG-PEJ ADEM 2-Oz-husband-ERG

u-faŋa-tuŋ-Gi-ñalï.
1-ear-hurt-CAUS-MAL
‘You’ll soon realize this is nothing like that stuff your older sister’s
husband insults me with.’

10.5.3.3 - mi adverbs

The –mi adverbs are less common. Only a few –mi adverbs are attested.

a. t-uguku-mi,
REF-bruise-ADV,

i-tï-tefu-fes-ale ete-ŋalï t-uguku-mi

REF-somach-bad-UT go.away-REP REF-bruise-ADV
‘Over and over, she went around with her stomach in bad shape,
bruised.’

b. ami, ‘another’ (of the same kind). This lexeme may be an

adverbialization of the stative equative copular root a-.

ami tї-i-l≈i-feke, ami tї-i-l≈i-feke,

another make-VT-PI≈3-ERG, another make-VT-PI≈3-ERG,

kagupe tї-i-l≈i-feke,
cracker make-VT-PI≈3-ERG
‘She made another and another, and she made a flat bread
cracker.’

c. ku=le-mi-la keñi kup-agїwї ifi-dyї ɳikogo-feke

1+2=UT-ADV-NEG beware 1+2-nephew kill-PI fierce.person-
ERG
‘We must take care that a fierce person doesn’t kill our nephew.’
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d. Examples with the sense of ‘another time’

ami≈tsani, ‘it will happen another time’

ami kuteluiɳo, ‘we’ll go some other time’
ami tsïk’ akïŋi ekugu tu-fe=lefa Aulukuma-feke.
again (sound of arrow) many fully REF-kill=MT
Aulukuma-ERG.

‘Again he shot and killed many of them, Aulukuma did.’

10.5.3.4 –pi adverbs

There are only two examples in my data of –pi adverbs

a. inapi, ‘sticks out, extended’ → inapitsї, lined up; napiGi,

‘kingfisher’ (long beaked)

b. uɳipi, ‘associated with’

10.5.3.5 –ti adverbs

A number of these adverbs may be verbalized, and then de-verbalized as
adverbs with this suffix. Many reference manner, weather, and times of
day. Note there is also the homophonous desiderative adverbial suffix –
ti.

a. alolati, ‘underwater’

ete-lu=mbe=ge ege-na alola-ti=lefa

go.away-PI=SS=RT PDEM-ALL underwater-ADV=MT

te-lu=lefa.
go.away-PI=MT
‘He was still going away doing that, in this direction underwater,
he was going.’

b. tatageti, ‘swinging (back and forth)’

lepe i-na tu-i õ, tatage-ti ekugu=mbe,

next 3-ALL put-TH and, swing.back.and.forth-ADV fully=SS

lepe-fa kwakaga-pe miɳakï-gï-pe.

next-PTP rooster-SAL wattle-POSS-SAL
‘Next for him was put on, and, it was really swinging back and
forth when he did that, after that, the wattles (put on) Rooster.’

c. kuguti, ‘mixed with’

iku Gi-po-ga i-feke-ni, umїɳi kugiti, sap

draw.out-VT-CI 3-ERG-PL, urucum mixed.in
326

hahahaha hahahaha ikano-mba-ta

(sounds of laughter) mix.into-VT-CI

i-feke-ni ti-te-ga≈le
3-ERG-PL REF-go-CI≈ATR
‘The sap they extracted was mixed in with urucum, they kept on
laughing nonstop while they mixed it in.’

Other ‘manner’ –ti adverbs:

keuti, ‘cold’
taiti, ‘in a dangerous state’ (referencing a woman who has to be
careful not to have sexual relations when she shouldn’t)
egoti, ‘during the day’, ‘daytime’
iŋindati, ‘resembling’
kuigandati, ‘in the manioc fields’
The following two examples are of the t-√-ti construction:
tïkoti, ‘angry’
tilati, ‘briefly’
The following –ti adverbial word is a t-√-ti construction from the
root, fu, know
tufuti, ‘knowing’
The following –ti adverbial word is a de-verbalization of a noun
encorporated verb:
ifaɳa-nda-ti, ‘whispering’ (i.e., speaking into someone’s ear)
ear-CI-ADV

10.5.3.6 -fi adverbs

This small set of adverbials reference attributive actions; they are derived
from intransitive verbs. (See also 10.5.3.9 –leni adverbs from intransitive
verbs).

ipufi, ‘covering’ (this may also function as a nominal)

ifisufi, ‘fruiting’
talafi, ‘crouching down’
tafefi, ‘floating’

10.5.3.7 -tsu(ї) adverbs

Like the –fi adverbs, the -tsu(ї) adverbs also reference attributes;
however -tsu(ї) adverbs are derived from stative verbs.

1. itagitsu, ‘hungry’. More usually this is seen as an intransitive

verbalization, as itagi-tsu-nda, ‘she is hungry’.
2. inapitsї, ‘lined up’

10.5.3.8 - isi, -itsi adverbs

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Adverbs with these suffixes are stative or active transitive verb de-
verbalizations, mostly referencing the manner of experiencing by the O
argument. These adverbs may host person prefixes, preserving the
verbal O argument

a. uum, tї-ki-tsї=maɳa t-iɳgu-G-isi.

EXP, RQ-NMIR-M=EM REF-see-PERM-ADV
‘I can’t believe this won’t allow itself to be ‘seen’ (i.e., figured
out).’

b. Other adverbs of this construction:

u-itso-ŋo-mb-isi, ‘the one who marries me’ (my spouse)

etinafikitsi, ‘capable of holding you’ (as in wrestling)
takwagï aŋunetigi, ‘performing long flute ceremony’
et-etu-isi, ‘rubbing himself’
tukugoisi, ‘rounded’
tamisi, ‘wrapped up’
tigiminugisi, ‘the one whose hair was plucked out’; ‘the bald
one’
tugupotsi, ‘filled up’
tidyuŋgi, ‘uncovered’
tiposi uge, Yamurikumalu-feke, ‘I found myself being carried by
Yamurikumalu’

10.5.3. 9 –leni adverbs from intransitive verbs

ti-tegunda-ko, ‘they are laughing’ → titegaleni, ‘smiling’

10.5.4 Adverbial spatial deictic constructions

There is a large set of suffixes referencing location, place, and direction.

Distinctions referenced by adverbs formed from these suffixes include
referencing:

(located) beside a person

a flat surface (‘in’; ‘on’,’above’),
a container (‘in’, ‘into’),
a watery environment (‘in’, ‘into’, ‘on the surface’).

Most of these may be further nominalized with the suffix -ɳa (SN).

10.5.4.1 -kai, ‘on’ or ‘beside’

The –kai adverb means ‘on’ or ‘beside’ a person or human body part, or
‘on’ an inanimate thing. Note the case suffix-kaiɳa,‘destination’
(DEST), discussed in 5.3.15.8.

a. ule-pe-kai tu-te-Ø Taugi te-lï fegei.

ATR-SAL-on REF-go.away-TH Taugi go.away-PI ADEM
328

‘Then to be beside him, he went away, he went (holding onto) on

that thing.’
 329

b. kagayfa=fale-kai, la,
Christians=NO-on, like.that,

tis-anetu-gu-iña-ŋu,
1+3-leader-POSS–DAT/BEN-LT,

kagayfa anetu-gu eti-dyï=lefa.

Christian leaders-POSS resign-PI=MT
‘But on the Christians, rarely by our own leaders, it’s like that,
“Our leaders aren’t working out,” the leaders of the Christians, so
they resign.’

c. ti-mï-kai-fi-ko.
REF-face-on-ADV-PL
‘peering closely at them’

d. afïtï-ku=maki igei kuge-fïŋï-kai igei u-i-tsa.

denial-INT=EM IDEM person-unlike-on IDEM 1-EX-CI
‘There’s no doubt at all that this thing I’ve come to live with
isn’t human.’

e. Here, the morpheme appears to reference the extended argument

‘about’ in a ditransitive speech act context; as I am not certain I
have put a question mark in brackets at the end:

. kagutu oto-feke s-aki-tsu-nda=lefa tu-iñaɳo-kai.

trumpet sponsor-ERG 3-speak-VI-CI=MT REF-food-on (?)
‘The trumpet sponsor spoke about his food.’

10.5.4.2. –p(f)o, mbo ‘in relation to a flat surface’

Adverbs with this locative suffix are often further inflected with the
stative nominal -ɳa (SN). Some examples follow.

a. ugupo, ‘on top of’ ugupo-ɳa, ‘entity

located on top of’
tilopo, ‘nearby’ tilopo-ɳa, ‘entity located
nearby’
Aɳambїtї-tїpo, ‘near Aɳambїtї’ otifo-ɳa, ‘located on the
grasslands’
faɳguiɳa-tїpo,’ near the river’ faɳguiɳa-gepoɳa, ‘what is
all alongside the river’
fugombo, ‘the plaza’ fugomboŋa, ‘in the central
plaza’
ŋikafo, ‘outside behind house’ ikaŋaŋa, ‘fish lying’ (on a grill)
akїfo:, ‘straightening’ ŋatafoŋa, ‘beside them’ (in an
(as, a path) open space)
isupoŋa, ‘underneath’
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b. –po ‘on’ a rhetorical question, existential copular verb construction.

In this case the notion of ‘on a flat surface’ is a stretch of the
imagination:

tї-tsi-po u-adyo Kanuakuma-me=nafa a-dyo-i

RQ-EX-ADV 1-lover Kanuakuma-FACS=EM 2-lover-CL
‘Did I ever have a lover?’ ‘Maybe a long time ago someone like
Kanuakuma was your lover.’’

10.5.4.3 –pїga, ‘above a flat surface’

ti-ɳi-mbe fugogo-pїga iɳi-pe-feke figei

REF-see-SS plaza-above box-SAL-ERG ADEM
imї-fidyo-nde-pїgї
face-cover-VT-PS
‘He saw him (floating) above the plaza his face covered with a
box’

10.5.4.4. –pa, ‘touching a flat surface’

This is an unusual suffix with only a few examples from the

data:

uña-pa, ‘on the floor of the house’

aña-gï-pa,, ‘on your own path, trail’

Note: There is a possibly related ‘cyclical’, or ‘turn taking’

suffix, as in:
ise-poŋo-pa: ‘partnering’.

10.5.4.5 –pati, ‘on an island or swampy environment’

wende=lefa owĩ-ko-feke eɳitsu ige-pĩgĩ,

far.away=MT 3;father-PL-ERG GRM put-PS

Kagagĩ iɳu-pati
Kagagĩ in.the.middle. of-ADV

‘Far from there their father put their grandmother on an island in

Kagagĩ lake’.

11.5.4.6.-kuati, ‘into a watery environment’

As is typical of Amazonian languages, reference to a watery

environment will take special adverbial suffixes in Kalapalo.
ipa-kuati, ‘in the lake’
tũwa-kuati, ‘in the water’
afitagi-kua, ‘in the grasslands pond’

10.5.4.7. –ka, ‘in the direction of water’

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The following is an example of the sort of exchange heard

during a very common greeting and response:

dyadya, una-ma te-ta?

Oz (voc) Q-EM go-CI
‘Older sister, where are you going?’

tuwa-ka
water-direction
‘To the water.’

10.5.4.8. -(g)ati, ‘into a container’

efu-gati, ‘in the canoe’

uŋ-ati ‘into the house’, from uŋa, ‘house’
ŋoŋg-ati, “into the (hole in the) ground” (i.e., a grave), from ŋoŋo,
‘ground’

Each of the next two words includes the suffix –ka, ‘direction of the
water’.
tuwaka-gati, ‘into the water’
tuwaka-gati tseta iñïgï, ‘He appeared in the water.’

10.5.4.9.- ta, ‘in a container’

The examples show containers into which a person may fit.

efu-ta, ‘in the canoe’

uɳa-ta, ‘in the house’

10.5.4.10 (Gi)tati, ‘travelling on a surface by means of’

This and the following morpheme (11.4.4.8) reference a manner of

travelling:
aña-Gitati, ‘by means of the path’
faŋGuiŋa-Gitati, ‘by means of the river’
Agifanugu-Gitati, ‘by means of the Agifanugu River’

10.5.4.11 isatati, ‘travelling inside of a container’

Taugi e-nïgï is-atati

Taugi come.to-PS 3-inside
‘Taugi came towards (him) inside of it.’

10.5.4.12. -tundati, ‘onto the surface of X leading to’

This term seems to be used to reference the surface of a path on

which people are travelling.
332

tuwa-tundati, ‘(path) leading to the water’

10.5.4.13 –ofinati, ‘underneath’

This is used to describe something placed on a flat surface

beneath another.

takiko≈finati tїilї i-feke, ‘He put both of them beneath her.’

10.5.4.14 –itati, ‘inside’ (a solid object)

inene tapĩgĩ-ko -itati tui-lu i-feke-ni.

this.side foot-POSS-PL inside put-PI 3-ERG-PL
‘They put it inside their feet on this side.’

10.5.4.15 –nda, -ndo, ‘location’

This adverb is used to describe the location of a crop or of

prepared plants’

kuiga-nda, ‘the place where manioc is found’ (note final /i/ in

kuigi, ‘manioc’ becomes /a/ before the adverbial)
ñe- ɳi-ko-ndo, ‘among their house posts’ (that is, trees that had
already been cut for use)

10.5.4.16. –fïtï, ‘gathered together’

This adverb references a concentration or gathering of a natural species.

It is often used to create settlement names, for example, Wagi-fïtï, ‘where
the jatoba trees gather together’, Tolo-fїtї, ‘where the Birds gather
together’. Other place names have nominal roots I was unable to
identify, e.g. Fifi-fïtï, Aɳaga- fïtï,

10.5.5 The adverbial temporal deixis suffix -funda

There are very few adverbial temporal words. Most temporal

words are nouns (see Chapter 5:Nouns). The only temporal deictic suffix
attested in my data is –funda, ‘time of’.
okoge-funda, ‘on the next day’

10.6 The adverbial suffix -ku, ‘intensive’

This adverbial suffix may inflect other word types, serving as an

operator within an interclausal reference marker (a); an epistemic
expletive (b); or another adverb (c).
 333

The suffix –ku appears to be a compressed form of ekugu, ‘intensive’. It

appears in adverbial and interclausal reference marking as a kind of
linking morpheme while preserving the sense of ‘intensive’, ‘just’.
Grammatical words other than monomorphemic nouns ending in -ku are
not attested.

a. This example shows how -ku forms an integral part of the interclausal
reference marker clitic mbe-ku=dya, (NOMR) ‘and for just that reason’,
referencing a logical association of the marked clause with a subsequent,
new overlapping event.

teh tupisu-i ekugu=mbekudya

(interjection, ‘nice’) red-CL completely=NOMR
‘It was lovely, really red all over, and for just that reason,

ule-fa i-gita-ke-ta-tiga.
AFR-PTP 3-envy-Va-CI-HAB
he whom I spoke of earlier was made to feel envious as usual.’

b. The next example shows how ku may also following a question

word in an interrogative construction. Here -ku links the
question word u-ma with the evidential tifa suffix:

u-ma-i-ku-tifa e-futis-ofo iɳ-ati

Q-EM-EP-INT-EV 2-shame-USIN lie.in.hammock-ADV

e-its-ue -ta i-feke.

2-EX-I -CI 3-ERG
‘Did I just hear him say, “Lie in the hammock with your mother-
in-law”?’

c. In this example –ku performs another ‘linking’ function, between

the denial adverb and dya, the different nominal argument
switch-reference interclausal reference marker (DN):

afїtї-ku=dya ake-tsa-ɳe kukuge-ko-la

denial-intensive=XA DEO-EX-I us-PL-NEG
‘No, I don’t want us to do that at all.’

10.7 Adverbial Negation

Negative moods marked in the verbal clause involve two different
strategies. These include 1) use of the the adverbial negative (i)ñalï in
adverbial first position and the class inclusion copula –i following an
aspect/mood suffix; and 2) use of the adverbial circumfix afïtï+VP-la, as
a denial of predication. As described in Chapter 6.5.7.6 the morpheme -
iñalï also functions as the malefactive derivational suffix on the verb
stem.

10.7.1. Simple negation

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This adverbial construction occurs with the class inclusion

copula suffix functioning as an irrealis marker.

a. iñalu u-te-lu-i
NEG 1-go.away-PI-Class.Incusion.Copula
‘I won’t go away.’
b. ñalï wãke kaŋa eŋe-lu-i=wãke
negation EM fish eat-PI-CL=EM
si-tï-gï-pe,
3-head-POSS-SAL

afï-pe teŋe-lu-i i-feke-ni.

guts-SAL eat.flesh-PI-CL 3-ERG-PL
‘They were not the eaters of any fish heads, nor were
they eaters of any of the guts.’

10.7.2. Denial of predication

This construction uses the adverbial denial circumfix afïtï...la around the
verbal or copular verbal clause.

a. afïtï u-te-lu-la
denial 1-go.away-VI-NEG
‘No, I won’t go away.’

b. afïtï=aka kup-isua-gï a-nïgï-la

denial=EM 1+2-brother-POSS EQS-PS-NEG
‘We’ve seen haven’t we, that our brother is no longer alive.’

10.8. The adverbialized ‘be’ root ag-

The ‘be’ root morpheme ag- may at one time have had a copular
function, but now it occurs only as a lexical adverb ‘similarity’ or as a
derived nominalization. The evidence for this possible copular function
is that the root always takes a pronominal prefix and also may take one
of three possible nominalization suffixes.

a. ag-age, ‘resemble’: uagage, ‘like me’, agage, ‘like you’,

isagage, ‘like third person’
b. ag-iɳo, ‘something resembling’ (nominalized form)
c. aɳoloka, ‘truthful’
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Chapter 11
Small Word Classes

In this chapter, I examine the six small Kalapalo word classes. They are
listed in approximate order of size: Ideophones, Expressives, Adjectives,
Discourse particles, Deontics, and the single Coordinator. All are closed
classes, and definable in a negative way by their very restricted ability to
be inflected. Only ideophones may be subject to derivational processes.

11.1. Ideophones

This is the largest of the smaller classes of Kalapalo words

discussed in this chapter. They probably number as many as 50 or even
more. They may be combined and seem to have creative uses when a
speaker wishes to reference the action or handling of a new or unfamiliar
entity. However, this class should be considered closed as there appears
to be only a limited number of morphemes attested.
Kalapalo ideophones do not share roots with words of other
classes and are not inflected. They may be iconic, imitative sound
images but also reference actions that don’t have sounds in themselves.
There are two possible types of reference. The first concerns actions in
which body parts and inanimate objects are handled or act independently.

a. This example is imitative of a sound associated with an action.

lepene mbuk’
afterwards (sound of putting something down)

ege-na, ege-na kïtsï tu-eki-ñe otu.

PDEM-ALL, PDEM-ALL disgusting REF-smell-SN food
‘Afterwards he gave something to this one, to that one, disgusting
smelly food.’

b. This example shows two ideophones imitative of actions, neither of

which has an associative sound:

iɳ-ati tigi tigi tigi eh eh eh

holding-ADV (shaking a small child in play) (heavy weight
being felt by the person holding the child)
‘Holding him and shaking him playfully, she felt a great weight’.

The second type of reference concerns animate entities. The ideophones

imitate human calls or animal cries.

c. oi oi oi
(A person crying).
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d. pu:pu:
(call of the great horned owl)

Members of this word class have important functions in narrative

discourse. Ideophones may be used within clause chains so as to create
complex clause constructions.

First, ideophonic clauses often initiate a clause chain.

e. tsuk’, itsake-t≈i-feke, tsuk’, tsuk’.

tsuk’, cut.off-CI≈3-ERG, tsuk’, tsuk’
‘tsuk’, she cut them off one by one.’

f. kï kï kï idyo-ka-ñe-nïgï
(sound of pulling on something) pull.up-VT-MAL-PS
‘kï kï kï, what was being pulled up.’

Second, ideophones may create a link between an ideophonic cause and

finite verb effect clauses.

g. lepene tate tuk’ mboduk’ i-ñ-iɳ-atsi-lї

afterwards burity.shoot tuk’ mboduk’ 3-OB-inside-enter-PI
‘Following that she fell on the burity shoot tuk’ mboduk’ and it
entered inside her.’

Third, ideophones are often heard as recapitulation clauses, in which the

ideophone references the sound of an entity involved in the action of a
preceding verb, often with more information about that action than is
actually contained in the verb.

g. tu-e-lï-ko=lefa tïk tïk tïk, mbisuk.

REF-shoot-PI-PL=MT (sound of arrows being shot), all gone.
‘They were all shot at tïk tïk tïk, until there were none left.’

11.1.1. Ideophonic syllables

Kalapalo ideophones are words containing from one to four

repeated syllables, and there is at least one extended syllable in which the
vowel /u/ is lengthened and followed by /m/. Ideophones are often joined
together to make more complex imaginative constructions. Kalapalo
ideophones fall into several sub-types according to the syllabic structure.
Many are 1-3 syllables that reference an abrupt or momentary action.
Others are repeated syllables, in which the action referenced is repeated
or continual. In this regard, Kalapalo ideophones may be distinguished
aspectually and in some contexts are clearly adverbial in function.
When combined, ideophones of different sub-types can be said
to iconically represent multiple actions that could elsewhere be
referenced by a series of clauses. Because of these syntactic functions,
ideophonic clauses should be considered to function as transitive or
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intransitive in that they reference the sounds of actions in which Subject,

Agent, and Patient are involved. As in Lowland Quechua, so well
described by Janis B. Nuckolls (1996, 2010), complex Kalapalo
ideophones readily substitute for or complement both transitive and
intransitive clauses. Complex ideophones may link transitive and
intransitive events. Finally, when a narrative is interrrupted, a listener-
responder often will use an ideophonic clause of this kind to prompt the
narrator to continue. In the following examples, ideophones are given in
boldface. The examples in this chapter are most likely a sample of the
ideophones used by Kalapalo.
Before giving full discourse examples, I list examples of several
attested ideophonic types based on syllabic structure. Forms listed for
each type of syllabic structure are to be considered examples and not
complete attestations of the frequent use of ideophones in Kalapalo
discourse.

11.1.1.1. One or two syllables ending in checked consonant /k’/

Ideophones of this type reference abrupt action involVIng a body

part or inanimate entity:

a. tok’, ‘sound of man’s arms beating on the water’

b. mbok’, ‘sound of something falling’
c. tsuk’, ‘action of cutting or slicing something, tearing off a
fingernail’
d. mbuk’/mbok’, ‘action of abruptly putting down something
heavy’
e. tauk’, heavy item penetrating into muck
f. mboruk’, ‘something sharp entering a space’
g. mbi:suk’, ‘items used up in some way’. This ideophone may be
considered lexicalized, referencing ‘none left’.
h. tik’, ‘entering a house’ (the sound replicates what is heard when
a person’s body brushes against the thatch of the doorway);
metaphorically, in narratives this ideophone references someone
arriVIng at a particular goal.
i. kuduk’, ‘action of a stringer entering the mouth of a fish’. In the
following example, the stringer is (magically) stringing up the
fish one by one. Note the verb is in punctual indicative
aspect/mood, as each event occurs instantly even though the
whole is aspectually continuous.

iño-ti-nde-li- ŋapa-fa i-feke kuduk’,

string.up-VT-PI=EM-PTP 3-ERG
kuduk’, kuduk’, kuduk’, kuduk’, kuduk’, kuduk’ kuduk’
(sound of stringer catching many fish, one by one)
‘Probably it strung up (the fish) one by one kuduk’, kuduk’,
kuduk’, kuduk’, kuduk’, kuduk’, kuduk’, kuduk’.
 338

j. sïk’ , ‘sound of pulling up grass’

lepe tikű i-feke sïk’ sïk’ sïk’, katote.

next pull.out-TH 3-ERG (sound of pulling up grass), all,
sïk’. aifa
(sound of pulling up grass). ready.done
‘Then he pulled them out sïk’sïk’ sïk’, all of them sïk’.
Finished.’

11.1.1.2. One or two syllables ending in /m/

These ideophones reference the action of a body or entity falling softly

onto the ground or into a watery enVIronment.

a. tom, ‘action of divIng or jumping into the water’

b. mbom, ‘action of falling onto soft ground’
c. u:bom, action of entity falling and then sinking into the mud. Here
the u: references extended action preceding the event marked by the
second ideophone:

tue-lï i-feke itsi-lefa eke fuGi-mbe-ki ntsako,

kill-PI 3-ERG die-MT snake arrow-SS-INST

u: mbom.
(sound of shooting arrow), (sound of dead animal falling)
‘When he shot it with the snake’s arrow ntsako, it died, uubom.’

ai=gehale si-nïgï asa-mukwe-tsu-fa mbom,

ready=again come-PERF deer-EM-EV-PTP mbom,
‘He got ready again, the poor little deer came they say

feu-mbe mbom, feu-mbe mbom akuGisa mbom

peccary-SS mbom, peccary-SS mbom, capivara mbom
mbom, same happened to a peccary mbom, the same happened to a
peccary mbom, a capivara mbom.’
Aifa
ready.done
‘that was all’.

11.1.1.3 One syllable extended /u/

This ideophone is used to reference lengthened action.

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a. u:m, ‘extended flying action, voluntary or involuntary’

lepene te-lu=lefa ah-u:m,

afterwards go.away-PI=MT EXP-(extended flying action),

se-gati, efu-Gati.
same place-ADV, canoe-ADV
‘Afterwards it went awaaay, to that same place, to the canoe.’

11.1.1.4. Reduplicated syllables

Usually these ideophones consist of three or four reduplicated syllables.
As the examples show, these ideophones generally reference extended
motion. Speakers may use different sound images to reference different
qualities of the same action (e.g., f and g). Where there are no spaces
between syllables, the action represented is referenced as rapid. Where I
have made spaces between syllables, it is because the speaker would use
very slight pauses, references a slower type of action.

a. tititi, ‘sound of bare feet on a cleared dirt path’

b. tsatsatsa, ‘sound of feet walking through dried leaves in the
forested enVIronment’
c. kukuku, ‘sound of something being chewed up’
d. kulukulu, ‘sound of something being drunk’
e. behbehbeh, ‘sound of staggering’
f. puhpuhpuh, ‘sound of climbing up a tree’
g. tsïgï tsïgï tsïgï, ‘another sound of climbing up a tree’
h. tsik tsik, ‘sound of dragging one food behind while walking’
i. totototototototo, ‘sound of a snake moVIng’
j. čewčewčew, ‘sound of an animal eating with its mouth open’
k. tïtïtïtï, ‘sound of a mollusc closing up its shell’
l. tututu, ‘sound of animal or person running’
m. kï kï kï, ‘sound of something being pulled on’
n. tsuk tsuk tsuk, ‘something being cut with a knife’
n. tsitsitsi, ‘sound of a ticking watch’

11.1.2 Referencing human calls or animal cries

Ideophones referencing human calls or animal cries (both are referred to

as itsu), , are generally repeated several times to express the idea of
continuous or repeated action.

a. ka: (ka: ka:), ‘sound of calling’ (e.g., a name or indicating the

death of someone away from the settlement)

b. kao kao kao, ‘greeting call to signal the arrival of a VIsitor to a

settlement’

c. tsiu tsiu tsiu, ‘sound of whistling’ (to get someone’s attention)

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d. wa wa wa, ‘sound of crying’

e. oi oi oi, ‘another sound of crying’ (humorous)

f. togotogo, ‘sound of something hard (such as, a turtle shell)

being dragged along the ground’

g. buhruhruh, ‘sound of an animal running’

h. tsutsutsu, ‘sound of an animal burrowing in the ground’

i. tsatsatsa: ‘sound of feet moVIng through dry leaves on the floor

of the forest’ (i.e., in the wilderness, not on a cleared path)

j. ŋa ŋa, ‘cry of the macaw’

k. hmhmhmhmhm, ‘cry of the jaguar’

l. õ ah õ, ‘cry of the blue heron’

m. The following example shows how the ideophone referencing a

bird call functions as a kind of pseudo-nominal. As such, it may
take an adverbial adjunct relative clause marked with the
modifier tsї. (same example as Chapter 5.5e)

õ-a-õ ifa-ki-la=fale i-fudya-tsї-fa.

(call of the blue heron) far-ADV-NEG=NO tree-among-M-PTP
‘õ-a-õ, this time not far away, (from) among the trees.’

11.1.3. Complex ideophonic constructions

Complex ideophonic constructions are similar to complex clause

constructions insofar as they reference multiple events that are phasally
connected to each other. See also examples in Chapter 13.

a. This example references a person suddenly jumping up (shu:),

running abruptly away (mbukah), and being grabbed hold of by
another (buh):

shu:mbukah! buh!

b. An example of three ideophones occurring as a clause, linking

the initial ‘be’ verb clause and final intransitive clause, marking
with the taxis suffix –lefa (MT) as the end of this clause chain :

lepe te-ti-ñombi-gï-ki i tsa-iŋa

next remove-REF-nail-POSS-INST EX-LOC
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tsuk, toh, uubom,

(item thrown into air), (item slashes neck of victim), (victim
falling down),

Ø-apu-ŋu=lefa.
3-die-PI=MT
‘Next, her ripped-off claw tsuk, thrown at the one (seated) there,
toh, and so she fell down and died.’

c. An example of a repeated ideophone initiating a clause chain:

lepene tuk’, tuk’, tuk’

afterwards (sound of arms beating the water)

et-sumi-tsi-ŋu
MV-beat.on-VI-SN
‘Afterwards tuk’ tuk’ tuk’ (she heard the sound of) his beating
on the water.’

d. A repeated ideophone as a recapitulation clause:

lepe e-te-lu-lefa, e-te-lu=lefa

next 3-go.away-PI-MT, 3-go.away-PI=MT

tititi
(sound of bare feet on a dirt path)
‘Next he went away, he walked away on the path.’

e. An extended action ideophone linking an explicitly described

action with another ideophonic construction. The notion of the
object falling ‘into a hole’ is not referenced by the ideophone
directly, but was my Kalapalo assistant’s explanation of what
happened:

u:m, ule-ke-tale et-ïŋ-Gi-tsïgï

EXP, ATR-because.of-NT MV-pity-cause-VPE

t-iŋi-ti-feke ah u:m, bïk!

REF-see-TH-ERG EM (sound of lengthened action) (sound of
an object landing on the ground)
‘Well, because of all that this time he took pity on her and threw
it where she would see it, ahu:m, bïk! (Into a hole).’
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f. tsoh,
(sound of ladle being dipped into liquid),

aliŋ-gu-ta i-feke efitsu-feke,

stir-VT-CR 3-ERG wife-ERG,

Afanda fitsu-feke, ah Afanda fitsu

Afanda wife-ERG, EM Afanda-wife
‘Dipping the ladle into the pot, she stirred it, his wife did,
Afanda’s wife did that.’

11.2. Expressives

The class of expressives is a very small adverbial-like word class with

two sub-sets distinguished semantically and morphologically. The first
subset is interjections. The eleven members of this set are all bisyllabic.
They reference the speaker’s affective reaction to an entity (human or
non-human) that is either in the immediate presence of the speaker or
that is being referenced by another speaker. These may host a nominal
suffix. The following is an example in which the speaker is expressing
disgust at a baby that has just relieved itself in the doorway.

kĩ.tsĩ-su
disgusting-PEJ
‘Disgusting, as always.’

The second subset consists of eight epistemic expressives, six of which

are monosyllabic, and two of which are bisyllabic compounds. These are
important elements in a speaker’s stance positioning VIs à VIs the
listener. A speaker’s use of epistemic expressives involves an attempt to
involve the listener in reacting to the speaker’s opinion about something.

ah, ɳi-ke=apa ande ila-ña

EXP, see-I=CONF here.now distal.manner-ALL

its-apїgї its-a
3-footprint EX- CL
‘Surely, consider as I have their footprints here are (heading) over
that way.’

Interjections on the other hand, have a more narrowly declarative

function, asserting the speaker’s reaction to something without specific
regard for the listener’s own opinion or reaction.
Together, these morphemes are adverbial in function, as they
modify a NP or a member of the small class of adjectives. Interjections
and epistemic expressives appear clause initially or clause finally in a
few cases, typically have either very shortened or extended vowel
endings, and. when initiating an utterance, are followed by a significant
pause. They may be contrasted with the mono- or bisyllabic ideophones.
One point of contrast is that the latter typically end with the checked
 343

consonant /k’/ or with /m/. A second contrast is that (unlike ideophones)

interjections and epistemic expressives reference arguments of verbs or
modifying nouns. Both sub-sets of the expressive word class can be used
to introduce further descriptive commentary.

11.2.1 Interjections

Eleven Kalapalo interjections are attested. These are summarized in the

following table. All interjections are glossed ‘IJ’.

Table 32. Kalapalo Interjections

Morpheme Translation
eteh ‘beautiful’
atah ‘delicious’
kїtsї ‘disgusting’
okoh ‘dangerous’
opuh ‘long way’, ‘long time’
adya ‘impatient’
kїtah ‘self-reproaching’
iñee ‘tiny’
mohoh ‘big’, ‘fat’
mbaha: (with rising intonation last ‘a great many’
syllable)
dyasu ‘pitiful’

11.2.1.1. eteh, ‘beautiful’

eteh, tupisuGi
IJ, red
‘A beautiful red one.’

11.2.1.2 atah, ‘delicious’

u:m, atah=mbe atah atah s-ike-Gi-lї ata-ɳa tago ki-ta.

EXP, IJ=SS IJ IJ 3-fart-VI-CI EQA-REP otter utter-CI
‘I think what you did (smells) delicious, delicious, delicious,
Otter was talking about his repeated farting.’

11.1.1.3 kïtsï, ‘disgusting’, ‘unattractive’

kïtsï Ø-nïg≈i-feke agi-nalï-lefa i-feke.

IJ 3-PS≈3-ERG, throw-U-MT 3-ERG
‘“Disgusting,” she said to him, and she pushed him away.’

11.2.1.4 okoh, ‘dangerous’

okoh=mbe=nafa kaŋa itetu-ŋu.

IJ=SS=EM fish heavy-ADV
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‘Be careful of that because fish are heavy.’

11.2.1.5 opuh, ‘far’, ‘a long time’

opuh ete-ŋalï
IJ go.away-REV
‘It’s a long way to travel.’

opuh u-enїm-iɳo gehale

IJ 1-come.back-POT again
‘I plan to come back again a long time from now.’

11.2.1.6 adyah, ‘impatient’

adyah, igia-su-fa ku-pisua-gï

IJ this.way-PEJ-PTP 1+2-brother-POSS

ki-lï-ki-tomi ku-pehe
utter-PI-CAUS-PURP 1+2-ERG,
‘I’m really tired that our brother speaks about us in this bad way
all the time.’

11.2.1.7. kїtah, ‘self reproaching’

a .tseta its-a kїtah

same.pace EX-CI IJ
‘There it was in the same place, My mistake.’

b. kїtah u-iña=taka teɳe-lї ku-pehe

IJ 1-DAT/BEN=EM eat.flesh-PI 1+2-ERG
‘My mistake, I agree we ate them.’

11.2.1.8 iñe:, ‘tiny’

a. iñe:, ule-ɳu=nika-fa igei

IJ , ATR-LT=EM-PTP IDEM
‘They’re really tiny here, not what I expected.’

11.2.1.9 mohoh, ‘big’, ‘fat’.

Normally interjections are not inflected, but here the speaker in a
joking manner uses this one as a nickname for an obese person:

a. mohoh-feke ifa-ta u-iña

fat-ERG tell-CI 1-DAT/BEN
‘The fat man taught it to me.’
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11.2.1.10 mbah ha:, ‘a great many’

a. mbah ha: iño-ti-nde-ale-fa.

IJ string.up-VT-CI-UT-PTP
‘It will keep on stringing up so many.’

11.2.1.11 dyasu, ‘pity’

This morpheme is often used as a scornful expression of pity.

It is unusual insofar as it can be deconstructed into two morphemes, i.e.
as SN-PEJ.

a. dyasu, ah agetsi-ŋo-pe i-pu-Gi-dyï-iña-kugu=ale

pitiful EM one-PREC-SAL 3-prune-VI-PI-DAT/BEN-fully=
UT
e-te-ŋalï, Ø-nïgï-ti=feke.
2-go.away-REV, 3-PS-EV=ERG
‘”But you’re the fool who always goes back and forth to clear
away the brush around just one tree” was what he said to him,
they say’.
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11.2.2 Epistemic expressives

The six monosyllabic and the two compound expressives have epistemic
semantics. These morphemes usually precede a descriptive commentary
or adverbial or indicative verb clauses. A summary of the set is shown in
Table 33. They are all glossed ‘EXP’.

Table 33. Kalapalo Epistemic Expressives

Morpheme Translation Grammatical
correlations
u:m Consciousness of Intentional and potential
thinking self; self in moods
description of action
(=imaginative)
akah, ka:h Consciousness of self as Perfective aspects
unable to act to change;
self is in description of
action (=frustrative)
koh Consciousness of world Denials, negatives; may
outside self; self not in also be cliticized
description
(=unknowing)
ah Consciousness of world Indicative mood;
outside self; self not in demonstratives
description ; (=assertive)
‘surely’
ma Consciousness of world Questions, doubt
outside self; self not in
description (=expresses
uncertainty)
ekї Name is unknown or nominal predications
temporarily forgotten
u:m ma Uncertainty of Preposed to adverbial
understanding in context clause construction
of an attempt to try to
understand
ah u:m Certainty of imaginative Preposed to indicative
understanding clause construction

11.2.2.1. u:m, referencing imaginative thought

This expressive has unusual prosodic features, namely, an initial high

tone followed by a descending tone. I have no examples in which u:m
appears by itself; it is always followed by a concrete reference to what
the speaker is thinking about.

a The Trickster’s ear-piercing companion, Kutsafugu, present in

the Trickster’s home, sees some fruit hanging up in the house
and thinks it must be there for him to eat. He says to himself:
 347

u:m, ege=mbe-ts-ŋa ñe-ku-tomi

EXP, PDEM=SS-EX-I OB-eat.crunchy.food-PURP
‘If only this was done so it could be eaten.’

b. In this example, there is included the epistemic clitic =laka,

‘correction in the mind of speaker’ (EM) The example is
the same as Chapter 3: 3.3.1(d)

a. u:m aŋi=laka ukuge ele, ukuge.

EXP result=EM human being PDEM, human being
‘I suppose that could have been human, a human being’.

11.2.2.2. akah, ka:h, ‘frustrative’

This expressive may be used as a particle as well. It is often used in

mourning, as in b), when a person returns home announcing the death or
transformation of another person somewhere far from home, calling out
to the rest of the group.

a. akah, u-gupu-ñe-nalï=lefa i-feke.

EXP, 1-stomach-cause-REP=MT 3-ERG
‘I’m tired of it trying to destroy my stomach again.’

b. uwa-ma tu-i-lï, ka:h

Q-EM do-VI-PI, EXP
‘What in the world can I do about it?’

b. ka:h, ka:h , afïtï afïtï afïtï ekugu

EXP, EXP, denial, denial, denial fully

ukw-an-їŋgo=lefa
1+2-EQS-
POT;PL=MT
‘Why, why, no, we’ll no longer be together.’

11.2.2.3. koh, ‘don’t know’

Referencing the speaker’s lack of knowledge, this morpheme may occur

as an epistemic clitic or particle (and is listed as such in Chapter 12,
Table 35), but can be used as an expressive, standing alone as a response
to a question. It is often followed by a clarification of why the speaker
says she ‘doesn’t know’. These utterances may include EM’s, but are
more usually followed by a lexeme that elaborates the fact of this lack of
knowledge (e.g., ‘who knows why X...’, ‘no one knows who X’).

Here, the speaker has been asked to identify something that’s

been found on a sandbank:
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koh, kuge ite=ŋapa-fa=le=gei

EX, human feces=EM-PTP-UT=IDEM
‘I don't know, but it seems to be human shit to me’.

11.2.2.4. ah, assertive

This expressive indexes strong conVIction, and when used before a first
person construction, the speaker’s own memory. This expressive is
followed by a full description of what the speaker is asserting. The
example is a line that begins a first-hand narrative about a mishap.

a. ah, u-te-lu segei tafiŋa-i, tafiŋa-i,

EXP, 1-go-PI ADEM alligator-CL, alligator-CL
‘Let me tell you, I went around something like (this) as an
alligator, as an alligator.’

There are numerous examples in which ah introduces an utterance in

which epistemic clitics (EM) appear. Examples of ah with some of these
morphemes taken from Chapter 12 follow.

b. A grandfather sees his two grandsons for the first time. This
example is interesting for its miraspective tone. (Same example
as Chapter 12.3.2.15b):

ah ande-ŋu=tiki u-fi-dyau a-nïgï

EX here/now-DIM EM 1-g.child-PL EQS-PS
‘These little ones here can’t be my grandchildren!’

c. The speaker uses maki with the assertive expressive ah, ‘surely’.
A person who thought the river was somewhere else sees it and
realizes his mistake (Same example as Chapter 3.3.2.16a).

ah, ande= maki fanguiŋa-lefa, Ø-nïg=i-feke

EX here/now= EM river-MT say to-PERF=1-ERG
‘"Surely, that river’s here after all", he said.’

d. A woman tells her brothers her abductor was not one of their
kind (same example as Chapter 12.3.2.17c).

ah, ukuge-fїŋї=makina wãke igei wãke,

EX, 1-person-unlike =EM EM IDEM EM,

u-iki-dyu=lefa u-feke tsa=l=feke, i-ño-pe-feke.

1-abduct-PI=MT 1-ERG tell-UT=ERG, 3-husband-SAL-ERG
’Believe me, the one who abducted me before wasn’t a person
like us’, she kept telling them about her husband’.
 349

e. From a leader’s ceremonial talk

ah fitse-ke=mukwe=lefa timbe-ga≈ke
EXP quickly-ADV= EM=MT arrive-Ci≈COM

ei-ŋoku
2-messenger(s)
‘surely, I hope they arrived quickly, your messengers’

All these are strong assertive forms, either in the context of a negative
response to another’s assertion or corrections in the mind of the speaker.
The seemingly anomalous use of ah with the contra-spective mukwe can
be understood with regard to the fact that the speaker is asserting a strong
wish through a series of semantically inverted metaphors (speaking
pejoratively about a highly desired matter, for example), as are
characteristic of the affinal ciVIlity register.

11.2.2.5. ma, uncertainty

This expressive is typically found with questions. In the following
example, a rhetorical (yes/no) question is used by the speaker, who is
criticizing her daughter’s husband for haVIng taken a younger sister of
his wife out of her puberty seclusion basket, suspended from the roof of
their house.

ma, tï-tomi n=igey e-fisï-feke e-ikene

EXP, RQ-PURP OP=IDEM 2-Ybro-ERG 2-yz

i-tïtsine-tïfïgï
3-lower.down-IMP
‘Oh no! Why did your younger brother have to lower your
younger sister down,

tï-tomi, tï-tomi.
RQ- PURP, RQ-PURP
‘why, why?’
 350

11.2.2.6. ekї, uncertainty regarding a name, ‘um’

This expressive is used often to reference uncertainty when a speaker

either does not know or has temporarily forgotten a name. In addition,
when a name may not be used by the speaker because of avoidance
constraints, ekї may be substituted, although metaphorical expressions
are more commonly used, especially by older speakers.

kufisoko te-ta. kufisoko=mbe-fa.

black.skimmer go.away-CI black skimmer=SS-PTP

ekï Afanda, Afanda.

EXP Afanda, Afanda
‘The black skimmer was flying overhead, the black skimmer was
doing that, um, Afanda, Afanda.’

11.2.2.7. u:m ma, uncertainty of understanding something seen

This co-joined expressive pair involving the initial expressive and the
‘doubt’ epistemic (EM) appears to reference uncertainty of
understanding (while observing some surprising or unusual situation).
This is usually a straightforward interjection, sometimes followed by the
–ku (‘intensive’) adverbial; here the construction hosts the ‘self-
confirmation’ epistemic clitic tifa.

a. u:m ma=ku=tifa efisua-gї-ko iɳ-ati u-iñalї.

EXP EM=INT=-EM OBR-POSS-PL lie.down-in 1-MAL
‘I never remember it being right for me to lie down with your
older brother.’ (or, ‘How can I ever lie down with your older
brother?’)

b. In this example the speaker is not only uncertain about what

she is seeing, she is expressing exasperation that the person seen
is misbehaVIng:

u:m ma:!, e-te-ke-fa, e-te-ke-fa Ø- ta i-feke.

EXP EM! 2-go.away-I-PTP, 2-go.away-I-PTP 3-CI 3-ERG
‘What’s this??’. ‘Go away, go away’, she said to him.’

11.2.2.8. ah u:m, ‘certainty of imaginative thought’

In contrast with u:m ma (11.2.2.7), this compound expressive references

the speaker’s certainty (ah) coming from introspective
understanding(u:m).

a. ah u:m, aɳi=ka: tis-agage amago.

EXP EXP result=FRUST 1+3-alike these.people
‘But I’m thinking surely these people (will) turn out to be just
like us.’
 351

11. 3. Adjectives
In Kalapalo, there is a small class of probably no more than 20 underived
monomorphemic adjectives. These adjectives fall into the following sets
of Dixon’s (2004) adjectival categories: physical attributes, dimension,
age/value, human propensity, similarity, position. In Kalapalo,
morphemes with semantic reference to Dixon’s other adjectival
categories (number, color, taste/smell categories, birth order, time) are
nouns or de-verbal nominalizations; a very few are adverbs or verbs.

11.3.1. Syntactic and grammatical features

Underived adjectives are defined through their syntactic and grammatical
properties, as well as their position in word order. With respect to their
word order, adjectives can be preceded by adverbials, but otherwise
precede the NP and free pronouns they complement.
Nominalized adjectives always follow the NP. (Adverbials,
which always take first position in the clause, do not have these syntactic
restrictions.)
Syntactically, adjectives occur as modifiers of nouns and take a
limited number of inflections. Kalapalo adjectives may be suffixed with
a nominalizing suffix, which is the only derivational feature they allow.

a. tsїɳgi-ñї atu
bitter-SN bitter.piqui.fruit
‘The bitter one, atu.’

They are able to host the class inclusion (-i) suffix, the salient (-pe)
suffix and (like adverbs) the negative property (–la) suffix. The
appearance of a class inclusion copula suffix on an adjective usually
occurs when the adjectival morpheme is repeated immediately after the
original modified head NP. When adjectives host the copula suffix, they
may be understood as nominalized words.

b. atutu-i, ‘a good one’

c. atutu-la, ‘bad’

d. atutu-pe, ‘one of the good ones’

Adjectives may also host some taxis morphemes, such as the persistive
taxis clitic gele, ‘still’ (PT). In this construction they behave as adverbs.

e. atutu=gele, ‘still good, useful’

f. atutu=fale, ‘good this time’

 352

11.3.2. Adjectives of quality and physical features

Adjectives referencing quality or physical attributes may host –i, the

class inclusion copula suffix, or the negative suffix –la, forming
antonyms.

a. atutu, ‘good, nice’ (atutu-i, ‘a nice one’)

b. akïŋi,’ many’ (akïŋi-la, ‘not many’)

c. katote, ‘all of them’ (kato-fo-la, ‘not all of them’)

d. kapehe, ‘tall’ (kapehe-la, ‘not tall’, ‘short’)

e. intsoño, ‘little’

f. tsekegï, ‘large’. If glossed as: ‘3p-large.size-poss’, this may be

a possessed nominal, (derived from a root -eke meaning ‘large
size’, as in the nouns, itseke ‘powerful being’ and itseketu ‘the
power of a powerful being’)

g. alaŋo, ‘pale’

h. telo, ‘different’ (telo-i, ‘a different kind’)

i. otohoɳo, ‘another one’ (of the same kind)

j. ifutugu, ‘dirty’ (also may be possessed nominal)

k. fekite, ‘comfortable feeling’

aŋi fekite uege

result attractive you
‘Are you in good shape?’

l. ego, ‘good behaVIor’, ‘well-behaved’:

ego fïgi, ‘good arrow’; ego fitsu, ‘good wife’

m. isususu, ‘decrepit’

u-itige isususu, ‘my decrepit hammock’

n. tsue, ‘very many’

i-tsїgї=mbe tsue ekugu

3-bone=SS very.many fully
‘It was full of its bones.’
 353

11.3.3. Comparison of adjectival and nominal complements

Kalapalo adjectives contrast with nominal complements insofar as they
1) never are suffixed with nominalizing suffixes and b) never are
predicated by demonstratives. Most syntactically nominal predications
(i.e., modifiers of nouns) are underived nouns or nominalized and
adverbialized roots (especially with, ekugu, ‘fully’) derived at the lexical
level. These morphemes can be re-nominalized with such suffixes as,-
mbїɳї, ‘former’, ’, -kusїgї, ‘lesser’, -ko, ‘plural’. There are also
antonyms of members of this group which are derived nominals usually
formed from one or another kind of negative nominalizing suffix. They
may be predicated by pronominal demonstratives (a).

a. atutu-i-la ele
good-CL-NEG 3.distal.PDEM
‘that was a good kind of thing’.

b. eɳe-ta-ti-ñї-mbїɳї
otu eat.flesh-CI-DES-AN-W
‘(person) never wanting to eat meat as food’.

c. –ñu, -ne, ‘possessor of attribute’ suffixes

fesiñu elei, ‘he was ugly’ (‘an ugly person’)

te-kafu-ki-ñu, ‘a thin person’ (“herself made to be thin person”)
tufiliñe, ‘strong’ (‘his own strength’).
fai-nde-ne egei, ‘he is an old person’

11.4. Discourse particles

This small closed class includes several free-standing morphemes that do

not form a phonological word with preceding units. Generally, these
words have discourse functions. They are listed in Table 34 followed by
examples, most of which are from the narrative texts in the appendices.

Table 34. Discourse Particles

Morpheme Translation

eh he agreement

eh yes

aluale instead

aifa finished, done, ready

lepene afterwards, later on

lepe next
 354

11.4.1. eh he, ‘agreement’

This particle marks conversational agreement. The speaker is confirming
acceptance of a proposition or proposal offered by the interlocutor. The
following example is taken from the narrative ‘Tree Termites’ Arrow’,
told by Kakaku at Aifa (Appendix D, line 12).

a. eŋi-ke at-iti u-kwai i-kui-ke i-kui-ke at-iti

2-look-I EQS-DES 1-on 3-pull.out-I 3-pull.out-I EQS-DES

u-kwai, i-kui-ke.
1-on. 3-pull.out-I
‘Look, perhaps you can pull out what is on me, pull out what is
on me perhaps, pull it out’.

b. eh he Ø-nïg≈i-feke.
agreement 3-PS≈3-ERG
‘“All right,” he answered.’

11.4.2. eh, ‘yes’

This is used in response to a question by the interlocutor, often followed
by a confirmation of the proposition in the question.

a. The following is an example from a narrative. The listener

repeats the word ‘iño’, ‘husband’ to which the story-teller
answers, eh, ‘yes’, and continues with her narrative.

iño-nïgï=lefa, iño-i=lefa, eh, iño-i.

3;husband-PS=MT, 3;husband-CL=MT, yes, 3;husband-CL
‘And so he became her huband, he was a husband to her, yes, a
husband to her.’

11.4.3. aluale, ‘instead’

This word may be uttered without further comment, but it can be used
clause initially within a larger discourse construction, or in one particular
construction, within a kind of ‘curse’ (see b).

a. Here, aluale begins the utterance after the listeners are

addressed.

kїɳamukwe aluale ata-i-ti a-fatuwĩ-ko efїgi

children, instead EQA-EP-DES 2-nephew-PL arrow

fo-po-a-lї-pe
aim-HYP-EP-CI-SAL
‘Children, instead perhaps your nephew’s arrows might have
been aimed.’
 355

b. In this example, aluale is placed by the speaker between two

parts of a curse, lafa itsani, ‘may 3p remain as he/she is’ (often
used when the speaker has become completely frustrated with
the bad behaVIor of the subject). While the components of that
construction may be readily analyzed, it is regarded here as an
idiom with special narrative discourse segment marking
functions, as it often concludes an unsuccessful effort on the part
of the speaker to change the subject’s behaVIor.

la-fa aluale kup-fiñano i-tsa-ni.

like.that-PTP instead 1+2-ORO EX-CI-ANT
‘Instead, may our older brother stay the way he is.’

11.4.4. aifa, ‘finished’

This lexeme may be used as a question word without further comment,

‘is it done/ready?’. This word may be formed from the root, ai-, ‘ready,
done’ with the primary topical participant suffix –fa. The clause
chaining function of this root may also explain how it can host clause
connecting clitics, particularly =lefa and =mbe. aifa is very commonly
used in narratives to signal the end of one topic and the beginning of
another involVIng a sequence of actions. All examples have been taken
from the narrative ‘Mїti’ (Appendix C), told by the late Kalapalo leader
Kambe. Line references for this text are given with the examples.

a. Use of the root ai- with metonymic taxis connecting this chain
with a preceding sequence of events :

line 37.
ai=lefa t-aGi-mbi-dya-ki-ku=mbe-fa,
ready.done=MT REF-cover-VT-CI-INST-intensive=SS-PTP,

ipufi at-ani, fala aGi-mbi-dyo,

bark EQA-ANT fala.tree cover-VT-CI,
‘She was ready to pull off the fala tree’s bark wrapping when...’,

b. Use of ai- with the ‘same event arguments’ inter-clausal

reference marker =mbe:

line 82. t-eñu-tsi-tsi=mbe, tsiuk’,

REF-crawl.down-VI-ADV=SS, (sound of cutting)

ai=mbe-fa
ready.done=SS-PTP
‘As it was crawling down after that tsiuk, she was ready to do
that to it.’

c. Use of aifa to indicate preceding events have been completed

and the actor is ready for a new action:
 356

line 78. aifa, mbisuk’,

ready.done (ideophone, something ended),

ts-ïmbï-ki-lï=mba=hale.
3-finish-VI-PI=DS=DT.
‘It was done, mbisuk, but this time it came out
completely.’

d. Use of aifa following the particle lepene, ‘afterwards’, in another

common discourse segment marking construction:

line 123. lepene aifa

afterwards ready.done
‘Finally it ended.’

e. Use of aifa to remind the listener to pay attention to important

events to come:

line 59. e-tsa-ke-fa, aifa.

2-listen-I-PTP, ready.done
‘So listen to what happened in the end.’

f. The use of aifa at the end of a narrative:

line 138. aifa≈nïgï ake-ts-igei.

ready.done≈EQS-PS DEO-EX-IDEM
‘This is how I need to end it. ’

11.4.5. lepene, ‘afterwards’

This lexeme is an important segment marking particle where the

new sequence of events does not directly follow from the
preceding ones. This and lepe (11.4.6) appear to have a common
root, which may be shared by the anaphoric topic referent
demonstrative ule.

a. Here a new sequence of events unrelated to the preceding is

described.

4.lepene ukuge tute, tu-inzage tsï-fa,

Later.on person REF-come.to-TH, REF-alone-M-PTP,

tititi i-tsa-i-ŋa
(sound of walking) 3-EX-EP-SN
‘Later on a person approached, someone alone, tititi walking
until he was there.’
 357

11.4.6. lepe, ‘next’

Some, but not all, speakers pronounce this ulepe, suggesting it is a form
of the anaphoric topic referent used clause initially to shift topics.
However, lepe is always used in descriptions of sequences of events, as
example (a) attests. Line numbers are from Appendix C, ‘The Tree
Termites’ Arrow’, told by Kakaku at Aifa.

a. line 15
lepe tikű i-feke sïki sïki sïki, katote,
next pull.out 3-ERG (sound of repeated pulling out), all of
them

sïki. aifa
(sound of pulling out). done
‘Next he pulled them out sïki sïki sïki, all of them, sïki. Finished.’

b. line 19.
lepe=ta-hal≈egei a-ŋ-a-Gi-lu-iŋo-i, lepe
next= DIS-NO≈ADEM 2-OB-throw-PCAUS-PT-POT-CL next

a-ŋ-a-Gi-lu-iŋo-i
2-OB-throw-PCAUS-PI-POT-CL
‘Then just before you get ready to (let yourself) throw that, then
you get ready to throw that,

e-ki-lu-iŋo iñoti-gï ake-ts-igei

2-utter-PI-POT string.up-POSS SD-DEO-IDEM
‘you will say, “This must be the stringer”.’

11.5. Deontics

Kalapalo deontics are inflected morphemes, expressing a person’s

authoritative need or decision to do something. Often the use of deontics
is related to events that are required or obligatory from the perspective of
the speaker or a third party referent. They do not always reference a
positive or friendly perspective (see example (c)). These morphemes are
also frequently used in polite registers when direct requests would be
inappropriate.
The core of a Kalapalo deontic is the existential verb
construction itsa-, ‘existing’, followed either by an imperative suffix -ɳe.
or an identificational demonstrative igei. (I use DEO to gloss each of
these constructions as a whole). The specific types are predicated by
inflectional prefixes ake- (S or A reference, SD) which occurs with both
the imperative and their identificational type, or fe- (O reference, OD),
which only occurs with the imperative form. Deontic prefixes are
different from the person prefixes otherwise used to reference verbal
arguments or nominal possessors, exhibiting a nominative-accusative
contrast, but this never influences the main clause alignment.
 358

Furthermore, the prefixes may be omitted where there is a free personal

pronoun (11.5.2g) or other lexical noun phrase (11.5.1f,g).

11.5.1 ake-tsaŋe (SD-DEO), deontic subject construction

This construction co-references the S or A predicate. It may follow local

demonstratives (a), (b), or pronominal demonstratives (c). Also, it may
be negated (d), (e).

a. ande ake-tsa-ŋe dyadya Ø-nïgï, dyadya

here.now SD-DEO OBRO(voc) 3-PS, OBRO (voc)

ake-tsaŋe ande.
SD-DEO here.now

ande ake-tsaŋe u-e-ta, ti-mba-tigi.

here.now SD-DEO 1-come.to-CI, arrive-VI-SUP
‘“Older Brother you’ve decided to be here,” they said, “Older
Brother you’ve decided to be here.”’ ‘“I’ve arrived because I’ve
decided to visit.”’

b. wende ake-tsaŋe ule-kugu-pe

over.there SD-DEO ATR-every-SAL
‘I’ve had to leave all of what remains of (3p) over there.’

c. ege-pe ake-tsaɳe tuɳ-ge a-fiñano-iña

PDEM-SAL SD-DEO give-I 2-OBR-DAT/BEN

tu-nїm-iɳo e-feke.
REF-give-POT 2-ERG
‘I want you to give this one to your older brother, you’ll plan to
give it (to him).’

d. This example is a deontic negation of a copular predicate. The

copular complement is marked by SD, while the copular subject
is referenced by the lexical NP.

afїtї ake-tsaɳe ї-fїgi-pe a-nїgї

denial SD-DEO 1-arrow-SAL EQS-PS
‘No, I don’t want to use any more arrows.’
 359

e. This is another deontic negation of a copular predicate,

shown in brackets.

afїtї la≈ke-tsaɳe [ukw-augu-fїɳї=lefa

denial like.that-SD-DEO 1+2-lie-resemble=MT

e-fisuagї-ko a-nїgї-la=lefa]
2-Obr-PL EQS-PS-NEG=MT

te-ti-ki=lefa kaɳa-i
REF-change-ADV=MT fish-CL
‘No longer does your older brother want to be our
deceiver, because he’s turned himself into a fish.’

There are examples of the SD-DEO used with SD substituted for by a

full NP.

f. Here the DEO construction is headed not by SD but by a lexical

NP (in brackets) hosting the ‘repetition’ taxis clitic =ge. This
NP is the S argument of the clause. The clausal construction
hosts the persistive taxis clitic (PT) =gele, ‘still’.

[ɳele fitsu=ge] tsaŋe=gele tu-fonu-nda=mukwe.

same.person wife=also DEO=PT REF-cry-CI-EM
‘His wife also wanted to weep for him repeatedly, in vain.’

g. This construction may also follow upon a purposive clause as in

this example.

egei te-tomi≈ tsaŋe

IDEM go.away-PURP≈DEO
‘His purposive going away must occur.’

11.5.2 fe-tsaŋe (OD-DEO), deontic object construction

This construction references the predicated O. Many, but not all

examples are in the imperative.

a. i:ña fe-tsaɳe e-te-te

3;DAT/BEN 3-DEO 2-go.away-I

a-fiñano-feke egi-tu-ni-k-їgї-a:ke.
2-OBRO-ERG envy-AN-CAUS-PS-2;COM.
‘You must go to him. This will make your older brother envy
you (lit, be your envy-er for a time).’
 360

b. a-tolo-gu u-uits-a fe-tsaɳe ige-ke

2-bird-POSS 1-make-CI SD-DEO take-I
‘You must take this pet of yours I have been making’.

c. An example with the deontic object reference following an

active ‘be’ verb marking clause in a ‘consideration’ lexical
complement clause. The interclausal reference marker is the
‘same nominal argument’, dye.

iɳ-ge ata=dye fe-tsaɳe

look.think-I EQA-SN OD-DEO
‘You must consider carefully how this works.’

e. The following is an example of a quoted imperative clause that

includes the OD-DEO construction (bracketed). As the quotation
is marked by the identificational demonstrative egei in clause
final position, the deontic construction appears to reference the
quotation as O.

[inde fe-tsaŋe ke-te-ŋa,] u-ki-ta-ti-taka egei

here OD-DEO NEG-go-NEG 1-utter-CI-DES-EM IDEM
“’You must stop going around here’, I’m sure I was saying that.”

f. This example shows the OD-DEO construction included in a

marking clause hosting =mbe, the ‘same argument’ interclausal
reference marker ( SS). The subordinate construction
referencing O and A is an ‘agentive’ nominalization (shown in
brackets).

aŋi=nika eŋï=mbe-ti fe-tsaŋe [u-ine-ni],

exist=EM reason-SS-DES OD-DEO 1-poison-AN,

isi ki-lï.
3;mother utter-PI
‘“Is that so? Because if I (ate it), it would want to poison me
(lit., must be my poisoner),” Her mother spoke.’

g. Here the accusative prefix fe- (OD) is substituted for by the first
person pronominal demonstrative uge-, ‘me’, O of the head de-
verbal agentive nominalization (in brackets).

uge-tsaɳe ku-pisu-feke [u-ifi-tsa-ni]

me-DEO 1+2-YBRO-ERG 1=touch-VT-AN
‘ I want to be the one your younger brother will touch (lit., be
my toucher).’ (i.e.have sex with).

11.5.3 ake-ts≈igei, deontic demonstrative construction

The second type of deontic construction which only occurs with the SD
prefix is of the form: [SD-DEO-IDEM]. This construction makes use of
 361

the identificational demonstrative igei. This more nominal form has the
sense of ‘this is the decision’.

a In this conversational example, the personal authority of each

speaker is expressed through the deontic, but the event
descriptions in question are not positively required. On the
contrary, it is the authoritative certainty (particularly of the
second speaker) about an unfortunate event to occur that is being
referenced. (i) and (ii) refer to the first and second speakers
respectively.

i.e-fameti-gï ŋi-pi ake-tsaŋe egei e-fïgi.

2-b-in-law-POSS EQS-ADV SD-DEO ADEM 2-arrow.
‘Your brother-in-law wanted to use (take) your arrow.’

ii. to-to-nïmi ifa-ta i-feke apu-ŋu-Ø ake-ts≈igei,

REF-RQ-CONS tell-CI 3-ERG, die-VI-RES SD-DEO≈IDEM,

apu-ŋu-Ø ake-ts≈igei,
die-VI-RES SD-DEO≈IDEM
‘Why, oh why did you tell him about it, he must die as a result,
he must die as a result.’

tu-e-lu-iŋo ake-ts-igei.
REF-shoot-PI-POT SD-DEO≈DEM
‘It will want to shoot him.’

i. iñalï, Ø-nïg≈i-feke
NEG, 3-PS≈3-ERG
‘“It won’t,” she answered.’

b. Another example using the nominative deontic construction.

Its presence immediately following the verb suggests this
predicate, rather than the allative argument is the focus of
the utterance.

te-lu-iɳo ake-ts≈igei o-wĩ-na.

go.away-PI-POT SD-EX≈IDEM 2-father-ALL
‘I’ve decided you must go to your father.’

11.5.4. Deontics in complex clause constructions

The following example shows how two of these deontics may occur in a
complex clause construction. The lexical complement ‘reason’ clause
(bracketed) is followed by the main ‘useless’ clause. A son has asked
his mother to come sit beside him for a serious talk; that is what she
“must do”.
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[eŋu fe-tsaŋe] talo-ki muk≈ake-tsaŋe awa-dyu

reason OD-DEO useless-ADV EM≈SD-DEO uncle-END

i-ndisï-na u-te-fo-ta.
3-daughter-ALL 1-go away-HYP-CI
‘The reason you must do this is I’ve decided I should go to
Uncle's daughter, though it probably won't work out the way I
would like.’

11.6. Coordinator õ, ‘and’

The coordinator õ, ‘and’ is only used with proper nouns to form lists.
The coordinator is immediately followed by the referent, after which
there is a short pause (marked as ‘,’ in the examples) before the next use
of the coordinator. It should be noted that there are many other Kalapalo
morphemes with coordinating functions, including the taxis clitics
described in Chapter 12, the comitative –ake (when used to mark
coordinated S), the concessive verbal suffix –ote, the ‘additive’ adverb
gehale (‘also’), and the ‘summary’ adverb ekugu, ‘fully’. In this regard,
Haspelmath’s assertion (2007:7-8) that non-written languages lacked
coordinators before being influenced by written languages, is not borne
out by these data.
In the first example of the coordinator õ (a) the speaker knows
all the names of the group of siblings. In the second example (b), he was
uncertain of the name of the second person. Note that in both examples,
the primary topical participant marker –fa is used to indicate that the
head of the marked noun phrase is the same head of a following noun
phrase. These are boldfaced in the examples.

a. Kagayfuku ititë fegei õ Kagasafegï, õ Paimïgasa

(name), (name) ADEM) and (name), and (name),

õ Paipegu-fa.
and (name)-PTP

tatakegeni. atutu elei

four good PDEM
‘Kagayfuku (that’s his name), and Kagasafeï, and Paimïgasa,
and Paipegu. Four. He (the last named) was beautiful.’

b. Saganafa, õ Paimigu-fa, õ iŋko-mugu-ŋapa-fa,

(name), and (name)-PTP, and unknown-person-EM-PTP,

ukuge.
person.
‘Saganafa, and Paimigu, and whoever that last named was, one
of us.’

c. In this example from narrative discourse, items that are named as

a list are not immediately conjoined, but are separated by
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commentary. Nonetheless, the coordinator is used to create the

list. The members of the list are sometimes separated by a long
pause (marked by ‘.’ in the examples).

tohoŋo=gele-fa Wafasaka=gele
another.one=PT-PTP Wafaska=PT

Wafasaka u-iŋita-nïmi.
Wafasaka 1-see-CI-CONS

ifisuagï felei, Kwatïŋï fisuagï.

OBR ADEM, Kwatїɳї OBR
‘Yet another one Wafasaka. “I haven’t (yet) seen Wafaska.”
That was his brother, Kwatïŋï’s brother.’

õ Atuta-fa tu-feñe-gï igu-ĩtsi-ni ila i-kaiŋa,

and Atuta-PTP REF-net-POSS spin-ADV-AN far.away tree-on,

asoti=mbe=dye.
spider=SS=SE
‘And Atuta, the one who spins his web far on the trees, the
spider who does that.’

õ Ŋafaŋi-fa iŋe=mbe=dye, õ eku=mbe-fa adyua.

and Ŋafaŋi-PTP bee=SS=SE and unnamed=SS-PTP Bat
‘And Ŋafaŋi, he went to see the bee, and he went to see what’s
his name, Bat.’
364

Chapter 12
Clitics and Particles

Kalapalo is a language with a rich variety of clitics and a smaller

number of morphologically identical independent units or “particles”.
Clitics are one to three-syllable non-stressed, or lightly-stressed
grammatical words but with no morphological categories of their own,
that is, no inflectional or derivational possibilities. Exceptions to this
rule are the (very occasional) presence on some affective clitics of the
class inclusion copula suffix –i, the ‘unique’ suffix –a, and the primary
topical participant marker –fa, all of which must always appear in word
final position. Clitics never stand alone and must be hosted by another
grammatical word among which are a variety of syntactic units. All of
the latter constitute a phonological word in themselves to which the
clitic becomes attached without changing the stress pattern of the word.
Clitics are syntactically free insofar as they do not change their hosts’
functions, nor do they acquire a syntactic function by virtue of being
hosted. Consequently, Kalapalo clitics have very broad scope, in some
cases giving meaning not only to the independent clause or NP to which
they are attached, but often to larger syntactic units involving
subordinate clauses.
Particles are postposed to adverbial, nominal, or verbal phrasal
constructions and like clitics cannot appear alone. They do not host any
inflectional or derivational features. To contrast these morphemes with
clitics, the term “particle” seems justified by two features that
distinguish them from clitic status. First is the fact that these
morphemes are sometimes stressed on the first syllable. The class of
affective particles are syntactically distinct from clitics because they all
show stress on the first syllable, and those of one syllable have strong
stress and vocalic extension. This does not, however, change the
phonological shape of the preceding phonological word. Nonetheless,
although independent words, they are still in a constrained position,
following the immediately preceding grammatical word. In this regard
they are very similar to clitics. The second distinguishing feature is that
particles may appear several times in an utterance, following several
different (and different kinds of) phrasal constituents. Normally clitics
appear only once (although maintaining full scope over the entire
utterance). The particular morphemes that seem to achieve both particle
and clitic status are reviewed in discussions in this chapter of the
affective, epistemic and taxis sets. A set of discourse morphemes that
function as particles is described in Chapter 11: Small Word Classes.
Table 35 summarizes the features distinguishing Kalapalo clitics from
particles:
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Table 35. Comparison of Kalapalo Enclitics and Particles

Features Clitics Particles

Phonological word No Yes

Grammatical word No Yes
Derivational features No No
Inflectional features No No
Can be paired with Yes Yes
another clitic
Scope Clause; clause chain Clause
segment
if interclausal reference
marker
Special phonological Regressive vocalic No regressive
processes elision when vocalic
followed by second clitic elision; independent
word
Syntax Adverbial Postpositional

12.1. General overview of Kalapalo clitics

There are several sets of Kalapalo clitics that follow an adverbial or

verbal clause. Each of these sets of enclitics contains many members.
Enclitics generally take second position after the first non-permeable
constituent, (which is normally a stem with one or more inflectional
constituents.) Enclitics include affective, epistemic, taxis or phasal
markers, and interclausal reference markers (discussed separately in
Chapter 14). Some epistemic clitics are very free clitics, attaching
themselves to various different kinds of constituents and to more than
one phrase within a single utterance, and in some pragmatically defined
instances even to every clause and NP in the utterance. In a few cases,
an enclitic may have a non-clitic alternant which acts as an independent
word or “particle”. Kalapalo clitics have basically lexical meaning, but
the interclausal reference markers (IRM) also have important
grammatical meaning.

12.1.1 The positioning of clitics on phonological words

Reviewing the analysis of stress presented in Chapter 2, the following

examples of utterances with no clitics show that generally speaking
phonological words have primary stress on the second syllable. There are
pragmatically defined exceptions with heavy stress on the final syllable
of a complete utterance. Where vowels at adjacent morphological
boundaries are subject to vowel elision (the morphemes involved in
vowel elision material are in brackets) the examples show regressive
elision where a noun is followed by (as in a) another noun or (as in b) a
VP. The comma (,) indicates a brief pause before a new clause:
366

a. fe’uluGi at-‘ïfïgï [aŋ’ifolo ≈ ‘fitsu-i,]

dung.beetle EQA-IMP [dawn person ≈wife-CL,]
fe’uluGi i-ñ’ïgï.
dung.beetle EX-TR
‘A dung beetle became (lit., ‘it’s becoming’) the wife of a
person from ancient times.’

b. [e-fisï≈ te-tomi] ata-iti u-tiŋa-gï

2-ybr≈go.away.PURP EQA-DES 1-split.open.fruit.POSS

i-ti-gi.
3-o.get.SUP
‘Perhaps your younger brother could go get me some split-open
fruit?’

Where an enclitic occurs, the phonological word does not change stress
patterning but there is obligatory secondary stress on the first syllable of
the clitic. In (c) there is an ‘unending’ taxis clitic =ale, ‘continuing on,
always’ (UT) hosted by the head NP, together with an adverbial
circumfix afïtï ...N-fuŋu, “unlike N.” In this example, the first element of
the circumfix is followed by the secondarily stressed “primary topical
participant” –fa.

c. Ah kuigiñu=’ale figei afïtï-’fa,

EXP manioc.flour=UT ADEM denial-PTP,

≈ŋiko ≈fuŋu Ø- ta i-feke.

wild.inedible.plant ≈R, 3-tell-CI 3-ERG
‘Surely, this manioc flour will never be like those wild and
inedible plants,’ he told her.

Example (d) shows the same adverbial circumfix as in (c). The

first constituent hosting the epistemic clitic =maki,
“reevaluation” or “realization”; this clitic has scope over the
entire predication:

d. a’fïtï=’maki Tugumai-fuŋu ku-’kuge

denial=EM Trumai-R 1+2-people
‘Now I realize, we are are not Trumai’.

12.1.2. Semantic types of clitics

In this section, I look at the classes of Kalapalo enclitics, define them

more closely from a semantic perspective, and examine the types of hosts
to which clitics may attach. I will also look at the co-occurrence or
pairing phenomena involved with enclitics, namely, what kinds of clitics
can be paired and why, the order of these pairings, and the prosodic
consequences of these phenomena.
 367

Within the general class of enclitics are four basic “closed” sets.
I call these sets: 1) affective, 2) epistemic, 3) taxis (or phasal), and 4)
interclausal reference markers (IRM). Some members of these sets must
be treated as particles rather than clitics, as they manifest their own
prosodic independence from the clause that hosts them, being separated
by a noticeable pause and showing stress on their initial syllable.
Otherwise, they are like clitics as they do not have their own inflectional
or derivational features and must follow immediately after a
phonological word.
Epistemic and affective clitics are basically distinguished
semantically as morphemes that are highly relevant to stance practices.
The taxis and interclausal reference markers have distinct clause
chaining functions. Members of no more than three (or in the case of the
presence of interclausal reference markers, four) different enclitic and
particle sub-classes may follow upon other word classes. Where
combinations of clitics and particles complement adverbials their scope
covers the clause. With phasal and interclausal reference markers, the
scope encompasses a partial or full clause chain, depending upon the
morpheme in question. In complex clause constructions, some particles
may occur repeatedly in an utterance, following each clause constituent.

12.2. Affective clitics and particles

These involve feelings of the speaker vis-à-vis an argument in the

clause. With one exception , these are all negative feelings of one degree
or another. The exception is the mirative clitic =seku. Many affective
morphemes can be simply hosted by nominals (a, c). The scope of these
morphemes is the entire utterance. Some may behave as particles,
showing stress on the first syllable. Affective clitics are commonly
paired with a particle (see examples 12.1.4c; 12.1.9a, b). Affective clitics
are somewhat unusual insofar as some are attested as hosting –i, the class
inclusion copula, –a ‘unique’ copula and the –fa ‘primary topical
participant’ suffixes. These are exceptions to the rule of clitics not
hosting any inflectional features. Table 36 shows the morphemes in this
set. I have not used glosses for the independent particles, which appear at
the end of the list. There is also a separate set of interjections, which I
call ‘affective expressives’ (see Chapter 11).

Table 36. Affective Clitics and Particles

Morpheme Gloss translation
=su PEJ pejorative, compulsive
keñi EVIT evitative, avoid
=ki MIRN negative mirative
=seku MIR neutral or positive mirative
=futsu PA pathetic
nile n/a inappropriate, wrong
dyogu n/a thoughtless
eGitse n/a unfortunate
 368

12.2.1. =su, pejorative (PEJ)

This clitic references an actor’s pejorative, compulsive, expected but

undesireable manner or action. Examples (a) and (c) show this in a
verbal construction (following aspect/mood category), and example b
shows su following a noun.

a. In this example, =su hosts the primary topical participant suffix

–fa, which must always occur in final position.

AH fuge if-enïgï=su-fa i-feke-ni,

EXP arrow grab-PS=PEJ-PTP 3-ERG-PL,

aŋiko-go-feke
fierce.PLCOLL-ERG
‘In their usual way, they surely did grab their arrows, the fierce
people did.’

b. fokueu’=su kuaku. ah, te-ke-s≈ata

night jar PEJ kuaku EXP go.away-I-PEJ ≈IMPA
‘Weird night jar, kuaku. Get out of here, you thing, quickly!’

Note: the name of the night jar is highly onomatopoetic of the bird’s
strange night call, as is the American term, ‘chuck will’s widow’.

12.2. 2. keñi , evitative (EVIT)’.

This particle references something to be avoided.

a. lepene=keñi itau-feke u-e-lu.

afterwards= EVIT woman-ERG 1-angry.with-PI
‘I wouldn’t want the woman to be angry with me afterwards. ‘

b. igei-a=keñi a-fa-ko fili-ñïgï, a-fa-ko

manner=avoid 3>2-tell–PL strength-TR, 3>2-tell-PL

i-fo-lï-ku≈le=ŋapa=lefa.
EX- HYP-CI-INT-ATR=EM=MT.
‘Lest this way, those who tell about you (i.e., human beings)
become strong; those who tell about you would probably be that
way forever.’

12.2.3 =ki, negative mirative clitic (MIRN)

This clitic references something surprising that is strongly rejected. Note:

there is also a ‘neutral’ mirative clitic =seku, described below, which
may host this clitic. Furthermore, /ki/ is homophonous to the
instrumental case marker and an adverbial suffix.
 369

a. A woman rejects a potential lover in a particularly rude manner

tï=ki: : (strong emphasis and lengthened vowel on last syllable):

RQ-MIRN
’You said what??’

12.2.4 =seku (MIR), neutral or positive mirative

The speaker is expressing surprise but in a more neutral or positive

manner. Note the semantic difference with the negative mirative clitic
=ki, which can occur if the speaker has a strong negative reaction.
However, the two may co-occur (this combination is seen in 12.2.7 (b).

a. uege=seku= ŋapa wãke

you-MIR=EM EM
‘I was surprised to think it might have been you.’

b. In this example the negative mirative =ki has the sense of

‘bothered by what has been proposed’:

uege=seku=ki wãke awï-nda-ko=fuŋu=mbedya=mbale wãke

you=MIR=MIRN EM lie-CI=PL=resemble=SSDE=CAT EM
‘I know they were not lying to them, about what they kept
(doing to them).’

12.2.5 =futsu, ‘pathetic’, ‘pitiful’.

I have only one example attested, with the clitic hosting the primary
topical participant suffix –fa.

fagї= futsu-fa
old.woman=pathetic-PTP

12.2.6 nile, ‘beware’.

This particle expresses the sense of needing to avoid something because

it is inappropriate, or dangerous. .

a. This example shows the affective particle following An

interclausal reference marking clitic (=mbe)

oko=mbe nile
ideo-SS beware
’Beware of that and avoid it.’
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b. This example shows the affective particle following an

interrogative adverbial.

tai-ku nile ukw-i-ta-ku=aka igei:

RQ-INT beware dual=utter-CI-INT=EM IDEM
’That’s really been a warning that you and I been talking about
all the time, haven’t we?’

c. This is an example of a compound interclausal reference marker

(=mbege, SSR) followed by the particle nile.

atah =mbege nile e-gike-gï

nice=SSR wrong 2-smell-POSS

’But it would be wrong for me to do (i.e., say) that again, you

smell nice to me!’

12.2.7 dyogu, ‘unkind’

This particle is a mild, sometimes comical malefactive, used when the

speaker judges the referent to be momentarily inconsiderate or
thoughtless, unaccepting of something a friend or other intimate has
done. There may even be a noticeable pause before the speaker uses it.

a. The speaker thinks that what he sees is some kind of

hallucination that doesn’t have consideration for the people who
would die just from seeing it.

la-ña≈ke-fa afi-tsa-i dyogu a-nїgї

manner-DAT/BEN=SD-PTP hallucinate-CI-CL unkind EQS-PS
‘Some kind of unkind hallucination wants to be like that’.

b. The speaker admits to her son-in-law that she didn’t let him
know she was right behind him, the result being that he spoke
salaciously to her, thinking she was his wife.

ah! uge dyogu≈tsa=ke-ts≈ege

EXP me unkind≈EX-CL=SD-EX≈PDEM
‘Oh no! Careless me who allowed you to do that!’

c. In this example, the speaker is critical of what he is served as

food. The clitic hosts the class inclusion copula –i.

eh, inde nago-faka Ø -ŋ-amba, dyogu-i

yes, here they-EM 3-OB-drink.porridge, unkind- CL
‘Yes, in this place they don’t care what they consume.’
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12.2.8 eGitse. ‘unfortunate’

This is one of the affective particles that may follow several clauses in a
complex clause construction. The first example shows the particle Gitse
following the pejorative clitic =su, described in 12.2.1. Note that the
epistemic clitic =kiɳi described in the section 12.3.2.17 is also used to
express an unfortunate circumstance but as a contraspective (‘were it not
so’).

a. ku-m-iñaŋo-fïŋï-ki-la=su eGitse a-fasï

1+2-C-food-unlike-INST-NEG= PEJ unfortunate 2-Oz

ŋiso-feke u-faŋa-tuŋ-Gi-sote.
husband-ERG 3>1-ear-hurt-VT-CAUS-CONC
‘Even though your older sister’s husband insults me, you’ll soon
realize this food of ours isn’t like that garbage of his’.

b. An example with eGitse following two constituents. Also this is

an example of the particle hosting the ‘unique’ copula suffix –a.

an-ïgï ≈fïŋu-a-ku-fa eGitse-a a-nïmi

EQ-PS-resemble-U-INT-PTP unfortunate-U EQS-CONS
eGitse u-ki-lu-a. iñalï. apïŋu=lefa.
unfortunate 1-utter-PI-U negation. ended=MT
‘I say to you, no more, it’s over. Unfortunately, this is how
you’ve always been, how you really are.’

c. ita-dyu-ni-tsu-=nika eGitse u-te-lї

mix-in-VI-ANT-M=EM unfortunate 1-go.away-PI
‘I guess it’s unfortunate I’m going away to be mixed in with
them.’

12.3. Epistemic clitics and particles

Epistemology is defined here as the grammatical means of referencing a
speaker’s evaluation of information, particularly the degree of
confidence that a speaker has in the veracity of information. In this
regard, epistemology can be usefully contrasted with evidentiality, or the
marking of sources of evidence (DeHaan 1999; Aikhenvald 2004). The
terminological contrast is justified by the grammatically distinct types of
morphemes in the language: epistemic clitics and particles and evidential
suffixes. Kalapalo also has five expressives with epistemic meanings.
Chapter 11).

12.3.1 General overview

Kalapalo grammaticalized epistemic markers belong to two different
form classes. The first are epistemic expressives, discussed in Chapter
11, in the section on expressives (11. 2.2). The second, the larger group,
372

are the clitics discussed here, though some may operate as particles as I
show below. In an earlier analysis (Basso 2008) I called all these
morphemes “particles” but have turned to calling them “clitics” after
further phonological analysis and understanding of the Kalapalo
phonological word. There are 27 of these epistemic morphemes (EM).
Epistemic clitics usually appear after the first element in a clause
(Wackernagel’s position); the scope of the clitic includes the entire
clause. There is rarely any vowel reduction; excepting the morpheme
aka, no epistemic clitic is vowel initial. The morpheme mukwe may show
elision when followed by a vowel initial phonological word.
Nonetheless, epistemic morphemes (EM) do function as clitics insofar as
they are phonologically bound through stress patterning to the
constructions they complement, thereby playing a key role in
phonological word construction. A minimal epistemic clause is
structured as [ADV+ EM] or [NP+EM]. While the EM itself is not a
verbal element, it references one anaphorically through deictic semantics.
Some examples follow to show the syntactic relations of
epistemic expressives (EXP), epistemic clitics (EM) and other
grammatical features of Kalapalo sentences, especially person prefixes,
finite verb aspectual or irrealis suffixes, and negation. For the sake of
clarity, all EXP and EM forms are in boldface italics.
In (a) a speaker uses the EM maki. This morpheme indexes a
kind of correction in which the speaker reevaluates a previously
uncertain or denial utterance as correct. The speaker in this example
realizes there is actually a river in a certain place, something he had been
uncertain about earlier. In this example, maki is in second position
following the location demonstrative ande (“here.now”), which in turn
has scope over the following noun phrase, fanguiŋga-lefa
river=metonymic taxis):

a. ande=maki fanguiŋga=lefa, Ø-nïg≈i-feke.

here.now=EM river=MT, 3-PS≈3-ERG
‘Ok, now I see that the river is here after all”, he said to (him)’.

In some complex constructions more than one epistemic

morpheme is used, as for example in (b). In this utterance, a single
nominal clause is constructed from a negative adverbialization of the
identificational demonstrative igei, The derived adverb includes the EM
=taka, agreement with someone else’s description of their experience; in
the nominalization part of the construction, the speaker has used the
evidential (EV) -tifa, a speaker confirming his own first-hand
experience, including being told something. The speaker has returned
from a trip to his wife’s family. His mother notices that his eyes have
turned red, the consequence of his living in a very stuffy, smoke-filled
house. The speaker doesn’t like the kind of living space he has been
made to share with his wife’s relatives and wants to create a different
sort of house. As he is addressing his own mother, he uses the “exclusive
we” pronoun (tisuge) in reference to his affines and himself. The EM
=taka references his mother’s just-stated dismay at seeing his reddened
eyes; the EM -tifa references the speaker’s prior experience and thus has
an evidential as well as epistemic quality.
 373

b. afïtï=taka igei-ufuŋu ta-ŋo-fïŋï-tifa

denial=EM IDEM-resemble DIS-LOC-unlike-EV

tisuge, afïtï.
1+3, denial.
‘No, I agree because I remember there’s another kind of place
we could live in.” (or, ‘No, I agree from experience we others
certainly won’t have to live this way in a different place ‘.)

c. The following example shows the same EM =taka on an “I told

you so” quotative. The quotation, which precedes the quotative,
is included in the scope of the EM =taka.

ukw-aŋi-fofo u-kwi-ta=taka egei.

dual-result-IM 1-utter-CI=EM IDEM
‘Let's wait a while. You know I said that.’

Example (e) includes both an EM (=laka: very weak inference,

puzzlement, or a strong inability to understand) and the EXP uum,
referencing thought of an imaginative nature (perhaps close to
“introspective”, in Hoff’s terminology; in De Haan’s deictic model, the
speaker has put himself into the sphere of action):

e. u:m aŋi=laka ukuge ele-i ukuge.

EXP result=EM human being PDEM-CL human
being
‘I suppose that could have been human, a human being’.

In (f) the EM =tiki (speaker denies alignment with the listener) modifies
the contrastive prefix ta- (CONT). The speaker, a notorious warrior,
has been accused of coming into a community in order to kill everybody
there. Actually he is seeking a wife.

f. ta=tiki ukw-oto e-ŋalï u-feke.

CONT=EM dual-parent shoot-REV 1-ERG
‘It’s not right that (as you say) I shoot back at our parent.’

(g) is an example of an EM clitic followed by an EM particle. The first

EM is =nika, appealing to the listener’s experience. The particle,
repeated several times, is wãke (marking strong confidence in first-hand
evidence from the past that no longer exists). The example is taken from
an historical narrative, a man reminds his younger brother of an event
involving a third relative which took place when the brothers were
children. This third person is at the time of the utterance in urgent need
[of help?] during a battle with enemies, and the younger brother has
suggested they go and help him. But the older brother cannot share his
brother’s suggestion that they go and help as he has good reason to
dislike the other relative. This is how the older brother responds:
374

g. t-iŋ-i-la=nika wãke ku-piñano-feke wãke

REF-see-EP-NEG=EM EM 1+2-Obr- ERG EM

ukw-oto i-tïgï-pe Ø-agi-pïgï wãke

dual-parent 3-head-SAL 3-throw away-VPE EM
‘Can it be that you don’t remember what happened long ago
when our older brother threw away our father's head?’

Several things are going on as the older brother answers. First, he uses
the same EM (wãke) in the initial consideration (complement clause, in
the ergative argument NP, and in the main clauses. This repetition is
characteristic usage of wãke (see more discussion below). Second, the
initial complement clause features =nika. As the first EM, the scope of
nika actually falls over the entire utterance. But so does the repeated use
of the second EM, wãke, which links the consideration complement
construction to the first hand but no longer existing visual evidence in the
main clause. Third, the speaker emphasizes the postposed transitive
subject (A) NP by left-displacing it in the main clause (the structure
would normally be OV+A).

h. In the following example, the contra-spective mukwe, ‘hope in

vain’ is followed by the strong requirement for alignment =nifa
in an adverbial construction beginning with taloki, ‘useless’, ‘no
reason’. The locution is part of a ceremonial speech addressed to
ritual messengers (ɳeɳoku).

ah taloki=mukwe=nifa timbe-ɳa-ke ɳeɳoku

EXP useless=EM=EM arrive-cause-I messenger(s)
‘Surely you must agree there’s no reason in vain, enable your
arrival messengers.’

12.3.2 Semantic parameters

In what follows, I delineate semantic parameters of the 28 members of

the Kalapalo epistemic clitic sub-class (see Table 37); due to the
complexity of this set, all morphemes are glossed EM. A number of the
semantic parameters seem to closely match those specified by B.J. Hoff
(1986) for Surinam Carib (Kari’na). However, with one exception, I use
different language to describe these features, in keeping with my
emphasis on deixis, dialogicality and stance process. What Hoff calls
“grade” (strong-weak-lacking); “speaker’s attitude”, “appeals on
speaker”, “change of grade” and “co-existence with supporting or
conflicting evidence” are clearly epistemic parameters found in
Kalapalo. Their respective Kalapalo equivalents are “grades of
confidence” (A, B, F): including strong, probable, possible, uncertain,
incredulity, denial, knowledge lacking); “focus on person in subjectivity”
(C), “intersubjectivity” (F): “alignments, appeals to another” (D,F);
“focus on changing subjectivity; correctives (A, D)”; and “contraspective
(E)”. Hoff’s specification of an underlying contrast in the Surinam Carib
particle set between the origins of two types of evidence - i.e.,
 375

“extraspective” (from the “outside world”, that is, evidence external to

the speaker; public knowledge) and “introspective” (evidence from the
“inner world of the speaker”; evidence in the mind of the speaker; private
knowledge) - is an evidential feature that in Kalapalo can be understood
with reference to Ferdinand De Haan’s deictic perspective, an
approach that allows for a semantic description subsuming these
evidential and epistemic features.
De Haan (2001) distinguishes between two deictic categories
relevant to evidentiality: in the first, the speaker is separated (or separates
herself) from the action being described; in the second, the speaker
includes himself in the description of the action. In fact, these make
sense for Kalapalo epistemic marking, in the context of the stance object
being foregrounded in the discourse segment. In my analysis I contrast
forms (1; 3-6) where the speaker includes herself in the sphere of action;
and others (7-10) where the speaker is separate or excludes herself from
the sphere of action (see Table 37). A third deictic field also appears,
involving a speaker referencing a second person subject’s inclusion in
the sphere of action (2; 12). As I discuss below, there are other
participant frameworks relevant to Kalapalo epistemic markers in which
the intersubjective relation is foregrounded and the object-subject
relation recedes (sections D and F, below). Sections A, B, C, and F
exhibit epistemic “grades”, while D and E do not. These “grades” are
appropriately described as “degrees of confidence in judgment rather
than representative of “degrees of truth”.
 376

Table 37. Kalapalo Epistemic Morphemes

A. Focus on object,
speaker is inside the
description of object
or is foregrounded
1. wãke Strong, assertive usually as particle, distant
past
2. tifa Somewhat clitic, recent past
weaker assertive
3. nika Probable
4. laka Possible but weak
5. ma Knowledge usually hosted by question
lacking, word or negative adverbial
uncertainty
6. maŋa Incredulity
7. kaŋa self-blame
B. Focus on object,
speaker is outside the
description of object
or not foregrounded
8. ŋapa Strong, assertive usually as particle
9. tata Probable
10. fїna Possible but weak
11. koh Knowledge sometimes as particle
lacking
C. Focus on person
in subjectivity
12. tafa 1st person
confirmation
(self-alignment)
13. kafa 2nd person asked
to align, assertive
14. kato Speaker aligns
with 3rd person,
weak
15. tiki Speaker denies sometimes as particle
alignment
D. Focus on
changing
subjectivity;
correctives: speaker
volunteers alignment
with listener
16. maki Rejection, doubt
becomes
agreement with
proposition
17. makina Rejection/doubt
becomes
agreement with
negative
proposition
18. pile assertion
becomes rejection
 377

of own
proposition
E. Contra-spective
19. =kiŋi;= kiŋi-ni Negative
(plural) (regretful)
20. mukwe Positive (hopeful, sometimes as particle
wishful), in vain
F. Intersubjectivity:
Alignments; appeals
to another with
grades of confidence
21. aka: Existing Asserted,
positive alignment indicative mood
22. taka: Probable Indicative mood;
alignment questions
23. tsїna: Probable Indicative, 2nd
alignment person
24. kalaka: Possible demonstratives,
alignment potential mood,
questions;
perfective aspects
25. nipa: Possible Distant past,
alignment imperative when
in dispute
26. nafa: Alignment Subjunctive,
weakly possible potential moods;
distant past
27. nifa: Necessary Imperative mood
alignment, must occur
28. (p)apa: Imperative, often as particle
encouraging hortative moods
alignment

A. Focus on object, speaker is inside the description of object or is

foregrounded.
With this set, the speaker is inside the description of the object,
or foregrounded. This is accomplished through realis features
(demonstratives and or the indicative mood, references to personal
experience of motive or cause, as well as to accomplished or completed
actions in the past). This set exhibits an epistemic scale of relative grades
of understanding.

12.3.2.1 wãke.

This is a strong assertive form that usually functions as a particle. A

speaker bears witness to evidence from the past that no longer exists.
Wãke does not mark first-hand evidence, but strong and justifiable
conviction. For example, it is frequently used in anetu tagiñu, ‘hereditary
leaders’ talk’, a style of ritual communication where the speaker
references knowledge directly passed down from other leaders. (See
further discussion in Basso, 1987; 2009). The syntactic, grammatical
and semantic functions of wãke are more complex than most of the other
378

epistemic morphemes. Considering the syntactic functions of wãke , in

all examples the particle (like other EM) always modifies the first
impermeable (phrasal) constituent. However, in many especially strong
assertions (as in contexts of anger, shock or disappointment) wãke
appears at the end of each phrasal constituent and clearly functions as a
particle. In this regard, the syntactic functions of such repeated scoping
seem to also suggest that wãke must have an important affective function
that complements the epistemic function.

a. A woman accuses her husband of killing her mother; this

example includes the mirative =seku, the EM =ŋapa (strong
probability) and the EM wãke.

ege=seku=ŋapa wãke ukw- oto e-ni wãke tis-iña,

you-MIR EM EM dual-parent kill-NEM 1+3-BEN

wege wãke.
you EM
‘I was shocked to realize you, the killer of our parent, preyed on
us, that it was you.’

b. Someone tries to discover the identity of a person in disguise:

uwa=ma wãke efinano i-ñïgï wãke, uwa i-ñalï.

Q-EM EM OBR EX-TR EM Q EX-MAL
‘What became of his older brother? Did something happen to
him again?’

c. The leader Kambe tells about the ceremonial actions of his

ancestors; in this example the epistemic feature is highlighted by
the appearance of wãke in sentence final position and prosodic
emphasis; the epistemic feature is complemented by the initial
assertive EXP

ah figu-mbï-ki-ge-tu-al≈igei wãke
EXP grandchild-FO-INST-again-N-UT≈IDEM EM
’Surely, as I’ve been told about the grandchildren from the past,
so again this same thing always here.’

d. This is an extreme example of the use of this morpheme after

virtually every clause (and an oblique argument) in the utterance.
The context is an abducted woman’s strong declaration to her
brothers of what had happened to her in the past:
 379

afïtï-e-ku-ti=mbale wãke ukuge-fïŋï wãke

denial-EP-ADV=CAT EM human-unlike EM

u-imbi-ñe wãke e-iña-ni wãke,

1-steal-N EM 2-DAT/BEN-PL EM

a-fatuwï-wï-ko dyogu-mbembale wãke.

2-nephew-father-PL thoughtless -SSCAT EM
’It was never a person like us who abducted me from you all, it
turned out in the end this father of your nephews was
thoughtlessly going to do that, I assure you.’

e. In this example, upon hearing that his friend is the lone survivor
of a massacre, the speaker declares that was why he didn’t join
them earlier, expecting to have to avenge them all.

ege-tomi=dye-fa wãke u-te-lї wãke

PDEM-PURP=SE-PTP EM 1-go.away-PI EM

o-piñї-ko-i u-i-tsa-ni,
2-avenge-PL-CL 1-EX/CL-ANT,

u-ki-lї wãke.
1-utter-PI EM
‘For this purpose I said, ‘I intend to be the one to go away as
your avenger.’

12.3.2.2. =tifa:

The speaker asserts her memory of a recent event that she personally
experienced, though there appears to be a bit of doubt. As I noted
earlier, this translation emphasizes there is an evidential component to
the meaning of this morpheme. On the other hand, the listener may judge
the speaker’s assertion as a lie.

a. Here Grandmother Quail deliberately lies to her grandsons.

u-fi-dyau=fïna=ŋgï=tifa u-etigite-gï-ki-ni
1-grandson-PL=EM=cute -EV 1-peanut-POSS-INST-PL

u-fi-dy-au, u-ki-ta i-feke-ni.

1-grandson-PL, 1-utter-CI 1-ERG-PL
‘I hoped these were my cute little grandsons getting my peanuts,
my grandsons’, I think I was saying that about them.’
380

b. Here the speaker seems to be sincerely trying to remember:

u-ikeu-te-i-la e=mukwe=tifa
1-be angry with-VT-CL-NEG EP=EM=EM

e-mu-gu e-ta u-pei-gï-iña

2-son-POSS come.to-CI 3 >1–hit (shake)-POSS-DAT
‘I don’t recall I was angry with your son when he came to shake
me.’

12.3.2.3 =nika:

The speaker recognizes a strong probability and is seeking confirmation,

usually in the form of questions. This is often heard used in mourning
when the grieving person wails to the deceased.

a. The following is a common greeting: The sudden appearance of

a person can be somewhat problematic. The person could be,
after all, an apparition, a dangerous itseke, a ‘powerful being’
disguised as a loved one.

ande=nika wege.
Here/now EM you
’It seems as if you’re here now.’

(to which the listener answers, using the probability alignment

EM =taka):

Eh, ande=taka uge.

Yes, here.now=EM me
‘“Yes, as you probably can tell, I’m here now.’

b. Upon seeing turtle’s eggs that are much smaller than people
anticipated, someone says:

ule=nika figei
AFR=EM A ADEM
‘I guess this is just how they are.’

c. A husband is anxiously looking for his wives and comes to a

place where he expects to find them. He politely asks some other
women if his wives are there:

aŋi=nika inde u-oku-ŋi-ta i-ŋi-lë e-feke-ne

result=EM here 1-liquid food-VT-CI 3-see-PI 2-ERG-PL
‘Perhaps you’ve seen those who make my food around here.’
 381

12.3.2.4 =laka

The speaker suspects there is a possibility for understanding, but there is

puzzlement in the face of evidence.

a. uwa=mbe=laka, u-mugu i-ñïgï

Q-SS=E, 1-son EX-TR
‘How could this have happened to my son?’

b. A person turned monstrous looks for another victim whom he

obsessively calls his “brother-in-law”:

unde=laka u-fameti a-Ø-nïgï ka:h

where=EM 1-bro-in-law EXP-say to-PD FRUST
‘Where in the world is my brother-in-law?’

c. In a story, the Trickster tells his friend to get some firewood, but
friend only sees people. Trickster tells him that what he sees are
the trees, and he then expresses wonder at the constant illusions
and deceptions that now surround him in adult life (that are
characteristic of himself as a trickster, in other words):

igeia=laka u-at-їfїgї, igeia≈gage.

manner=EM 1-EQA-IMP, manner≈same
‘I don’t know why I’m behaving just like this, the same as this.’

12.3.2.5 =ma

Used as a clitic, this form references the speaker’s uncertainty due to

lack of knowledge. It is used mainly, but not exclusively, with
interrogative forms.

a. A narrator questions how someone in his story could put a large

fish inside a small flute:

ta-me=ma kuluta atati tu-i-ŋalï i-feke?

CONT-FACS=EM flute inside REF-put-REV 3-ERG
‘How could he have put it back inside something like that flute?’

b. People are looking for a man who might have abducted their
relative. The following section of the conversation is between the
people being asked about it and the people searching for her:

tї=ma≈gei kuge Ø-nїgї-t=i-feke

RQ-EM-IDEM person say.to-PS-EV=3-ERG
‘ “Who is that person?” that’s what they say he asked him.’
382

Koh, iŋko-mugu-tsї=ŋapa-fa ku-pisua-ndau tї-feke=ma

EM, unknown-who-M=EM-PTP 1+2-brother-PL RQ-
ERG=EM

u-funa-lї -feke
1-look.for-PI-ERG
‘Who knows? It seems we don’t even know as yet which
brother of ours we’re looking for.’
.
c. Discussing a story about an abducted woman, the narrator
explains to me that the Kalapalo didn’t want to kill the woman’s
abductor:

ñalї-tsї=ma tu-e-lu Kalapalo-feke

Negative-M=EM REF-kill-PI Kalapalo-ERG
‘I don’t think the Kalapalo would have killed him’.

tї–tomi=ma tu-e-lu
RQ-PURP=EM REF-kill-PI
‘Was there some reason to kill him?’

12.3.2.6 =maŋa

The speaker, while enunciating a proposition, at the same time denies

any possibility of its occurrence; this form is used to express incredulity,
often with the rhetorical (y/n) question prefix tї. (‘I can’t believe you’re
asking/saying (X) as you and I both well know the answer’.)

a. The Trickster proposes that he make the same kinds of rare and
beautiful things given to his younger brother.

um tï-kïtsï=maŋa t-iŋuG-isi Taugi ki-lї

EXP RQ-ugly=EM REF-make-ADV (name) utter-PI
‘Who says this is hard to make?” (=”This is easy to make”),
Taugi spoke.’

b. A leader’s ritual communication is often filled with this kind of

ironic statement, a kind of respectful devaluation of the work of
his own messengers:

tї-kaїŋa-fїŋï=maŋa Ø-atsa-ki-lї at-ehe=gele-fa wãke

RQ-DEST-unlike=EM 3-run-VA-PI EQA-PER=PT-PTP EM
‘Who says they still don’t run up to some place as they had done
in the past? (i.e., ‘They do still run…’)
 383

c. A man’s wife finds it hard to believe her husband seduced her

younger sister.

Ukw-ikene i-fi-dyu-fïŋï=maŋa e-feke,

Dual-YZ 3-touch-PI-resemble-EM 2-ERG,
‘“I can’t believe you actually touched our younger sister,”

Ø-nïg≈i-feke
say.to-PS≈3-ERG
she said to him.’

12.3.2.7 =kaɳa

The event has occurred and the speaker is taking responsibility for a
faulty decision.

a. ige-tomi-kaŋa-fa igei
take.away-PERM-EM-PTP IDEM

ukw-oto-feke kiŋi at-ïfïgï-ko ige-tomi.

dual-relative-ERG EM EQA-IMP-PL take.away-PERM
’How could I have let him take us away for this. I regret I let
our relative take us away’.

B: Focus on object, speaker is outside the description of object or not

foregrounded
In this set, the focus is upon the object, but the speaker excludes
herself from the sphere of the object description, usually drawn as irrealis
through unobserved or unobservable 3P motivation or causality, and
incompletive aspect. An epistemic scale of grades of understanding is
present.

12.3.2. 8 =ŋapa

This is a strong, assertive form used where certainty is expressed. Some

examples suggest ŋapa is used by speakers in their narratives as a
“hearsay” evidential strategy (See lines 2, 59, 105, 114, 117 Appendix C;
lines 17, 49, 122 Appendix D).

a. The speaker has been asked to identify something they’ve found

on a sandbank:

koh, kuge ite=ŋapa-fa=le=gei

EX, human feces=EM-PTP-UT=IDEM
‘I don't know, but it seems to be human shit to me’.
384

b. The Trickster gets fire: He makes a decoy out of the rotten body
of a deer to lure the vultures, whose messengers tell them:

anetu otu=dye=ŋapa-fa felei

leader solid.food=SE=EM-PTP ADEM
‘That looks like someone put food for the leader down there.’

c. kohotsi ekugu=ŋapa-fa i-nï-ŋgo=lefa

late.afternoon fully=EM-PTP 3-come.back-POT;PL=MT

koge-funde fegei undufe ti-ña-ti-ñ=ïmi

next.day-ALOC ADEM ceremony REF-perform-DES-N-PURP
‘Apparently they came back at the very end of the day (because)
the following day they wanted to perform the ceremony’.

12.3.2.9 =tata

There is some uncertainty, but probability from customary experience

exists. The action involved a 3rd person and therefore the speaker could
not know for certain that the event took place.

a. igifagafïtï anetu-gu uŋu a-nïgï=tata i-feke:

(settlement name) leader-POSS house EQS-PS=EM 1-ERG:
‘Possibly there’s a house for the Igifagafiti leader.’

b. A woman recounts another's actions based on common female

experience, but since the event took place in the far distant past,
the speaker isn’t entirely certain of the accuracy of what she’s
saying.

lepene atu-ndi-li=tata i-feke

then tap-VT-PI=EM 3-ERG
‘Then I think she might have tapped on it’

12.3.2.10 =fïna.

With this clitic, the speaker expresses the idea that there is some
evidence but it is weak.

a. The following is a typical remark after the Trickster does

something covertly:

Taugi=fïna=mbe
Taugi = EM=SS
‘It might have been Taugi who did that’

b. Grandmother Quail sees that some children have pulled up all

her peanuts. =fïna appears in this example with the mirative
 385

=seku, which in this example has scope over both utterances.

=fïna has scope over the last utterance only.

tï-seku- ma ege-i u-etigite-gï-ki-ga=tiga.

RQ-MIR- EM PDEM-CL 1-peanuts-POSS-INST-CI=HAB

eŋï oto-ni-nïgï-ko=fïna=seku-fa.
reason food-non.existent-PS-PL=EM-MIR-PTP
‘What do I see here? Someone's been messing with my peanuts.
Could it be that’s because they’re having trouble finding food of
their own?’

c. The forest monster is frightened by a man who disguises himself

as an owl in order to chase him away:

adyafi=fïna≈ts-a
(owl) EM≈EX-CL
‘That must be an adafi I’m seeing’. (this owl is a bad sign to the
observer).

12.3.2.11 koh

The speaker has no knowledge of what is being described. This

morpheme is most often a particle. It is also included in the expressives
list in Chapter 11.

a. Taugi teaches women how to use piqui. One of the women asks
the Trickster:

aŋi- fogi=kalaka të-iñambe=nïm-iŋo koh

result -response≈EM O-drink- VT-POT EM
‘I don’t know but could a drink be made out of this sometime?’

b. A husband returns and begins to burn a pile of brush in which,

unknowingly, his wife’s lover is hiding. When the man runs
away to escape the fire, the husband says to his wife:

ukuge wende e-ki-nu koh-i u-feke

person over.there 2-utter-N EM-CL I-ERG
‘Why didn’t you tell me there was someone over there?’

c. Several brothers, frustrated in not having found their sister in a

nearby settlement, say the following to one another:

uwa=m≈igei ukw-iŋandsu i-ñїgї.

What -EM≈IDEM dual-sister EX-TR
‘What could have happened to our sister?’
386

koh. la=gele-fa ukw-iŋandsu i-tsa-ni

EM. like.that=PT-PTP dual-sister EX-CL-ANT
‘Who knows? Our sister will remain like that forever.’

C. Focus on person in subjectivity

In this epistemic set, the focus on the speaker’s own self as an
affective actor, and thus the morpheme used is closely correlated with
person status. The speaker’s affect is also highlighted. Feelings of anger,
fear, distress, worry are most usually not mentioned in a narrator’s
metacommentary unless she wishes to refer to the person’s talk, not
“inner feelings”.

12.3.2.12 =tafa

A first-person form, referencing the speaker’s own subjectivity in an

assertive way. (tafa is homophonic with the words for “gourd water
container”, and “duck”).

a. Cuckoo’s mother tells him to come home right away if his

fiancée decides she doesn’t want him after all, and he answers:

sagage-dye=tafa u-en-ïmi-ŋo ama

3-same-SE=EM 1-come backVI-POT mother (vocative)
‘I will come back, Mother, just as you've described’

b. The speaker describes how the Trickster copulated before he

learned about erections from Lizard:

ule et- iku-ta=tafa≈le≈gei

AFR MV-copulate-VT-CI=EM≈UT≈IDEM
i-ñatï-gï-ki,
3-finger-POSS-INST
‘That’s how he made love all the time, with his finger,

Taugi-feke tu-fits-au iku-ta

Taugi-ERG REF-wife-PL copulate--CI
how Taugi made love to his wives.’

c. When the door isn’t opened for a man who has turned himself
into a monster, he says to the people hiding inside:

ande=tafa u-a-nïgï
here.now=EM 1-EQ-PS
‘I’m here, I’m telling you!” or, “Can’t you hear me? I’m here.’

12.3.2.13 =kafa

This morpheme is used when the speaker addresses a 2P assertively,

seeking alignment with that person, but still focused on the 2P subject:
“now you (do) know”, “do you know?”; there may be worry or concern
 387

(as more explicitly with kato, 12.3.2.14) but in the context of the
speaker’s own conviction perhaps not being shared or understood:

a. A grandfather explains to his grandson why the younger man’s

brother keeps sending him to dangerous places:

efiñano-feke= kafa fegei ege ku-ni-ta

older bro-ERG=EM ADEM you envy-VT-CR
‘I want you to know that’s because your older brother envies
you’.

b. Agouti is telling the Trickster where his wives are hiding:

aŋi=kafa tu-fu-ti e-feke akugi ki-lï

result=EM REF-know-ADV 2-ERG Agouti utter-PI
‘Don’t you know what’s going on?’ Agouti asked.’

c. The leader asks one of his fellows to participate in a ceremonial

gathering, hoping he will agree but worrying that he will be
turned down:

aŋi=kafa të-ip-ïgï e-feke

result=EM REF-payment-VPE 2-ERG
‘Do you know if you can make payment?’

d. A father asks men in a distant community if they know of

anyone who for lack of a wife might have abducted his daughter:

aŋi=kafa inde iñaka-puŋu-fïgï-ko iñandsu-ko-feke

result=EM here 3-partner-worthless-VPE-PL sister-PL-ERG

ka:h, its-a-ta-i-fofo
FRUST, EX-CL-DIS-CL-IM
‘Do you know of someone here among you who the sisters
found unlikeable as a partner?’

12.3.2.14 =kato
The speaker aligns with a 3rd person, and thus the evidence is somewhat
weak, puzzling, or even worrisome.

a. People are trying to kill jaguars. They come to a community to

see if some youths can be prepared as warriors:

e-ata-dye=kato ku-mugu-ko-feke ukw-opi-dyï-ko-iŋo

2-EQA-SE=EM 1+2-son PL-ERG 1+2-avenge-PI- PL-POT
‘I’m not sure, but if you do (what we’ve asked) to them, our
children just might avenge us.’
388

b. From a Kwambï ritual song sung by the song leader Kudyu:

kuGife-mbe= kato ti-ka-gi-ti≈feke

witches’.dart-SS= EM REFL-make-VT-DES≈3-ERG
‘I’m worried he wants to make witches’ darts’

oi-ñe-mbe=kato ti-ka-gi-ti-feke
wind.up-N-SS=EM REFL-make-VT-DES=3-ERG
‘I’m worried he wants to make those wound-up things.’

c. Relatives caution their younger nephew about nearby enemies.

e-e-ta-dye=kato e-ñï-m-iŋgo, u-ntsi

2-kill-SE= EM 2-come to-VI-POT;PL, 1-yrelative.

e- e-ta=dye=kato e-ñïm-iŋgo
2-shoot-Cl=SE=EM 2-come to-POT;PL
‘I’m worried they will kill you when you come there my young
relative, when you come there.’

d. This example uses =kato in a question:

uwa-ma egei oto=mbe=kato egei tue-ni nїg≈i-feke?

Q-EM PDEM owner=SS=EM IDEM kill-AN 3-PS≈3-ERG
‘How do you think the owner was able to kill him?’, he asked
him.

12.3.2.15 =tiki

With this form, the speaker denies another’s statement; or even the very
evidence of her own eyes (with indicatives). This form often has mirative
semantics (as examples (a) and (b) below suggest). In fact the form
might be derived from the negative mirative clitic –ki (this is a highly
polysemous morpheme).

a. A warrior denies that he has come to kill people, because he’s

only there to marry a woman.

ta=tiki e-lï-ko-iña u-e-nalï

NEG=EM 2-kill-PI-DAT/BEN 1-come.to-REV
‘Why should anyone say I’ve come back here to kill you all?’

b. A grandfather sees his two grandsons for the first time. This
example is interesting for its miraspective tone:

ah ande-ŋu=tiki u-fi-dyau a-nïgï

EXP here/now-DIM EM 1-g.child-PL EQS-PS
‘These little ones here can’t be my grandchildren!’
 389

c. A woman has been abducted by powerful beings and left in her

hammock tied to palms growing in the middle of a lake. When
she wakes up, she says:

una=tiki egei u-e-tïfïgï

how= EM IDEM 1-come.to- PAC
‘How in the world did I get here?’

D. Focus on changing subjectivity, correctives

Forms in this set are used when the speaker’s mind has changed
in response to another person’s correction (or denial) of their original
statement.

12.3.2.16 =maki

There is reevaluation from doubt or rejection to acceptance of a

proposition: ‘I’m right (or wrong) after all"; “now I realize’

a. The speaker uses maki with the assertive expressive ah, ‘surely’
(EXP). A person who thought the river was somewhere else sees
it and realizes his mistake:

ah, ande= maki fanguiŋa=lefa, Ø-nïg=i-feke

EXP here/now= EM river=MT say to-PERF=1-ERG
‘"Surely, that river’s here after all", he said.’

b. =maki used with the “thinking, imagining, realizing” expressive

uum. The speaker had rejected the proposition earlier, but has
seen for himself how wrong he was to do so:

u:m, ande=maki fotugu-i- is-uwï a-tsa-ki-lï

EX here.now=EM first-CL 3-FA run-VI-PI
‘It does now seem to me that his father was actually the first to
run over here, as you said.’
.
c. A man who had been abducted as a child realizes he and his
sister are actually members of another group:

afïtï =maki Tugumai-fïŋï ku-kuge

denial=EM Trumai-unlike 1+2-people)
‘I've been wrong, our people aren't Trumai.’

12.3.2.17 =makina

With this form, the speaker moves from rejection to acceptance of a

negative proposition: “you’re right, it’s not”, past tense; demonstratives,
3rd person (cf. 4.19, the contra-spective kiŋi (“it’s too bad…”)

a. A woman tells her lover that her husband has killed her mother.
She uses the ah expressive to assert her understanding, which
comes from her first-hand knowledge of evidence:
390

ah, aŋ-olo-dye-tsï=makina=k≈igei
EXP, EQS-ADV-SE-M=EM≈EM≈IDEM
‘Surely, I realize now that it’s true, this is what happened to her
after all as you can see for yourself.’

b. A man uses the polite reference to his parent-in-law:

ukw-oto=fo-ko=makina ege, ukw-oto-fo-ko

dual-parent-COLL-PL=EM PDEM, dual-parent-COLL-PL
‘Now I realize that’s not our parent, our parent.’

c. A woman tells her brothers her abductor was not one of their
kind:

ah, ukuge-fїŋї=makina wãke igei wãke,

EXP, 1-person-unlike =EM EM IDEM EM,

u-iki-dyu=lefa u-feke tsa=l=feke, i-ño-pe-feke.

1-abduct-PI=MT 1-ERG tell-UT=ERG, 3-husband-SAL-ERG
’Believe me, the one who abducted me before wasn’t a person
like us’, she kept telling them about her husband’.

d. Example from a conversation about usage: Ohe with EB

afїtї=makina ege muku-gu i-po-pu-gu-fїŋї=maki

Denial EM PDEM son-POSS 3- pierced-VI-POSS-unlike=EM

igei
IDEM
‘No, I realize his son hasn’t had his ears pierced as I thought’.

12.3.2.18 =pile

The speaker moves from acceptance to rejection of a proposition.

a. A young man has agreed to go to dangerous places to get

something for his brother (whose wife is his lover), but finally
realizes the brother is trying to kill him.

a-faŋa-ŋ≈ofo-i wãke u-a-nïgï=pile u-ikuki-ne-ta

2-ear-LOC-USIN-CL EM 1-EQS-PS=EM 1-send.away-VT-
CI
‘I thought that even though I was your co-spouse I could (safely)
be sent away’

2. From a story about a female powerful being:

u-i-gu= pile-fa ata-ni

1-ornament-POSS=EM-PTP EQA-ANT
 391

‘I mistakenly thought my pubic ornament would be here.’

E. Contra-spective morphemes
I write ‘contra-spective’ rather than ‘counter-factive’ as these
morphemes are used in response to the imaginative subjectivity (overt or
not) of the speaker. Something is observed or stated by another, but the
mind of the speaker wishes against all evidence it were otherwise,
knowing there is at best a very remote possibility of that happening. The
use of these morphemes often marks the beginning of some wonderful
stories! The two particles (kiŋi and mukwe) clearly have both epistemic
and affective meanings but their second position location suggests they
are properly placed with the other EM. However, there are some
exceptions. In 4.3.18.(c) mukwe precedes nifa, suggesting the former is
serving affective functions. Clearly more examples need to be examined
for further clarification of the semantic roles of these and other particles.

12.3.2.19 =kiŋi negative contra-spective

The speaker wishes something were not what it actually is (in response to
another); it can be glossed as “too bad”, “regrettably”, “were it not so”.
This EM may be an idiom derived from the intransitive verb ki-, “utter”.
There is a plural form with the suffix –ni. (See example 4). This
generally occurs as a clitic.

a. A person from the Fish World decides he’s going to put his own new
field right next to the small clearing belonging to his wife’s sister’s
husband, who is a poor gardener but ridicules this character for not
working. In fact he will make a magically large field with magical
crops.

In this example =kiŋi is hosted by the deictic nominal ige-i-ŋa

(IDEM-CL-N), ‘a place like this’ yet the scope of the particle in this
sentence covers the entire utterance, since the speaker emphasizes
the work he will do in the future. The speaker’s manner of describing
the work itself is a typical self-abnegating affinal posturing that
suggests he will actually do something extraordinary.

ige-i-ŋa=kiŋi=mbe-tsaŋe a-fasї-ŋiso tafau-ki-te-lї

PDEM-CL-N=EM=SS-DEO 2-Oz-husband expand-ADV-VT-PI

u-feke
1-ERG
‘Unfortunately he’s wanted to make a place like this, because
I’ve decided to increase the size of your older sister’s husband
(‘s clearing).’
392

b. A man walking alone suddenly has what appears to be a

dangerous apparition. He asks himself:

uwa≈fitsa-tu=kiŋi fegei
Q-hallucinate-CAND=EM ADEM
‘Why should it be me who sees this apparition?’

c. A person is going to do something to the Otters and asks them

not to call out to him even if it hurts them badly:

kaŋa-siŋi ke-ke-ŋe=kiŋi=mba u-feke, Ø-ta

Fish-follow.behind NEG-utter-I =EM=DS 1-ERG, tell-CI 1-

i-feke.
ERG
‘“Fish Follower,’ even if you want to you’re not to say that to
me”, he told (them).’

12.3.2.20 mukwe

This morpheme may function as either a clitic or a particle. It references

a positive contra-spective stance. The speaker “wishes that something
were so”, appealing to the listener for agreement: ‘hope you agree’
(though there is sometimes no direct conversation),. When used with
imperative strategies, it has a polite sense of, “I’d like to do X (even if in
vain)”. The sense of something being done “in vain” is also sometimes
heard when mukwe appears repeatedly in the leader’s ritual
communication (12.3.2.18 c). This is another epistemic particle that
often appears after each clause in an utterance (d).

a. Some brothers reach the settlement of a man who has abducted

their sister and tell this man they wish to take her back home
with them. They are using a very polite register, much like
affinal relatives would use:

u-limo-si-ko i-ge-lї=mukwe faka-ŋa fe-tsaŋe

1-child-mother-PL 3-take away-PI =EM return-N OD-DEO

ti-feke igei
1+3- ERG IDEM
‘You may not want to, but we hope you will agree to let us take
our children’s mother back with us.’

b. An unmarried woman wishes that a bird she sees were human.

u-ño-i-ts-iŋa mukwe ata-i-ti-tsї-ŋa egei

1-husband-CL-EX-SN EM EQA-EP-DES-M-SN IDEM
‘If only he wanted to make himself different from what he is, he
could be a husband for me.’
 393

c. From a leader’s ceremonial talk:

ah fitse-ke=mukwe=lefa timbe-ga≈ke
EXP quickly-ADV=EM=MT arrive-CI≈COM

ei-ŋoku
2-messenger(s)
‘surely, I hope they arrive quickly, your messengers’

d. Another example of affinal civility; the speaker is making a

suggestion but doesn’t want to appear that he is too knowing:

eɳї=mukwe-tsї-fa fesoko apu-Gi-tsofo=mukwe-tsї-fa

reason=EM-M-PTP fish flavor-PCAUS-USIN=EM-M-PTP

ku-pehe-ne.
1+2-ERG-PL
‘Because that might be how we could make some flavoring for
our fesoko, though I doubt it will work out.’

F. Intersubjectivity These forms reference various grades of alignments,

appeals to another with various degrees of confidence. The speaker is
including herself and the listener in the sphere of the action.

12.3.2.21 =aka

The speaker declares there is existing, positive alignment between herself

and the listener:

a. The speaker plans to take revenge after hearing about the death
of some comrades:

ande dy=aka ti-ñ-en-ïm-iŋo

here/now =DE=EM REFL-go.back-VI-POT

e-fiñano-ko-ake opi-dyï-ko-iña
2-OBR-PL-COM return-PI-PL-DAT/BEN
‘You’re right about that, this time we others will go back in
order to return there with you and your older brother.’

b. A father has been asked to prepare his son for a special role:

afïtï-ku=aka=eGitse u-Gi-tu-ŋu=mbe-su
denial-INT=EM= unfortunate 1-dream-VI-N=SS-PEJ

ifo-fïŋï-eGitse
image-unlike=unfortunate
‘Unfortunately I have to tell you I never had any useful dreams’.
394

c. The Dead are invited to return to the living but decline:

titse-l≈aka ake-ts-igei=lefa
1+3;go-PI≈EM SD-EX-IDEM=MT
‘And now, as you see, we people must take leave of you.’

12.3.2.22 =taka

The speaker suggests the listener will most likely agree with her
proposition. In my examples, =taka is seen with informational questions,
indicative inflections, and demonstratives.

a. A man offers his daughters to a potential enemy; this example

has both =mukw-e and =taka. This utterance is typical of the
affinal civility register style, in which the speaker devalues a
potential gift (Basso 2007). Here, that gift is his daughters:

aŋi = mukwe= taka i taũ-go-pïngï fogi-tsïgï u-feke.

result= EM=EM woman-PAU-DEF find-IPE 1-ERG
‘Though you might not really care, most likely you’ll see there
are some deficient women I’ve found.’

b. The speaker asks a listener to help him remember someone’s

name:

uwa=taka i-ñandsu ititï, Kamisu?

What=EM 3-sister name, (name)
‘What did I say the sister’s name was? Kamisu?’

c. The Maned Wolf reminds his abducted wife—now pregnant—

that he had told her to not walk over his semen; this example
illustrates the use of ki- (utter) as a hearsay evidentiality strategy.

inde fe-tsaŋe ke-te-ŋa u-ki-ta-ti=taka e-feke

this place OD-DEO NEG-go-N 1-say-CI-EV=EM 2-ERG
‘I don’t want you to even think about walking around here’, I’m
pretty sure I heard myself telling you that.’ (or, “I’m pretty sure
you heard me keep telling you that”)

12.3.2.23 = tsїna

There is strong probability for the speaker’s assertion about the listener’s
experience, but no direct evidence.

a. ti-ŋi=tsïna e-feke kuge-feke te-ŋelï.

REF-see-EM 2-ERG people-ERG eat.flesh-REP
‘You’ve seen it I’m sure, people eat it all the time.’
 395

12.3.2.24 =kalaka

With this form, the speaker suggests a possible alignment with a listener.
This form is used with questions, demonstratives, passing state nominal
aspect, and potential verb inflections.

a. Women ask the Trickster about how to use a new fruit:

aŋi fogi=kalaka të-iñambe=nïm-iŋo

result respond=EM REF-drink-VI-POT
‘Don’t you think a drink could be made out of this sometime?’

b. The speaker is speaking sadly as if to imply he’s been turned

down after he offered to go someplace.

aŋi=kalaka ukw-oto iŋu-kugu-mbo-lï

result=EM dual-parent turn down-completely-VI-PI
‘Has our parent decided not to go(someplace)?’

c. Conversation between Ohe and EB about usage:

ege muku-gu ipo-pïgï=kalaka egei-i

PDEM son-POSS pierce-PS=EM IDEM-CL
‘Don’t you think her son’s ears were pierced?’

ah-la-tsï, ege muku-gu i-po- pïgï its-a egei.

EXP-like.that-M, PDEM son-POSS 3- pierce-PS EX-CL IDEM
‘Surely that’s right, her son’s ears have been pierced.’

12.3.2.25 =nipa

In the context of a dispute, this EM marks an offer (or possibility) of

alignment on the part of the speaker, who suggests the two could agree
with her proposition (if only the listener would think through the
proposition carefully enough.) Here the complement verb, ‘see, think’ in
imperative mood (iŋ-ge), is used, as in 12.3.2.25.a. =nipa is also seen in
examples that reference the distant past, where the speaker can only infer
impressions of 3rd persons, as in 12.3.2.25.b.

a. A warrior is addressing his relative, a person with little

experience:

iŋ-ge elu=mbe-tsï=nipa a-piga i-feke-ne

look/think-I kill=SS-M=EM 2-club-CI 3-ERG-PL
‘Think carefully, don’t you realize if (that’s what you were to
do) they would club us to death?’

b. The narrator tells me how beautiful her ancestors were compared

with some strangers they had encountered while out fishing. The
speaker’s use of the adverb ekugu (perfectly, fully, most
396

intensive, completely) and the EM nipa references the

impressions of others, no longer present:

teh ekugu-mbe=nipa u-kuge

nice fully –SS=EM 1-people
‘My people might have looked really beautiful when that
happened (=when other people saw them.)’ or ‘When they did
that they might have seen how beautiful our people were.’

c. In the context of a dispute about traveling, foreign visitors keep

insisting upon going in a certain direction, even though others
repeatedly show them the direction to travel so as to avoid
enemies:

la= nip≈e-te-ke, Atatsinu-kai=nip≈e-te-ke

distant.place =EM=2-go-I Atatsinu-ALOC= EM≈2-go-I
la.
distant.place
‘You should go way over there, along (the side of) the Atatsinu
(creek), you should go way over that way (even though you
don’t want to).’

12.3.2.26 =nafa

This morpheme is used when the speaker wishes to appeal to a listener

who may have used a =nika question, such as 4.2.(c). =nafa then
confirms 2P experience, as in “as you know, as you have seen”.

a. From a trickster story:

u-ifi-fo-lu=nafa e-feke sike-feke-fa

1-touch-HYP-PI=EM 2-ERG tocandira.ant-ERG-PTP

e-fife-po-lï
2-bite-HYP-PI
‘You must know if you were to touch me, the tocandira ant
would sting you’

b. While introducing the character named Cuckoo, the storyteller

confirms that I should already know what he’s talking about, as
he was keenly aware I had already worked with others
identifying Kalapalo bird names:

fitsagu, tu-fu-ti-sï=nafa e-feke

cuckoo, REF-know-ADV-PEJ=EM 2-ERG.
‘Cuckoo’, you must already know yourself what that is’.
 397

c. A man is directing his fellows to a camping place where they

can collect turtle’s eggs.

enen-o-ŋo imït- o-ŋo-tsï=nafa ñetune

other side-EP-PREC face-EP-PREC-M=EM sand.bank

imït-o-ŋo-tsï=nafa
face-EP-PREC-M=EM
‘”Over on the surface right across the way is their customary
place,” that’s what I said, over on the (surface of) the sandbank
right on the other side.’

12.3.2.27 =nifa

The speaker asserts alignment is necessary, that it must occur. This

occurs with the imperative mood and also frequently the speaker uses the
consideration complement iŋge, ‘see, think’.

a. A person tells his mother to think about how he and his wife
look:

iŋ-ge=nifa ukw ï-iŋ-ge,

see.think-I =EM 2>1+2l-see-I
‘Consider how we look to you’.

b. The Trickster tells his brother they have to visit their

grandmother right away:

ukw-atsa-ke=nifa ku-nitsu-na,
dual-run-I=EM 1+2-grandmother-ALL
‘We really should hurry over to that grandmother of ours". Or,
“This means we must hurry over to that grandmother of ours’.

12.3.2.28 =(p)apa (CONF)

The speaker is completely agreeing with a previous speaker’s proposal.

The morpheme =apa is used when the speaker encourages the listener to
perform a desired activity. =papa occurs when the speaker is
cooperating, agreeing to join the listener in the proposed activity (CO is
used as the gloss in this case).

a. ohsi=papa
HORT=CO
“Let’s do it as you say.”
398

b. ah, e-fisï-tomi=papa ege-na e-iña.

EXP, 2-YBR-PURP-CO this.person-ALL 2-DAT/BEN

efisï-tomi, e-fisï-tomi.
2-YBR-PER, 2-YBR-PER,
‘Surely if you want him to come be your younger brother (i.e.,
new husband) for you, your younger brotherthat’s all right with
me.”

12.4. Taxis clitics

Following Roman Jakobson, I use the term “taxis” for markers of phasal
relations between events. Jakobson used this Greek term to refer to a set
of morphemes that “characterize the narrated event in relation to another
narrated event and without reference to the speech event..” (1971: 135).
This term seems particularly apt for the forms in Kalapalo. Cognate
forms (sometimes referred to as “non-modal” particles or clitics) have
been described for Northern Carib languages (Carlin 2004; Derbyshire
1985, 1999; Hoff 1990; Meira 1999).
Taxis morphemes normally involve one kind of tenseless
temporal marking of clauses within reference clause chains. The taxis
clitic occurs hosted by a verb phrase describing an event in the marked
clause; the clitic references the relation between this marked event and
another event-description occurring in a preceding clause (i.e., an event
constructed in a perfective or imperfective aspect); this second event may
be alluded to anaphorically with the anaphoric topic referent, which will
host the taxis clitic. As I describe in Chapters 4 and 6, aspectual
temporal marking occurs on both verbs and nouns. These clitics bind
with various clause constituents, are important for linking dominant and
subordinate clauses, and play an important role in clause chaining
processes (described in detail in Chapter 14 on Discourse Processes and
Grammar). My data show 13 of these forms, summarized in Table 38.
 399

Table 38. Features of taxis marking in Kalapalo clauses

Taxis clitic Gloss Implicit S/A Explicit phasal referent; other

referent semantic function

=fata SIM different simultaneous

=lefa MT n/a* coordinate, part-whole;

cause-effect “metonymic”
relations bet. events; very high
frequency
of use; ends C or (if present D)
level chain
=ge RT same repeated

= gele PT same persistive ’still’, also

=ale clauses UT same uninterrupted, perpetual, ‘always’;

high frequency of use

=(h)fale NO different new, overlapping; clause chain

boundary

=fofo IM n/a* immediately following, urgent

gehale (particle) ‘again’ same subsequent, repeated event

= tale clauses DT different unexpected, contrastive or special

event
=male clauses DAD different adversative event, pejorative

=nale clauses OP oppositive, immediately following or

simultaneous, overlapping event
contrastive

=ŋuGi IT different interrupted event ; mirative;

contrasts agents/events of prior B
level segment to those of current B
level segment

=kogu EREL same end of relentless activity;

frustrative
= tiga HAB same habitual

*does not mark S/A referent as same or different

400

12.4.1 Syntactic features

In this section I discuss the position of the 14 taxis morphemes when

used in the phonological word and taxis morpheme clustering.
The most frequently used taxis morphemes are =lefa (metonymic
or contingent event; MT); =(h)fale (new, overlapping event; NO); and
gehale, ‘again’ which has particle status. Forms =koguwa (UN) and
=tiga (HAB) carry strong affective meanings. In this regard these taxis
forms overlap in semantic function with the separate set of affective
clitics described in 12.2. In the following examples, I discuss syntactic
features of taxis clitics, showing the use of the most frequent taxis forms.
These examples are followed by examples of the less frequently used
morphemes.
Taxis clitics appear in final position in the verbal clause, as in
(a) in which the marked VP is linked as a consequence to the
immediately preceding clause (not shown here). In (a) this occurs by
means of a metonymic taxis marker (=lefa: coordinate event). As the
marked clause is repeated at the end of this utterance, both taxis marking
and the verbal component of the main clause are optional in the
repetition.
a. u-api-lï=lefa i-feke-ni, u-api-lï.
1-beat-PI=MT 1-ERG-PL, 1-beat-PI
‘And so they beat me, beat me.’

Taxis clitics may co-occur or cluster if the marked clause

describes an event that is part of another larger event. In example (b),
the different taxis clitic (DT) =tale is followed by the new overlapping
event taxis (NO) marker =fale with a demonstrative following to end the
clause. The DT marker here makes reference to events in the
immediately prior chain in which there is description of other things that
are ongoing but which are going to take place somewhat differently.

b. angikogo-feke=tale=fale fegei i-fu-pïte-ga-ko gehale

fierce people-ERG=DT=NO ADEM 3-run-VT-CI-PL again
‘But this time it was from the fierce people that they were
running away from again.’

c. In this ‘rhetorical, ‘yes-no’ question’ example, both local

adverbial demonstrative and VP are marked with the NO (‘new
overlapping taxis event) marker. In the VP the habitual taxis
marker =tiga (HAB) precedes the new event morpheme and
reappears on the following subordinate verb:

tï=ma inde=hale ti-tsa=tiga=hale i-fa-ta=tiga

RQ=EM here-NO REF-EX-HAB-NO 3-tell-CI-HAB

e-iña-ni?
2-DAT/BEN-PL
“Could it be that someone who stayed here came from time to
time to talk with you?”
 401

d. In this example, the ‘new, overlapping event’ clitic (h)fale (NO)

achieves independent word (particle) status, perhaps being
emphasized for discourse reasons:

tafa ige-funde iŋke,

bottle.gourd PDEM-ADV think/see,

iñalï=lefa=hale, ta≈gï-ti-lefa tis-iña 

no.longer-MT=NO, DIS≈throw-DES=MT 1+3-DAT/BEN
‘Draped around the bottle gourd, but now, consider that it’s not
any longer (used) because we’ve decided to throw it away.’

Example (e) demonstrates a speaker’s use of taxis clitics to link clauses

in a chain with only one finite verb, appearing at the end of the chain.
(The cluster of ideophones in the second clause of (e, i) may be treated as
a pseudo-transitive construction, as it references the sounds of objects
being acted upon: the arrow cane that is being cut down by the uncle.)
While there is only one transitive verb, the action of the single actor in
this chain is contrasted with that of others described earlier in the
narrative by the taxis particles. This example shows how taxis particles
can cluster and supplement one another. The speaker is contrasting the
slow work of the untrained uncle (an “ordinary person” and the villain in
the story) with the quick and efficient harvesting of arrow cane by
warriors who need to be always ready to enter into battle with enemies.
In (i) there are three different taxis clitics, the new, sequential event taxis
(NO) form (=fale ) being repeated three times. This form references the
uncle’s antithetical act of slowly (not quickly, as do his skillful relatives)
cutting down the cane. In the second line, there is a compounded clitic;
=gele marks the persistent action (PT) of the uncle cutting arrow cane.
=fale (referencing a different event/state overlapping the event described
in a preceding clause; NO) prepares us for the new finite verb (the
stative verb –fu- “know about”) at the end of the chain: iñalï funïm≈i-
feke, “he didn’t know about it”. (The uncle as actor is ignorant of
something contextually important).

e.   i. i-dyo-gu-ko ≈ts-a=fale tsiu tsiu bok, tsiuk.

3-uncle-POSS-PL ≈EX-CI=NO (sounds of cutting and laying
down objects)
‘But their uncle being different (cutting them down slowly),

ii. la≈ts-a=fale la=gele=fale

like.that ≈EX-CI=NO like.that=PT=NO
still ( working) differently (from the others) like that,

iii. iñalï Ø- fu-nïm≈i-feke

negative 3-know.about-CONS≈3-ERG.
because he didn’t know about it.’
402

f. This example shows the use of the same NO clitic =fale hosted
by a discourse particle lepene, ‘afterwards,’ ‘following that’.
lepene=hale Kalapalo aŋe-tïfïgï.
afterwards-NO Kalapalo play.instrument-IMP
‘But afterwards Kalapalo are players.’

The following are more examples to illustrate Kalapalo speakers’ use of

the taxis clitics, following their order on Table 38.

12.4.2 fata: simultaneous event (SIM)

a. tï-ge-pa=dya kai-tsu-Ø tu-fe-pïgï ata-ni.

RQ-repeat-on=DE groan-VI-RES REF-shoot-PS EQA-ANT
‘Having many of them on it, from it’s being shot, it was groaning.

ika-tsu-fata, ika-tsu-fata.
groan-VI-SIM, groan-VI-SIM
‘it was groaning, groaning.’

b. ah, tu-eku=nil ≈ake-tsaɳe u-i-ñїgї

EXP, RQ-INT=dangerous≈SD-DEO 1-EX-TR

ku-ki-lї=fata≈le
1+2-utter-PI=SIM ≈AFR
‘Surely wasn’t it wrong for you to want to be that way while we
were talking to each other?’

12.4.3 =lefa (MT)

a. This example shows the how a cause-effect relation is referenced

by two clauses marked with the metonymic taxis clitic:

afїtї la≈ketsaɳe ukw-augu-fїɳї=lefa

denial like.that-DEO-EX-I 1+2-lie-unlike=MT

e-fisuagї-ko a-nїgї-la=lefa
2-OBR-PL EQS-PS-NEG=MT

te-ti-ki=lefa kaɳa-i
REF-change-ADV=MT fish-CL
‘No longer will your older brother want to lie to us, because he’s
turned himself into a fish.’

12.4.4 =gele, ‘ persistant’, ‘still’, ‘also’ (PT)

a. inde=gele-fa tis-eɳa-ta-ni
here still-PTP 1+3-disembark-CI-ANT
 403

a-fatuwĩ-ake, inde=gele.
2-nephew-COM, here=PT
‘While we’re still here we others are about to disembark, I with
your nephew, while we’re still here.”

b. tamitsi-la=gele agi-ke-nïgï=lefa
long.time-NEG=PT cut.hair-VT-PS=MT

feŋi-ki=dye≈ts-a
scissors-INST=SE≈EX;CL
‘Still not long after her hair was cut with a scissors. ‘

12.4.5 =ale, uninterrrupted taxis (UT)

a. is-uwï-pe te-lï=lefa tï-fon=ale

3-father-SAL go.away-PI=MT REF-cry-Ø=UT
‘As a result his father went away ceaselessly weeping for him.’

b. t-ẽ-ti-mbїɳ≈ale ike-ni ah
REF-come.to-TH-W≈UT COM-PL EXP

s-i-nїɳgo=lefa
3-come.to-POT;PL=MT
‘They had never kept on coming together before, surely now
they came.’

12.4.6. =fale, ‘new, overlapping’ (NO)

The speaker’s reference in this example to the constant replacement of

Christian leaders (such as those who served at the local Brazilian
administrative post) are, through use of the new, overlapping event (NO)
taxis clitic -fale), contrasted with the status of Kalapalo leaders, who are
hereditary and normally serve for much of their adult lives. In the final
line, a final intransitive clause (kagayfa anetu-gu eti-dyï=lefa: ‘the
Christian leaders resign’) hosts the metonymic =lefa clitic, which
marks the chain boundary and serves as the reference point for the entire
chain. In this way the taxis clitic enables listeners to compose a
coordinated whole of sequenced events. Further discussion of taxis and
embedded clause chains appears in Chapter 14: Grammar in Narrative
Discourse.

a. iñalu=ma Kalapalo anetu-gu eti-dyï, iñalu.

negative=EM Kalapalo leader-POSS remove-PI, negative
‘I don’t think Kalapalo leaders ever resign, they don’t.
kagayfa=fale-kai, la,
Christians=NO-ALOC, like.that,

tis-anetu-gu-iña-ŋu,
1+3 leader-POSS–DAT/BEN-DIM,
404

kagayfa anetu-gu eti-dyï=lefa.

Christian leaders-POSS resign-PI=MT
‘But among the Christians, rarely by our own leaders, it’s like
this: “Our leaders aren’t working out”, the leaders of the
Christians, so they resign.’

12.4.7 =fofo, ‘very soon or immediately’ (IM).

When used with the imperative mood, as in example (a), it functions as a

particle. In( b), =fofo functions as a clitic.

a. ah ñaŋu-nde-ke=fofo, ku-pamu-wï-ko,
EXP play.instrument-I=IM, 1+2-nephew-father-PL
‘Surely we should play the instrument right away, Our nephew’s
father’

b. ila-iña=fofo ege-tїete.
distant.place-DAT/BEN-IM 2;go-URG
‘Go right away to that place over that way.’

12.4.8 gehale, ‘again’

This functions as a particle.

a. ut-umi- ñalї gehale i-feke

MV-tie.up-MAL again 3-ERG
‘He was tied up again by her.’

12.4.9 =tale, ‘ different taxis’ (DT)

a. e-ifameti-dyau selei itagi-ñu=tale, iŋu-mbe-tsu-fa

2-bro.in.law-PL ADEM speech-N-DT, see SS-M-PTP

i-ño.
3-husband.
‘Some of his brothers- in-law however, heard someone speaking
while they could see her husband.’

12.4.10 =male, ‘different, adversative’ (DAD)

a. idyo=mbe-ku=male ila,
fierce.people =SS-just=DAD distant.place,

kagaifa =mbale la.

Christians=CAT distant.place
‘Only the fierce people are over that way, but the Christians are
over that way.’
 405

Note: as the speaker may not use the word ‘ɳikogo’ fierce people’ as it
belongs to one of his respect relatives, he substitutes the Portuguese,
‘indio’ , ‘Indian’.

12.4.11 =nale, oppositive, immediately following event (OPO)

a. uege=nale figei ut-a ŋi-te-ni, uege:

you=OPO ADEM MV-rescue-VI-AN, PDEM
‘Different from you (this way) she was my rescuer’.

12.4.12.= ɳuGi, ‘interrupted event’ (IT)

a. ule-tse-ŋuGi i-fïgi-pe ti-dyï≈lefa i-feke

AFR-M-IT 3-arrow-SAL take out-PI≈MT 3-ERG
‘Suddenly stopping that, he removed his arrow

tafaku-gu ugupo-ŋo-peŋine.
bow-POSS above-MAL-PREC-ABL
from his bow (held) right over (them).’

12.4.13 =kogua, end of frustrative, relentless activity (EREL).

My few examples of this morpheme were all used by the same speaker
and all hosted by the narrative segment marker, the anaphoric focus
referent ule (AFR).

a. ai=lefa, ule=kogua, ule=kogua

finished.ready=MT, AFR=EREL, AFR=EREL

(ah, ut-aŋo-ta u-ke-ts≈igei)

(EXP, 1-tired-CL 1-SD-DEO≈IDEM)
‘Finally after that, something new, after that, something new.
I’m telling you, this (i.e., her being seated on the ground) is
really tiring me out.’

b. ule=kogua, et-ïŋGi-dyu-fa i-feke.

AFR=EREL, MV-pity-PI-PTP 3-ERG
‘But fortunately in the end, finally he took pity on her.’

c. ule-ta=fale, ule=kogua ta=fale≈gei

AFR-DIS=NO, AFR=EREL DIS=NO≈IDEM
tu-fitsu-feke Ø-nïg≈ifeke.
REF-wife-ERG 3-PS≈3-ERG
‘While elsewhere, after all that, she his wife began to say
something different to him’.
406

12.4.14 =tiga, habitual (HAB)

a. efitsu-mbїɳї elei tu-e-fo-ga=tiga fїgei-ki

wife-FO IDEM REF-shoot-VT-CI=HAB arrow-INST
‘She, his former wife who had shot at him with her arrow as she
was inclined to do.’

b. tï-n=ege e-fiGa-ŋu a-pi-sa=tiga

Q-N=PDEM 2-hot-N 2-hit-VI=HAB
‘Why are you always feeling hot ?’

12.5. Interclausal reference markers

One final set of clitics must be mentioned here. Kalapalo is a language

with a complex system of interclausal reference marker clitics (IRM)
binding to nouns, verbs and adverbial constituents of clauses. Six of
these are “basic” operators, the rest are compounds (meaning the
elements can function separately). Example 12.4.10 this chapter
illustrates the use of two of these: the basic =mbe (SS) and the compound
=mbale (CAT). In Chapter 14, where I describe the structures involved
in clause chaining characteristic of extended narrative discourse, I
describe this set in detail.

12. 6. The clitic/particle distinction in Kalapalo

Particles have been considered by Carib linguists to be a distinct, closed

word class (Carlin 2004: 69; Derbyshire 1999; Hoff 1990; Meira and
Gildea nd). Derbyshire defines Carib particles as follows: “Most of these
are always postposed to other constituents, never occurring alone or as
the initial constituent in a phrase. They are never inflected, nor can they
have derivational suffixes added (both of which are possible with other
types of postpositions....)” (1999: 53). Carlin defines the particles of the
Trio language as follows: “Particles are defined by their lack of ability to
take any morphology or undergo any morphological processes” (2004, p.
69). These definitions conform to most of the important features of both
Kalapalo enclitics and particles. But another important feature of
particles, relevant to the discussion in this chapter is that they stand alone
as both a phonological word with their own stress pattern and as a
grammatical word, in some cases being paired with a clitic or another
particle. For these reasons particles differ from clitics. The latter not
only have no distinct morphology and are hosted by the phonological
word that immediately precedes their presence, but when paired with
another clitic manifest regressive vocalic elision but do not manifest any
special stress pattern. In Kalapalo, while there is a semantically distinct
class of discourse particles (see Chapter 11: Small Word Classes), some
morphemes discussed in this chapter may be regarded as either clitics or
particles, depending upon their phonological behavior in a syllabic
structure. Thus, it is not always easy to define a semantically distinct set
of morphemes as a distinct particle word class in the language. Hoff
 407

recognized this problem in considering Carib (Karinya) elements, but

defended his use of the term particle (1990: 495; see discussion in
Derbyshire 1999: 53). While I used the term “particle” to describe
epistemic markers in an earlier study (Basso 2008), my work on the
Kalapalo phonological word has caused me to change my opinion, and to
consider them (in the main, with a few exceptions) as clitics. I prefer to
discuss the sets of clitics and particles together as a whole because of
their shared morphosyntactic features and to make the distinction
between “clitic” and “particle” in Kalapalo represent a continuum of
morphophonemic processes.

12.7. Problems with the definition of ‘modality’

The presence of the Kalapalo epistemic class of clitics is a typologically

important feature of the language. First, here are both syntactic and
semantic distinctions between epistemic morphemes and evidentiality in
the language. This feature provides evidence for the difficulties that are
posed when authorities alternate the terms ‘epistemic’ and ‘evidential’,
‘mood’ and ‘modality’ (cf. Palmer 1986 and Timberlake 2007).
While Kalapalo epistemic morphemes reference an evidential
contrast between what Hoff calls ‘introspective’ and ‘extrospective’
evidence. Their function is to mark a speaker’s judgments about such
evidence. Kalapalo uses distinct epistemic grammatical features from
those marking source of evidence (evidential suffixes, described in
Chapter 11:7). Also, Kalapalo illocutionary force types (indicative,
imperative, interrogative) are distinct grammatical categories that
operate on the verb stem, syntactically as well as semantically different
from the set of Kalapalo epistemic clitics (only some of which should be
considered ‘modal’).
Degrees of confidence are usually called “modality”, ranging
from certainty, through probability, to possibility, then to weak and
finally, an absence of knowledge (Lyons 1977). The term “modality” is
often used by Carib linguists, who have called such features “modal”
particles or clitics (Carlin 2004; Derbyshire, 1999; Franchetto nd; Hoff,
1986; Meira 1999). While epistemic modality in the sense of a “scale” or
“grade” does occur in Kalapalo epistemology, there are important non-
modal features that emerge as speakers evaluate information, including
incredulity (an extreme skepticism or unwillingness to believe), changes
in a person’s understanding (such as correctives), and counter-factive or
contra-spective wishing or hoping. I thus prefer to not use the term
‘modality’ for any grammatical features marked on the verb. Epistemic
marking can be understood best as a pragmatic process contributing to
the speaking subject’s self-awareness as a participant in contexts where
people pay attention to one another in a reciprocal way so as to learn
something about one another’s worlds and the values they share or
dispute. Epistemic judgment is essentially a stance procedure.
408 

Chapter 13
Complex Clause Constructions
In earlier chapters, I described relative clauses, and verbal intransitive,
extended intransitive, transitive, ditransitive, valence-decreasing, and
copular verb main clause types. Types of verbal main clauses that are
distinguished in terms of their particular alignment feature configurations
emerge from split-intransitivity, split-ergativity and valency-changing
processes. In the chapter on verbs, I also described the thetic non-finite
verb constructions. In the present chapter, I describe complex clause
constructions involving combinations of these main verb types and other
kinds of clauses, showing the different syntactic relations involved and
the different means of linking clauses to each other grammatically.
To use the model proposed by Dixon and Aikenvald (2008),
Kalapalo is a language with both ‘true’ complement clauses (i.e.,
subordination) in which the complement is constructed as a nominal
argument of the main verb, and ‘complementation strategies’ involving
other types of clause combining (Dixon 2010,Vol. II, Chapter 18). In
this chapter, Kalapalo clause combining materials are organized into
sections according to the degree of grammatical integration of the clause
combining constructions. These sections discuss: lexical
complementations, verbal complementation strategies, and
subordination. A fourth type of clause combining involves the use of ‘be’
verb auxiliaries, described in Chapter 7.6, while relative clauses are
described in Chapter 4. While combinatory ‘types’ illustrate degrees of
integration, actual utterance examples may include more than one
typological feature (as illustrated in 13.1.3.d, 13.1.5.a, and 13.2.4.f.).
Clause chaining structures involving coordination between such
combinatory types and switch-reference are described at length in
Chapter 14.
Generally there are very few types of complement clauses, or
what Dixon calls ‘true’ complement clauses. Using Sonia Cristofaro’s
terminology (2003), “modals” are deontic or marked by epistemic clitics
and particles, “phasals” are marked by taxis clitics, “manipulatives” such
as requests and commands occur with special imperative morphemes or
imperative strategies, desideratives appear with –ti, (desiderative), -su
(‘compulsive pejorative’) or -iñalï (malefactive) suffixes on the argument
NP or the verb (with an applicative effect); “propositional attitudes” are
expressed by epistemic clitics and particles; and “perception” predicates
use the existential root its- (EX) in copular constructions. While
Kalapalo is a language with both ‘true’ complement clauses (that is, the
complement is constructed as a nominal argument) and
‘complementation strategies’ (Dixon and Aikhenvald 2008), virtually all
of Dixon’s ‘secondary verb’ sub-type functions are taken over by the
inflectional and derivational morphology (suffixes, clitics and particles).
Only Dixon’s ‘primary B’ verbs (those that may take complements)
exist, and there are other Kalapalo verbs taking ‘true’ complements
(especially the verbs of motion) that are not included in Dixon’s main
categories of these verbs.
   409

13.1. Lexical complementation

Lexical complementation strategies in Kalapalo involve the use of

special lexicalized constructions which reference the semantic
complementation type. There is no grammatical integration of the
lexeme and the main clause, or any marker of complementation on the
main clause. Most of these lexical complements precede the main clause,
they are then followed by a distinct pause; utterance complements may
either precede or follow the clause (in which case the pause follows the
main clause). Lexical complementation includes utterance complements
(marked by quotatives, themselves reduced constructions); and ‘reason,’
‘consideration’; ‘accomplishment’, and ‘suppositional’ morphemes.
Although some quotatives and probably the accomplishment morpheme
have verbal or copular verbal roots, they are clearly diminished in
structure and with the exception of the ‘consideration’ morpheme (iɳge,
‘see’ in imperative mood), should be treated as lexemes. In preposed
complement lexemes, the common argument of the relative clause is not
stated, only in the main clause. In terms of clausal word order as well as
the presence of special lexemes, most lexical complementation is similar
to the imperatives described in Chapter 8, the preposed interrogative
constructions described in Chapter 9, and the epistemic expressives
described in Chapter 11.2.2.

13.1.1 Utterance complementation

In Kalapalo, utterance complements are quotatives in the form of finite

speech act verb constructions. However, quotatives have only limited
person prefixes and aspect inflection and no overt stem. In Kalapalo,
there are almost no indirect speech acts such that utterances are usually
direct reports. As shown in Chapter 6: 6.10, there are other speech act
verbs that are descriptive, not quotatives.
A Kalapalo quotative is a complement clause that is preceded by
a brief pause (marked here with the comma) when it follows the speech
act representation, but as in (b) it may precede the complement if the
speech act itself is being focalized.

a. The quotative nïg=i-feke always references the speech of a third

person, and often occurs in narrative discourse regarding ancient
or historical events.

tafaku oto, una-ma te-ta, Ø-nïg≈i-feke,

bow master where-EM go.away-CI, 3-PS=3-ERG
“Bow Master, where are you going?”, he said to him.

b. The quotative Ø-ta-i-feke references a continuative commentary

and like (a) must also only occur with third person speech acts. In this
example, the quotative occurs at the beginning of the utterance. For
pragmatic reasons, the quotative is elaborated by clarification of who is
being spoken to.
410 

[Ø-ta-i-feke,] tu-fitsu-feke
3-CI 3-ERG, O-wife-ERG
‘He told her, his wife’

c. The ambitransitive verb ki-, ‘utter’ may be in first, second, or

third person construction. The following example shows the
verb in an intransitive non-quotative construction. Speaking
somewhat informally, the speaker introduces something
important he wants to ask of the listener with this construction,
and the listener responds with a simple acknowledgment, as
shown:

ukwi-ta.
dual-utter-CI
‘We are speaking.’

(response):
eh.
‘yes’

d. Here is a second person example as a quotative, with the verb

used in transitive construction:

uño its-iŋa egei Afanda, e-ki-ta-ti=nafa

1-husband EX-SN IDEM Afanda, 2-utter-CI-DES=EM

u-feke e-ki-ta.
1-ERG 2-utter-CI
“You do know who I am because when you chose to say, “This
guy here Afanda could be my husband,”, you were saying that
about me weren’t you?”

e. A third person intransitive quotative construction with ki-,

‘utter’, must involve explicit use of the NP that references the
speaker (same example 7.8.3.a).

e-fiñano-feke e-їi-lї-ki-tani, efiñano-feke, Kwatїɳї

2-OBR-ERG 2-do-PI-CAUS-ANT, 2-OBR-ERG, Kwatїɳї
ki-lї
utter-PI
‘”Your older brother always made that happen to you, your older
brother”, Kwatїɳї spoke.’

There are some speech act verbs that is used indirectly; a rare example of
the indirect use of ki-,’utter’ is given in (f).

f. The following is an example in first person.

inde fe-tsaŋe ke-te-ŋa, u-ki-ta-ti-taka ege

here OD-DEO NEG-go-NEG 1-utter-CI-DES-EM PDEM
“’You must stop going around here’, I’m sure I was saying that.”
   411

g. Here, the verb stem akitsu-,’speech’ in third person construction

is a ditransitive verb that references formal conversational
discourse (same example 5.1.1.j. quotative. Note the final NP is
inflected with the adverb –kai; this is an unusual example of an
adjunct-like argument.

kagutu oto-feke s-aki-tsu-nda=lefa tu-iñaɳo-kai.

trumpet sponsor-ERG 3-speak-Vi-CI=MT REF-food-about (?)
‘The trumpet sponsor spoke to him about his food.’

13.1.2. eŋ(ï)u-, ‘reason’ complementations

Included in this section are preposed constructions that begin with stems
expressing ‘reason’, ‘unknown reason’, ‘without a reason’, or ‘bad
reason’, all constructed with the root eŋ(ï)u-, ‘reason’. Reason lexemes
host a variety of suffixes and clitics, including -iñalї, the malefactive
verb suffix (13.1.2.a); -ti, the desiderative suffix (13.1.2.b); interclausal
reference markers (13.1.2.b); epistemic clitics (13.1.2.c, 13.1.2.e); -ɳo
adverbial locative and -omi ‘purposive’ suffixes (13.1.2.h and 13.1.2.i);
and -tsї, the relative clause marker (13.1.2.j). These phenomena suggest
the ‘reason’ complement is possibly an archaic verb stem that is being
adverbialized.

a. In this complex example the complement eŋu- is preceded by the

named agent. This ‘reason’ morpheme hosts the malefactive +
copula applied existential stative verb which is nominalized by
the copula suffix (–iñalu-i). This is then followed by the finite
verb clause ‘he hallucinated it’ (which is the “reason”), then a
subordinate clause describing what he dreamed (in brackets).

Tamakafi eŋï-i-ñalu-i i-ka-fi-ta i-feke,

Tamakafi reason-EX-MAL-CL 3-hallucinate-VT-CI 3-ERG

[apu-ŋu-Ø=aka=fofo]
die-VI-RES=EM=IM
‘Because (you can tell, can’t you?) Tamakafi’s reason was that
he was (dreaming) he was going to die very soon.’

b. The following example is part of an extended clause chain. Here,

eŋu- hosts the same argument (SS) shift reference clitic =mbe,
which is followed by the desiderative suffix –ti.

aŋi=nika eŋï=mbe-ti fe-tsaŋe u-ine-ni.

exist=EM reason-SS-DES OD-DEO 1-poison-AN.

isi ki-lï.
3;mother utter-PI
412 

‘“Is that so? Because if I wanted to eat it, it would want to

poison me (lit., must be my poisoner).” Her mother spoke.’

c. In this example, eŋu- hosts the positive alignment =aka

epistemic clitic (this also appears in (a) hosted by the subordinate
clause).

eŋu=aka [ukwoto-fo-ko-feke u-ige-ta]

reason-EM [dual-parent-COLL-PL-ERG 1-take.away-CI]

igei tï-fïgi-ki.
IDEM REF-arrow-INST.
“I’m doing this because (as you may be able to tell) our relative
is taking me away to get his arrows.”

d. Here the ‘reason’ morpheme is followed by an auxiliary

existential (itsa) ‘be’ verb construction. This reason construction
and the NP are both relativized by the proximate identificational
pronoun egei. This demonstrative marks the immediately
preceding lexical NP as A of the pseudo-transitive ideophonic
clause (bracketed). The ideophone tsiuk (references the action of
the arrow slicing through the head of a fish. The noun phrase,
[AFR +SAL], appearing at the end of the final clause marks the
immediately preceding lexical NP as O argument of the
subordinate ideophonic

. eŋï=tsa=l=egei u-fïgi-feke egei [tsiuk

reason=EX=UT=DEM 1-arrow-ERG IDEM (sound of arrow
slicing fish head)

inde ti-tsï-gï ule-pe]

here REF-head-POSS AFR-SAL
“The reason for that was my arrow cut right through its head
here like this.”

e. Here eŋu- hosts the ‘positive alignment’ epistemic clitic =aka

followed by the identificational demonstrative igei referencing a
situational predication. There is also a subordinate clause (in
brackets).

eŋu=ak≈igei Aulukuma, [kwitsi-pĩgĩ

reason-EM≈IDEM Aulukuma 1+2-dead-VPE

atsa-ki-tomi igei] tї-i-ta u-feke.

return-CAUS-PURP IDEM REF-do-VT-CI 1-ERG
‘As you suppose, Aukuluma, I’m doing this to make our dead
return.’

f. An example with both nominative (ake- prefixed) and accusative

(fe- prefixed) deontics and the adverbial lexeme taloki, ’useless’.
   413

Used together these are characteristic of the style of personal

humility developed in the affinal civility register.

eŋu fe-tsaŋe talo-ki muk≈ake-tsaŋe awa-dyu

reason OD-DEO useless-ADV EM≈SD-DEO uncle-END

i-ndisï-na u-te-fo-ta.
3-daughter-ALL 1-go away-HYP-CI

‘The reason I want to (you to do this) is I’ve decided I should go

to Uncle's daughter, though it probably won't work out the way I
would like”

g. eŋi-ko, ‘unknown reason’:

eŋi-ko-ŋa-ŋapa-fa pania ige-ta.

reason-N-EM-PTP starch take.away-CI
“What was the reason for them to take the manioc starch away ?”

h. eŋi-ko-ndomi, ‘unknown purpose’.

This example also involves a reduced syllabic structure in the
bracketed adverb hosting the ‘conformative’ clitic and primary
topical participant suffix:

ekugu + apa-fa → ekuw≈apa-ha.

eŋi-ko-ndomi [ ekuw≈apa-ha] Ø-e-lï i-feke.

result-EM-PURP fully≈CONF-PTP 3-angry-PI 3-ERG
’Who knows what could have made her so angry with him.’

i. eŋi-ko-munda, ‘ unknown place/time’:

eŋi-ko-munda=lefa is-ipo-ilї-ko i-feke

reason-EM-place=MT 3-rise.up-PI-PL 3-ERG
‘Somewhere they rose to the surface’.

eŋi-ko-munda-m≈at-ehe
reason-unknown-place-EM≈EQA-PER

e-iŋï-pïgï ut-agi-ma-nïmiŋo
2-poison-PS MV-die-VI-POT

e-tefu=mbedya teku-wa-lï e-feke,

2-stomach-SSDE eat.crunchy.food-PI 2-ERG

n-al≈i-feke tu-fitsu-feke.
say-UT-3-ERG REFL-wife-ERG
“I don’t know when but you’ll poison yourself to death from that
stuff going into your stomach when you chew it up”, he kept
saying to his wife.
 414 

j. This example shows the relative clause modifier marker M on a

reason complement modifying the head noun in the main clause:

ah, eŋï-tsï-fa, fikutafa its-a.

EXP, um-M-PTP, turtle EX-CI
‘Surely the reason was a turtle .’    
   
 
13.1.3. aŋi, ‘result’ or accomplishment complementation

The adverbial lexeme aŋi may occur with a person prefix

(13.1.3.d,13.1.3.e) and may be derived from the a- stative equative ‘be’
root + -ɳi ‘experiencer’ or ‘theme’ nominalization suffix. I treat result
complements as either simple NP adjuncts, as in (13.1.3.a) or, adjunct to
a finite verb clause, as in (13.1.3.b).

a. aŋi e-fits-au?
result 2-wife-PL‘Did you find your wives?” (or, “are you
‘married to more than one woman?’

b. aŋi oto-mo etsiŋ-gi-ta u-fi-dyï≈feke, Ø-ta ≈ i-feke.

  result-relative-PL fail-VT-CI 1-find-PI≈ERG, tell-CI≈3-ERG
‘“The result is that her relatives haven’t been able to find her”,
he told them.’ 
 
c. This example shows the lexical complement with the facsimile suffix –
me, ‘something like’. The main verb has been nominalized and the
subordinate verb occurs in supine construction. There is a final
subordinate supine clause with a copular construction hosting the IRM
=mbe (SS), ‘same subject’.
Comment [ERB1]: more needed on thi s, an unusual constructi on. 

aŋi-me si-tïfïgï takwagï aŋu-ne-tigi aŋi

result-FACS 3-come-IMP long flute play-VT-SUP result
‘It seems as if they have come here to play the flutes, that’s why.

afulu-gi at-i-ko=mbe-fa.
walk.around-SUP EQA-CL-PL=SS-PTP
‘(They’ve come) to be those who walk around (the settlement to
receive gifts).’

d. lepene ande aŋi kine ku-lï i-feke,

afterwards here.now result flatbread eat.starchy food-PI 3-ERG,

tu-fasï-feke.
REF-OZ-ERG
‘After that, “Now here’s some bread for you to eat”, to her
older sister.’
  415
416 

e. An example with the dual person prefix on the adverbial

morpheme:

ukw-aŋi-fofo s-ita-ni.
1+2-result-IT 3-come to-ANT
‘If you and I wait he’ll appear soon.’ (lit., the result of our being
here soon he’ll come here)

f. In this example the second person prefix (as ok-) occurs on the
‘result’ morpheme:

ok-aŋi s-ita-ni
2-result 3-come to-ANT
‘you wait he’ll come here’

13.1.4 iŋge, ‘consideration’ complementation

These are complements preceded by (e)iŋge “consider, think” (this is the

same verb for “see” in second person singular imperatives; the second
person prefix e- is often omitted as shown in most of the examples). In
this construction, the verb acts much like a demonstrative, though
appearing clause initially. Often this clause is suffixed with the ‘shift-
function’ primary topical participant morpheme –fa, (PTP) (13.1.4.a; b;c)
which integrates the complement and main clause arguments in a topical
continuity relation (Van Valin Jr. and La Polla 1997: 287.) While the
main clause is always in imperative, the complement clause may occur in
indicative or interrogatives, or a non-finite construction. In examples
(13.1.4e) and (13.1.4f), the main verb and complement clause verbs are
both in the imperative, but this does not represent grammatical
coordination as would sometimes occur with subordinated ‘true’
complement clauses.

a. iŋ-ge-fa. kwigi figei.

see-I-PTP manioc DEM.
‘Look, this is manioc’.

b. iŋ-ge-fa, Ø-nïgi, iŋ-ge-fa

2-see-I-PTP, 3-PS, see-I-PTP
‘“Look”, he said to her. “Look.

e-fameti-dyau egua-ki-ta.
2-sisters-in-law squeeze. mash-VI-CI
Your sisters-in-law are squeezing (the mash). ‘

c. iŋ-ge-fa, iŋ-ge-fa. dyadya-ko e-ta.

see-I-PTP, see-I-PTP, OBRO-PL come.to-CI
‘Look, look, Older brother and his companion are arriving.’
   417

d. lepe iŋ-ge ah tẽ-ti tugufi.

next see-I EM REF-come-to-TH painted.catfish
‘Then, think of it, a pintado came right there.’

e. iŋ-ge-fofo uk-iŋi-ke. e-tidyi-pïgï agi-ŋo-feke

see-I-IT 1+2-see-I, 2-take.out.of-VPE resemble-N-ERG

u-fe-pïgï
1-shoot-VPE
‘Look right away and think of us, about those who resemble
your offspring who’ve shot me.’

f. e-ŋi-ge at-iti u-kwai ik-ui-ke ik-ui-ke at-iti

look-I EQA-DES 1-on pull.out-do-I pull.out-do-I EQA-DES

u-kwai
1-on.
‘If you want think about what’s on me, and pull it out. ‘
(Or, ‘Perhaps you can pull out what is on me.’ )

 
g. Here, the relative clause modifier M is suffixed to the
‘consideration’ complement of a de-verbalized nominalization:
ɳi-ge-tsї-fa e-fisї eti-mbe-pїgї
see-I-M-PTP 2-Ybro arrive-VT-VPE
‘Think of (him), your younger brother (who) has arrived.’

13.1.5. ene(a)-fa, ‘suppositional’ complementation

In this type of complementation, there is a hypothetical irrealis suffix on

both of the two embedded ‘true’ subordinate complement clause verbs.
The shift-function PTP –fa suffix on the pre-verb indicates that this is an
explanation of the negative consequences of an immediately preceding
description or request of some kind involving a topicalized verbal
argument. I have two attested examples, both involving human beings.

a. ene-fa et-imï-ke-i-fo-lï,
suppose-PTP MV-face-raise-EP-HYP-PI,

tu-e-fo-lï=lefa i-feke, tu-e-fo-lï.

REF-shoot-HYP-PI=MT 3-ERG REF- shoot-HYP-PI
‘If he had looked up, he would have been shot by it, he would
have been shot.’

b. ena-ha u-agage e-u-i-fo-lï u-feke,

suppose-PTP 1-same 2-make-EP-HYP-CI 1-ERG,

apuŋu-mb≈o-lu=lefa
finish-Vi-HYP-PI=MT
‘If I were to make you like me, it would be all over with you!’
418 

13.2. Verbal complementation strategies

Verbal complementation strategies involve some grammatical integration

between a main and a complement clause. The head of the complement
clause is marked as such with one of several possible suffixes. These
include contrastives with –ne/nu morphemes (CONT) on the main clause
adverb, enabling purposives -(nd)omi (PURP), concessives with the –
(s)ote suffix (CONC), and desideratives –ti suffix (DES) on the
complement clause verb.

13.2.1 Contrastive clauses

Kalapalo contrastives are constructed with the pair of –nu and –ne
suffixes (CONT) on complement clauses. Where the utterance contrasts
a predication with something previously uttered, only –ne is used as in
(a) and (b).

a. The regular contrastive only uses –ne. Here, it occurs on an

irregular construction, (i)ñafe (often the initial vowel is elided),
probably involving the allative iña:

ohsi ñafe-ne ku-ñi-ga-ke.

HORT come.toward.CONT 1+2-see-Vi-I
‘Come back over here in my direction so we can all see.’

b. In this example, -ne appears on a NP hosting the shift reference

morpheme mbe (‘same event’):

ande=gele-ta uge. u-iña-ta w-ato egei

here/now=PT-DIS me, 1-DAT-DIS 1-friend ADEM

Afasa=mbe-ne
Afasa)=SS-CONT
“But I’m still here. It was Afasa who (came) for me as my
friend.”

c. As in this example, where –ne is used in the prior utterance, -nu

occurs on the immediately following utterance.

la-s-apa endisu iku-tani,

like.that-PEJ-CONF 2-daughter f...k-ANT,

a-me-ne-su wãke.
2-FACS-CONT-PEJ EM
‘So let your daughter have sex if she wants, it’s obvious you’re
someone who is against that.’
   419

tï-tomi-nu wãke e-indi-sï

RQ-PURP-CONT EM 2-daughter-POSS

fu-ni-ta Ø-ta i-feke

protect-CR tell-CR 3-ERG
‘Why have you been so against that and shelter your
daughter?”she told her,

d. This example is one of comparative nominal predicates (same as

4.4.1.5a):
ine-n≈ŋo ate-gu-i-fa dyofi,
one. place-CONT≈PREC on.the. side-POSS-CL-PTP, dyofi

isa-ekugu-mbekudya
3-fully-NOMR
“As dyofi* were the tallest, for that reason they stood right to
the side of him”.

ine-ne-fa kadyaGima, kagutu-fa kago.

one.place-CONT-PTP kadyaGima, trumpet-PTP those.people
‘While on the other side were KadyaGima Catfish**, they were
(playing) the flutes.’

Note: Fishes called in Brazil, * pirapucu, Boulengerelha cuvieri

**‘colheireiro’(spoonbill) or pirapeuaua’, Platistoncatichthys sp.

13.2.2 Enabling purposive complements

The Kalapalo enabling purposive occurs as an inflected asuffix -omi, or -

t(nd)omi when preceded by a vowel. With plural S actors, the plural
suffix –ko or collective -goko precedes the purposive suffix. The
purposive has the sense of facilitating or enabling something, as in ‘try’,
or ‘intend to do’. These purposive clauses reference the intended effect
of an action that might only be understood from the context and may not
be made explicit. The enabling purposive suffix may appear on verbs,
adverbs, initial anaphoric topic referents, demonstratives, and ‘reason’
complements. If there is a subordinate clause, it will be marked with the
suffix, this clauseeither preceding or following the main clause.
With enabling purposive constructions, the stem formation
persists, as well as the A or S person prefix. Where the verb is transitive,
any A is replaced by a demonstrative. The purposive morpheme may
also appear directly on pronominal demonstratives that are repeated after
the purposive de-verbal adverbial. Where the purposive constructed verb
is ditransitive, the (human) R(ecipient) noun receives a
dative/benefactive case suffix. Where an oblique argument is inanimate,
it is marked with the instrumental case –ki. The first four examples show
the purposive suffix on a single clause verb.
420 

a. This and the following example (13.2.2b) show the causative –ki
and enabling purposive –omi morphemes on the derived
transitive verb stem ki- “to utter”, inflected with punctual-
indicative aspect. However, this combined form more usually
appears directly after the stem, with no other inflection. The
problem with the first interpretation is that –ki is more likely the
ambitransitive radical that has been displaced outside of the
stem. The several possible reasons for this displacement are
first) –ki can function as a valence-increasing causative, which
makes the –(nd))omi reference a “reason”; second, )
reduplication needs to be avoided. For example the verb root in
(13.2.2f) is ki- and there is a Ø radical in the stem’s intransitive
form. But there is an ambiguity, because (as in both examples
13.2.2a and 13.2.2.b) the –ki radical can easily combine with the
purposive marker.

igia-su-fa a-fasï-ŋiso-feke
This.way-PEJ-PTP 2-OZ-husband-ERG

faŋa-tuɳ-idyï-ki-tomi Ø-nïg=i- feke.

ear-hurt-PR-VT-cause-PURP 3-say.to-PS≈3-ERG
‘ “This will make your older sister’s husband want to envy me,”
he said to her. ‘

b. The following is an enabling purposive construction with a

causative suffix. I interpret the VP as having the sense of
“allows himself to talk about us”. The only possible S is “our
brother”.

adyah, igia-su-fa ku-pisua-gï

FRUST this.way-PEJ-PTP 1+2-brother-POSS

ki-lï-ki-tomi ku-pehe
utter-PI-CAUS-PURP 1+2-ERG,
‘I’m really tired that our brother allows himself to speakabout us
in this bad way all the time.’

c. This example shows the purposive morpheme on the intransitive

verb stem -ifetu “clear for planting”. As there is an adverbial in
first position, I interpret the marked constituent as a derived VP.
The S argument is indicated as usual by the person prefix

taloki ekugu-ŋu igi-a u-ife-tu-ndomi.

useless fully-DIM this.way-E 1-clear a planting area-N-PURP
‘It’s useless for me to try to make a clearing like this.’.
   421

d.  This example has no main verb; the enabling purposive occurs
on a core copular argument:

ah, e-fisï-tomi=papa ege-na e-iña.

EM, 2-YBR-PURP-CO this.person-ALL 2-DAT/BEN

efisï-tomi, e-fisï-tomi.
2-YBR-PURP 2-YBR-PURP,
‘Surely if you want him to be your younger brother (i.e.,
‘husband’) for you, your younger brotherI’ll let that happen.”
 
e. This example is a clause chain with a clause hosting the enabling
purposive suffix on the existential copular verb stem its- that
concludes a discourse string. The bracketed adnominal
demonstrative in line (ii) “this (inanimate)” refers to the previous
instrumental oblique argument ‘with the bee’s spell’ that ends
(i). In (ii), that NP now becomes A of the purposive clause.

i. lepe t-indisï t-iña-fiti-nd≈i-feke

next REFL-daughter REFL-hand-blow.spell.on-CI≈3-ERG

iŋgi kefege-su-ki
bee spell-POSS-INST
‘Next she blew the little black bee’s spell all over her daughter’s
hands’.

ii. tah, tatitsu-Gi [ figei] i-ts-iGiku-gu

IJ, sweet ADV ADEM 3-REF-hot.soup-POSS

its-omi.
EX-PURP
‘Yum, this was for making her (daughter’s) soup really sweet’.

f. uŋa-ti itso-k≈omi, isïŋ-Gi-gokomi.

house-to EX-PL ≈PURP 3-sleep-CAUS-PL;PURP,

fagito ïŋï-tomi
guests sleep-PURP.
‘So they might sleep in the house, the guests might fall asleep.’

g. fagu-na u-te-tomi akaki-ki

oxbow.lake-ALL 1-go-PURP net-INST

ete-go-k≈omi kaŋa-ki=mbe=dya
go.away-PAU-COLL-PURP fish-INST=SS=XA
“I intend to go to the ox-bow lake with the net, they all intend to
go away to fish that way.”
422 

h. Here is an example of the appearance of -omi in a “reason”

construction. The following shows the purposive morpheme on
the pre-verb eŋi-ko- “unknown reason”.

eŋi-ko-ndomi ekuw≈apa-ha Ø-e-lï i-feke.

reason-EM-PURP fully≈CONF-PTP 3-angry-PI 3-ERG
‘Who knows what could have made her so angry with him.’

i. Here the narrator uses the purposive morpheme on the

demonstrative-like anaphoric focus referent ule as well as on the
final subordinate verb (bracketed). (Ule, AFR is initially
described in Chapter 5, section 5.3.2) The speaker uses the
initial adverbial clause to ‘summarize’ the previous narrative
topic, which she makes explicit in the final, subordinate clause.
In the summary description of what the demonstrative
references, the subordinate clause is formed with a transitive
verb, -ifi- “touch someone (i.e., have sex with)” also marked
with the purposive. The arguments in the adverbial clause are
referenced by demonstratives, ‘that (AFR)’ and ‘this’, rather than
full nouns. The A argument appears in ergative case in the
subordinate clause (bracketed).

ule-tomi-ŋapa=l=egei et-ïnï-ŋ-Gi-tsa
AFR-PURP-EM-T=ADEM MV-sick-VT-CAUS-CI

[ukw-ikene [i-fi-ts-omi] e-feke.]

dual-YZ 3-touch-VT-PURP 2-ERG
‘But probably that was the reason why you did all that, surely
you made yourself get sick so you could seduce our younger
sister.’
 
k.  eŋu=ak≈igei Aulukuma, kwitsi-pĩgĩ
reason-EM≈IDEM Aulukuma, 1+2-dead-VPE

atsa-ki-tomi igei të-i-ta u-feke.

return-CAUS-PURP IDEM do-EP-CI 1-ERG
‘As you suppose, Aukuluma, I’m doing this to enable our dead
to return.’

l. ah, ŋ-i-tomi et-imi-tofo-iŋo, ŋi-tofo

EXP , OB-see-PURP MV-avenge-USIN-POT OB;see-IM
“Surely, let me see what you use to take revenge, I want to see it
now.”

m. The following construction is a polite imperative strategy in

which the permissive is put on an intransitive verb. Although
the speaker is asking his wife to tell her father to do some work,
the ‘stronger’ imperative mood inflection on the verb would not
be appropriate in this affinal civility context. The intransitive
verb root ika - “collect firewood” is intransitivized by the
radical -ŋu , indicating a voluntary bodily action (Note this
   423

radical is homo-phonous with the adverbial diminuative suffix,

as seen in example 13.2e.i above)

ukw-oto i-ka-ŋu-ndomi.
dual-parent wood-collect-N-PURP
‘Let our parent collect firewood. ’
.
13.2.3 Concessive complements

Concessive complement clauses use the (g) (s)–ote (CONC), ‘even

though’, ‘although’ suffix on the complement verb stem. The
concessive marks an event that might preclude the action of the main
verb but does not. The CONC suffix may occur on either the main or
subordinate clauses.

a. Here the O argument of the subordinate clause (bracketed) is

marked with both – pe (SAL) and also the case argument –
ki.

tї-me≈gei t≈ote i-feke,

RQ-EM≈PDEM CI-CONC 3-ERG,

[o-wĩ-feke-fa telo-pe-ki e-Gipa-lu-iɳo i-feke]

2-father-ERG-PTP another-SAL-INST 2-name-PI-POT 3-ERG
‘Even if she asks him, “Who is this person?” your father will
use another name for you to (answer) her’.

b. In this example the concessive is suffixed to the anaphoric topic

referent as part of a segment marking, topical shifting clausal
construction. The ‘new, overlapping’ and ‘different event’ taxis
clitics contribute to this discursive shift. The main clause is a
de-verbal nominalization. (The full chain appears in Chapter 14:
14.5.2.).

ule-gote=tale=hale≈gei=hale, ah i-ñe-tï-fïgï
AFR-CONC-DD-NO≈ADEM=NO EXP 3-dislike-VT-VPE

i-feke.
3-ERG
‘Although all that had been done as it should, this time for
certain she didn’t like him any more.’

c. This example shows a clause chain in which the initial marking

clause with the de-verbal nominal i-nïgï, ‘what was brought’ is
followed by a second coordinated clause with the argument
marked by a postposed ule AFR. This AFR hosts the
concessive suffix.
424 

fitsu-feke=mbe=lefa [i-nïgï], to-ki=mbale ule-gote

Wife-ERG-SS=MT bring-PS, more-ADV=CAT AFR-CONC
‘Even with all that his wife had brought when she did that, there
would be more for her to do!’

d. ku-m-iñaŋo-fïŋï-ki-la=su eGitse
1+2-C-food-unlike-INST-NEG=PEJ unfortunate
‘You’ll soon realize that garbage of his is not like our food

a-fasï ŋiso-feke u-faŋa-tuŋ-Gi-sote.

2-OZ husband-ERG 3>1-ear-hurt-VT-CAUS-CONC
even though your older sister’s husband insults me’
Comment [ERB2]: need better translation 

13.2. 4 Desideratives

The desiderative, with the sense of ‘want’, ‘like’, is constructed with the
suffix –ti (DES) following transitive verb constructions that include an
aspectual suffix on the verb stem and an explicit O argument NP. When
the latter includes quoted speech, the suffix may appear on the quotative
with the resultant sense of ‘liked (wanted) to say’. The clause may be
subordinate or main. The desiderative is a construction that marks an
event as ‘wished for’. Note there is a homophonous –ti suffix on the
non-finite supine or purpose of motion construction (The supine is
described in this chapter, section 13.3.2).

Note that in example (a), there is a difference between the de-verbalized

stem fote-, ‘burn’ and itote-‘set fire to’.

a. [itsu-fu-pe fo-te-lu-a] ito-te-ga-ti≈feke.

slash-VT-SAL burn-VT-PI-U fire-VT-CI-DES≈3-ERG
‘He wanted to set fire to some of what he had cleared earlier for
burning.’

b. The main clause is a topic shifting active equative copular verb

(EQA) in perfect aspect preceding the desiderative clause . This
sets up the understanding as a future perfective.

ule at-ehe iñoki-lï-ti-feke, tïdï, tïdï

AFR EQA-PERF pull out-PR-DES-ERG, (sounds of pulling
something out)
‘As a consequence of all that, when he wanted to pull it out, tïdï,
tïdï (it came right out)’.

c The following is another example of a subordinate clause with an

“abstract” complement that is followed by the main clause with
-ti suffix (bracketed):

igia-tse≈ke-ts≈igei] [t-u-ilї i-feke-ni],

this.way-M≈SD-DEO ≈IDEM REF-put-PI 3-ERG-PL
  425

o-ño-te-lï-ti, aifa.
2-boil-VT-PI-DES, ready.done
‘This is what you have to put it in when you want to boil it,
that’s all.’
426 

d. Here, the –ti suffix follows the interclausal reference marker

clitic mbege,’same action, repeated’ (SSR). P is marked by
“same argument” reflexive t- on the verb:

t-ui-ta=mbege-ti≈feke afïtï, ñalï

REF-place-CI=SSR-DES-3-ERG, denial, negation.
‘When he wanted to push her back in again, he couldn’t do it, it
didn’t work.’

e. The following example is a discourse segment in which ki-

‘utter’ verb appears with -ti, as well as some content question
words. (i) and (ii) reference the two interlocutors.

i. uwa-ma ki-ta-ti-feke
Q-EM utter-CI-DES-ERG
’What did I want to say to you?’

ii. uwa-ti-ma u-ki-ŋalï e-feke-ne u-fidyau, uwã

Q-DES-EM 1-utter-REP 2-ERG-PL 1-grandson:pl, what
‘Was there something you wanted me to say to you again, my
grandchildren, what?’

iii. afïtï-i=dye oko ata-fa-ti-feke

denial-IRR=SA GM (voc) your;mother-PTP-DES-ERG

efigï-ake,
2-grandson-COM,
“No, not that grandmother, “your mother” was what you said
to me and to your grandson.”

ata-fa-ti≈feke
your;mother-PTP-DES≈ERG
“Your mother” was what you wanted to say. “

iv. unde-ma u-ki-fo-lï

Q-EM 1-utter-HYP-CI
“Where could I have said that?

v. u-fi-dyau=fïna=ŋï-tifa u-etigite-gï-ki-ni
1-grandson-PL=EM=LT-EV 1-peanut-POSS-VI-ANT

u-fidyau, u-ki-ta i-feke-ni.

1-grandson:PL, 1-utter-CI 1-ERG-PL
“I hoped these were my cute little grandsons (among) my
peanuts, my grandsons”, I was saying about them.’

vi. afïtï –dye oko, Ø-nïg≈ i-feke.

denial-SO grandmother (voc), 3-PS≈3-ERG.
‘“That’s not it Grandmother,” he answered.’

(speaker’s commentary)
   427

itso-Gi-l≈an-ïgï.
fierce-ADV-like.that≈EQ-PS
‘He was furious.’

vii. egea-la e-ki-ta-ti≈feke oko.

this.way-NEG 2-utter-CI-DES≈ERG, grandmother(voc)
“That wasn’t at all how you liked to speak, Grandmother.”

13. 3. Subordination

Subordination is the most grammatically integrated clause combining

process, involving ‘true’ complementation clauses. There are
grammatical features that indicate the subordinate function of a clause
and its arguments shared with the main clause. Types of Kalapalo
subordination include: 1) de-verbal stative and active nominalization; 2)
non-adverbial ‘goal’ with marking on the subordinate verb and salient –
pe suffix on the subordinate oblique argument NP; 3) the supine purpose
of motion clause in which there is a switch reference from S of main
clause to A of the subordinate clause; 4) perception complements; 5)
motion complements; and 6) the anaphoric focus referent ule appearing
clause finally to mark subordinate status of the clause and S→O shift
reference. Relative clause constructions are another type of
subordination, considered in Chapter 4, section 5.
Each type of subordination involves particular morphological
devices for marking the arguments within the subordinate clauses. These
include core arguments as well as dative/benefactive, instrumental, and
oblique semantic case markers; and the anaphoric focus referent ule- on
the subordinate clause. In addition, there are often specific verb
constructions in use which are associated with the clause chaining
function. Subordinate clauses may precede or follow main clauses.
Noun phrase density in clauses is not very high (though nouns
may modify nouns). With three arguments in one transitive clause, P is
normally pronominally prefixed, A is marked with the ergative suffix;
and the third argument marked by an oblique case. With regard to
complex verbal clause relations, as many as two separate subordinate
clauses may occur, either with a finite verb clause or when the main
clause is a copular verb construction.
A ditransitive example is given in (a) from the affinal civility
register with a goal subordinate clause (in brackets) and an enabling
purposive main clause (which has its own relative clause). Note the
modifier –tsї (M) marking the relative clause (bracketed) that modifies
the head NP ‘younger brother’. This head is the common argument
shared by the enabling purposive main clause and the subordinate goal
oriented clause.
428 

a. kogetsi [ ata-i-ti-tsï] efisï-feke ata-i-ti

tomorrow EQA-IRR-DES-M 2-YBR-ERG EQA-IRR-DES

kuk-ige-tomi [mutifsofo a-lï-iña]

1+2-take-PURP fish.trap throw-PI-DAT/BEN
‘Perhaps (it might be the case that) tomorrow (he) your younger
brother might be able to take us to throw the fish traps.’

13.3. 1 Motion complements

There are several types of motion complements. The main clause is

often an intransitive te- ‘go away’ construction; this is the most
important complement taking verb. Other motion verbs that often
appear in motion subordination constructions are ‘come’, ‘leave,
‘arrive’, ‘search for’. Motion complements appear in apposition with
their subordinate clauses. They may occur preceding or following the
subordinate clause. Motion complement verbs may be constructed with
aspectual or irrealis suffixes (as in 13.4.1.1.a), or as goal-oriented
clauses with dative/benefactive suffix (as in 13.4.1.2a, b).

13.3.1.1. ‘A goes away while B does Y’

In this type of motion complement construction, there is a copular

clause followed by the complement, and the main ‘go away’ clause has
an adverbial adjunct, ‘into hammock’. The two clauses share marking
for aspect.

a. ah u-agiŋo=mukwe at-ani ti-ŋa-ka-ta

EXP 1-similar=EM EQA-ANT REF-lie.down-Vi-CI

u-te-tani
1-go.away-CL-ANT
“I’m telling you, in vain will he be like me since when I go away
(to work) he’s lying in his hammock.’’

13.3.1.2 ‘go away to do X’

There are two types of constructions with this semantic effect.

The first is a type of construction (bracketed in examples) that
uses a subordinating PI ‘goal’ clause with the -iña dative/benefactive
suffix. In (a), the subordinate clause references an action that is the goal
of the main clause verb ‘go back’. Both clauses share the 2nd person S
argument expicit as pronominal prefix on the main clause. The initial
frustrative expressive is addressed to that person. In this type of
construction, in contrast with purposives discussed in 13.2.2, which place
emphasis on the intention of the actor, the emphasis is on the effect of
the action referenced in the main verb. The ‘target’ argument of the
subordinate clause is marked with the suffix –pe.
   429

a. With ipuGi- ‘prune up’ limbs of a tree, so as to make a space

for planting (same example 11. 2.1.11). Here the main clause
follows the preceding subordinate clause, describing an activity
the speaker wishes to emphasis as useless and recurrent.

dya-su, ah agetsiŋo-pe
DN-PEJ, EM only one-place-SAL

i-pu-Gi-dyï-iña kugu=ale e-te-ŋalï,

3-prune-Vi-PI-DAT/BEN fully=UT 2-go.away-REV ,

Ø-nïgï-ti=feke.
3-PS-EV-ERG
“But you’re the fool who always goes back and forth to clear
away the brush around one tree” was what he said to him, they
say’.

b. The following is a indicative example with the subordinate verb

iŋi-‘ see’ following the main verb clause, both clauses sharing
aspectual inflection and 3rd person argument:

Ø-ete-lï-ko gehale Ø-iŋi-lï-ko-iña gehale.

3-go.away-PI-PL again 3-see-PI-PL-DAT/BEN again
‘So they went again to see them again’.

c. In this example the subordinate clause verb (bracketed) has been

nominalized with the locative nominalizer, ‘place where’ suffix
(LOCN), thereby creating a shared first person S argument with
the main verb. Both arguments of the nominalized verb are
preserved in this nominative-accusative construction. This may
be considered a ‘double’ subordination construction, as it is both
a ‘go away to do X’ as well as a de-verbal nominalization to
create a subordinate clause.

Akwakaŋa nduku-gu [ u-ke-ŋi-ŋï]

Akwakaɳa gourd.container-POSS 1 >3-fill-VT-SN

te-ga-ni
go.away-SCAUS-ANT
‘I plan to go away to fill up Akwakaɳa’s container’.
(lit., ‘go to Akwakaŋa’s container’s I-fill-it-place”.)

The second type involves use of a root on the stem with the transitive –
nde radical. The latter are often followed by a Ø suffix on the verb
phrase, a marker of resultative semantics (RES).

d. This example shows a construction with the transitive ‘benefactive’

radical nde (VT), resultative aspect.

iñoti-nde-Ø=ale ete-lu–iŋo
430 

string.up-VT-RES=UT go.away-PI-POT

kaŋa iñoti-nde-Ø=ale-fa kïdïkïdï,

fish string.up-VT-RES=NT (IDEO)
‘When it goes away it will keep on stringing them up, keep on
stringing up the fish kïdïkïdï,

bah ha: iñoti-nde-Ø=ale-fa.

IJ string.up-VT-RES=UT-PTP
it will keep on stringing up so many,”

13.3.1.3 ‘x comes to do y’

The intransitive verb e- (si-, third person S), ‘come’ takes many
subordinate complements. The following example shows the
dative/benefactive suffix on the subordinate verb, fe-lu- ‘break’ (in
punctual indicative aspect). In (13.4.1.3a.i.), the main verb,‘come’
(suppletive 3p form si- is used here) appears in an initial clause in this
chain, and is separated from the goal-oriented marked subordinate clause
by a brief comment (bracketed) about the Snake beings who lived in the
settlement. Otherwise, (a.i)-(a.iv) constitute a simple clause chain. The
‘target’ argument of the subordinate clause is marked with the SAL
copula suffix –pe (see also example 13.4.1.3d for a similar type of
argument marking).

a. i.lepene si-nïgï=lefa asuti e-nïgï=lefa ete-na.

afterwards 3-come.to-PS-MT, Frog come.to-PS=MT settlement-ALL
‘Afterwards he came, Asuti came to the settlement.’

ii. [ñalï-ma eke fu-nïmi]

negation-EM snake know-CONS
‘The snakes didn’t know’ (lit., ‘the Snakes weren’t knowers’)

iii. tuk, afuku-gu-pe fe-lu-iña,

(sound of breaking), cooking. pot-POSS-SAL break-PI-
DAT/BEN

iv. ŋi-Ø-ko-pe fe-lu-iña, asuti-feke. ,

possess-RES-PL-SAL break-PI-DAT/BEN, frog-ERG
‘Tuk, he came, Frog* came (the Snakes didn’t know) to break their
cooking pots, to break what they possessed’.

*In English, this animal (Pipa pipa) is called ‘Surinam toad’ (). It is fully
aquatic and the Kalapalo (who commonly eat it) classify it with kaɳa, ‘fish’. .

b. An example of the main verb ‘leave’, with the subordinate verb

api- ‘thrash’

fa-ki-Ø-ko ekï-ko ifiŋu api-lu-iña.

leave-Vi-RES-PL unnamed-PL salt.plants thrash-PI-DAT/BEN
   431

‘Those two finally left to go thrash the dried up water hyacinth

plants’. (i.e., to make salt from the dried plants).

c. The following example uses the main verb ‘come for’ in

reflexive ‘de-ergative’ object-backgrounding construction, while
the subordinate verb ‘avenge’ is in goal construction.

ande-dyaka ti-ñ-en-ïm-iŋo efiñano-ake

here/now-EM REFL-OB-come.for-VT-POT Obr-COM

Ø-opi-dyï-ko-iña
3-avenge-PI-PL-DAT/BEN
“Now I’ve decided on come for him with the older brother, so
they can be avenged.”

d.    NP Ugukutsu as the ‘target’ argument of a subordinate ‘goal’

clause verb e- ‘shoot’. As ‘target’ the NP is suffixed by the
salient copula –pe (boldface).

Ugukutsu-pe e-lï-iña=lefa te-ta,

Ugukutsu-SAL shoot-PI-DAT=MT go.away-CI,

Madyawagi te-ta.
Madyawagi go.away-CI
‘He went away, Madyawagi went away to shoot Ugukutsu.’

e.  The following is a rare example of the subordinate verb subject

to nominal derivation by the possessive suffix before hosting the
dative/benefactive suffix (this construction is bracketed).

u-ikeu-te-la e=mukwe-tifa e-mu-gu

1-be angry with-VT-NEG 2-EM-EV 2-son-POSS

e-ta [ u-pei-gï-iña]
come.to-CI [ 3 >1–shake-POSS-DAT/BEN]
“I don’t recall I was angry at all when your son came to shake
me (literally, ‘for my shaking’).

 
13.3.1.4 Extended intransitive with goal-oriented subordinate clause

Extended intransitives also occur with the ‘goal’ subordinate clause,

marked as such with the dative/benefactive suffix –iña. function. The
target argument of  the  subordinate clause is marked with the salient
suffix –pe. The construction is attested for the verbs ‘shoot’ and ‘set
fire’. Subordinate clauses in the following examples are bracketed.

a. [itsufu-pe fo-te-lu-iña] ito-te-ga-ti≈feke.

slash-SAL burn-VT-PI-DAT/BEN fire-Vi-PI-DES ≈3-ERG
‘He set fire to the cuttings that he wanted to burn up.’
 432 

13.3. 2 Non-finite supine (purpose of motion) subordinate clauses

  I follow Northern Carib linguists (Meira 1999: 329, 569; Carlin 2004:
336) in using the term “supine” to refer to constructions which in
Kalapalo function to reference ‘purpose of motion’. Supine
constructions always appear in subordinate clause function. They are
participle-like, insofar as they only use either a lexical noun phrase to
reference O, or a third person pronominal absolutive prefix. An example
of the latter is seen in (13.4.2a). Supine constructions never use finite
verbal aspect or irrealis status suffixes, these being replaced by one of
two supine morphemes: -iGi or -mbi, glossed SUP. Supine verbs occur
with both main verb and de-verbal nominalization clauses. The main
clause verbs are typically intransitive voluntary verbs of motion, such as
e-, ‘come to’, te-‘go away’, ifa- ‘take away’, and t-‘find, get’ (also ɳi,
‘see, watch’). There is one example showing the supine as subordinate
to an extended intransitive main clause with the ‘goal’
(dative/benefactive) construction, (13.4.2.d). De-verbal nominalizations
with supine verb subordinate clauses are also intransitive active verb
nominalizations; an example is shown in (13.3.2.c).
The supine construction has a switch-reference function. S of
the main clause verb is A of the supine transitive clause (S→A). All
supine constructions are in boldface in the examples.

a. This example shows a speaker’s use of the supine ‘purpose of

motion’ subordinate clause with the verb ife-, ‘clear tract of
land’. In this case the subordinate verb only occurs with a 3rd
person pronominal prefix O argument. The supine clause in this
example precedes the main verb.

okogetsi i-fe-tiGi u-te-lu-iŋo.

tomorrow 3-clear.land-SUP 1-go.away-POT
’Tomorrow I’m going away to clear a space.’

b Here the transitive supine clause precedes the intransitive main

verb. It appears O is highlighted by being foregrounded in the
construction. A in the supine clause is equivalent to S in the
main clause.

anetu otu ifa-tiGi u-ẽ-ta

leader’s food tell.about-SUP 1-come.to-CI
“I am coming to tell about the leader’s food’.

c. Here the supine construction of the transitive verb

(bracketed) functions as subordinate to the nominalized
intransitive motion verb. In the example, the supine clause
follows the main clause. This construction creates an S
argument from the original verb, with the sense of ‘the
come-er’. S in the first clause becomes A in the supine,
where O is present as the NP, ‘long flute’:
   433

aŋi-me si-tïfïgï takwagï [aŋu-ne-tiGi]

result-FACS 3;come-IMP long.flute play-VT-SUP
‘Something to do with his being a visitor (lit., ‘the come-er’) for
flute playing.’

d. In this construction there is an extended intransitive main clause

(using the DAT/BEN case suffix) and a supine subordinate
clause (bracketed). Again S→A, marked by the following
supine construction.

ande-lefa Pañeta i-ŋi-lu-iña [i-fa-tiGi]

here.now-MT (name) 3-see-PI-DAT/BEN 3-take-SUP
‘Now here Paneta watched for her for (a chance to) take her.’

The supine, in referencing ‘purpose of a motion’, contrasts with

the –(nd)omi ‘purposive’ (‘try, intend’) construction and the –iña
(‘goal’) construction, both of which occur with active verbs. The
differences may be subtle as shown by example (13.4.2.d) in
which the main clause is a ‘goal’ construction and the supine
subordinate clause indicates the reason for accomplishing that
goal. Nonetheless the purposive of motion has a switch-
reference function that only occurs with the supine clause
construction.

13.3.3 Perception complements

Perception complements refer to the effects on a person (such as fear,

thirst) of an action.

a. oĩ, ‘be thirsty’. This example shows plural concordance in all de-
verbal nominals and the existential copular verb clause (in
brackets), except the adverbial construction.

oĩ-tso-go ite-pïgï-ko [oĩ:-pi i-tsa-ko]

thirst-EX-COLL go away-VPE-PL thirst-ADV 3-EX-PL
‘They all were thirsty, they had gone away, thirstily’.

b. ŋe-, ‘fear X’. Here the preposed ‘denial’ adverbial afïtï-fa

is the initial element of a circumfix, which is the adjunct to the
complex clause construction. The main clause precedes the
subordinate clause with the verb ŋe-, ‘be.afraid’. The negative
suffix on the subordinate clause completes the ‘denial’ circumfix
construction. Both clauses share the 2nd person argument, which
is A in the main transitive clause, S in the intransitive
subordinate clause.

afïtï-fa i ala-ma-ki-lï e-eke

denial-PTP tree fall.down- VT-CAUS-PI 2-ERG

e-ŋe-lu-iŋo-la
434 

2-be afraid-POT-NEG,
‘You will not make the tree fall on you so you shouldn’t be
frightened.’

13.3.4 Nominalization subordination strategy.

De-verbal nominalizations using aspectual inflections are means

of creating subordinate clauses in which the result is a P reference to the
original verb.

a.  In this example, the ‘voluntary perfective end result’ nominalization

(VPE) creates P of the original verb atsa-te-,’give to’ :  
 
ah, ku-ñi-ta-fofo kunitsu atsa-te-pïgï,
EXP, 1>1+2-see-CI-IM 1+2-GM give.to-VT-VPE
‘Surely we should go right away to see our grandmother’s gift.’
(lit., ‘what grandmother gave’)
 
b. In the example, there are two nominalizations. The first is
imperfective on the verb ke-, ‘cut’, the second is ‘voluntary perfective
end result’ on the main verb apïŋï- ‘die’ (‘be unconscious’). The two
clauses share the 3rd person O argument.

s-igï ≈ke≈tïfïgï Ø-apï-ŋï-fïgï=lefa

3-head≈cut≈IMP 3-die-Vi-VPE=MT
‘She was unconscious as her head was almost cut off’

c. In this example, a ‘passing state’ (PS) aspectual nominalization

of the verb iŋi-‘bring’ and the following verb fule-, ‘roast’,
creates the P argument of the main verb api-, ‘pull up’.

aifa api-lï=lefa, iŋi-nïgï=lefa i -feke-ne uŋ-ati.

finish pull.up-PI-MT, bring-PS-MT 3-ERG-PL house-LOC,

ana fule-nïgï.
corn roast-PS
‘After they pulled it up and they brought it into the house, the
corn was roasted. ‘
 
d. This is an example of a complex construction in which the
relative clause is also a subordination feature. The distal
adnominal demonstrative felei functions as a relative pronoun,
and referencing the preceding head noun tu-fisua-gï , ‘their own
older brother’, as O of the ‘object-backgrounding’ verb
construction that follows. While the first two verbs of the
complex main clause construction (linked by the ‘simultaneous’
taxis =fata (SIM)) are both inflected in punctual/indicative
aspect/mood, the relative clause verb is in continuative/indicative
   435

inflection. Also, it is a de-verbal nominalization in

consequential derivation.

ifaki ekugu ete-lï-ko=fata eGi-po-i-dyï-ko,

far fully go.away-PI-PL=SIM carry-VT-EP-PI-PL
‘They went away for some distance carrying him,

fïge-p≈iŋo tu-fisua-gï felei

arrow-SAL≈LOCN REF-OBR-POSS ADEM

[ñ-ige-ta-nïmi]
[OB-bring.back-CI-CONS]
‘bringing back their older brother with the arrows sticking out of
him.’ (lit., ‘stick-out arrow their older brother whom they
brought back’)

13.3.5 Anaphoric focus referent ule as subordinate clause marker

When in the clause final position, AFR marks a subordinate clause

boundary and has a switch reference function as it also references the
main clause S argument as the O argument of the subordinate clause.
This is clearly a different function of the anaphoric focus referent than
what is seen in major segment marking clauses, where the morpheme
appears utterance initially and has major focus shifting function. (See
more discussion of this function in Chapter 14:1.2.3; 14.4). In the
present case, relevant to the present subordination marking function of
ule, the subordinate clause may precede or follow the main clause. The
subordinate verb is suffixed for aspect/mood.
With this usage, the anaphoric focus referent is normally
followed by the relative clause modifier suffix -tï, allomorph of the
modifier -tsї. Note this allomorph is homophonous with the evidential
‘traditional hearsay’ suffix.
In 13.4.5a, the main clause is intransitive, the subordinate clause
is transitive. S in the main clause has become O in the subordinate
clause.

a. kuigiku etu-ki-lï Ø-li-tsa ule-tï i-feke- ne.

hot.soup finished-PI 3-drink-CI AFR-M 3-ERG-PL
‘When the hot soup was ready, it’s said they all drank it.’

In (b), the subordinate clause precedes the main clause. The subordinate
verb (hosting ule) is reduced, and the main verb has been nominalized.

b. lepene eŋgu≈le-tï–fa,
afterwards travel.on.water≈AFR-M-PTP
‘Then after that, travelling on the river,

iñalï ti-mba-nïmi, iñalï.

negative drink-Vi-CONS, negative
she didn’t drink anything, no. (lit. ‘she wasn’t a drinker’)
436 

c. Here, the initial main intransitive clause in (i) is nominalized

with the class inclusion copula. In lines ii and iii, the first
subordinate verb S becomes A. In iii, the subordinate verb
marked with ule is object-backgrounding.

i. ñalï-ma i-ŋi-lu-i, ñalï.

negation-EM 3-see-PI-CL, negation.
‘She was never a person who was seen, no.’

ii.bok is-iki-ŋalï
(sound of large object being put down) 3-defecate-REV

iii.[Ø-ñ-akaŋu-nalï ule-tï-fa], aifa.

3-OB- bathe-REP AFR-M-PTP, done.
‘‘She was set down, and relieved herself, then washed herself
again, (until she was) finished.’.

d. Here the clause chain involves a plural A→S argument switch. The
initial argument is ergatively marked A, the plural suffix –ko appears on
the temporal adverbial adjunct, and the final argument in the concluding
clause is pronominal prefix marked S, with the plural suffix on the verb
stem.

aŋu-ne-ta i -feke-ne, ah kohotsi

play the instrument-VT-CI 3-ERG-PL, EXP evening

ifugu-ti-lï-ko=lefa
sun.set-Vi-PI-PL=MT

‘They played until it became dusk and the sun surely set for
them, ‘

lepe s-ïŋï-lï-ko≈le-tï.
next 3-sleep-PI-PL≈AFR-M
‘when they fell asleep.’

e. An example with the main intransitive existential ‘be’verb. The

subordinate clause is a copular clause construction (also using
the existential root). The copular complement is an aspectual
nominalization (‘she being dead’).

lepene its-a-ni puh, apu-ŋu-fïgï

then EX-CI-PL(sudden emergence of an entity) die-Vi-VPE

its-a ule-tï imagu-ko=lefa .

EX-CL AFR-M give.birth-PL=MT
‘Then they came into existence, while she was unconscious, she
gave birth to them.’
   437

f. In the following example, there are two AFR. The first (in
brackets) functions to link a preceding clause chain; this ule
hosts the ‘same event’ interclausal reference marker clitic,
=mbe(SS), and shifts the topical focus to the next sequence of
events and arguments. The second ule references the transitive
subordinate clause with the switch-reference function S→O.

lepene indi-ga-tїfїgї [ ule=mbe] tsu-lu=fata

afterwards fall.down-VT-IMP AFR=SS gather.up-PI=SIM

i-feke, api-lї≈le i-feke

3-ERG, beat-PI≈AFR 3-ERG
‘Afterwards (the fruit) was falling down when (Taugi came as
wind) and while that was happening he was gathering them up
when he was crushed by one of them.’

13.4 Discussion: ‘Purposive’ and ‘reason’ constructions

As I explain in this chapter, there are several kinds of semantically

variant purposive constructions representing three degrees of
grammatical integration of main and complement clauses: a) semantic
reason or goal-oriented purposive subordinate clause marked with the
dative/benefactive case morpheme (13.1.2,3,4); b) enabling purposive
complementation, with a suffix on the subordinate verb (13.2.2); and c)
purpose of motion subordination (13.3.2). These different kinds of
purposives may be understood not only in terms of differences in their
grammatical and semantic features, but also with regard to the lack in
Kalapalo of any ‘future’ morpheme of any kind other than such temporal
nouns as ‘tomorrow’, ‘day after’ and ‘much later’. Use of the active ‘be’
verb in perfect aspect (atehe), hosting one of three possible interclausal
reference markers (IRM), is another important way of referencing
futurity (see Chapter 14.3.4). Examples in this chapter illustrate what is
required when the time of an event being described is to take place in the
future.
Similarly, there are two attested types of ‘reason’ clauses. The
first is included in the lexical clause complement section (13.1) and
involves the use of one of several initial ‘reason’ (eŋ(ï)u) morphemes in
the matrix clause. A second ‘reason’ morpheme, the interclausal
reference marker =mbekudya, NOMR (described in chapter 14, section
3.3.6) has clause coordination function, appearing cliticized to a
chained clause, marking the clause as the ‘consequential’ event that
follows from the preceding (main) clause in the chain.
A Grammar of Kalapalo, A Southern Cariban Language

Ellen B. Basso
Professor Emerita
Department of Anthropology
University of Arizona
Tucson, Arizona

agaves66@gmail.com
 438

Chapter 14
Clause chaining and interclausal reference in Kalapalo
narratives
Discourse segmentation is an important characteristic of Kalapalo
narrative genres (akiña). Speakers use a variety of resources, including
references to the experiencing of time, and introductory and concluding
discourse words to mark major narrative segment boundaries involving
the introduction of new characters and important shifts of time and place.
The dialogical interaction between narrators and their etïitsofo, the
‘listener-responders’ who receive a story is also an important source of
segment marking, especially the narrator’s use of pausing to
accommodate questions and other responses of the etïitsofo (Basso
1985, 1986, 1987, 1995). The texts presented in the Appendices and
many examples in this grammar illustrate the formation of separate lines,
structured as a result of this kind of interaction.
Examination of Kalapalo extended narrative discourse reveals a
number of important linguistic phenomena that cannot be clearly
understood from elicited speech or informal conversational data alone.
These phenomena include both grammatical functions and special
syntactic functions of features seen elsewhere in Kalapalo discourse.
The emergent hierarchic structuring of Kalapalo narratives as well as
topical and focus structuring, are dependent upon such phenomena,
which together contribute to listeners’ competent tracking of the story, as
well as to the speaker’s mental control or ordering of the logic of the
complex character and event developments. Segmental boundary
marking in Kalapalo narratives gives a listener numerous clues to the
relation between the rhetorical structure of the story and how characters
are developed by sequences of events. Described in this chapter are
special features of Kalapalo narrative discourse, including the complex
chaining and coordination of clauses, in which occur topical continuities
and focal discontinuities, and clausal argument cross referencing,
including switch-reference.

14.1. General overview

“Clause chaining” is a term used by linguists to describe various

systems in which a series of verb clauses are connected, with
morphological devices on a final clause signalling the end of the unit
(Longacre 2007: 400). Clausal morphology references the syntactic and
semantic links between clauses. Switch-reference features are often
associated in this way with clause chaining, marking verbal arguments
as same or different (Munro 1980; Haiman and Munro 1983; Jacobsen,
Jr. 1983; Matthews 1997:55), and also referencing semantic continuities
or discontinuities. Kalapalo is such a clause chaining language in
which speakers’ ability to create extended narratives is enabled by the
well-developed clause-linking morphology, the ‘interclausal reference
system’, a term first used by Franklin (1983), then by Margarete
Sparing-Chavez to describe the complex referencing system of the
Panoan language Amahuaca (1977). Chains of clauses in Kalapalo
 439

result from speakers’ use of several morphosyntactic features. The first

is the ule or anaphoric focus referent clause (first described in chapter
13) that has a prominent higher-level segment (A, B) boundary
function in narrative discourse. The second and most distinctive to
narrative discourse is the set of anaphoric and cataphoric (or to use
Givon’s (1983) term, “anticipatory”) clitics, called here the ‘
interclausal reference markers’, (glossed here, IRM, ‘). The third clause
chaining feature is the set of the taxis clitics which refer to phasal
relations between events (described in Chapter 3). A fourth feature of
interclausal deixis is d) the –fa ‘primary topical participant’ switch-
function marker (Van Valin, Jr. and La Polla, p. 287). described in
section 14.3. With the exception of –fa, these features, and especially
interclausal reference markers, are rare at best in elicited sentences and
much reduced – though not entirely absent - in conversational speech.
At more encompassing or “higher” levels of narrative segment
organization these chaining features interact with discourse segment
boundary markers to create the complex structures distinctive to this
Kalapalo discourse genre.
Kalapalo clause chains are organized hierarchically, so that one
can speak of “major” clause chains encompassed by shorter chains,
some of which are embedded in others (these are listed in Table 39 as
levels C and “embedded” levels D). It is therefore important to
understand these data not only in terms of grammatical function, but
also with regard to narrative segmenting processes. In this chapter, the
material is organized as follows:

1. Narrative segmentation
2. the preposed ule, ‘anaphorical focus referent’ focus shifting
clauses
3. taxis marking of phasal relations between events and clause
chaining
4. interclausal reference marking and clause chaining.
5 –fa primary topical participant ‘shift function’ marker

14.1.1. Narrative segmentation and clausal coordination

Table 39 summarizes the hierarchically ordered structural segmentation

levels and clause chains that emerge in extended narrative discourse.
These levels are labeled A-D. Table 39 shows the reference coordinates
that are involved at each level, that is, the discourse and grammatical
elements that index margins between segments. Thus A is the most
encompassing level and the longest chain, whereas D is the least
encompassing and shortest. The first column lists the segments of
varying size and also segments which consist in functionally varied
embedded chains at the lowest hierarchic level (section D, subtypes 1-3).
I prefer to use the term “embedded” rather than “minor” to describe these
shorter chain structures because of the absence of strict temporal
linearity; also, these clauses are not necessarily structurally simple. Most
of my examples that follow in the analysis of interclausal reference
marking will be drawn from this level of segmentation. The reader can
 440

refer to the last column of Table 39 for the line numbers of texts in
Appendices C,D and E that serve as examples of these and higher-level
chaining boundaries within extended narrative contexts.

Table 39. Segmentary Levels and Reference Coordinates in Kalapalo

Narrative Structure

Narrative Margin index Discourse Examples from

segment functions of Appendix texts
level reference
coordinates
A.Entire Discourse markers Separates genre 1. Tree Termites
discourse 1. tsakefa “Listen” event from line 139 (ending);
genre (beginning; prior and 2. Mïti, line 138
ending) subsequent talk (ending)
2. aifa, apïgï 3. Mïti, lines 1-3;
aketsigey Tree Termites, lines
“that’s all, that’s 1-4
how it ends” (end)
3. brief story-line
or
scene-setting
summary
and reprise.
B. Major 1. Reference to fronted NP to 1. Mïti, line 7, 22, 53,
segments experiencing of foreground new 98; 105; 128,136
time agents (ergative Tree Termites, line
(seasonality, marking); shifts 42-43
pregnancy and reference to 2. Mïti, line 59, 78,
birth, new or realized 109
sleeping; goals
the following day (as described
or season) in D.2b chains)
2. tsakefa; aifa.
reference
to major new
sequence of
events
C. Major 1. Discourse Introduce new 1.a. Mïti, line 17, 31,
clause markers a) to actor/event 42, 44, 48, 68, 86, 93,
chains introduce chain: (=topic) 104, 105, 109, 110,
lepe; lepene aifa relations 123,130, 132;
lepene (‘finished, a-b: coordinate Tree Termites: lines 2,
ready next’); among 5, 15, 21,23, 27, 28,
b) reference to relatively 40, 41, 43,49-51,54-
times of day or proximate -55, 58, 61, 72, 83,
movements of the events; 104, 108, 112, 114,
sun to mark c: allow for 115, 116, 123,
sequences of audience 125, 130
events; reference questions; Upe: lines 8, 11.
to multiple days to supplementary
mark repeated information by 1.b) Mïti, lines 128,
 441

activity c) main 136;

extended pauses; speaker or Tree Termites: lines
2. Naming of main others present ; 75-76
character to end d) shift of
sequence of chains focus to new 2. Mïti, line 35; Upe,
3. ule fronted focal actors. lines 7,
clauses to shift 12 (end)
focus onto new 3. Mïti, line 4;
primary topical Tree Termites lines
participant 34,99
Upe line 2

D.Embedded Subtype 1: Clause linking

clause chains Unmarked (see taxis
(subtypes features Table
may overlap) 38)
Subtype 2: repetition of Tree Termites, lines
Reprises previous 26, 36, 97-98,
content; Mïti, 29,136
marking clause
chain
Subtype 3: a. intended or a. Tree Termites, line
episodic purposive: 101,129;
conclusions laitsani, ‘so b. Mïti, line 42;
3rdp. Tree Termites, line 76,
shall remain’ 104,120, 130

b. unintended
or surprising:
thetic
constructions

Table 39 illustrates how different kinds of non-derived

adverbials mark important segment boundaries, a phenomenon
previously remarked on by Longacre for many other languages (1985.
280; see discussion in Thompson, Longacre, Hwang 2007: 271ff). In
particular, temporal adverbials, nouns, and verb clauses involving
references to the experiencing of time by characters in narratives, are
crucial to segmenting larger clause chains (Level C in Table 39). These
have specific semantic content that helps listeners understand
motivation and other affective matters. For example reference to
“sleeping” refers to a character’s experiencing of a period of time
somewhat equivalent to an American “day”, but for a Kalapalo listener
‘sleeping’ also implies the experience of dreaming, which in turn
motivates new personal goals, or reinforces or confirms those stated in
previous segments. References to actions taking place early before
dawn index new, human goal-oriented activities, while actions taking
place at the end of the day, after the sun has set but while there is still
some light, involve itseke, ‘powerful beings’ and their hyperanimate
activities. The movement of the sun is often used by speakers to create
 442

boundaries between subordinate clause chains. A more comprehensive

description of these boundary markers is in Basso 1985. Finally, the
preposed ule clause is another feature often functioning as an important
segment boundary marker at Level C, marking major topical shifts,
particularly where new actors are introduced. However, as elsewhere
(Longacre 1985; 2007), Kalapalo clause chains are not necessarily
found in strict linear sequence, but with internally differentiated
(segmented and embedded) chains. Longacre also comments aptly,
“The surface structure of chaining is (not) marking sentence or
paragraph but is really co-extensive with the entire body of the
discourse.” (1985: 283). From the perspective of the clause-chaining
features described in this chapter, the most encompassing structure of
all is the entire narrative discourse, itself a kind of elaborate chain
sequence introduced and concluded with segment boundary markers of
the highest level (Table 39, Level A). In fact, the entire body of the
narrative discourse could be treated as a single run-on chain (a point
made by Longacre 1985: 283).
There are four procedures for clause linking in Kalapalo,
resulting in the clause chaining structures characteristic of this language.
These procedures involve a) the use of ideophonic constructions linking
transitive and intransitive actions; b) taxis clitics on the verb phrase,
which (as described in Chapter 12) mark phasal relations between events
in each clause chain; c) the ule-fronted ‘consequential’ complement
clauses marking narrative shifts in focus, and a new primary topical
participant and d) interclausal reference markers with cross-clausal
argument marking (including switch-reference) and clausal coordination
functions in extended narrative discourse. In this introductory section,
the first three (which have been described in earlier chapters) are
reviewed, after which I turn to a more detailed discussion of the system
of clause chaining and interclausal reference markers.

14.1. 2. Ideophonic clauses

Ideophonic clauses are predicational, that is, pseudo-transitive,

pseudo-intransitive, or pseudo-nominal constructions. These
constructions represent actions as if they had adverbial adjuncts, and
were marked with certain phasal taxis clitics (such as those representing
‘repetition’, ‘continual action’, ‘cause-effect’, and ‘abrupt action’).Their
use in clausal coordination occurs when there are two or more such
clauses embedded in a clause chain, linking the preceding and following
clauses. ,
I begin with two simple examples to illustrate how ideophonic
clauses should be interpreted as predicational.

a. Pseudo-intransitive. In this example, the two ideophones reference

1) the sound of bare feet walking quickly and repeatedly on a path;
and 2) the sound of a person’s body brushing against a doorway. In
the latter instance, this ideophone has become a kind of metaphor
for any sort of arrival at a reference point which is that of another
person.
 443

[titititi] [tiki:]
walking fast arrive at destination
‘he came quickly to where the other was’.

b. Pseudo-transitive ideophonic construction. After closely

watching me put on my glasses, a young woman said:

ngu:guk’
‘You’ve settled the glasses on your face and ears’.

The speaker’s use of the ideophonic combination, used in a new

way and perhaps even made up by the speaker, references the
somewhat extended action of the glasses being placed on my
face and then quickly settled on my nose and ears.

c. This example demonstrates the use of several ideophones within

a complex clause construction involving adverbial
complementation. Several ideophonically described intransitive
actions are coordinated with a finite transitive clause. These
include the intransitive diving into the water, then the intransitive
actions of the people emerging at the surface, and arriving at
their destination:

lepene tuwa-kaga-ti tom,

afterwards water-at-ADV(sound of diving)

ah tuwa apai-lï i-feke-ni

EM water spread.apart-PI 3-ERG-Pl

poh, tiki:.
(sound of coming up to the surface, sound of
arriving).
‘Then at the water’s edge, tom, (they dove in) and really, they
spread it apart poh, and tikii arrived at their own place.’

d. Pseudo-transitive and adverbial. This example illustrates an

ideophone that references an object being handled. The specific
ideophonic construction is used to express the idea of the object
being put down firmly, but not in an abrupt manner.

Lepe opi-dyu i-feke,

Next -turn over-PI 3-ERG,

mboki. aifa
(sound of gentle putting down of object). done.ready
‘Next she turned it over, boki. It was done.’

e. This example is offered to illustrate a linking function common

to ideophonic clauses (same example as Chapter 11,12.1.3b).
 444

The example shows three ideophones occurring together as a

clause, linking the initial ‘be’ verb clause and final intransitive
clause, marking with the taxis suffix –lefa (MT) as the end of
this clause chain :

lepe te-ti-ñombi-gï-ki i tsa-iŋa

next remove-REF-nail-POSS-INST 3-EX-SN
‘Then with her torn-off nail,

tsuk, toh,
(item thrown into air), (item slashes neck of victim),

uubom, (victim falling down),

she threw it at the woman’s neck, and she fell down,

Ø-apu-ŋu=lefa.
3-die-PI=MT
and so she died.’

f. Another example of ideophonic clause linking function. Here there is a three

syllable ideophone:

lepene tate tuk’ mbo duk’ i-ñ-iɳ-atsi-lї

afterwards burity.shoot tuk’ mbo duk’ 3-OB-inside-enter-PI
‘Following that she fell on the burity shoot tuk’ mbo duk’ and it entered
inside her.’

14.1.3. Focus shifting ule clauses at level C

Focus shifting ule (‘anaphoric focus referent’, AFR) clauses,

first described in Chapter 13: 13.4.5, are another typologically interesting
phenomenon relevant to hierarchic narrative structure. These clauses
maintain discourse cohesion at higher level segment boundaries. Such
clauses, while not uncommon in informal speech, are best understood in
extended narrative discourse where formal segment organization and
complex argument structures occur due to the many shifts of topic and
focus. In this context, we begin to see some of the elaborate functions of
these clauses within Kalapalo clause-chaining processes. Before turning
to the focus shifting function, I review the other two functions of this
morpheme.

14.1.3.1 Demonstrative function

As described in Chapter 5, section 5.3.2, ule operates as an anaphoric

demonstrative. In (a) the sense of ule is “that other person” (of a
previously mentioned group). In informal or didactic speech, as in (a),
ule clauses are relatively short NP constructions where ule is inflected
with the primary topical participant suffix –fa, which has a topic
continuity function; here the suffix links ule to the de-verbal
nominalization that references the agent of the action, “he who grasps the
 445

net”. The adjunct i-ugu-po, ‘log-on.flat.surface-ADV’ is a spatial adverb

that modifies the preceding VP, itself marked as such with the
interclausal reference marker =mbe (SS).

a.    tuwa-mbe-fa ege-te=lefa i-ugu-po, ule-fa

water-SS-PTP PDEM-at=MT log-on.top of-ADV AFR-PTP

feñe i-fo-te-pïgï
net 3-grasp-VT-VPE
‘Down there in the water, on top of a log, that person
held on to the net’.

14.1.3.2 Subordinate clause marker

As described in Chapter 13.4.3, when postposed to a clause, ule marks

the O argument in the subordinate clause as the same as S in the main
clause. In the following example, the initial main clause is intransitive,
the following subordinate clause (bracketed) is transitive. Ule appears to
switch-reference S→O.

kuigiku etu-ki-lï [Ø-li-tsa ule-tï i-feke-ne].

hot.soup finished-PI 3-drink-CI AFR-EV 3-ERG-PL
‘When the hot soup was ready, it’s said they all drank it.’

The supine purpose of motion non-finite construction is another type of

subordinate clause with a switch-reference function (S→A). In the
following example, the supine clause (boldfaced) precedes the main
clause. The A of the supine clause is the same as S of the main clause,
marked with a first person absolutive pronominal prefix on the verb
stem.

anetu otu ifa-tiGi u-ẽ-ta

leader’s food tell.about-SUP 1-come.to-CI
‘I am coming to tell about the leader’s food’.

As the supine construction has been discussed in Chapter 13: 13.3.2, it

will not be considered further here.

14.1.3.3 Focus shifting functions

The most prominent kind of ule clause, and the type most relevant here
for understanding clause-chaining and narrative structure, appears at the
beginning of a major Level C (Table 39) clause chain as a segment
boundary and topic discontinuity marker, though not all Level C chains
begin with ule clauses. In this clause type, the anaphoric topic referent
demonstrative ule is followed by one or more of the following features: a
copular verb, aspect inflection, case marker, taxis clitic; or interclausal
reference marker (IRM). The result is an adverbial-like adjunct to the
first main clause of the new C-level narrative segment, separating that
segment from the one preceding it. This clause type is recurrent in
 446

narrative discourse and has simultaneous segment boundary marking and

topic discontinity marking function of great interest. ule clauses of this
type appear to be like the Guanano (Tucanoan) “initial link slot”,
consisting of “conjugations or certain types of dependent clauses which
recapitulate and refer back to a previous sentence” (Longacre 2007: 413).

a. The following Kalapalo example concerning a man doing bride-

service who is being rejected by his secluded betrothed, should show
virtually all the basic features. (i) and (ii) in this example are the
immediately preceding lines that end the prior segment; in this segment,
a girl matures and is put into puberty seclusion. (Note that (iii) is a rare
example of a 10-syllable word, probably only occurring as an ule clause
construction.)Also of note is that clause in (iii) is followed by the
independent clause (iv) with a fully inflected transitive verb. This and the
following (v) are clauses that introduce the new locational and event
sequence topical shifts which come in the next segment: the husband to
be, now that he’s been firmly rejected by his young bride, decides he has
to leave (as he says later, he’s going to “run away”.)

i. i-tsu-pe-ta fe-tsaŋe e-iñandsu, i-tsu-pe-ta.

3-enclose-VT-CI OD-DEO 2-sister, 3-enclose-VT-CI
Your sister must be enclosed, your sister, be enclosed.”

ii. eh he, Ø-nïg≈i-feke

agreement 3-PS≈3-ERG
“All right”, he answered.

***Level C segment boundary*** (shift of topic to new actor,

new event sequence)

iii. ule-gote=ale=hale≈gey=hale],
AFR-CONC-UT=NO≈ADEM=NO
‘Although all that had been done as it should, this time,

iv. ah i-ñe-tïfïgï i-feke

EXP 3-dislike-VT-IMP 3-ERG
surely, she didn’t like him any more.’

v. o-lï-fa is-aha-tofo-pe-feke.
reject-PI-T 3-work-USIN-SAL-ERG
‘she turned down the man who was her (bride-service) worker
(i.e.,her betrothed).’

vi. iñalï, iñalï

negation, negation.
‘No response, no response.’

****Level D segment boundary***(shift of topic to

new event sequence, new location)
 447

vii .iŋ-ge-fa Ø-nï-g≈i-feke, iŋ-ge-fa

see-I-PTP 3-PS≈3-ERG, see-I-PTP
‘Think about it’, he said to him, ‘Think about it’.

viii. la-i-tsa-ni Ø-nï-g≈i-feke,

like that-3-EX-ANT 3-PS ≈3-ERG],

la-i-tsa-ni
like.that-3-EX-ANT
‘Let her remain the way she is’, he said to him.’

ix. iŋ-ge u-ato u-te-lu-iŋo ake-tsaŋe,

see-I 1-friend, 1-go away-PI-POT SD-DEO,

u-te-lu-iŋo
1-go away-PI-POT
‘Think about it, Friend”, I’ve decided I have to go away,
I’m going away’.

Because the first clause after the Level C segment boundary is fronted
line iii) , there is something happening that is treated by the speaker as
particularly important. This pragmatic foregrounding function is an
example of how such ule clauses mark a shift from old syntactic
arguments to a new argument in the new clause chain, with, irrealis
potential, imperative, or hortative illocutionary force, and desiderative
and concessive adverbial clauses often appearing in the quoted
conversations embedded in these new chains. Although the new
argument is not marked by an IRM, the ule clause has a disambiguating
or clarifying function with regard to the relation between the old and new
arguments. This accords with Givon’s argument (1983: 57) that switch-
reference can be understood as a syntactic device used to code a high
degree of topic discontinuity, or a context of surprise. The process of
foregrounding ule clauses at major clause chain boundaries thus suggests
their important relationships to switch-reference function.

b.. The following example is taken from another story about a

young man who has been rejected by his wife. In (i) in the initial
clause ule is inflected with the modifer suffix -tse; which shows
this is a relative non-verbal clause modifying the NP in (ii), in
which the man’s stretched bow is described. This ule clause is
also inflected with the interrupted taxis =ŋugi (IT) qualifying the
immediately preceding action as interrupted. The second clause
in (a) is a reference clause with the metonymic taxis =lefa (MT)
marking sequential action. What follows in (iii-VI) is a kind of
hallucinatory experience on the part of the person marked as A in
the reference clause. A Fish Person suddenly speaks as if he were
human; the quotative (iv) is a marking clause, coordinating the
interlocutor as a speech partner with the man (SS) who withdrew
his arrow in (i) (=mbedye) AND what is said in (iii), which is
 448

also marked with the taxis form =tale (DT), referencing a new
and surprisingly different event, that will take place in (vi-VIi):

i. ule-tse-ŋuGi i-fïgi-pe ti-dyï≈lefa i-feke

AFR-M-IT [3-arrow-SAL take out-PI≈MT 3-ERG
‘Because that was sudden, he removed his arrow,

ii. afaku-gu ugupo-ŋo-peŋine.

bow-POSS above-PREC-ABL
from his bow (held) right above (him).’

iii. okoh fe-lu e-feke. kuge- tal≈uge,

HORT attack-PI 2-ERG. human-NT≈PDEM
‘ “Watch out you don’t shoot me. Me, I’m human,”

iv. Ø-nïgï=mbedye i-feke

3-PS=SSE 3-ERG
he said to him (after he did that).’

v. kuge uge Ø-nïg≈i-feke.

human PDEM 3-PS≈3-ERG
“Me, I’m human”, he said to him,

vi. ohsi Ø- ŋ-ige-ge kaŋa ki-tofo ai-lu,

HORT 3-OB-see-I fish utter-USIN celebrate-PI,

Ø-nïg≈i-feke
3-PS≈3-ERG
‘“Come along and see how what you call ‘fish’ celebrate
(i.e., sing ceremonially).” he said to him.’

vi. eh he Ø-nïgï=dye-tsï
agreement 3-PS=SE-M
‘(The man) agreed (when he said that).’

Ule in line (i) is a referent across the segment boundary. The

clause anaphorically marks the previous segment focal agent, a man who
has gone fishing, and also complements the preceding adverbial (the bow
being withdrawn). The previously focal agent is for the time being
foregrounded by the new fronted ule copula clause, but the conditions
under which agency occurs are quite different. Now, instead of a wife
who doesn’t like him, he’s talking with a Fish Person who invites him to
the world beyond the water.
To summarize, ule clauses, as described in (13.4.3) and
(14.3.4),have several important functions: first, they are segment
boundary markers; second, they mark a new focal agent; third, because
of these first two functions, ule when coupled with certain taxis particles
contributes to the formation of mirative semantics; new (if not always
surprising information) follows from that clause chain. ule in line (i)
complements the existential ‘be’ verb which is inflected by the (IT) taxis
 449

=ŋuGi ), which qualifies the action in the dominant clause as interrupted.

This is another feature of Kalapalo that cannot be understood without a
close look at the extended narrative frameworks in which such clauses
occur. Examining ule in more “informal” situations, only the first two
functions appear.
Thompson, Longacre and Hwang propose that “lexical overlap is
a fundamental device of intersentential cohesion” and that adverbial
clauses functioning as conjunctions “can often be shown to be a
substitute for the use of such overlap” (2007: 299). They continue, “It
can further be shown that in some languages conjunctions are essentially
combinations of verbal and demonstrative elements that have developed
from such an overlap” (p.299). The functioning and structuring of ule
clauses is highly relevant to this argument in several ways. First, ule
clauses certainly play a critical role in cohesion, first, at the major
segment boundaries of narratives (though also intersententially), but also
when appearing clause finally to mark a subordinate clause (as described
at length in 13.4.3). Second, such major boundary markers do seem to
be formed from combinations of elements that pertain to verbal clause
structure, especially taxis, illocutionary force, nominalization,
interclausal reference marking, and the equative ‘be’ verb in resultative
aspect. Third, while there is lexical overlap in Kalapalo discourse,
particularly at the margins of higher level narrative discourse segments
where ule clauses most often appear, the authors’ suggestion that such
forms perform a similar function makes sense as an explanation of the
pervasive appearance of this clause type in extended Kalapalo narratives.

c. Here, rather than a taxis clitic the active equative copular root in
perfect construction (atehe) follows ule. One or more taxis
clitics hosted by the morpheme indicate the nature of the
connection between the two events described by the clauses.
ule at-ehe-fa tu-tefu-andi kukw-at-ani,
AFR EQA-PER-PTP REF-stomach-full 1+2-EQA-ANT
‘As that has continued to this day, when one of us becomes pregnant,

afїtї kagikagi teɳe-lu-la kupehe.  

denial kagikagi eat.flesh-PI-NEG 1+2;ERG
we don’t eat spiny-finned catfish.’

14.1.4 Taxis marking and embedded clause chains, Level D

This section is concerned with short clause chains at the lowest or least
encompassing level of discourse segmentation (Table 39, Level D), that
is, where embedded chains occur. Example (a) demonstrates a speaker’s
use of taxis clitics to link clauses in a chain with only one finite verb,
appearing at the end of the chain. (The cluster of ideophones in the
second clause of (a) may be treated as a pseudo-transitive construction,
as it references the sounds of objects being acted upon: arrow cane being
cut down by the uncle.) While there is only one transitive verb, the action
 450

of the single actor in this chain is contrasted with that of others described
earlier in the narrative by the taxis particles. This example shows how
taxis clitics can cluster and supplement one another. The speaker is
contrasting the slow work of the untrained uncle (an “ordinary person”
and the villain in the story) with the quick and efficient harvesting of
arrow cane by warriors who need to be always ready to enter into battle
with enemies. In (b) there are three different taxis clitics, the new,
sequential event taxis (NO) form (=fale ) being repeated three times.
This form references the uncle’s antithetical act of slowly (not quickly,
as do his skillful relatives) cutting down the cane. In the second line,
there is a compounded clitic; =gele marks the persistive action (PT) of
the uncle cutting arrow cane, while =fale (referencing a different
event/state overlapping the event described in a preceding clause; NO)
prepares us for the new finite verb (the stative verb –fu- “know about”) at
the end of the chain: iñalï funïm≈i-feke, “he didn’t know about it”. (The
uncle as actor is ignorant of something contextually important). My use
of the term “compound” implies that the elements in question can
function separately.

a.  . [i-dyo-gu-ko≈tsa=fale]
3-uncle-POSS-PL≈EX=NO

[tsiu tsiu bok, tsiuk.]

(sounds of repeated cutting and throwing down of items)
‘But their uncle being different (cutting them down slowly),

b, [ la ≈tsa=fale la =gele=fale]
like.that ≈EQ=NO like.that =PT=NO
still ( working) differently (from the others) like that,

c. [iñalï Ø- fu-nïm≈i-feke]
negative 3-know.about-CONS≈3-ERG.
(since) he didn’t know about it.’

d. This example shows the how a cause-effect relation is referenced

by two clauses marked with the metonymic taxis clitic =lefa
(MT) (same example Chapter 12.3.4.a).

afїtї la≈ke-tsaɳe ukw-augu-fїɳї=lefa

denial like.that≈SD-DEO 1+2l-lie-unlike=MT

e-fisuagї-ko a-nїgї-la=lefa
2-OBR-PL EQS-PS-NEG=MT

te-ti-ki=lefa kaɳa-i
REF-change-ADV=MT fish-CL
‘No longer will your older brother want to lie to us, because he’s
turned himself into a fish.’
 451

e. In this example, the metonymic taxis marker =lefa links an

adverbial (negation) adjunct and the main clause that follows.
There is also a ‘new, overlapping event’ clitic =(h)fale (NO).

tafa ige-funde iŋke,

bottle.gourd PDEM-ADV think/see,

iñalï=lefa=hale, ta≈gï-ti=lefa tis-iña

negative=MT=NO, DIS≈throw-DES=MT 1+3-DAT/BEN
’Draped around the bottle gourd, but now, consider that it’s not
any longer (used) because we’ve decided to throw it away. ‘
 
f. In this interrogative example, inde, ‘here’, the local
demonstrative, and the following main verb are cliticized with
the NO (‘new overlapping taxis event) marker. The habitual
taxis morpheme =tiga (HAB) precedes NO and reappears on the
following subordinate verb clause (bracketed).

tï=ma inde=hale ti-tsa=tiga=hale [ i-fa-ta=tiga

RQ=EM here-NO REF-EX-HAB-NO 3-tell-CI-HAB

e-iña-ni]?
2-DAT/BEN-PL
“Could it be that someone who stayed here came from time to
time to talk with you?”

14.2. Medial-final and initial-consecutive structures

Longacre’s (2007) description of clause chaining distinguishes between

“medial-final” and “initial-consecutive” structures. Longacre’s terms
“medial”, “final”, “initial” and “consecutive” refer to the different types
of verbs and their position in a chain. The question of which types are
present in which place in a chain concerns the differences between
verbs that are fully inflected, and others which are “deficient” in some
way. (This is Longacre’s term; I prefer not to use it as Kalapalo non-
finite verbal constructions arenot fully inflected in the same way as
finite verbs, but have their own special inflections). Longacre (1985)
describes the presence of different kinds of verbs (or clauses), with a
dominant finite verb clause appearing as the reference point for all
others in the chain (hence the term ‘reference clause’, also called the
‘controlling clause’). In some languages these clauses appear before the
‘deficient’ verbs (“initial-consecutive” structure), in others they follow
the latter (“medial-final” structure). In In Kalapalo chains, both types of
clause chains appear, and there are other types as well in which a
marking clause bearing an interclausal reference marker marks features
of both a preceding (‘event reference’) and following (‘argument
reference’) clause. In such cases, marking clauses have a linking
function. Considering the contrast between reference clauses and
marking clauses, relative positions have to do with the marking function
of the interclausal reference marker. Reference clauses (transitive or
 452

intransitive) may appear at the beginning or end of a chain, with the

marking clause (which may or may not be also a fully finite clause)
appearing chain medially, that is, between two finite clauses. The final
clause in the chain may be the reference clause, but can also be an
independent clause elaborating on the marked reference, often with a
relative clause modifying construction
Regarding finite clauses, Longacre (1999:238) states “A
sentence ends typically in a dominating verb of fuller structure than any
of the preceding verbs.” As I have described in earlier chapters, in
Kalapalo, finite clauses may be either intransitive verbs with a NP
lexeme or pronominal prefix that references S, or a middle voice
construction, or transitive verb clauses which include (minimally) a
lexical NP or pronominal prefix that references O on the verb, oblique
argument lexemes + case marker, an aspect or irrealis status suffix on
the verb stem (consisting of a root + radical), , and a postposed A NP
that includes the ergative suffix –feke). This is illustrated by example (a)
below. Often, but not always, such clauses include a final metonymic
taxis clitic, =lefa.
Example 14.1.2.2a, repeated below, illustrates the appearance
of finite clauses at the end of chains, characteristic of what Longacre
calls “medial-final” clause-chaining. This example shows clauses
linked by taxis clitics and an ideophonic clausal construction; there are
no interclausal reference markers in the example.

a.  . [i-dyo-gu-ko≈tsa=fale]
3-uncle-POSS-PL≈EX=NO

[tsiu tsiu bok, tsiuk.]

(sounds of repeated cutting and throwing down of items)
‘But their uncle being different (cutting them down slowly),

b, [la ≈tsa=fale la=gele=fale]

like.that ≈EQ=NO like.that=PT=NO
still ( working) differently (from the others) like that,

c. [iñalï Ø- fu-nïm≈i-feke]
negative 3-know.about-CONS≈3-ERG.
(since) he didn’t know about it.’

Another example of a “medial-final structure” is seen in example

(b). This is a portion of didactic speech embedded in a long narrative,
and thus another example of a Level D chain (see Table 39). The
speaker’s reference in (b) to the constant replacement of Christian
leaders (such as those who served at the local Brazilian administrative
post) are, through use of the new, overlapping event (NO) taxis clitic
=–fale (b,ii), contrasted with the status of Kalapalo leaders, who are
hereditary and normally serve for much of their adult lives. In (b.iii) a
final stative intransitive clause (kagayfa anetu-gu eti-dyï=lefa: ‘the
Christian leaders resign’) is marked with the metonymic =lefa clitic,
which indicates the chain boundary and serves as the reference point for
 453

the entire chain. In this way the taxis clitic enables listeners to compose a
coordinated whole of sequenced events.

b.   i.     [iñalu=ma Kalapalo anetu-gu eti-dyï,] iñalu.         

           negative=EM Kalapalo leader-POSS remove-PI, negative
‘I don’t think a Kalapalo leader ever resigns, no.’

ii. kagayfa=fale-kai, la, tis-anetu-gu-iña-ŋu,

Christians=NO-beside, like.that, 1+3 leader-POSS–DAT/BEN-LT,
‘But among the Christians, rarely by our own leaders,

iii. kagayfa anetu-gu eti-dyï=lefa.

Christian leaders-POSS resign-PI=MT
the leaders of the Christians resign.’

Example (c) is an instance of an “initial-consecutive” chain with

several different arguments: in line (i), an initial main verb S, and a
plural subordinate transitive subject (A) and O argument. The O
argument was the S argument in the main verb clause. This is an example
of how this switch from S→O is marked in the subordinate clause by
the anaphoric focus referent ule (this type of subordinate clause is
described in Chapter 13:13,4,5). In line ii, there is a singular A and new
O, a de-verbal nominalization (bracketed). The clause in line ii is also
subordinate to the main clause in line i. As the O argument is shared by
both these subordinate clauses, the subordination strategy in line ii is a
de-verbal nominalization and the MT taxis clitic =lefa is hosted by the
clausal A argument. This taxis clitic signals that the events are
coordinate. But the chain has not ended. Line ii is the marking clause
that links the preceding and following clauses by means of the
interclausal reference marker =mbedya (SSDE). This references ‘new
successive event, same subject’, marking a switch from what was done
with the soup (it was drunk) to the second event (it became something
the man has come to like). The soup, for which the proper name kuigiku
is first used in line i) is also referenced in a second de-verbal nominal
construction in the final clause in line iii (bracketed). This derivational
construction (bracketed) is the same kind of aspectual nominalization as
in line ii, in which the speaker uses the active verb ‘end result of
voluntary process’ suffix –pïgï (VPE). The presence of this derivation in
line iii is an interesting example of the use of the nominalized
construction as a clause chain reference point.
The primary topical participant suffix -fa that follows SSDE in
line ii references this second O as semantically the same as that in the
final ‘argument’ reference clause (line iii). The example is the same as
in Chapter 6, section 7.3.1.2e, where it is used to illustrate the ergative
marker as a ‘causative’ reference (as in lines ii and iii).

c. i. kuigiku etu-ki-lï Ø-li-tsa≈le-t≈i-feke-ne.

hot.soup finished/ready-VI-PI 3- drink-CI≈AFR-DES≈3-ERG-PL
‘When the hot soup was ready, one by one they all sought to drink some.’
 454

ii. [i-fe-ki-pïgï=mbedya-fa i-feke=lefa.]

3-nice-like-VPE=SSDE-PTP 3-ERG=MT
‘And it was something that pleased him (when he drank it)’.

iii. ku-m-iñaŋo-feke=mbe, [uŋele-feke ki-pïgï,]

1+2-C-liquid.food ERG-SS, ANA-ERG like-VPE,

iñaŋo-feke, Afanda iñaŋo-feke.

liquid.food-ERG, Afanda liquid.food-ERG
‘(That same) liquid food of ours, that was what pleased him, the
liquid food, Afanda’s liquid food’.

(d) is another example illustrating how some chains end with a less than
fully finite transitive clause, insofar as the A NP (A-ERG) does not
appear (d,iv). This occurs because in narrative speech (in response to the
listener-responder’s own repetition of the finite verb clause), the speaker
may repeat the preceding finite clause or as in 4d redescribe the
preceding finite clause (d,iii), with a substitute, modifying O. This is a
good example of the recursion that often occurs in clause-chaining;
Longacre (1985; 2007) pointed out that strict linearity is not a property
of that process. What is important for understanding Kalapalo clause
chaining with this example, is that the metonymic taxis =lefa appears as
expected in the final finite verb clause (in this clause, the A NP is fronted
for topical emphasis; the normal word order is O-V with postposed A).

d i. fïgey afe-te-lï i-feke-ni

arrow make-VT-PI 3-ERG-PL
‘They made arrows,

ii. kogetsi amiŋa, aifa.

tomorrow following. day, ready.done.
the next day the day after, until they were finished.’

iii. [ule-fata≈le], [i-fits-au-feke=lefa paŋia të-i-ta,]

AFR-SIM≈UT 3-wife-PL-ERG=MT toasted.starch make-VT-CI
‘They never stopped doing that, while their wives were making
toasted starch,

iv. [ iñaŋo të-i-ta ]

liquid.food make-VT-CI
making the liquid.food (for their journey).’

14.3. The interclausal reference marking complex

In this section I turn to the interclausal reference operators. The

foundation of this system is a set of six clitics in three contrasting
pairs.(Set 1). These operators reference continuities or discontintuities of
arguments and events. The first pair has A or S argument marking
functions: same subject argument (=mbe,SS) or different subject
 455

argument (mba, DS). The second pair references event continuities (dye,
SE) or discontinuities (dya, DE). The third pair are compounds of two of
these otherwise independent morphemes, referencing same argument,
prior event, (mbedye, SSE) or same argument, new, successive event
(mbedya, SSDE). As I showed in example 14.2.c, these are clause
linking operators coordinating preceding and following clauses. These
six features are summarized in Table 40 which includes a list of the host
constituents of the marking clauses in my examples.

Table 40. Set 1 Interclausal reference marking structures

Operator Position of marking Marking clause (MC) host
clause constituent in examples
in relation to
reference clause (RC)
A.=mbe following; may occur adverbial RC clause adjunct; copular S;
SS across conversational adjective complement of RC S
turns argument
B.=mba preceding MC verb phrase; quotative
DS complement; copular S; quotative;
adverbial adjunct
C.=dye following Imperative complement clause;
SE existential ‘be’ S
D.=dya preceding copular S; oblique argument of
DE VP;adverbial adjunct of EQS ‘be’ verb;
free personal pronoun; anaphoric
pronominal demonstrative; proper
noun. .
E.=mbedye following ‘event’ and quotative, quotation VP, ADV adjunct
SSE preceding ‘argument’ of de-verbal nominalization; extended
reference clauses argument of MV intransitive verb
F.=mbedya following ‘event’ and intransitive VP; de-verban
SSDE preceding ‘argument’ nominalization; MV intransitive clause;
reference clauses existential ‘be’ verb.

A second set (Set 2) of interclausal reference markers are compounded

of the components from set 1 and morphemes which are otherwise
independent. These compounds all begin with =mbe or =mba, which
host one taxis clitic or an adverbial suffix; in some members of this set,
=dye or =dya ends the construction. Set 2 forms have clause
coordinating functions that are both syntactic and semantic. Syntactic
functions that are referenced are arguments of the reference and marking
clauses, continuities or discontinuities of transitivity, while the semantic
references include prior or successive events, size, location, logical
relations (such as cause-effect, reason, result, additive, cumulative,
Perpetuality, precision, totality), temporality, epistemic, mirative, and
deontic continuity or discontintuity. Set 2 morphemes, probably not the
complete set used by Kalapalo, but what I have found in a collection of
90 narratives recorded by ten speakers, is shown in Table 41 and Table
42. The tables provide a summary orientation to the important clause
coordinating and semantic features of these morphemes.
 456

Table 41. Set 2 Interclausal reference marking structures

II. Compunded Position of Marking clause Translation
Forms and Gloss marking host constituent
clause in examples
in relation to
reference
clause
G. =mbege SSR following transitive clause ‘even that’
H. =mbegedya preceding transitive clause ‘despite that’,
RDE nevertheless
I. =mbembege PE following intransitive clause; S NP ‘perpetual’,
argument ‘again and
again’
J. =mbembegedya preceding interjection; intransitive ‘and even after
PDE clause all that
happened again
K. =mbegeledye following adverb still as before’
RSSE
L=mbekudye following expressive +adverb ‘ ‘inclusive’,
INC. ‘done by each
and every one’

M. =mbekyudya preceding adverbial adjunct to NP ‘and for just

NOMR or verbal clause that reason’,
‘precisely’

N. =mbele; fused beginning transitive clause; MV ‘in the end’,

form (mbe+ale) intransitive verb; ‘after all of
CU adverbial adjunct of that’, result.
interjection; case marker
(DEST); de-verbal
nominalization
O. =mbale ; fused preceding; adverbial adjunct of A; ‘as a result’,
form (?mba+ale) clause chain adverb consequently
CAT boundary
P. =mbembale preceding de-verbal NP ‘so afterwards
SSCAT elsewhere’
Q. =mbetufugu following lexical NP ‘done to all of
SSTOT it/them’
→: becomes (argument in following clause)
=: same as (argument in following clause)
≠: different from (argument in following clause)
 457

Table 42. Semantic functions and temporal reference of inter-

clausal reference marking (Set 1 and Set 2)

IRM
Set 1 Reference Semantic function Temporal reference
A.mbe same subject Continuity of anterior
SS eventuality

B.mba different Discontinuity of successive

DS subject eventuality
C.dye same event Continuity of prior
SE eventuality
D. dya new, different change of location; successive
DE event size; or epistemic
change
E. mbedye same subject, mirativity; result cataphoric
SSE same event
F. mbedya same subject, Result; change of over- lapping,
SSDE different event actuality: new successive
location; mirativity
or epistemic change
Set 2
G.mbege same subject, Continuity of repeated
SSR repeated event eventuality, no
epistemic or
affective change
H. mbegedya same subject, Discontinuity of Cause-effect
RDE new, different eventuality; association of
event different event. events
Unexpected or
surprising
consequence
(mirativity)
I.mbembege same plural Repetition of events Perpetuity
PE subjects and effects, same
subjects
J.mbembegedya same plural Logical association: Repeated events →
PDE subjects, consequences of new consequence
new,successive events. (result)
event
K. mbegeledye repeated Repetition of repeated
RSSE subject, same events on subject
event
L. mbekudye same subject, Result inclusive
INC same event
M.mbekudya different event Logical association: preceding
NOMR reason

N. mbele same events Logical prior

CU association:
fused form cumulative effect of
(mbe+ale) a sequence of
events
 458

O. mbale new event Consequential; subsequent

CAT change of location
fused form
?(mba+ale)

P. mbembale same prior Consequential; subsequent

SSCAT subject, new shift of location
different
subject
Q. mbetufugu same subjects Totality events in totality
SSTOT

14.3.1 Reference and marking clauses

. Before looking more closely at this system of interclausal reference

marking, I turn to a discussion of terminology. I use “reference clause”
to mean the clause that is explicitly referenced by an interclausal
reference marker (IRM). While Kalapalo reference clauses are most
usually finite transitive or intransitive verb clauses, derived de-nominal
verbalizations and thetic constructions also occur as reference clauses.
I use the term “marking clause” for the clause that carries the
IRM morpheme. Kalapalo marking clauses include almost any kind of
syntactically dependent, complement clause, including non-finite
subordinate clauses, intransitive or transitive clauses, quotative clauses,
quotations, ideophonic clauses, object-backgrounding (decreased
valence) clauses, and the segment marking initial anaphoric topic
referent clause. The IRM may occur on nominal, adverbial adjuncts, and
preposed hortative and lexical clausal complements, de-verbal
nominalizations, and nominalized clefted phrases derived from verbs.
The latter also often carry their own “event coordination” taxis clitic
(usually =lefa, but also =fale).. This suggests that, as with epistemic and
affective clitics, Kalapalo IRMs have broad, even interclausal scope
regardless of which constituent hosts them. Haiman and Munro (1983b)
suggest that reference (or in their wording, ‘controlling’) clauses typically
end a chain, and also that marking clauses are located proximately to
reference clauses. The Kalapalo data do not always conform to these
generalities, as reference clauses may occur either prior to or following
marking clauses according to the particular IRM used; as already shown,
some IRM reference a preceding and following reference clause. There is
also the possibility of clause skipping (Huang 2000:292) in which the
reference and marking clauses are not directly adjacent to each other.

14.3.2 SET I interclausal reference markers

14.3.2.1 (A) =mbe (SS) same subject, ’that same one’

This is a basic form that links two clauses with the same subject
arguments. If both marking and reference clauses are transitive, =mbe
indicates their A arguments are the same; if both are intransitive, S is the
same in each clause.
 459

a. The following is an example of a “initial-consecutive

construction” involving use of =mbe. The entire chain is divided
into three sections (i-iii) to illustrate more clearly the reference
and marking clauses, and the consecutive position of the marking
clause in the chain. The initial clause in (i) is a thetic
construction describing the situation in which one group of
enemies is about to be ambushed by the other. There is an essive
nominalized adverbial adjunct to the thetic VP, which provides
the controlling S reference for SS in line ii. In (ii), SS appears
on the marking clause, referencing the same event and S as in
the reference clause. The marking clause is a medial clause in
adverbial construction. Without pause, this clause is immediately
followed by the independent clause (iii), in brackets, which
includes an adverbial adjunct marked with the anaphoric topic
referent (ATR). The identificational demonstrative in (iii)
references the group who are feared by those waiting in ambush.

i. [is-iɳi-ɳo-pe t-ẽ-ti.]
3-follow-N-ESS REF-approach-TH.
is-iɳi-ɳo-pe t-ẽ-ti.
3-follow-N-ESS REF-approach-TH.
‘Those behind approached, those behind approached.’

ii. t-atafi-ki=ale≈kugu=mbe
REF-bow.drawn-fully=UT≈fully=SS
‘doing that all the while with their bows drawn,’

iii. tamitsi≈kugu imї-ñigĩ ule=fale egei

long.time≈fully unmoving-TR AFR=NO IDEM
te-ɳe-ni=fale.
fear-VT-AN=NO
‘while frightened of them, for a long time the others had stood
still.’

b. In this example there is another ‘initial-consequtive’ clause construction.

In the marking clause (ii) the IRM is on the adverbial adjunct to the main
clause. The marking clause links the preceding non-finite reference clause
(the thetic form of the verb ifa-, ‘go outside’) and the following finite
marking clause (bracketed). The ideophone tiki in (i) represents the sound
of someone brushing against the house thatch as he leaves his house. Just
as he does this, the hero leaves his own house carrying a load of arrows.
The the chain boundary clause marking lepe (‘next’) in the (i) and the
simultaneous event taxis (SIM) =fata on the final finite clause (ii) provide
the temporal grounding for the whole.

i. lepe tiki: ifau ti-fa-ti.

next (sound of arrival), cousin REFL-go.outside-TH
‘next tiki, a cousin of his comes outside’
 460

ii. ai-kugu=mbe, [fugei ige-lï=fata i-feke.]

finish-fully=SS, [ arrow carry-PI=SIM 3-ERG]
‘Just has he1 finished doing that, he2 was bringing out his
arrows.’
c. Here the clause chaining also involves an initial-final
construction, but there is one reference clause (line i) followed
by one main marking clause (ii) and two supplemental marking
clauses (iii-iv). The example begins with the reference clause
(line i), followed immediately by the main marking clause in line
ii showing the set A morpheme =mbe ‘SS’ on the negative
adverbial adjunct of the finite clause (bracketed). The ‘IRM’
=mbe references the continuity of S arguments between the
reference and marking clauses. This main marking clause is
followed by two coordinate clauses with two =mbe compounds.
In line iii, the first compound, =mbege ‘SSR’ references
repetition of the action; in line iv, the second mbele ‘CU’
references the cumulative consequence of that action. ‘Repeated
action’ is marked by the taxis =ge, ‘RT’, while the ‘unending’
taxis =ale ‘UT’ contributes to the idea of ‘cumulative
consequence’. The final bracketed clause in (iv) is a quotative.
While there is no =lefa on the final clause, to mark the end of the
chain, the Set 2 compound construction =mbele (CU) references
the cumulative effect of a series of foods (see discussion of this
morpheme under N, below). The links in this chain are marked
by =mbe appearing several times in this clause chain. The same
speaker references the several different aspects of the same
general event (his living in a place where he must eat strange
food). The reference clause in (i) is an existential ‘be’verb
construction. In (ii), =mbe is hosted by a negative adverbial
construction, adjunct to the VP; in (iii), the IRM is a set 2
construction =mbege, ‘even that’, which follows the ergative NP
in a fully transitive clause.

i [u-iñaŋo-fïŋ≈ata-lï-a inde u-its-a]

1-liquid.food-unlike≈EQA -NEG-U here 1-EX-CI
‘My special liquid food is different from what’s used here
where I’m living.’

ii [ñalï ekugu =mbe aŋisa iña-lї u-feke]

negation.completely =SS sweet.manioc eat.mush-PI 1-ERG
‘That sweet manioc that I slurp up isn’t at all like my own
food.’

iii. mukutsi iña-lї u-feke =mbeg≈at-ehe]

sweet.potato eat-PI 1-ERG =SSR≈EQA-PER
Nor are those sweet potatoes that I slurp up. ‘

iv. [u-gupu-ñe-ñalï =mbele i-feke]

[1-stomach.noise-VT-MAL=CU 3-ERG]
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[ Ø-nïg≈i-feke]
3-PS≈3-ERG
‘They all bother my stomach,”, he told them.’

d. The following is an interesting example in which =mbe references

SS across conversational turns. The story-teller (speaker i) is
explaining to his son (speaker ii) why a warrior needed to train in
certain ways. What is being marked by the IRM on the
‘dangerous’ interjection is the prior event of the same actor
fighting fiercely.

i. [ami i-tso-tu tu-e-ta-ko i-feke].

another.time 3-rage-ADV REFL-attack-CI-PL 3-ERG
‘Later on he he fights them fiercely.’

ii okoh=mbe
dangerous =SS
‘Watch out for (him).’

i. okoh=mbe-nile
dangerous=SS- avoid
‘Watch out (for him), keep away.’

14.3.2.2 (B) =mba (DS) different subject, ‘someone, something else’

This form marks a switch from the marking clause event argument to a
different argument function in the reference clause. The marking clause
always precedes the reference clause.

a. The new subject (‘our food) is marked with DS. There is a

change from the other kinds of food in the preceding lines to this
different subject. In this example, =mba is followed by the new
overlapping event taxis =hale (NO, “while, as”) . The new
event described in (iii) is so worthy of notice, the speaking
character (in the story) marks it with this “new event” taxis clitic
twice in the marking clauses in (i-ii) Again, the marking clauses
precede the reference clause, the last clause in (iii), which also
represents a chain boundary (not the presence of =lefa).
Reference is to the reference transitive verb clause (v): eating of
the food by a woman who has never seen it. It is interesting to
see in this example that the marking clauses (iii, iv) are P NP’s
within quoted speech, while the reference clause is part of the
narrator’s description. (iii) and (iv) together function as different
subject for (v)

i. ah uege-na Ø-wa-mbїɳї ekї-feke, Akiɳi-feke

EXP you-ALL 3-take-W IJ-ERG, Akiɳi-ERG
 462

efetsi-lї ike-ni- Ø-n-alї≈feke-ne.

warn-PI COM-PL 3-PS=UT≈ERG-PL
‘”Believe me, you must not take it,” um, Aikiɳi warned
everyone, saying that all the time.’

ii. mukutsi=mbe -kugu=al≈igei

sweet potatoes-SS -INT=UT≈IDEM
ku-gupu-ñe-ti-nï.
1+2-stomach.ache-VI-DES-N
‘”It’s all those sweet potatoes, those that really like to hurt
our stomachs.”

iii. atutu-fïŋï melansia, ta-i-feke, tu-fasu-feke.,

good-unlike melons, say-CI-3-ERG, REFL-OZ-ERG
“Those melons aren’t any good”, he told her older sister.

ivi. ku-m-iñaŋo =mba =hal≈egei, kum-iñaŋo

1+2-C-liquid. food=DS=NO≈IDEM, 1+2-liquid.food
‘But when (you eat) this food of our’s,

iv. atutu=mba=hale atutu.

good=DS=NO good
(you’ll find it) a good thing (when you eat it) however,
good.’

v. aifa, tu-nïgï Ø-te-ku-lï=lefa

ready.done, give-PS 3-eat.starchy.food-VT-PI=MT

i-feke, ifasu-feke-fa
3-ERG, OZ-ERG-PTP
‘So when it was ready, her older sister ate what she had been
given.’

b. This example illustrates the use of =mba in a conversational

example. In (i), the first speaker uses the marking clause. The subject is
‘our brother’ (underlined). There is an acknowledgment by the second
speaker (ii), followed by the first reference clause (iii), a second
conversational reply (iv), and the final reference clause (v). The oblique
object (second person free pronoun uege) of the marking clause becomes
the S of the reference clauses.
There is, additionally, another feature worth noticing in this example
of =mba: there is an epistemic change between the marking and
reference clauses. The marking clause (i) is epistemically marked with
the clitic =aka “weak confirmation”. The second, is epistemically marked
with =taka as an even stronger “suspicion” that the interlocutor does not
share the information in question, information that has been spread by the
discourteous speaker mentioned in (i) . Both mrphemes are glossed ‘EM’.
The second reference clause provides the specific information about what
is being said.
 463

i. ku-pisua-gï ki-ta=dyogu =mba≈k≈ege uege

1+2-OBR-POSS utter-CI-EM=DS≈EM≈IDEM PDEM
ku-pehe, ku-pisua-gï ki-ta.
1+2-ERG, 1+2-OBR-POSS utter-CI
‘You might know that our older brother speaks badly about
you to us, our older brother has been speaking.’

ii. eh he nїg≈i-feke, eh he.

agreeement, 3-PS≈3=ERG, agreeement
‘”He does,”, he answered. “He does”.’

iii. ú:m, ekï, te-tufu-ti=taka uege.

EXP (unnamed), REF-know.about-TH=EM you
‘“You must know about yourself then, don’t you?”

iv. iñalï
negative
‘He didn’t.’

v. ah, afїtї=fale Tugumai-fuɳu uege, Tugumai-fuɳu

EXP, denial=NO Trumai-resemble PDEM, Trumai-resemble
“I’m telling you, you’re not Trumai, not Trumai as you think’.

Oti=aka uege, Oti.

Oti=EM PDEM, Oti.
‘You’re actually Oti, Oti.’

c. In this example, there are no full verbal clauses; the use of =mba
(DS) + new overlapping taxis =(f)hale (NO) in (ii) implies an
absent verb, probably the existential ‘be’ verb it- “exist, live”.
The verb is not only implied by the context (the speaker is
talking about two different people and their settlements), but also
in (i) by the morpheme –te, “at” suffixed to the settlement name,
and the proper or class inclusion copula suffix –i. The taxis
clitic =fale is shared by the two clauses with the different cross-
referenced arguments and living sites.

i. Kugufi-te-fa i-dyogu etu. Afiguata-i etu.

Kugufi-at-PTP 3-uncle settlement. Afiguata-CL settlement.

Kugufi-te.
Kugufi-at.
‘Kugufi was where his uncle lived (made his house),
(which) served as Afiguata’s settlement. At Kugufi.

ii. i-fatuwï Tamakafi Tefukugu=mba=hale.

3-nephew Tamakafi Tefukugu=DS =NO
‘However his nephew Tamakafi (lived at) Tefukugu.’

iii. ipa fegei

lake ADEM
 464

‘that’s a lake.’

iv. [toho-ŋo ititï fegei Kugufi-fale].

other-PREC name ADEM Kugufi-NO
‘While at that time the other place was called Kugufi.’

d. Here is an example of =mba followed by the dislocative suffix –

ta.

ami, boh tututu Ø-ni-mba-ta igia te-timi-kei,

again, boh tututu 3-PS=DS-DIS manner-U REF-face-
raise.up
‘Again boh tututu it said but when he looked up like this from
another place
.
tsuk’ ah t-e-ti=mbe tu-e-lu-iña.
tsuk’ EXP REF-come-TH=SS REF-shoot-PI-DAT/BEN
“‘tsuk’ really, that thing came to shoot him.”

14.3.2.3 (C) =dye (SE) ‘same event’

=dye relates the predicates in the reference and marking clauses as

having the same O argument., The marking clause precedes the
reference clauses in both examples (a) and (b).

a. In (ii), the =dye ( SO) marking clause is in reversative mood (in

brackets). This indicates that the immediately preceding finite
clause in reversative mood (i) is the reference clause. Perhaps
dye is needed because in the final finite clause in (ii), there is a
new A (ukw-oto-feke, “our parent”), but same P (ukw-ikene, ‘our
younger sister’) as the argument of a de-verbal nominalization.

i. uege-tsï=nafa [ukw-ikene i-tïtsi-ne-nalï e-feke.]

you-M-EM dual-YZ 3-lower.down-VT-REV 2-ERG
‘After all, it was you who lowered our younger sister back
down.’

ii. [o-ka-ŋi=dye-tsï-nali=fofo ukw-ikene i-ŋitso-ŋa-tu-iŋi ]

2-wait-I=SE-M-REV=IM dual-YZ 3-reveal-VT-PI-EXN

ukw-oto-feke, ] o-ka-ŋi.
dual-parent-ERG. 2-wait-I
‘Yet you should have waited (to do that to her) until after our
younger sister was no longer seclued by our parent. You
should have waited.’

iii. tï-tomi=ma-fa≈le≈gei
RQ-PURP-EM-PTP≈UT≈-IDEM
 465

i-tïtsine-ta e-feke, Ø-nïgï-t≈i-feke.

3-lower down-CI 2-ERG, 3-PS-EV≈3-ERG
‘ “Why did it have to be now that you lowered her
down?” she said to him about that.’

b. Here the named nominal predicate is the same as copular subject

and final transitive subject(A). This is an example of S→N, in a
medial-final clause construction. Atapa, “Bee” is first introduced
as S of the equative copular verb (i), but the speaker uses –dye in
the relative clause that follows, perhaps to effect anticipation of
Bee’s agentivity in (ii). The reference clause (in brackets, ii)
immediately follows the marking clause in (i).

i. [atapa-tsa-fa s-aupïgï, atapa, atapa. ].

bee-EX-PTP 3-grandfather bee, bee.

[iŋe=dye-ts-a.] eh
bee.hive=SE-EX-CI yes
‘Their grandfather was Bee. Bee, Bee. Who lives in a hive.
Yes.’

ii. [uŋele i-pefe-gï-tsï ta-nde i-feke]

ANA 3-pollen-POSS –M store.up-CI 3-ERG
‘ Where he stores his pollen caches.’

c. This example shows dye marking the same event of the reference
clause; both the IRM and the dislocative suffix –ta. The two
speakers are (i) and (ii).

i. u:m tї=male uege, tї=male uege?

EXP RQ=EM you, RQ=EM you
‘I don’t think I know you do I, I don’t think I know you do I?’

ii. uge=dye-ta, uge=dye-ta

me=SE-CI, me=SE-DIS
‘You do, it’s me from that other place, It’s me from that other place
when

iii. u-ño-i≈-ts-iɳa ege Afanda,

1-husband-CL EX-SN PDEM Afanda
“He Afanda could be a husband to me”,

e-ki-ta-ti=nafa u=feke
2-utter-CI-DES=EM 1-ERG
‘I do know you liked saying that about me’.
 466

14.3.2.4 (D) =dya (DE) ‘different successive event

The IRM =dya is used to reference a successive event that is different

from the prior event of the reference clause. The marking clause precedes
the reference clause when this IRM is used.

a. In this example, =dya on the marking clause in (ii) is hosted by an

anaphoric demonstrative. Here =dya references the seduction by
the man ‘who was going to be the older sister’s husband.’ He is
different from Akiɳi who is named by the speaker’s husband, in
(ii). She corrects him (iii) where she calls Akiɳi ‘he, the one they
were fed up with’. The coarse language in my translation is in
keeping with the use of the direct casual word for copulation used
by the speaker.

i. [uŋele-nafa ifasï-ŋiso-iŋo ŋele-su-fa,

ANA-EM OZ-husband-ANT ANA-PEJ-PTP
‘It happened so long ago I don’t know but it could be that he
himself when he was about to be the older sister’s husband,
he himself, that fool,

is-uata-gu-ko],
3-last. count-POSS-PL
‘their youngest sister,’

ii. i-ga-ke=su-fofo (Akiŋi) [u:m, uŋele=su=dya],

3-name-I=PEJ-IM (Akiŋi), [EXP, ANA=PEJ=DE]
‘Name that fool right now’ (her husband answers:“Akiŋi.”)
I’m thinking about that person I mentioned before, the fool
(who was going to)

eku-andzu ku-i-ni (Akiŋi)

unnamed-sister f...k-CL-AN (Akiŋi)
be the one who will f...k (what’s-her-name’s) sister.
(Akiŋi)’

iii. nago fegei Ø- nz-aŋatu-ŋGi≈ñalu, Taugi-ko ege

that.person ADEM 3–OB-hand-VT-MAL, Taugi-PL PDEM

i-ŋiso
3-husband
‘As for that other one, they were becoming fed up with that
husband of her’s, Taugi and his companion.’
 467

b. In this example =dya references a different copular state.

Because the marking clause is a negative construction, =dya also
conveys a clear sense of contrast.

i. u:m, iɳ-ge-fofo ku-taupїgї uɳї ufi, iɳ-ge-fofo.

EXP, look.I-IT 1+2-grandfather house YBR(voc), look-I-UT.
‘I’m thinking, look at our grandfather’s house Little Brother,
look at it.’

ii. afїtї-dya≈le a-nїgї-la, afїtї

denial-DE≈UT EQS-PS-NEG, denial.
‘It shouldn’t be like this (but something else), no.’

iii. ta-ma igia taupїgї i-ñalї,

CONT-EM manner grandfather EX-MAL,
‘Why should the grandfather be like this,

ta-ma igia i-ñalї

CONT-EM manner EX-MAL
why should he be like this?’

iv. iv. igei-a-eku-apa=lefa igei

manner–U-INT-CONF=MT IDEM
‘Should it be just like this,

a-fa-ko et-ua-nde-fo-ta=lefa,
2-tell-PL MV-surround-VT -HYP-CI=MT
then the Mortals would be surrounded (that is, housed)

igei-a agage, igei-a.

IDEM-U like IDEM-U
‘ just like this, like this.’

v. afїtї ake-tsaɳe igeia≈ñїg-la, afїtї.

denial SD-DEO manner≈ EX-TR -NEG, denial
‘ I don’t want them to live like this, no.’

vi. ete-fa igei-a i-ñalї

painful-PTP IDEM-U EX-MAL
‘This would be too nice’.

vii. igeia=keñi a-fa-ko fili-ñїgї,

manner=PREV 2-tell-PL beautiful-TR

ata-ko-fo-lї-ku≈le=ɳap=lefa.
move.away-PL-HYP-CI-INT≈AFR=EM=MT
‘If the Mortals becoming beautiful like this isn’t prevented,
probably they would move away all the time.’
 468

c. This narrative example shows how a speaker uses =dya and

=mbe to keep track of a participant in a story who is not one of the focal
characters. This person’s naming is a brief diversion from the events of
the narrative. In this example, =dya references a new event (an arrival,
line vi) from that of the ‘departure from the settlement’ in (i). The
subject is kuge, ’a person’. After describing the first event, the speaker
reviews the main characters in the story, after which he returns to the
events of story, and the arrival of the messenger. Akwakaŋa, mentioned
as the ‘ancestor’ in line iii, where this proper noun is also marked by –fa,
the “primary topical participant”. A further explanation of who this new
actor is comes in (iv).
i. kuge te-lë =lefa etu-toŋo-pe=dya=lefa,
person go.away =MT settlement-at-ALOC-SAL=DO=MT
‘A person went away from his settlement

ii. Akwakaŋa etu-toŋo-peŋine=dya=lefa

Akwakaŋa settlement-ALOC-ABL=DE =MT
from where Akwakaɳa’s settlement was located’,

iii aŋifolo=dya=mbe-fa tsufugu.

early.person =DE=SS-PTP long.ago
‘(That was) an ancestor (who did that) a long time ago’,
(who then did ).

iv. itseke felei, Kwatïŋï figï felei,

powerful.being ADEM Kwatïŋï grandson ADEM,
Kwatïŋï figï s-aupïgï.
Kwatïŋï grandson 3-grandfather.
‘That person was a powerful being, he was Kwatïŋï’s
grandson, Kwatïŋï’s grandson, his grandfather. ‘

v. teh, atutu=mba ele. Ukwaka-tufa itsëgë-i.

nice, good=DS PDEM Ukwaka-EV aunt-CL
‘A nice, beautiful person (who I’ll be speaking about). They say his
aunt was Ukwaka’.

indisï-tïfa Ñuku, indisï-i, itau.

daughter-EV Ñuku daughter-CL, woman.
‘They say her daughter was Ñuku, her daughter, a woman.’

aGike-ta=gele-i. ikene-fa masope, ikene.

hair.cut-CI-PT-CL. YZ-PTP maiden, YZ
‘Her hair was always being cut, while her younger sister was
(still) a secluded maiden.’

vi. kuge-fa etimbe-lu sega-ti, kao ka ka.

person-PTP arrive-CI same place-ADV, (sounds of greeting
calls)
‘The person arrived at that place to the sounds of the greeting calls.’
 469

14.3.2.5 (E) =mbedye (SSE) ‘same subject, same prior event’

With this compound form, the same predicate and argument in the
marking clause is referenced as that appearing in the ‘event’ reference
clause and a following ‘argument’ reference clause. In several examples
the same argument is O, but in one example (d), the argument is an
extended intransitive oblique configured adverbially. The ‘event’
reference clause appears before the marking clause, while the ‘argument’
clause follows immediately.
The following conversational example illustrates this use of SSE.
Here in line i, the reference clause predicate and argument are the ‘worry
about being killed by you’. This is followed in line ii by the second
speaker’s denial of the predicate, through use of the contrastive ta=tiki
construction (the epistemic clitic =tiki marks the speaker’s denial of an
alignment with the listener). Line iii is the marking clause, where the
events are coordinated by the =lefa clitic. This clause is followed in line
iv by the ‘argument’ clause with same O (those who thought they were
going to be killed) that provides further information about the speaker’s
reason for coming to the settlement, where he uses a ‘different taxis’
clitic on the subordinate verb (bracketed). The use of mbedye in the
chain also contributes to the epistemic shift that is being created by the
speaker, that is from the initial speaker’s suspicion about him to his
strong denial of that predicate.

a. i. tu-e-lї-ko faɳa-mi-ta igei e-feke.

REF-kill-PI-PL worry-VI-CI IDEM 2-ERG
‘This means they’re worried you will kill them’.

ii.ta=tiki e-lї-ko-i-ña u-e-nalї?

CONT-EM kill-PI-PL-EP-ALL 1-come.to-REV
‘Why in the world should I come to kill them?’

iii.awї-nda-fїɳї=mbedye ts-a=lefa.
lie-CI-resemble=SSE EX-CI=MT
‘They’re lying (about my coming to kill them)’.

iv. [e-lї-ko-iña-la=tale] igei u-e-tїfїgї

kill-PI-PL-DAT/BEN-NEG=DT IDEM 1-come.to-VPE
‘My coming is for a reason other than to kill them.’

b. There are two operators in the following clause chain.

=mbedye in (ii) references the same event and same O of the (i)
clause (the soup being sipped), which is also O in (iii). =mbe in
the second reference clause (iii) again references the woman
drinking what she thinks might be poisonous soup. Also of note
are two important epistemic markers in (ii). The first is =maki,
referencing the speaker’s change from suspicious rejection of the
soup to surprised agreement- the soup turns out to be good). The
second, in line (iii) is =nika, referencing agreement. The speaker
realizes she was wrong in (ii) (=maki) and expands that
 470

judgment as agreement with her interlocutor in (iii) (=nika).

The same event is marked because there is a change of epistemic
voice; the speaker changes her mind and agrees with her
interlocutor after finding that the food she has tasted is safe (this
is the “result”). In this example there is no final ‘argument’
clause.

i. kotofo-la isi-feke i-li-dyu.

all.amount-NEG mother-ERG 3-drink-PI
‘Her mother took a sip of it’.

ii. u:m, eh=mbedye=maki añu,

EXP, yes=SSE =EM dear.little.one (voc),
‘”Yes, it does seem to me to be just as you say, my dear.”

iii. aŋi=mbe=nika k-inen-ïm-iɳo i-feke,

result=SS=EM PREV-poison-VT-POT 3-ERG,
nï≈l≈i-feke
say.to≈UT≈3-ERG
“I see now that it’s really not something that could poison me
when I do that”, she kept saying,’

c. Here is an example of how the S and oblique arguments of reference and

marking clause extended intransitives are referenced by the =mbedye operator.
The extended arguments in the example are adverbializations. The verb stem te-
, ‘go away’ is substituted for in line i by an ideophone, but appears explicitly in
line ii. In this example there is no particular marking of an epistemic shift but
there is a sense of mirativity in the last line, unmarked perhaps because the
events speak for themselves. The final ‘argument’ clause follows immediately
upon the marking clause.

i. lepene te-ñïtsi-tsi tï tï tï te-ñïtsi-tsi

afterwards REF.inside-ADV (sound of snake moving) REF-inside-
ADV
‘Following that it went back inside her, inside her.’

ii. ata-i-lï=mbedye=ŋapa-fa its-efu-ati=lefa te-lï

curl.up-VI-PI=SSE=EM-PTP 3-stomach-inside=MT go.away-PI
‘Probably it went away to curl up inside her stomach’.

d. This example shows the speaker’s use of both =dye (SE) and
=mbedye (SSE). =dye references the intransitive event in (i) as
the same as the predicate whose adverbial adjunct is ‘stay
inside their houses’.

i. timbe-lї-ko=lefa a-nїgї, t-їɳї-ko-gati=dye its-a

arrive-PI-PL=Mt EQS-PS REF-house-PL-inside=DE EX-CI
‘They had arrived, staying inside their houses (when they did
that)._’
 471

ii. aifa, etimbe-lї-ko=lefa, its-a=mbedye its-a

ready.done, arrive-PI-PL=MT, EX-CI=SSE EX-CL

i-fitsu-i=lefa.
3-wife- CL=MT
‘After they had all arrived, she lived on (after they had done
that) as his wife.’

e. i. tsake-fa. s-i-nïngo=lefa. aifa.

listen-I-PTP. 3-come back-PI;PL=MT. done
‘So listen. They all returned. It was finished.’

ii. uɳele-su te-ta te-ŋi-lu-iña i-fasï-ko ŋiso.

ANA-PEJ go.away-CI REF-look.at-PI-DAT/BEN 3-OZ-PL husband
‘As for that foolish person I’ve been speaking about, their older sister’s
husband, went to see it.’

iii. et-inafe-gi-ta-ko=mbele, eŋï, ife-pïgï=mbedye ifeti

MV-shine-CAUS-PL-CU, um, plant-VPE=SSE plants
“What they had planted were shining in the sun,

iv. uŋele =mba=hale s-ife-tofo

ANA=DS=NO 3-clear.land-USIN
‘but as for that other person his clearing

wagi ipu-Gi-tsïgï i-fo-gi-dyu

jatoba.tree trim up-CAUS-VPE 3-find-PI
was a trimmed-up jatoba tree he had found

wagi tsekegï i-pu-Gi-tsïgï.

jatoba.tree large trim up-CAUS-VPE
a big jatoba tree he had pruned up.’

v. t-ipu-Gi ekugu.
REF-trim.up-ADV fully
‘All of it (‘s lower branches) trimmed away.’

vi. ule ofiñati=mbedye ifuŋ-Gi-ga-tïfïgï=mbe-fa

AFR under=SSE fallen-CAUS-down-IMP=SS-PTP
iŋkuŋu-pe ule fo-te-ga-tïfïgï=fale i-feke,
branches-SAL ATR burn-prepare-PERF-contrast 3-ERG
‘Underneath that (tree), was where he planned to burn the few
branches that he had made fall down.’

14.3.2.6 (F) =mbedya (SSDE) ‘same subject, different successive event’;

‘reason’
 472

This operator links two different clauses. The first is a reference clause
involving the same subject as that described in the marking clause. The
second, which follows the marking clause, is the clause referencing a
new successive event. The discontinuity in the events, but continuity of
the subject (a), thus occasions the use of =mbedya (‘same subject,
different successive event’). The reference and marking clauses are also
linked by cause-effect relations and also a change in eventuality. All the
examples in 14.3.2.6 (F) have the main participant surprised by an
unexpected outcome, that is, a mirative response.

a. In this example, line (i) references the subject, a man who is remaining
behind while his people are fleeing their settlement. The operator in line
ii references the new event in (iii) the ‘remaining behind’. These are the
two reference clauses linked by line ii, the marking clause.

i.ule=fata=lefa ka-nda ifeke-ni=lefa. fugombo-ɳa.

AFR=SIM=MT seated-CI 3-ERG-PL=MT. plaza-SN
‘While that was going on they were seated in the plaza.’

ii. we-nїɳ-go≈le-tї, te-lї-ko=mbedya=lefa,

come.outside-PI-PL≈AFR-M , go.away-PI-PL=SSDE=MT
te-lї-ko=mbedya=lefa.
go.away-PI-PL=SSDE=MT
‘The others came outside to go away, that’s why they did that,
they went away, (that’s why they did that).

iii. i-dyi-mo tel ї-ko=lefa, agetsi isuwї-ko ifї-la.

3-child-PL go.away-PI-PL=MT, one father-PL flee-NEG
‘But while the children went away, the father stayed behind
by himself.’

iv. la inde u-e-ta-ni i-feke

like.that here 1-kill-CI-ANT 3-ERG

u-indi-sї їfїgї-tsїgї-i.
1-daughter-POSS join-IPE-CL
‘May he kill me here this way alongside my daughter.’

b. In this example, the marking clause links (i), the clause

referencing an event that will be the same as referenced in the
marking clause, and also the subsequent clause (iii) where the O
argument (a deverbal nominalization) is different from that in the
main clause of (i). Both reference and marking clauses concern
the same event, but the named O in each are different; in the
reference clause (iii) there is ko-m-i-ñaɳo, ‘our liquid food’, a
name for hot manioc soup (kwigiku) . In (ii), the pragmatics of
the present example require =mbedya since the new A in (ii)
never was part of the plurality in the first line.
 473

i. kwigiku etu-ki-lï
hot soup finished.ready-ADV-PI

Ø-li-tsa≈le-t≈i-feke-ne.
3-drink-CI≈AFR-EV≈3-ERG-PL
‘When the hot soup was ready, one by one they all drank
some, it’s said.’

ii. i-fe-ki-pïgï=mbedya-fa i-feke =lefa.

3-nice-CAUS-VPE =SSDE-PTP 3-ERG =MT
‘And so (when he drank it) he found it to his liking.’

iii. ko-m-i-ñaɳo-feke-mbe ŋele-feke ki-pïgï i-feke,

1+2- C-liquid.food-ERG-SS ANA-ERG like-VPE 3-ERG

i-ñaɳo-feke, Afasa ñaɳo-feke.

3-liquid.food-ERG, Afasa liquid.food-ERG
‘The liquid food made him like it,
the liquid food, Afasa’s liquid food.’

c. Here is a clear example of what appears to be the same event

(blowing a spell), but as it is done on two different objects, a
woman’s hands and then her processing mat, the speaker uses
the =mbedya operator to reference a new event (it is the spell
that is the same subject) . There is a prior event reference clause
preceding , and a discontinuous successive event reference
clause following, the marking clause.

i..okoge-funda-me tї-ndisї ti-ña-fiti-ndi .

next.day-TEMP-FACS REF-daughter REF-hand-blow.on-CI

i-feke, isi-feke.
3-ERG, 3;MO-ERG
‘The next day or so she, the mother blew on her daughter’s
hands.

ii.ti-ña- fiti-nd≈i-feke kefege-ki=mbedya, kefege-ki.

REF-hand-blow.on-CI≈3-ERG spell-INST=SSDE, spell-INST
‘She blew on her hands, with the spell, with the spell, (and blew
on something else.)’

iii. aifa its-afi-su ti-ɳu-fiti-nda i-feke,

ready.done 3-mat-POSS REF-thing-blow.on-CI 3-ERG

tuafi-fa, tuafi.
mat-PTP, mat.
‘When that was done she blew on her mat, that thing of hers, the
mat, the mat.’
 474

d. This interesting example shows the use of =mbedya on the

marking clause which follows upon the immediately preceding
reference clause (i) and is followed by the second reference
clause in (iii), bracketed.

i. lepene s-i-nïgï Pañeta e-nïgï.

after that 3-come.to-PS, Pañeta come.to-PS
‘After that he approached, Pañeta approached.’

ii. ta-ŋi-ndi =mbedya aŋikogo =mbedya.

REF-see-TH=SSDE fierce person =SSDE
‘So he saw her (when he came), the fierce person (came for
that reason).

iii. [mboh, ŋi-ta=ŋapa uŋele].

IJ, see-CI=EM ANA
‘Probably he was watching her (that same person I’m going
to speak about)’

iv. ande u-fitsu a-nïgï. ande u-fitsu.

here.now 1-wife EQS-PS here.now 1-wife
‘Here’s someone for my wife. Here’s my wife’.

e. In this example the two reference clauses are intransitive, but

there is a change of subject argument in the first (line i) and
second (line ii) reference clauses. Also there is a change of
location. The mirative quality of the actor’s experience is
evidenced in (v) by a very drawn out “imaginative thought”
epistemic expressive u:mmhumhumm?? (?? indicating a strong
rising interrogative tone on the final syllable).

i. ndom, te-lu =lefa tuwa-kuati.

(sound of falling) go.away.PI=MT water-into
‘Ndom, he went away diving into the water.

ii. ndik’, igei-funa=lefa i-ñïgï.

(IDEO), IDEM-ALOC=MT EX-TR

ndik’, uŋa-ti=lefa.
(sound of coming up to surface) house-ADV=MT
‘he was at the other side, outside a house.’

iv. ndik, itseke uŋa-ti=mbedya.

(sound of arrival), powerful.being house-ALOC=SSDE
‘Ndik, as a result (he found himself) outside the house of a
powerful being.’

v. u:m hum hum??, undufe aŋu=fata,

EXP ceremonial.music play.music=SIM,
 475

dyakwikatï.
dyakwikatï
‘He was very surprised to find someone was performing
ceremonial music, the dyakwikatï’.

f. This is a long chain with three changes in eventuality occasioned

by mirativity. Two shifts are marked by =mbedya (SSDE); the
third in (v) is marked by = mbegeledye (RSSE) with an unusual
interposed ‘persistant action’ taxis marker =gele, (PT). This
apparently is linking the effect of the agent’s actions (trying to
replace the basket lid) on the undergoer (the seduced girl). The
primary topical participant marker –fa is suffixed to the whole in
anticipation of the wife and mother’s imminent return:

i. pok, is-aka-nïgï=lefa,
(sound of sitting) 3-sit down-PS=MT,

is-ata ata-ni pok,

3-inside EQA-ANT (sound of sitting)
‘Pok, she was seated and was just about inside pok,

ii. lepene=fale≈gei, iñe-gi-pe-po-ga i-feke,

afterwards=NO≈IDEM, cover-POSS-SAL-HYP-CI 3-ERG
but now when he tried to cover her
iii. is- ipo-ki=lefa, isi-po-k≈folo-ki=mbedya.
3-lid-INST=MT, 3-lid-INST≈USIN-INST- SSDE
with the lid, he tried to do that with the lid but

iv. afïtï. ets-iŋi-i-ta=mbele, afïtï.

denial. MV-see-VI-CI=CU denial
he couldn’t. She could be seen still (when he did that), he
couldn’t.’

v. iti-tso-fi=mbegeledye-fa tï-ti-tsofo.
3-stick up-ADV=SSDURSE-PTP REFL-stuck up-UN.
afïtï.
denial
‘She still stuck out when he did that, she kept sticking out.
He couldn’t.’

vi. t-ui-ta=mbege-t≈i-feke afïtï, iñalï

REF-put-CI=SSR-DES-3-ERG, denial, negation.
‘He (kept on) pushing her down but he couldn’t do it, it
didn’t work.’
 476

vii. tilati=mbedya-fa tu-i-ta i-feke otomo e-nïgï

quickly=SSDE-PTP REF-put-VT -CI 3-ERG people come-
PS
faŋa-mi-ta
worry-VI-CI
‘He quickly put her back that way (because) he worried that
her relatives were about to appear.’

14.3.3 Compound forms (Set 2)

There are numerous compounded forms that speakers use as IRM.

These morphological structures illustrate a number of features described
by Mithun (2000:39-40) in her discussion of affix clustering. First, in the
Kalapalo case, these are multi-clitic ‘chunks’ that are processed as a
single unit but manifest semantic independence. The compounds “are
not necessarily equivalent in meaning to the sum of the meanings of
their parts”. Second, in some cases “there is also greater phonological
fusion” than in other instances of suffix sequencing.
In Kalapalo, the components of the affix clusters are both
grammatical and phonological words. Most of these clustered affixes
begin with the clitic ‘SS’ =mbe; in my data only one begins with ‘DS’
=mba. Two of these (E and F) compound two of the Type I basic
forms. Forms K and L compound two basic forms with the linking –ku
'just, only’ adverbial suffix. Forms I, J, N, and O are compound ‘SS’ or
‘DS’ forms with taxis markers; the forms of the mbembege- group seem
to reference continuously repeated subjects. Forms N and O may
perhaps be more properly called “fused” forms, due to the language’s
vocalic fusion processes.
Set 2 forms sometimes reference relations between three clauses
(two reference, one marking), but more important, semantic functions
that can be subsumed under Stirling’s (1993) idea of “continuity of
eventuality” must be taken into account. These functions involve
locational, temporal, epistemic and deontic discontinuity, as well as
event reference continuities or discontinuities that explain a (language
name deleted) speaker’s use of Set 1 forms. Some of these compounds
reference special logical cause-effect, result, and reason relationships
among chained clauses, similar in function to conjunctions like English
“because” and “if”, and ‘so’.
At this level of syllabic complication, it is possible to see a
gradual transformation from clitic to lexeme. It is not a complete
transformation; the switch-reference function is preserved by the Set 1
operator used in the compound, but it is attenuated in the presence of a
semantic function. It is not so unusual that a marking clause operator can
have this function (see Huang 2000 for references; also discussion in
Hopper and Traugott 2003 chapter 6, 7) but it is interesting that in
Kalapalo, a language with few adjectives and many derivational
processes, switch-reference operators have this secondary adverbial-like
function. This is helped by the ideophone words. As I noted earlier, in
Amazonian languages, complex ideophones readily substitute for both
transitive and intransitive clauses (see Nuckolls 1996). Kalapalo
 477

descriptive properties are most commonly found in noun phrases. But

since many nominals are actually verbal derivations, could there be a
connection between the adverbial-like tendencies of these compound
IRMs?

14.3.3.1 (G) =mbege (SSR) ‘that again’

a The initial marking clause is subordinate, followed by the main

reference clause.

i. uɳele-fa si-nalї apai-lї-iña.

ANA-PTP come-REV open.thatch-PI-DAT/BEN
‘That same person came back to open the thatch.’

ii. i-ŋi-lu-iña=mbege ete-ŋalï,

3-look at-PI-BEN=SSR go.away-REP
‘Hei did that again to look for her some more, hei went away
again.’

14.3.3.2 (H) =mbegedya (RDE) ‘ even though’ ‘nevertheless”

With this operator, a new event is distinguished from that of the

preceding clause. Often =mbe is followed by the ’repeated
taxis’=ge as in 14.2.2.3 (I). Less commonly =mbe and =dya are
linked with this same taxis marker. Dya ‘leaps over’ ge.

a. The following example shows both phenomena in (i and ii), as

well as an additional “new overlapping event” (=hale) taxis
(NO). As elsewhere, the finite transitive reference clause
suffixed with MT =lefa appears in (iii) at the end of the chain.

i. i-fe-po-lï=mbegedya=hale i-feke
hold on-try-PI-RDE-NO 3-ERG
‘(Even though) he (still) tried to hold on to him that person
(did something else to him).’

ii. Ø- au-ki-lï=mbegedya=hale i-feke

3-squeeze-VT-PI=RDE=NO 3-ERG
‘(Even though) he squeezed him, that person (did something
else to him).’

iii. bok, agi-lï=lefa i-feke, Afasa

sound of pushing away), throw-PI=MT 3-ERG, Afasa

agi-lï=lefa.
(throw=PI=MT
‘Bok, he threw him away, he threw Afasa away’.
 478

14.3.3.3 ( I) =mbembege (PE) ‘and again and again as before’-

This compounded form is a somewhat unusual example of Kalapalo

reduplication. The same clause arguments are perpetually repeated, ‘over
and over again’. In (a) the children continue to cry over and over
throughout the events involving their mother, described in the chain. In
(b), the woman is never able to finish clearing her field, as the manioc
magically regrows each time she harvests it.

a. i. ule-pe=lefa s-in-ïŋgo=lefa ai ai ai
AFR-SAL=MT 3-come.to-POT;PL=MT (sound of crying)

fonu-nda-ko
wail-CI-PL
‘And so regarding that, they came to her grieving.’

ii. atutu-i-la≈ ke-tsaŋe ku-limo a-nïgï anetї

good-CL-NEG≈SD-DEO 1+2-children EQS-PS leader

Ø-nïg≈i.
3-PS≈3
‘ “Our children do not want to be happy Leader”, she said to
him.’

iii. enitsï-ko-feke= ŋapa-fa ku-limo fogi-dyï.

grandmother-PL-ERG=EM-PTP 1+2 children find-VT-PI
“Probably their grandmother found our children.”

iv. lepe isi-ko te-lï =mbembege i-ñalï.

next 3;mother-PL go.away.PI =PE EX-MAL
‘As a result their mother went away while they(kept at it, on
and on)’.

b. i. efitsu te-ŋalï =mbembege.

wife go.away-REP=PE
‘His wife went away again (doing that over and over).’

ii. la-gele ata-ni ete-ke-ŋalï, enene

far.place-PT EQA-ANT go.away-CAUS-REP, other.side

te-ŋalï, ege at-ani ete-ke-ŋalï.

go.away-REP, PDEM EQA-ANT go.away-CAUS-REP
‘She was made to go over to one side where they were
growing, she’d have to go again on the other side, she had
to go where they were growing.‘

c. i. e-ta=-nika-fa isi ki-lї

come-CI=EM-PTP 3;mother utter-PI
‘It seems you’ve been travelling here.’
 479

ii. efitsu=mbembege-ti≈feke
wife-PE-DES ERG
‘The wife still wanted (to behave) towards him the same as she
had before.’

iii. iñalї-ma Ø-tїi-dyu i-feke, itseke-feke Ø-tїi-dyu.

negative-EM 3-greet-PI 3-ERG, powerful.being-ERG 3-greet-PI
‘She didn’t greet him (but) the powerful being had greeted him.’

14.3.3.4 (J) =mbembegedya (PDE) ‘but even after doing all that’

This compound is similar to (G) as the SS marker is repeated, and as in

earlier examples, the repeated taxis marker -ge is infixed. Here, the
=dya different event (DE) interclausal reference marker also appears. It
may be that the reference clauses are now the entire prior and entire
subsequent clause chains built into segments that form the story-line as a
whole. The morpheme takes the postposition.
In (a), PDE follows the expressive interjection akah. The
speaker is uncomfortable and expressing some frustration about her stiff
legs, as well as the fact that the story she is telling us is very long, with
many more interesting matters to come regarding a new focal character,
the object of the main character’s seduction, and finally new events
involving the original focal character, the man’s wife (hence the =dya)

a. akah=mbembegedya ≈ka:h
IJ=PDE≈EXP
‘I’m exhausted from telling you about all this, (nevertheless even
more is going to happen to her)’

b. In this example the main character (Taugi) is trying to draw his

child’s killer to him with a charm, a pot of boiling water
containing some of the boy’s hair. But even so, when he tries to
take hold of him, Taugi is weakened by a spell put on his hands.

i. iŋi-lu-iña=mbege ete-ŋalï,
3-look at-PI-BEN=SSR go away-REP
‘Hei would go away to look again for himj, hei kept doing
(the same thing)

ii. s-i-nalï=mbembegedya=fale,
3.come.to-REV=PDE=NO
(and even after doing that over and over), this time when hej
came to himi (this time the result was),
 480

iii. i-fefï-ama-ne-nalï i-feke-lefa,

3-weaken-VT-CAUS-REV 3-ERG-MT

Taugi i-fefï-ama-ne-nalï i-feke=lefa,

Taugi 3-weaken-VT-CAUS-REV 3-ERG=MT
‘hej made himj weak, hej made Taugi weak when hej tried to
hold on.’

14.3.3.5 (K) .=mbegeledye (RSSE), ‘still as before’

This form is constructed with the persistive taxis =gele (PT), ‘still’. Dye
‘leaps over’ =gele. The marking clause references an event and
argument that have been mentioned before in an immediately preceding
clause. The following example (taken from 14.3.2.6f) shows this
structure.

iv. afïtï. ets-iŋi-i-ta=mbele, afïtï.

denial MVsee-VI-CI=CU denial
‘He couldn’t. She could be seen still (after he did all that), he
couldn’t.’

v. iti-tso-fi=mbegeledye-fa tï-ti-tsofo.
3-stick up-ADV=RSSE-PTP REFL-stuck up-UN.

afïtï.
denial
‘She still stuck out when he did that, she kept sticking out.
He couldn’t.’

14.3.3.6 (L) =mbekudye (INC) ‘without exception’, ‘comprehensive’

a. In this example, the reference clause (iii) is marked with –

mbe; the ultimate reference of mbekudye in (iv) is an
(intransitive) clause. This is a good example of clause-skipping.
Notice the marking clause in (iv). The first three syllables
constitute an ideophone referring to the beautiful, clean
appearance of the grass. This ideophone is followed by -kugu,
the intensive affix, and finally the IRM =mbekudye. The whole
is uttered in an elevated voice by the narrator, Kudyu. He wants
his listeners to know how excited and happy people were to see
thatching grass for the first time. As the listeners have learned
from the reference clause in (iii), ‘(what had grown up) wasn’t
something prickly’.

i. tu-ẽ-ndi.
REF-approach-TH
‘Coming closer,
 481

ii. ti-mï-kai-fi-ko.
REF-face-on-ADV-PL
peering closely at them,

iii. teh he ñali=mbe ifigi-fi-dyo-i.

IJ negation=SS prickle-ADV-PI-CL
“Beautiful,” (what he saw) it wasn’t something prickly.’

iv. teh heh heh=kugu=mbekudye!

very.nice=fully=INC
‘“Very nice”’ (Every single one of what had grown up were
perfectly smooth)!’

14.3.3.7 (M)=mbekudya (NOMR), ‘for just that reason’, ‘that’s why’

This frequently used form seems to connect the event in the (following)
reference clause with the (prior) marking clause in a logical way; the
marking clause is the “reason” for the event in the reference clause.
This function occurs in example (a). The initial subject (a special
house made by a powerful being mentioned in the preceding line, not
included here) is marked in lines (i), (ii) and (iii) where =mbe appears.
On the marking clause with the present operator (iv) =mbekudya
references the logical connection between (i) and the immediately
following reference clause (v) involving a successive event.
Furthermore, the reference clause in (v) begins with an anaphoric focus
marker ule referencing the original topic in (i), the house. Ule is suffixed
with the primary topical participant –fa; this compound in (v) marks an
important segment boundary where the focus will shift to Taugi, away
from the house itself, the focus of the present clause chain.

a. i. ñïŋï=mbe, teh, he hé;, afïtï-fa iñe – fïŋï

house=SS, (sound of pleasure) denial-PTP grass-unlike
‘How beautiful (he made) his house. But (that) was not
grass,

ii. tafitse igokogo =mbe.

macaw tail.feathers=SS
(He made it with) macaw tail feathers’

iii. lepe agïato=mbe=gele, tolokuegï igoko-go,

next roof.edgings=SS=PT, harpy.eagle tail.feathers,

lepe kïakuegï igokogo

next black.eagle tail.feathers
‘And (he) even (made) the roof edgings with harpy eagle tail
feathers and black eagle tail feathers.’
 482

iv. teh tupisu-i ekugu=mbekudya.

pretty red-CL completely=NOMR
‘It was lovely, really red all over, (and for just that reason )

v. ule-fa igita-ke-ta-tiga.
AFR-PTP envy-VI-CI-HAB
that person I spoke of earlier felt envy’.

b. Here as in (a) there are two reference clauses. In this example,

the first clause in (i) describes people who are trying to eat the
arm cut off from the body of a man they have just killed. In the
marking clause in (ii) =mbekudya marks a switch to a new event
in the second reference clause (line iii), where they discard the
bitter arm. Also, an epistemic and deontic change5 occurs from
the reference clause (i) to the marking clause (ii); people found
the arm was too bitter to eat even though they tried to do so.
Line (iii) =mbele marks the cumulative effect on the undergoer
(the dead man’s arm); see further discussion of this operator in
14.3.3.8.

i. lepe Ø-teŋe-fo-Ø i-feke-ne,

next 3-eat.meat-HYP-RES 3-ERG-PL

tatsi-ŋi ekugu
bitter-NN completely
‘Next they tried to eat it, but it was bitter as could be.’

ii. afïtï =mbekudya ake-tsaŋe, ila =mbe≈tsa-ni.

denial = NOMR DS-DEO manner =SS≈EX-ANT
“No, just for that reason we should leave it be.’

iii. Ø-o-lu =mbele

3-reject-PI =CU
‘And (so in the end they) left him behind.’

c. In this example, the marking clause (line iii) references an event

(trapping a victim in a net) that had been described at some
length in a previous narrative. The new subject in this story,
Taugi (end of line iii and line iv), realizes the predator would try
to do that to him, too.

i. alu-iña s-i-nalї, oto te-ɳalї egoti-fa

fly-DAT/BEN 3-come.to-REV owner go-REP day-PTP
‘He flew to come back, the owner went again during the day.’

ii. iko-ake-la s-i-nalї

object-COM-NEG 3-come.to-REV
‘He didn’t have anything with him when he came back.’
 483

iii. ule-kogu-pe-fa=fale egei, uɳele=mbedya, Taugi

AFR-EREL-SAL=PTP=NO IDEM, ANA=NOMR, Taugi
‘While that person I spoke of earlier realized that he was going
to try and do that (to him), Taugi.

iv. eh he, Taugi=ɳapa-fa, Taugi.

agreement, Taugi=EM-PTP, Taugi
‘That’s right, probably Taugi, Taugi.’

14.3.3.8 (N) =mbele (CU) , ‘cumulative effect’, ‘in the end’

This is an anaphoric operator marking the SS as does =mbe, but that

operator is conjoined (and fused) to the continuative taxis/temporal
reference clitic. The event in the marking clause is directly tied to that in
the reference clause as a cumulative consequence, an effect on the
undergoer. It is not clear whether this is a true compound or not. While
there are many examples of Set I forms followed by a taxis form,
=mbele and =mbale (P) seem to have grammaticalized such a
compound, as there is no clear boundary between either IRM and the
taxis marker. They may be formed from Set I forms with a reduced taxis
suffix; the most plausible candidate is =ale (uninterrupted event).
In (a), not only does =lefa in (v) mark the end of a clause chain,
it also marks the final verb clause as a reference clause for the earlier
marking clause in (i): igelu-mbel≈ifeke. Example (i) includes a transitive
clause marked with =mbele, where prior event arguments continue. In
the example, the first finite verb is at the beginning of the chain, and the
last finite verb is at the end (v). (a) is also one of several examples of a
Kalapalo marking clause exhibiting fully finite verb structure.

a. i. ige-lu=mbel≈i-feke la, itsuni-na

carry-PI=CU≈ 3-ERG far.place, forest-ALL
‘(After he did all that) he carried her into the forest,

ii. te-ta=ŋapa-fa i-ñ-iki-ñu-tu-nda,

go.away-CI=EM-PTP 3-OB-flatbread-make-VI-CI

i-ñ-iki-ñu-tu-nda
3-OB-flatbread.make-VI-CI
probably as he traveled he made flatbread, he made
flatbread,

iii. i-ño i-ñ-iki-ñu-tu-nda

3-husband 3-OB-flatbread-make-VI-CI
her husband made flatbread.’

iv. ande-tsï-fa igei te-ku-ke,

here.now-M-PTP IDEM eat.starchy.food-VT-I
“Here, eat some of this”,
 484

iñalï=ma te-ku-lï i-feke, iñalï.

negative=EM eat.crunchy.food-VT-PI 3-ERG, negative
but she didn’t eat any of it, not at all.’

v. [ifonu-nda=lefa.]
cry-CI=MT
‘She kept on crying.’

b. In the story from which this example is taken, a person uses an

exceptionally long rope as a magical axe to cut down an
enormous section of forest to make a manioc field. His wife is
fearfully holding onto the other end of the rope, as he walks
away to cut down the forest, while the trees fall down in front of
her. There are two ideophonic pseudo-transitive clauses in this
chain: (ii) and (iii), which begins with an interjection (this is a
quoted clause, though without a quotative). (iii) is the marking
clause. The reference clause is the ideophonic clause in (ii).

i. a-tsa-ke-fa. aifa.
2-listen-I-PTP. done.ready
‘ Listen. He was ready.’

ii. dudududududududududududu,
(sound of someone unrolling a very long flexible object)

iii. u:ma:≈fïtï ekugu=mbele ata-ni

IJ≈denial fully=CU EQA-ANT
‘“I don’t want to have anything to do with this!”, while he
stood there doing all that

tu-fitsu-kaiŋa≈ñïgï ni-pi.]
REFL-wife-beside-DEST≈EX-TR have-ADV
right next to his wife (who was) holding that thing.’

c. In this example, there are a sequence of different actions leading to a

final, cumulative consequence. These events are first, the man uses his
hand to try and take something out of a net snare (ĩtse); second, the snare
grabs him;, third, the snare drags him inside itself,fourth, the man is
strung up in the air, inside the snare. Most of the actions of the snare
are referenced by ideophonic constructions. In line iv., the appearance of
=mbele references the cumulative effect of the preceding actions, that the
man is a victim of the snare, held to be killed later by the snare’s
monster-owner. That he will be killed later by the net snare’s owner has
been explained by the storyteller earlier on, but the forecast of the killing
(described after this particular chain) is marked in line (v) by =mba. In
the line vi translation, subscripts i and j reference the two different third
persons.

i. au-ki-lu-iña ti-ñatї-gї-ki
pull.out-VT-PI-DAT/BEN REF-hand-POSS-INST
 485

tsiuk, bu:h kїtsiuk’,

(sound of man’s hand being pulled on, sound of man being
caught in a snare)
‘When he went to pull on it with his hand’,

ii. ai=mbe-fa, ĩtse-feke=lefa

done=SS-PTP, net.snare-ERG=MT
tsiuk’ bitsuk’,
(sounds of man grabbed, caught in the snare)
‘he was caught (when he did that) and put inside (the snare).

iii. ah ha:, ahtsa-Gi-dyu=lefa.

(screaming), scream-CAUS-PI=MT
‘”Ah haaa”, he screamed.’

iv. eh kaiɳa=mbele ñuti-dyї i-feke.

yes DEST=CU string.up-PI 3-ERG
‘Yes he was strung up there as a result of all that’.

v. apuɳu=mba fegei=lefa, apuɳu=lefa fegei.

finish=DS ADEM=MT, finish=MT ADEM
‘That was the end of him (as something else was going to be
done)’, that was the end of him.

vi. itse-ta=lefa its-a,

there-at=MT EX-CL
‘Hei was still there (in the snare),

a-ti-fa e-nїgї oto e-nїgї

EQS-DES-PTP come-PS owner come-PS
when hej came, the owner came,

FufitsiGi e-nїgї.
FufitsiGi come-PS.
FufitsiGi came.’

14.3.3.9 (O)=mbale (CAT) ’as a result‘, ’consequently’

This is an anticipatory or cataphoric S referent, with the same focus on

consequential connection between prior and successive events, as with
=mbele (CU).
In (a), the marking clause (i) is non-finite and contains an
extended object dative/benefactive case marked noun phrase. There is no
overt S. The referent in (ii) is the subject noun phrase. The latter is the
verb nominalized with the transitive subject (A) nominalizer (AN) suffix
–ni: u-imbi-ni ’he who stole me’. Although the S argument in both the
marking and reference noun phrases are the same, and the epistemic
continuity is strongly marked on each clause constituent and noun phrase
by repeated use of wãke (marking speaker’s strong validation of past
 486

event descriptions), the fact that the outcome is unanticipated seems to

require the =mbale rather than =mbele form.

a. i. afïtï-eku-ti =-mbale wãke e-iña-ni wãke

denial-just-DES =CAT EM 2-BEN-PL EM

ii. u-imbi-ni wãke ukuge-fïŋï wãke dyadya,

1-steal-AN EM person-unlike EM OBR (voc),

iii. Ø-ta i-feke

3-say.to-CI 3- ERG
‘I assure you, Older Brother, the person who wanted (to do
just that), the one who stole me from you long ago was not
like us.’

In the following example (b) the woman and her abductor arrive
at his settlement. She stops crying while something new is happening:
her relatives are searching for her. In this example, =-mbale references
both a shift from singular S to plural A and also an overlapping
dislocated event. The same chain includes two proximate clauses with
two different IRMs. First, this is because the first chain involves a
sequence of events that need to be connected: the pair come out onto the
abductor’s territory, the woman arrives and then stops crying. Second,
this sequence is contrasted in the initial clause, (iii) with the second,
overlapping event; the relatives are looking for her. The finite final verb
reference clause appears in (iv). The shifts in agency are: plural S (i)
becomes singular S (iii), which then becomes a new plural A (iv).
This example also illustrates “clause leaping”, where the
marking and reference clauses are not proximate but separated by
another clause. In the second (marking) clause in (iii), reference is to
the earlier clauses in the chain. The first marking clause in (iii)
references the arguments in the final finite clause in (iv). Logically,
there is no ambiguity as there are two different subjects; the first is S, the
second A. But there is also a shift in location which may motivate use
of the =mbale IRM as there is no ambiguity concerning agency in these
chains. The new plural A in (iv) is focalized by being fronted in the
clause before the verb. In this way, two separate short chains (i,ii; iii,iv)
are linked to form a larger whole.

b. i. okogetsi ifati-lï-ko=lefa oti-foŋa,

next.day come. out-PI-PL=MT grasslands-ALOC,

tï-oti-su-foŋa
REF-grasslands-PEJ-ALOC
‘The next day they came out onto the grasslands, onto that
foolish man’s own grasslands.’
 487

ii. Ø-etimbe-lï =mbele, Ø-etimbe-lï =lefa

3-arrive at-PI =CU, 3-arrive at-PI =MT
‘And she arrived (after all that), she arrived

t-etu-na=lefa
REFL-settlement-ALL=MT
at his settlement’.

iii. ai =mbale=fale i-fonu-ki-nïgï=mbele

done =CAT=NO 3-cry-CAUS-PS =CU
‘And so, at last, she stopped crying as (something else was
going on)

iv. lepe=fale oto-mo-feke=fale ufi-dyu

next =NO relatives-COLL-ERG =NO search for-PI
while her relatives searched for her.’

The next example (c) is an interesting instance showing the

complementary and somewhat overlapping functions of the =lefa clitic
and the IRM’s. This time the speaker uses 3 IRMs in the same chain:
=mbe, =mbale, and =mbehale. The =lefa taxis clitic serves to start a
new segment, introducing the finite verb event description in (i) and
linking it to another event described in (iii) (initial clause). A is the same
in both clauses. =lefa appears at the end of the chain (v), closing the
chain. The finite transitive reference clause appears after the marking
clause in (iv.)
=mbehale in this clause also relates the previous descriptions of
lots of huge manioc roots growing (more than could ever be used up),
with the woman’s (overlapping) ability to process them into huge
amounts of starch, for which work she had made herself a special
squeezing mat. Since there is no dislocation or logical discontinuity
(indeed, this is a concessive construction), only =mbehale is needed,
linking the first short chain (i-iii) to the second (iv-v), which ends with
the finite transitive verb (suffixed with =–lefa) . One must ask why
=mbale appears in the second marking clause in (iii). It seems this IRM
is needed because there is a shift in agency; it is not the woman and her
skill that are enabling the production of large amounts of starch, it is the
spell that has been put on her hands which works on the processing mat
she is using.

c. i. lepene=lefa i-fi-dyu-fa i-feke-ne

afterwards=MT touch-PI-PTP 3-ERG-PL
‘And so when later on they touched it (to see how it was
doing),

ii. mboh óóh, iñuŋu. mm.

IJ roots. Yes
‘wow, those roots were enormous!’
 488

iii. fitsu-feke=mbe=lefa i-nïgï, to-ki=mbale

wife-ERG=SS=MT bring-PS, more-ADV=CAT

ule-gote
AFR-CONC
‘Even with all that his wife brought (after she did that), there
would be lots left over!’

iv. ti≈ña fi-ti-ñïgï kefege-ki=mbe=hale

REFL≈ DAT/BEN blow.on-VT-TR spell-INST=SS=NO
‘Because his wife had that thing on her hands (that had been
blown) on them, the spell was still upon her hands, .

tï-tafi-su fa-nïgï=lefa i-feke.

REF-squeezing.mat-POSS make-PS=MT 3-ERG
and so she had made a (processing) mat for herself.’

d. In this example, the shaman comes to cure a person who has been
shot with an arrow. None of the other shamans were able to see
the arrow, only this one.

Ø-iɳi-l≈i-feke, tiki: tu-e-ndi.

3-see-PI≈3-ERG, (sound of entry) REF-come.to-TH
‘He watched him, tiki: as he came inside.’

inde=mbedya-fa igei ata-ni its-a-i.

here=SSDE-PTP IDEM EQA-ANT EX-CI-CL
‘This is the (person that was done to) who I am going to work
on.’

Ø-iɳi-lї=mba=lefa=hale,
3-see-PI=(when he said that)=MT=OT,
‘While he said that he (suddenly) saw it,

t-iɳu-gu-ki=lefa,
REF-eye-POSS-INST=MT
with his eyes,

aɳi=mbale a-nїgї, aɳi a-nїgї.

exist=CAT EQS-PS, exist EQS-PS
‘There’s something here (as a result of what happened), there’s
something here.’

14.3.3.10 (P) =mbembale. (SSCAT) ‘so afterwards, elsewhere’

With this compounded form, shorter chains are linked to form more
complex chains. The same event becomes linked to a reference clause
verb phrase hosting the =fale (NO) taxis (new and overlapping event)
which is dislocated from the events in the marking clause. The marking
 489

clause S is equated with the same S of a previous reference clause but

there is also anticipation of a new S who will appear in a new reference
clause. In the new reference clause the overlapping event is also a
logical consequence of the prior event described in the earlier reference
clause. This is somewhat more complex than the kind of chain seen in
(14.3.3.10c), where the same event appears in both reference and
marking clauses. It is also different from simple overlapping events as in
example (14.3.3.10b).
The situation in example (a) comes at the end of a Level C
(major clause chain) segment and illustrates the texture of a complex
chain in which there are three groups of people needing to be tracked. In
this example, the elderly, highly experienced narrator makes good use of
a variety of IRMs as he describes the actions of these three groups: his
own Kalapalo relatives, strangers (“Englishmen”) who are trying to reach
a destination but defy the Kalapalo travelling instructions, and enemies
or “fierce people” who are not immediately present in the scene of
activity but who are to be avoided at all costs. ( I have added notes to
enable to reader to follow this speaker’s complex use of the IRM to
reference these three groups). The same clause in (iii) serves as both a
marking clause and it is also the reference clause for the operator in (v);
the reference clause for the operator in (iii) is probably the speech event
in (ii). Several features outlined in Table 39 occur here. There are two
embedded quoted speech chains (Level D2) (i-ii; vi-VIii), and there are
at least two reprise chains (Level D3): the first is (ii) , repeated from an
earlier quote not in this example, and the second (vii-VIii). The
reference clause that introduces the chain in (i) is the grounding for all
the other clauses marking by IRM features. The chain concludes with a
final finite clause (xi), together with the concluding major clause chain
(Table 39, Level C) segment marker aifa , “finished”.

a. i. u:mu:m hm?, tis-itse-te-ga=lefa ete-lï-ko

EXP 1+3-ask-VT-CI=MT go away-PI-PL

feke=lefa
ERG= MT
‘”Why in the world are they doing that?” We couldn’t
understand why they went away.’

ii. la, ande kagayfa, kagayfa a-nïgï la

far.place here.now Christians, Christians EQS-PS far.place
‘“There are Christians way over that way, over that way is
where (they could find) Christians”.’

iii. awï-nda-ko-fïŋï=mbembale wãke

deceive-CI-PL-unlike=SSCAT EM
’They weren’t lying about that, I can assure you (because as
it turned out) ’.
490

iv. inde=mbedya s-i-tїfïgï-ko=mbe ata-ni wãke

this. side =SSDE 3-come.toward-IMP-PL=SS EQA-PL EM
‘what happened to them when they came to this side’.

v. s-i-tïfïgï-ko-pile
came toward IMP-PL=EM
‘Now I realize they shouldn’t have traveled this way. ’

vi. Beginning of an embedded chain, quoted speech:

kagaifa ande, la, Kalapalo ki-ta wãke

Christians here/now far place Kalapalo utter-CI EM
‘“There are Christians way over there,” the Kalapalo said, I
can assure you’.

vii. kagaifa ande la, kagaifa.

Christians here/now far.place Christians
“Christians are way over that way, the Christians.”

viii. ĩdyo =mbe-ku=male i-la,

fierce people =SS-INT=DAD CL-far place,

kagaifa =mbale la.

Christians=CAT far place
‘“Only the fierce people are over that way, but the Christians
will be (found) over that way”.’

ix. te-lï-ko=lefa
go away-PI-PL=MT
‘And so they left’.

x. i-ñaŋo-ko tїi-lu=lefa kine=mbe

3-food-PL put-VT-PI=MT flatbread=SS
‘ Their food was prepared, (prepared) flatbread. ‘

ama-ñu-ko-feke-tsï-fa,
mother-END-PL-ERG-M-PTP
‘By Mother and her companions’.

xi. aifa, Ø- ete-l-lï-ko=lefa

done 3-go.away-PI-PL=MT
‘When that was done, they left’.

xi. aifa, Ø- ete-l-lï-ko=lefa

done 3-go.away-PI-PL=MT
‘When that was done, they left’.
 491

14.3.3.11 (Q) =mbetufugu ( SSTOT) ‘done to/by all of them’

This is one of a few attested compounds involving an adverbial clitic,

=atufugu, ‘all, every one’. The other IRM =-mbekudye and =mbekudya
use the -ku “intensive” suffix.

a The position of the adverbial here is as a usual NP adjunct.

uwã-ko=tufugu=mbedya
surround-PL=everyone=SSDE
‘All of them were competely surrounded.’

b. In this example an involuntary active verb perfective

nominalization (IPE, in brackets) is the P of the original
transitive verb, which is referenced by the =mbe part of the
compound.

[kine ki-tsïgï] uŋa-fi=mbetufugu

flatbread made-IPE house-ADV=SSTOT
‘Flatbread had been made, that was done by all of the
neighbors’.

c. Here SSTOT appears at the end of a rather long segment

consisting of two clause chains:

i. u-otu e-lï u-feke. ige e-ŋe-të-iŋi

1-food shoot-PI 1-ERG. PDEM 2-held.back-VI-NN

wãke u-itu-ŋi-ta e-feke.

EM 1-stingy-CAUS-CI 2-ERG.
‘I shot my own food. I remember well this was what you
held back being stingy with me.’

ii. kukukuku, ipuGi=gele

(sound of eating crunchy food), skin=PT
‘She ate it up skin and all,

igea=mbe=gele ete-ŋuma-ki-ŋalï.
manner=SS=PT go.away-flap-CAUS-REP
continuing to do that this way while making the fins flap
about.’

iii. lepene kukuku, afi-mbetufugu,

afterwards (eat crunchy food), dogfish-SSTOT,

kukuku tañe-mbetufugu.
(eat crunchy food) tañe-SSTOT
‘Following that she gobbled up all of a (raw, still living)
dogfish, and she gobbled up all of a (raw, still living)
trairaõ fish.’
 492

14.3.4 Interclausal reference marking and atehe perfect

constructions

In this section I review examples of how IRM interact with atehe, the
equative copular verb root ata- ‘EQA’ in perfect inflection. As I
described in Chapter 7, this inflection may be used to reference perfect of
experiential situation, perfect of persistent situation, and future perfect.
Example (14.3.4a) illustrates the co-occurrence of atehe and
IRM =mbe (SS), involving marking the continuity of arguments. This
final clause (iv) follows the reference clause verb u-tã-ta, ‘I’ve been
rejecting’ (i) which is in continuous indicative aspect inflection. This set
of features suggests a ‘perfect of persistent situation’, a type of perfect
that references ‘a situation that started in the past but continues (persists)
into the present’ (Comrie 1976: 60).

a. i . ah, u-tã-ta ekugu=mbe≈gei Akiŋi ñaŋo-feke

EXP 1-reject-CI fully=SS≈IDEM Vinegaroon liquid.food-
ERG
“Believe me, I never accepted (lit., been rejecting) any of
that food of Akiŋi’s (when he offered it).”

ii. ah, melansia=mbekudya≈nïgï

EM melon=SS-NOMR≈EX-PS
“For just that reason, those melons of his”.

iii. eŋï=mbekudya i-nïgï, mukutsi=mbekudya Ø-nïgï

because-=NOMR EX-PS, sweet.manioc-NOMR say.to-PS
“And for just that reason none of that that other stuff, like
that sweet manioc either,” he said to her.

iv. të-iñaŋo-i-mbe ege atehe, Ø-ta-i-feke.

REF-liquid.food-CL-SS PDEM EQA-PER, tell-CR-3-ERG
“That porridge of his that you’ve been using,” he told her’.
 493

b. This example is in a contrastive predication, thus the speaker’s

use of the ‘consequential’ new argument IRM clitic =mbale
(CAT). This use of the IRM with atehe suggests a future perfect
construction.

ah teku-ne-fïŋï-mbale mukutsi,
EXP eat (soft food)-CAT-unlike-CAT sweet potatoes,

teku-ne-fïŋï-mbale, melanzia. teku-ne-fïŋï topu

eat-CONT-unlike-CAT, melons.eat-CONT-unlike squash
at-ehe
EQA-PER
‘Surely, we won’t be eating those sweet potatoes any
longer, we won’t be eating those melons, we won’t be
eating that squash of his that you’ve been using.’

14.3.5. Discussion of Kalapalo clause chaining and switch-reference

Interclausal reference marking in Kalapalo involves six basic and

at least seventeen compounded interclausal reference markers (IRM)
binding not only to verbs but also to various kinds of nouns, and in some
cases to adverbial constituents of clauses (see Tables 41, 42). The basic
IRM are operators referencing to event and argument continuity or
discontinuity (switch-reference), while the rest are compounds in which
the “basic” argument referencing operators are followed by taxis clitics
and adverbial morphemes. Some IRM also include a final ‘event’
referencing operator (=dye or =dya). In some cases, the compounded
elements can function separately, but in others they appear to be fused.
The result of this compounding are clause coordinating functions in
which the compound morphemes mark both syntactic and semantic links
between clauses in a chain.
The classic switch-reference systems first described by William
H Jacobsen Jr. (1967) involved cross-clausal reference between subjects
or agents. During the last decades of the 20th century, more complex
clause chaining and switch-reference systems have been described for
world languages, including North American (Jacobsen Jr. 1983) and a
number of Amazonian language families: Tucanoan (Guanano/Wanano,
called more recently Kotiria, N.E. Waltz 1976), Northern Carib (Larson
(1978), cited by Longacre 2007), Panare (Northern Cariban, Payne,
1987: 323-4); Payne and Payne 1999), Panoan (Matses or Mayoruna,
Fleck 2003; Amahuaca, Sparing-Chavez 1998), Arawak (Tariana,
Aikenvald 2003), Jivaroan, Overall, n.d.); Shibipo-Conibo, Valenzuela
2003. The material presented here appears to be the most complete
description so far for any Cariban language.
As my many examples illustrate, it is only through examination
of extensive narrative discourse that the complexity of the IRM system in
Kalapalo grammar is revealed. There are important correlations between
clause chaining constructions and the emergent discourse levels
 494

occurring in Kalapalo narrative speech. A speaker’s use of the system is

one important index of narrative competence.
Consideration of switch-reference and related compounded
forms in the Kalapalo interclausal reference system indicates that what is
marked are grammatical relations as Jacobsen first described, but not
only referencing subjects or agents. In Kalapalo, event continuity and
discontinuity are also referenced.
Another consideration is the fact that Kalapalo interclausal
reference markers interact with other morphology. These include the
=ale, ‘unending’, =fale,’new, overlapping’, =tale, ‘different’, gehale,
‘again’, =fata, ‘simultaneous’ and =ge, ‘repeated’ taxis morphemes; the
“intensive” adverbial infix –ku and the ‘totality’ adverbial –tufugu, the
negation iñalu and denial afїtї...la adverbials, and the active copular root
in perfect inflection, atehe. These morphemes take on special meanings
as elements of IRM compounds or as complements to the hosts of IRM.
Specifically, they are marking concretely both the phasal quality of the
event in relation to another event, and also the consequence of the events
on participants, particularly undergoers. Put somewhat differently, IRM
compounds mark the temporal logic of different kinds of cause-effect
relations: anticipated, unanticipated, and resultative.
Third, the specification of “marking clause” in a chain reveals
the presence of NP constituents of clause chains that cannot be otherwise
easily understood as bearing argument functions, particularly in the case
of de-verbal aspect nominalizations.
Fourth, while earlier commentary by Longacre (1985) declared
that nominative-accusative patterns are most often marked by switch-
reference, Kalapalo data show that ergative patterns are also involved.
To conclude, it can be extremely difficult to predict the
occurrence of IRM from purely clausal argument reference, as IRM
interact with grammatical features that are not directly referential of
arguments. These include morpho-semantic operators motivating logical
relations between events (cause-effect, cumulative effect, perpetual
repetition, reason, result); aspectual relations between clauses; as well as
epistemic, mirative, and deontic, as well as locational continuities or
changes. These data support Stirling’s (1993) proposal that interclausal
“continuity of eventuality” must be assessed to account for the use of
these systems.
The Kalapalo syntactic data both support and conflict with other
recent discussions about clause-chaining and switch-reference. Longacre
(2007:415) explains the presence of medial-final and initial-consecutive
chaining structures in different languages, in terms of clausal constituent
order differences. Initial-consecutive structures are claimed to be
“relatively uncommon”. Longacre lists 6-7 world languages that
manifest the latter structure, one of which is Panare – a Northern
Cariban language spoken in Venezuela. Both types of clause chaining
structures are attested for Kalapalo. Further work may elucidate this
problem in terms of the presence of several clausal constituent orders
related to transitivity, split ergativity, and valence-decreasing
phenomena in the language. Also, there is some relation of clause
chaining structures to narrative discourse structuring, as one or more
initial-consecutive chaining structures are most often embedded (as
 495

Level D segments) within a medial-final chain, where object-

backgrounding valence-decreasing phenomena often occur in the final
clause. Kalapalo data also show examples of both finite and non-finite
verb clauses serving as marking clauses (as well as reference clauses). In
this regard, Kalapalo is clearly an exception to the notion (from work on
other languages) that verbs in such clauses are normally “deficient”.
Also, Kalapalo marking clauses include deverbal nominalizations,
evidence that supports Gildea’s (2008) argument regarding the
parallelism between main clauses and nominalized phrases in Cariban
and other Amazonian languages (2008).
The contrast between finite and non-finite verbs influences
which clause types can be used as either marking or reference clauses.
Also, the pervasive use of word-class changing derivational processes,
in particular deverbal nominalizations, but also adverbializations,
including ule fronted segment marking clauses, have functions similar
to many verbal constructions. While of course relevant for
understanding syntactic arguments, these phenomena suggest that
switch-reference and clause chaining interact with the multifunctional
major Kalapalo word classes; nominal and adverbial as well as verbal
clauses are the hosts of IRM. Furthermore, the tremendous
morphosyntactic flexibility these phenomena afford a speaker indicates
the utility of an interclausal reference system that assists listeners to
track complex arguments across extended discourse ,often of
considerable time and scope. Of much importance is the fact that the
Kalapalo system also manifests “secondary” non-referential semantic
functions of recent interest to linguists (Huang 2000; Jacobsen 1983;
Mithun 1993; Stirling 1993; Watkins 1993) that have perhaps been the
finding most important for reconceptualizing the nature of switch-
reference in world languages. At least one of these functions—
temporal simultaneity of an event—overlaps with the Kalapalo taxis
marking system, but others –locational, logical, epistemic, mirative, and
deontic discontinuity–do not.
The complexity of switch-reference marking in Kalapalo
materials suggests the need for further research on the role of
underlying de-verbal nominalization and split-ergative phenomena. The
multiple means of marking A, P and S argument persistence or change
within and across Kalapalo clause chains is a classic switch-reference
feature of, but the present data do not show referencing of these as it is
very rare to see interclausal alignments vary between reference and
marking clauses. Kalapalo ergative casemarked transitive subject (A)
often occurs in both reference and marking clauses. However, there are
numerous examples of object-backgrounding constructions in the
environment of switch-reference.
Haiman and Munro introduce their book on switch-reference
(1983a:x) with the statement: “Canonical switch-reference is an
inflectional category of the verb, which indicates whether or not its
subject is identical with the subject of some other verb”. In Kalapalo,
the boundaries between the major word classes are not strict insofar as
first and second-level derivational processes are pervasive. Roots are
shared across classes, which are basically defined syntactically through
the formation of stems and inflectional constructions, and prefixed and
 496

suffixed inflections may apply to more than one word class. Word class
changing derivations are pervasive; de-verbalizations are an important
subordination strategy in the language.
Insofar as Kalapalo IRMs interact with taxis and adverbial
operators and often have non-referential functions, the system functions
more than to coordinate or ‘switch’ reference. Kalapalo illustrates (as
does much recent work on the topic), that switch-reference involves
more than the marking of same or different subject. Referential
continuity in Kalapalo clause chains involves both syntactic argument
and semantic function continuity or discontinuity. Suffix clustering
enables this semantic flexibility. A different term is needed that will
capture these clause chain level features, hence I follow Sparing-Chavez
(1998) in her use of the label “interclausal reference marking” and the
features of interest “interclausal reference markers” (IRM).
Stirling’s review of switch-reference in a large number of
world languages demonstrates that switch-reference morphemes often
have non-referential functions (1993:2). These non-referential functions
are sometimes called “secondary”, sometimes “extended”, suggesting
that theoretically linguists consider the basic function to be syntactic
(Van Valin Jr. and La Polla 1997). However, Stirling’s work and that
of Watkins (1993) and Mithun (1993) demonstrates that semantic
features of interclausal relations are important, and indicates that
switch-reference involves agreement or disagreement between clauses
(or even larger discourse units; Woodbury 1983). These linguists see
switch-reference functioning along various parameters contributing to
discourse continuity. Kalapalo data strongly support this expanded
view of switch-reference.
Northern Cariban grammars allow comparison of at least some
of the Kalapalo IRM morphemes. Payne (1997: 323) lists Panare
switch-reference morphemes; while some appear to be semantically
similar to Kalapalo, morphologically they appear quite different.
Derbyshire (1979; 1985b: 247-54) describes several Hixkaryana
“discourse particles” that may function in ways similar to the Kalapalo
IRM. These are: rma “same referent, continuity”; rye: “sameness,
togetherness, mutually related”; ryhe: “emphatic prominence, mild
contrast”; xa: “contrast”; xarha: “additive”; rmarha; “likewise, in the
same way as (something else)’. (Derbyshire 1979 described these as
“anaphoric particles”). Cognate morphemes similar in function to my
“taxis” set have been well described for the Northern Cariban
languages Kalina or Surinam Carib (Hoff 1990); Tiriyo (Meira 1999),
Trio (Carlin 2004), and Panare (Payne and Payne 1999).
Recent research on Amazonian languages belonging to different
families has revealed clause-chaining and switch-reference systems of
unusual complexity. Since the details of these systems are best
understood through examination of extended narrative discourse, it is
hoped that more data from such contexts will lead to a better typological
understanding of these complex phenomena characterized by interaction
of multiple features at the syntactic, grammatical, semantic, and
discourse pragmatic levels. Indeed, discourse-centered linguistic
description research is urgently needed on other Amazonian (and
especially, Alto Xingu) languages, which may reveal systems similar to
 497

Kalapalo interclausal reference marking. Finally, more comparative

data from other Cariban languages is hoped for. The use of the
interclausal reference system is an important sign of a Kalapalo
speaker’s competence, the ability to construct elaborate narratives that
listeners are able to readily follow, and also to remember and tell to
others. In the past, all knowledge and understanding of the external and
internal worlds, fantasy, and speculative thought was developed and
passed on from one generation to another through narrative discourse.
This suggests that IRM must be considered a diachronic phenomenon
related to the needs of a community of thinkers. As younger people
lose interest in their ancestral narrative art form, the entire system
described in this chapter has become the most endangered feature of the
language, itself at considerable risk overall.

14.4. The primary topical participant marker –fa

Participant tracking of the primary topical participant (PTP) is an

important feature in ordinary Kalapalo conversational discourse, and
crucially important to the clause-chaining functions of interclausal
reference marking. The suffix–fa references only animate beings in S or
A function but may appear suffixed to the verb phrase. It is treated
here as separate from the IRM system as –fa often occurs in simple
imperative and in yes/no interrogative clauses, and it is commonly
hosted by a demonstrative, by the relative clause modifer, and by the
‘reason’ coordination clause lexeme (described in Chapter 13). PTP is
also used in conversational turns, where the new primary topical
participant is the 2nd person singular addressee. This function is
illustrated in 1a (an imperative), and 1b (an interrogative); in both cases
only a simple ‘yes’ or ‘no´response is required:

a. a-tsa-ke-fa b. te-lu-fa?
2-listen-I-PTP go.away-PI-PTP (rising tone)
‘Listen.’ ‘Are you leaving?’

In cases where two adjacent clauses exhibit changes in topicality,

or where the same topic participant appears but in a new argument
function ( S becomes A; A→O), -fa indicates topical continuity in the
face of NP modification or clausal complementation. As the following
examples demonstrate, -fa can appear on a subordinate or adverbial
clause as well as a main clause, where it often appears on the S or A NP.
–fa may also be suffixed to an IRM form, as in 14.3.2.a, line iii.

14.4.1. –fa in complement clause constructions

The primary topical participant marker –fa often is used to mark a

switch from one A to another (and where the first A→O) in a
complement clause construction. In (a) the new marked A is the
dangerous tocandira ant sike, which contrasts with the 2nd person human
 498

A in the immediately preceding clause which is now 2p O in the final

clause:

a. u-ifi-fo-lu=nafa e-feke] sike-feke-fa

1-touch-MAL-PI EM 2-ERG tocandira-ERG-PTP

e-fi-fe-po-lï
2-bite-VT-HYP-PI
‘I’m sure you know if you were to touch (i.e., copulate with)
me, the stinging ant would bite you”.

14.4.2. –fa on subordinate clauses and adverbial adjuncts

a. This example illustrates use of –fa marking the argument of an

adverbial clause that is adjunct to the main reference clause in
line (a), to signal the shift in topicality to a new S in the
immediately following NP which initiates a new chain.

i.itsu-Giŋa ete-lï-ko popopopo],

stream-ADV go.away-PI-PL (sound of paddling canoe),

ii.ta-kei-lï, ta-kei-lï.
REFL-curving.around (the bend), REFL-curving.around
(the bend)
‘They went on the creek, paddling around the bend, around the
bend,

iii. ifa-ki-tsetse-ku=dye-fa, i-dyo-gu.

far-ADV-somewhat.farther-INT=SE-PTP 3-uncle-POSS
‘someone else not much farther away (from them), his
uncle.’

b. This example illustrates another use of the primary topical

participant suffix on a subordinate clause. The head of the
reference clause is a valence-decreased transitive verb Ø-ñ-aŋu-
nda-ko-lefa (‘and so they played them’) in which P is
backgrounded to become part of the action description. By
means of this process, a 2-argument ergative clause becomes
nominative-accusative. There is no overt A NP and the Ø-
realized 3rd person A proclitic is in S/O position. The syntactic
function structure is thus nominative-accusative. But in line ii
the head of the main clause is a finite transitive verb; there is a
subordinate clause hosting the –fa suffix. The same verb –aŋu-
“play a musical instrument” has become fully (or more)
transitive by means of the transitive derivational affix –ŋe; the
rgument structure is completed with the required final ergative
NP, in which 3rd person plural A (marked by 3rd person proclitic
i-; plural A suffix -ni) is inflected with the ergative case marker –
feke. The –fa suffix marks topic continuity in the face of a
switch from S in the reference clause to A in the marking clause.
 499

i. Ø-ñ-aŋu-nda-ko=lefa,
3-OB-play-CI-PL=MT
‘And so they played them,

ii. takwagï aŋu-ŋe-ta te-lu-fa i-feke-ni=lefa

long.flute play-VT-CI go away-PI-T 3-ERG-PL=MT
and so they went away to play the long flutes’.

14.4.3. Preserving continuity of primary topical participant

In (14.4.3.a), -fa preserves continuity of the topical participant (the

thatching grass) at a boundary between the chain and an embedded
quoted conversation.

a. lepe akïŋi s-ïŋï-pïgï ata-ni ] [i- ŋi-lu-iña

Next many 3-sleep-VPE EQA-ANT 3-see-PI-DAT/BEN

tu-te-ko].
REFL-go.away-PL
‘Then after quite a few days had passed, they went to look at it.

apï-pïgï ata-ni=lefa.
grown up-VPE EQA-ANT=MT
it was fully grown

mbuh ! utuku fifi-ti ekugu=mbekudya !

IJ large.gourd fill.up-ADV completely=NOMR
‘Mbuh, every bit of the cleared space was covered.

Note: the use of a metaphorical construction in this verbal

compound, where the large drinking gourd stands for an open
space that has been ‘filled up’ with grass.

iñe=mbe-fa.
thatching grass=SS-PTP
by the thatching grass!

awa Ø-nïg≈i-feke. awa.

uncle (voc) say.to-PS≈3-ERG . uncle
"Uncle," he said,“Uncle”

aŋi ake-tsaŋe e-uwa i-pu-te-gofo-iŋo

result SD-DEO 2-enclosure 3-cover.over-VT-USIN-POT

e-feke.
2-ERG
’There’s something ready I want you to use to cover your
enclosure.’
 500

14.4.4. Relation between -fa and the marking and reference clauses

The following example shows the relation between the primary topical
participant marker -fa, and the marking and reference clauses in a sample
of narrative discourse in which there is requirement for switch-reference.
The primary topical participant is a magical arrow (an animate being,
though with the appearance of an object). Initially, the semantic function
of the arrow is as undergoer (‘feeling shame’). Later, the primary topical
participant is the object of a search by its temporary owner (Agakuni)
who had kept it in his possession. What is also going on here is that –fa
is marking switch function. In (14.3.4.1) , there are two clause chains (a-
b; c-d). (a) shows –fa on the main intransitive verb clause, which is the
initial clause in the chain. Also in (a), a marking clause in the chain ends
with =mbedya (same subject, different successive event) which
references a new event to appear in the immediately following clause in
(b). This chain ends with a clause marked with the end of chain =lefa
metonymic taxis. In the second chain, (c) describes the actions on O,
and (as in a) the initial clause is suffixed with –fa. Example (d) includes
its own coordinate medial marking clause (=mbele, CU); cumulative
effect of events ), and a final clause marked with the end of chain marker
=lefa. It seems that the presence of =lefa at the end of each smaller chain
links the two into a larger one. Although in (d) the same adverb (ifaki,
“departed, left”) is repeated first with the IRM =mbele (CU) and second,
with the MT =lefa, the only possible reference clause is in (b) of the
initial chain. As the marking clause in (d) references the reference clause
in (b), both (b) and (d) are also linked phasally by the MT suffix.
Although the reference clause verb in (b) is non-finite thetic, its role as
reference clause is marked by the event coordinating taxis clitic =lefa
(MT). All relevant markers and their glosses are in boldface. The
semantic glosses for all switch-reference markers are in parentheses in
the English translations.

a. ifuti-su-nda-fa, efuti-su-nda-fa ekege

shame-VI-CI-PTP, shame-VI-CI-PTP jaguar

e-pïgï ≈ feke,
shoot-PS ≈ 3-ERG,

efut-su-k≈tsa te-lu=mbedya
shame-VI-CAUS≈EX, go.away=SSDE
‘It was ashamed. It was ashamed when it had killed the jaguar, it
felt ashamed of itself, (that’s why) it goes away.

b. ule-pe tï-fa-ki tu-pa-ti=lefa

AFR-SAL REFL-wake.up-ADV REFL-left-TH=MT
‘(As for that other person) he has awakened and it has
left (lit, ‘itself a leave-er’).’
 501

c. Agakuni fa-ki-lï-fa e-fi-dyë-iña ifïgi

Agakuni wake.up-VI-PI-PTP 3-look.for-PI-BEN arrow

e-fi-dyë-iña.
3-look.for-PI-BEN
‘Agakuni woke up to look for it, to look for the arrow.’

d. iñalï. i-fa-ki=mbele, i-fa-ki=lefa

negative. 3-leave-ADV=CU 3-leave-ADV=MT
‘Nothing. It has gone away (as a consequence of all that), it has
disappeared.’

14.4.5 –fa and split-ergativity

The use of the –fa suffix seems to also have some relationship to split-
ergativity phenomona, as illustrated in (14.3.5.1), where both reference
and marking clauses are nominative-accusative, and the latter is a
valence-decreasing (object-backgrounding) clause. In the latter, P is
backgrounded while A argument is preserved. This example is thus
relevant to Givon’s (1983) discussion of the topic-continuity function
of switch-reference in the environment of “de-transitivization”, although
Kapalo object-backgrounding cannot be termed “de-transitive” as A
argument is still marked on the verb.
In example (a.v), A is explicitly marked in several ways: 1) in
the NP tisuge, (1+3) ‘exclusive we’, which is foregrounded (by
placement in first position in the clause), and 2) by means of the
pronominal reflexive/co-referential t- prefixed to the verb. In the
sequence of lines in (14.3.5.), -fa preserves topical continuity in the
environment of a change of argument function in which there is a
switch from S in the imperative reference clause (i) to A in the object-
backgrounding marking clause (v). -fa is suffixed to the 1+3 (exclusive
“we”) independent pronoun (A of the marking clause). This valence-
decreasing clause does not allow for ergative marking of A; marking of
the semantic “actor” function of the argument is achieved with object-
backgrounding marker -ñ which here appears to function to maintain
topic continuity. In this regard, -fa appears to function in a manner
similar to the reference-tracking function of switch-reference insofar as
it helps to minimize referential ambiguity.

a. i. inde fe-tsaŋe indu-të-gëe

this place OD-DEO share.food.plants-VT- URG

Ø-nïgï-ti.
3-PS-EV
‘You need to share food right away”, they say he said
 502

ii. t≈iñadyo-mo-feke, i-ñadyo-mo-feke.

REF≈brother-COLL-ERG, 3- brother-COLL-ERG
to his brothers, the brothers.’

iii. inde Ø- nïg≈i-feke.

here.now 3-PS≈3-ERG
“Here”, he said to them.’

iv. eh he Ø- nïg≈i-feke.
agreement 3-PS≈3-ERG
“We’ll do that”, they said to him.’

v. tisuge-fa ti-ñ-indu-te-ga-ni inde,

1+3-PTP REF-OB-distribute food-VT-CI-ANT here

i-ŋadyo-mo-ake.
3-brother-COLL-COM
‘Together with the other brothers we’ll begin distributing
food right away.”

14.5. Focus structures and topical expressions: review

To conclude, I briefly review the types of focus structures and topical

expressions in Kalapalo that have been discussed in this chapter as well as in
earlier places in this grammar. There are several kinds of focus structure and
topical expression, distinguished syntactically and grammatically and also with
regard to the size of the syntactic unit involved and the scope of the focal or
topical function. Chapter references are given for each structure discussion in the
list.
Focus structures involve assertions that differ from presupposed
information. In Kalapalo they are mainly succinct preposed syntactic elements.
These include:
a) preposed ule clauses, which mark a change from the prior focus on
characters and event sequences to a new focus. This is the broadest type of focus
structure as it references a prior narrative segment. (Chapter 14)
b) the use of the identificational demonstrative igei, to focus upon a noun
phrase that is the argument of a preceding clause. (Chapter 5)
c) use of the adnominal demonstrative to mark the head of a relative
clause (Chapter 5)
d) movement of the clausal constituent core or oblique argument to first
position, before the O argument NP. This is the most narrow type of focus
structure. (Chapter 4)
Topical expressions involve assertions marked grammatically as
different from presupposed information. In Kalapalo, the scope of topical
marking always transcends the grammatical constituent hosting the marker. In
Kalapalo, there are several of these topical structures.
a) The -fa suffix marks the primary topical participant in a switch
function context. This generally occurs on a noun phrase, and references the
 503

marked NP as the same primary topical participant as one to follow in new

syntactic function. (Chapter 14)
b) The anaphoric focus referent ule, when postposed to a transitive
subordinate clause, where the main clause is intransitive, functions to mark
switch-reference, S→O. The scope includes both clauses. (Chapter 13)
c) Taxis clitics marking relations between events occur on VP and other
syntactic constituents; their scope includes more than one clause, usually two but
sometimes more than two in cases of sequences of related events. (Chapters 12,
14)
d) Interclausal reference markers which reference argument relations as
continuous or discontinuous mark new information about a prior topical referent,
or make a new topical referent accessible by linking it to old or presupposed
information (Chapter 14)
e) The relation between the marking clause with IRM and atehe and the
reference clause lexical verb inflection asserts a kind of perfect. One might argue
this is also a kind of topical structure.

 
 504

Appendix A
Swadesh 100 Word List for Kalapalo

1. I uge 37, hair (body) ipugu 72. sun Giti

2. you uege (m) ikafugu 73.moon ŋune
3. we (excl) tisuge (f) ndïtï 74. star kandiñoko
( we (incl) kukuge 38. head Gitïgi 75. water tűwa
4.this (inan, prox) ige 39. ear ifanagï 76. rain koŋofo
5. that (anim, dist) ele 40. eye iŋugu 77. stone tefu
6. who uŋu 41.nose inatagï 78.sand ñetune
7. what uwa- 42.mouth inzagï 79. earth ŋoŋo
8. not -la 43. tooth igu 80. cloud kamundu
9. all katote 44. tongue iŋugu 81.smoke gitsitse
10. many akïŋi 45. fingernail iñombigu 82.fire ito
11. one agetsi 46. foot tapïgï 83. ash lumbe
12. two takiko 47. knee iGipanagï 84. burn itote-
13. big tsekegï 48. hand iñatïgï 85. path aña
14. long fumitsiñï 49. belly tefugu 86. mountain tefu
15. small intsoño 50. neck ifuŋu 87.red tupisuGiñe
16. woman itaű 51. breasts aɳatïgï 88. green
tukumiluiñe
89. yellow
17. man itoto 52. heart silupe kwadyapiŋo
90.white talakiñe
18. person kuge 53. liver silupe 91. black
19. fish kaŋa 54. drink ili- fuseukiñe
20. bird tolo 55. eat tiñamba- 92.night koko
21. dog katsogo 56. bite itsi- 93. hot atuŋu
22. louse ue 57. see ŋi- 94. cold keűti
23. tree i 58. hear tsa- 95. full tugupotsi
24. seed agupe 59. know fu- 96. new iŋiŋo
25. leaf itagï 60. sleep ïŋï- 97. good atutu
26. root iñuŋu 61. die tsitsi- 98. round
27. bark ipufi 62. kill e- tidyakiñï
28. skin ifidyo 63. swim n/a 99. dry igїfїɳGiɳo
29. flesh ifuŋu 64. fly alu- 100. name ititï
30. blood uŋu 65. walk fulu-
31. bone itsugu 66. come si-
32. grease isatïgï 67. lie (down) iŋati-
33. egg ifű 68. sit kaŋ-
34. horn isikïgï 69. stand tikai-
35. tail (fish) eu 70. give tunï-
36. feather (tail) ikogo 71. say ki-
 505

Appendix B
Vocabulary

This list includes (1) stems used to construct verbal, nominal,

and adverbial morphemes, and (2) lexical words, all used in
examples in this grammar. Excluded are examples in the noun
lists and tables given in Chapter 5, and the copular root
construction table found in Chapter 7. Also not listed are
demonstratives, particles, ideophones, numerals, and deontic
postpositions, and kinship words that do not occur in the
examples.

The following abbreviations are used:

a ambitransitive
adv adverbial
e extended intransitive
ex expressive
n nominal
vi intransitive
vt transitive
voc vocative
mv middle voice
r reciprocal

The alphabetical order used is as follows: a,ã,e,f,g,h, i,ĩ,ї,k, m,n,ñ,ɳ,o,õ,p,s,t,u,w,y

I. Stems

A
aeŋu-, shoot fish (vi),
afete-, make arrows (vt)
afuguti-, occur after sunset (vi)
afulu-, walk around (vi)
ahtsaGi-scream (va)
agapagatsi- , use the broom, sweep (vi)
agi-, throw away (vt)
agike, cut hair (vt)
aGipitsi-, cut bangs (make fringe) (vt)
aili- ceremonial cheering (vi)
aka-, sit down (vi)
akaŋu-sit down
aki-, speak, utter (vi)
akiñatu- narrate, tell a story (vi)
akita-, be tired (vi)
akua-, interactive self (n,vi)
akwi-, crouch.down (vi)
akï – shape, configure (vt)
alamaki-, cause to fall (vt)
506

alu-, fly (vi)

aŋatuŋGi , annoy (vi)
aŋu-, play musical instrument (vi)
apai-, spread apart (vt)
api-, attack, club (vt)
apïlï- pull up,
atafa- move away (vi)
atsaki-, make return (vi)
atsate-, give to (as present) (vt)
atsi-, tear open (vt)
auki-,‘squeeze’ (vt)
atundi, tap (hit with fingers) (vi)
awï, lie (vi) (31)

E
e, come (note, suppletive verb e-, “come ” in 3p is i-)
ẽ- be angry (vt)
efuamba- launch the canoe
eGike-, stink (n, vi)
egikuni, envy (vt)
eguaki , knead manioc mash (vi)
eku- eat crunchy food, chew (vt)
ege-, be unwilling to work (n,vi)
embukine-, betray (vt)
eni- dream (vi)
enïmba-, coming up to, meet (vt)
eñïki –rot (vt)
eɳa- disembark (vt)
eŋgu-, travel by river (vi)
eŋe- , eat flesh (vt)
eteŋumaki- ‘make flap about’ (vt)
etetsï- clean oneself (mv)
eti- resign (take out) (mv,vi)
etimïke, look up (mv)
etїidyi, come out of (be born) (mv,vi)
etïilï, paint on (design) (vt)
etsufuki , deplete (mv,vi)
etui-, rub (mv,vi)
ẽtifute, make from (mv, vi)
etïgiŋGi-, fall sick (mv, vi)
etiñamba, eat a meal
etsiŋgi- ‘fail’ (vt)
etufutofonde- make image (leave a sign) (mv,vi)
etuki-, be ready (vi)
etumaki, soften (vt) (28)

F
fa, make (vt)
fake-, crush (vt)
faki, wake up (vi)
faŋafesu-, hear poorly (vi)
 507

faŋami- remember, realize (vi)

faŋatuŋGi-, insult (vt)
fata-fis, mourn for (vi)
fati, open the door (vi)
fe-, wound (vi)
fefïamane- , weaken, loosen (as, a grip) (vt)
fesu, travel around (vi)
fi, pour in (vt)
fife, bite (vt)
fipï, pay (vt)
fisa, look for, search (vt)
fitsofo, ‘used for tearing apart’
fiti-, blow on (vt)
foka- (arrow) set in the bow
fonu-, cry(vi)
foGi-, find, encounter (vt,n)
fokinzi—become silent (vi)
fote, burn (vt)
fїɳGi- breathe (vi)
fule- roast (corn) (vi)
fulu-, travel around (vi)
funi , cherish, protect excessively (vt)
fupïte-, ‘herd’ (vt)
futisï-, be ashamed (n,vi)

G
Gi-, carry
(n)Gitu-, dream
gugu, skinny (adv)
gupu-ñe-ti , want to make someone’s stomach hurt (adv)

idyata pull out

idya-te-, hang up hammock
ifa-, teach, tell about, gossip or casual speech (vi)
ifa-ki, wake up (vi)
ifa ŋa-nda-ti, whispering (from ifaŋa, ‘ear’) (adv)
i-fata-fis-, grieving (vi)
ifati, come out (vi)
ifatifu-, explore, look around (vi)
ifẽ-, grab, hold on to, abduct (vt)
ifeki- make something nice (vt)
ifetu, clear a place for plantingv(vt)
ifi-, touch, have sex with (vt)
ifi-, flee, run away (vi)
ifiña- , lean over
ifitseke , ignorant (adv)
508

ihitsi- , stare (vi)

ifoki-, be silent (vi, n)
ifotaki- , make a point, sharpen (vt)
ifote, hold on to (vt)
ifuguti- occuring at the time of dusk, sunset (vi)
ifumi- , send for (vt),
ifuni, guard, cherish, not sharing (vt)
ifutisu-, shame (vi)
iga-, name (vt)
ige- , take. away (vt)
igifes-, ‘bother head’, ‘trouble’ or ‘bother someone (vt)
igu-ĩtsi-, spin web (n)
ika-, share, (vt)
ikafi- ‘hallucinate’ (n, vt)
ikagu-, tell.about (vt)
ikaŋute-, collect firewood (vt)
ike-, break (mv,vt)
ikembu- spit on
ikeute-, be annoyed, bothered
iki- , shit (vi)
iku-, copulate (vt)
ikui-, pull out (vt)
ikukine, send away (vt)
ikundïŋi, perform ritual (vi, n)
ili- , take.a sip, drink, swallow
iliŋutu- , stir (vt)
imagu-, give birth (vi)
imbi-, steal, abduct (vt)
imi -, occuring before dawn (vi, n))
indutë- , distribute (vt)
indiga-, fall down (vi)
indyu ,eat.mush (vt)
iñambe-liquid meal (n,vi)
iñe-, dislike (vt,n)
iñogote-, skewer (vt)
iñoki-, pull out, up (vt)
iñugu, be submerged (vi)
iŋ-, see, look, think about, consider, (vt)
iŋaŋapi- , dazzle, make dizzy (vt, adv)
iŋen, invite (vt)
iŋga- insert (vt)
iɳgugi, deceive (vt)
iŋGuki-, nurture, make grow (vt)
iŋi- , bring (vt)
iŋitsoŋatu-, reveal (vt, n)
iŋuku-, disfavor (vt)
ipoga , drain out liquid (as, honey) (vt)
ipoi- , rise up to the surface (vt)
ipondote-, put on head covering (vi, n)
ipuGi-, prune up
ipute-, cover over
 509

isatu- , marry (vt)

itambogo, embrace (mv, adv)
itite-, go to the hammock, lie down
(from the root iti-, ‘hammock’)
itote, burn up (vt)
itsake-, measure (vt)
itsake-, cut.off (vt, n)
itsaki-, run after, to (vi,n)
itsi-, bite
itso-Gi-, enfuriate (vt)
itsumbu- ɳe-, cause to catch in throat
itsupe-, screen off (enclose for puberty seclusion) (vt)
itïtsine-, lower down (vt)

Ĩ ĩ-, eat soft food, mush (vt)

ĩguitsi-, weave (vt)
ĩts-, eat something sweet (vt)
Ї
ï-, bring to (vt)
ïigï-, beseiged (n)
ïŋï -, sleep (vi, vt)

K
kagagapaga-, sweep (vi)
kagu-, teach, tell about (vt)
kaŋapiga, beat, thrash dried plants (vt)
ke, cut off
keŋi-, fill up
ki-, make flat bread (i.e., cook on a griddle) (n,vt)
ki-mba, wrestle
kiñu- be jealous (vi)
ku, eat crunchy food (vt)
kunzuke- , track (vt)
kwi-n-, crouch down (12)
M
mi, time of crepuscular light (vi, n)
mbo-ki-, put down something heavy (from mbok’)
(bodily action) (vt)
mï-ne- soak (dried manioc bread) (vt) (3)

N
nafe-Gi-, shining, gleaming (adv, vi)
nakaŋu-, bathe (adv, vi)
ndefi-, scrape body (vt)
ndzikofite- , paint (man’s) hair design (vi)
nï, - come.back (vi)
nofane-, be made pregnant (vt)
nzaŋaku-, focus on (by listening) (vt)
nzaŋatuŋG'i. insult, bother verbally
510

nzu-, try out

ɳ

ŋa-men- , escort ceremonially (vt)

ŋe-ŋe-tu-, feel frightened (vi)
ɳeni-tsi-ŋu, hunt game (vt)
ŋipi-, grasp, have (adv)
ŋuŋi-ŋu-, lie to, make angry (vt)
ŋo-ndi, separate (vt)
ŋund-ïŋi-, cut out (make) canoe (vi)
ŋu-te-, uncover (vt)

Ñ ñuti-, string up (vt)

O
oi -, wind up , tie up (vt,n)
oiz- tie down (vt,n)
oĩ-, thirst (vt,n)
o-ki-, pull out (vt)
o-ndi, abandon, leave behind (vt)
o-ño-te-, boil (vt)
oŋi-, bury (vt)
op-, avenge (vt)
opi-, turn over (vt)
opi -come.back (vi)
op-i- avenge (n, vt)
o-te, burn up (vi,n)
otï-ŋGi -,miss, yearn for (vt)

Õ
õ, reject, discard, spurn (vt, adv, n)
õ-ga-ti, make discarded (vt,n)

P
pe-i-gï - shake (vt) note f→p
po-pierce (ears),

T
ta-speak, tell (vi,n)
tafau-ki-te , increase (size) (vi)
takatakate-, “make the takataka sound”
(cracking from drying out) (vi)
ta-kei-, curving around (as a bend in the river) (vi)
ta-nde, store up (vt)
taŋu-ki, hold onto (hold hands with) (vt)
te-, go away, motion away (vi)
tefufwesuki-, making sick to one’s stomach
tego-, laugh (vi,n)
 511

teku-, eat crunchy food (vt)

tekune, slurp up (vt)
ti-come for (vi)
tiñi- , bring back (n, vt)
tїi, remove (vt)
tsa-, listen, hear, understand (vt)
tseku-,paint body (vi)
tsiŋi-, have diarrhea (vi)
tsufi-, splash (vt)
tsulu-, gather up (vt)
timïkaifi, peering closely at them (adv)
ti-, take out of (vt), remove self (mv)
tïi, put, tie (on) (vt)
tsike-, skin, remove (vt)
tun-, give to (vt)

U
ufi, look for (see also efi-) (vt)
ufu, know (vt)
ufu-na-, search for (vt)
u-fupu-ngu , destroy with supernatural power (vt)
u-gupu-ñe, ‘bother stomach’ (vt)
u-i-, make
upu-Gi , grow hair, mould (vt)

W
wa-nde-,surround, enclose

Ø
Ø , say to,

II. Lexemes
Only lexical words are included in this list, drawn from the
examples used in the grammar. Names and sound symbolic
expressions are excluded. Terms included in tables are also
excluded unless present in the examples.

A
adyafi , owl name
adyua. , fruit bat
afamoko, your (pl) nephew
afïpe, your? (verbs chapter)
akiti, like, enjoy
agetsïkï, more, (faster)
age'tsi.ŋ(u)o, one of them; (the) only one
aGi, skin disease (fungus)
akago-i, your (2pl?) relatives
512

a-kupï-te-pïgï-ko, the one who came (was born) after all

of you
'a.ma, mother (vocative)
amiŋa, next day
ande, here/now
añu, dear little child (voc)
aŋatïgï, your breast
aŋifolo, ancients
apa, my father (voc)
apitsi, grandfather (Voc or REF)
atapa, bee species
atutu, nice, good
awa, uncle (voc)
awa-dyu-ko, your/our dear uncles
afikwẽgï, Dogfish Being
a'fï.gï, type of piau (fish name);
ag'ï.fa, fish name.
a'ï.e, bamboo knife
a'na, corn
ande here.now
aŋa, genipapa fruit
au, headlice
afako, ‘mortals’ (humans), ‘listeners’?
afidyau, ‘airplane’. from Portuguese, aviaõ
aga, lizard name
aga, mask ritual
agã, large bees’ nest
agestinguetofo, six
aGi, skin disease
aGiGi, giant anteater
ago, these people
agï, manioc ritual song, marsupial
aifa, ‘ready.done’
aifa,? (?, rising intonation on stressed syllable), ‘is it
ready.done?’
akiŋi, false scorpion;
akïŋi, many
alu, section (of fruit)
anetї(u), hereditary leader
aŋi, result
aŋke, piqui seed rattle
apa, my father (voc)
apitsi, my grandfather
aŋa. genipapa
ataũ, carrying basket
atï, blueberry
ato, friend
afa, fish name
afi, dogfish
afiñano, your older brother
afïtï, denial (adverb)
 513

akago, these people around here

afa, fish name
afametigï, man’s brother- in-law; woman’s sister-in-law
afasï, your older sister
afatuwa, your nephew
afi, dogfish
afïtï, denial
afua, puma
agapa, broom
agïato roof.edgings
agua, giant armadillo
afedyo, bee name
aga, mask ritual, black ant
agenagi, paca
agetsïkï, further, more of same
aGi, skin disease
agї(u), seed
ago, these people
akã, quail-like bird
akaki, bark net
akiñatotoi, serving as a narrative expert
akïgisa , capyvara
akiŋi, vinegaroon (false scorpion)
akïŋi, many
aku, fruit name
akugi, agouti
ala, mud cakes (ritual item)
alaŋo, pale
alu, section, portion of a fruit
ama, mother (voc)
amago, those people
amañu, dear mother
ami, another of the same kind
amiɳa, ‘the next day’
ana, corn
ande, here now
aña, path
añïpe, the made ones
aŋakafugu, your (women’s) hair
aŋiko, wild thing, inedible plant
aŋisa sweet potato
aŋolo, truly, acceptable; correct
amïnde, no one there
aña, path
añu, my dear little (youngest) child
aŋifolo, people of the beginning, dawn people; ancients
apa, father (vocative)
api, grandfather (voc, informal)
asa, deer
asoti, spider
ata, your mother (referential)
514

ata, fish name

atsatepïgï, ‘what you gave’
ategu-, on the side
atïpoŋa, above (a watery environment)
atuta, orb spider
atutuki, slowly, carefully (adv)
aue, bamboo knife
aűtu, prea
awa, uncle (voc)
awadyuko, their dear uncles

D
dafa, dove
dyadya, older sibling (voc)
dyadya-ko, our older sibling
dyakwikatï, Fish ceremony
dyofi, pirapucu (Caracidae)

E
edyimo, your (pl) son
efasï, your older sister
efiñano, the older brother
efigï, your grandson
efĩgi, your penis
eiŋugu, your eye
enene other.side
eŋifolo, ancients
efiGaŋu , your feeling hot
efisu, your younger brother
efu, the canoe;
efutisofo, your shame relative (parent-in-law; child-in-
law)
ege, you,
eh, yes
ehnene, over on that side
eiko, your firewood
eiña, on your behalf, for you
eitigï, your hammock
eke, snake
ekege, jaguar
ekï(u), so-and-so (unknown name)
ekugu,very, intensive, fully, exactly
elasï, that’s right
ele, that one (distant deixis)
elimo, your son (of a man)
endati, outside
endifegiku, parrot feather headdress
endisï, your daughter
enenoŋo, on the other side
 515

eŋikomunde, unknown person

eŋikogu, your possessions
eŋiso, your (pl?) husband
eŋitsauko, your grandmothers
eŋï, reason
etapïgï your foot
eteh, nice, beautiful (ex)
etidyipïgï, what has come out of her (offspring)
etigitegï , peanut
etiñï, string
etiñïpe, the ‘askers”, ceremonial messengers
etu, settlement
etutagïiñe, person from another settlement

F
fagito, ceremonial guests
fagu, old woman; lake in campo (red grass lake)
faindene, an old person
faka, giant.bamboo
fala, mud cakes (ritual item)
faŋGuiŋa, river
fekite, comfortable, pleasing
feñe, net
fepïgï, wound
fesiñui, something ugly
fete, river oyster
feu, peccary
fiatu, deer (from Portuguese viadu)
fidyo shell
figï, grandchild
figumbugu, former grandchild
fikutafa, turtle
fipïgï, payment
fitsagu, cuckoo
fitsatu, hallucination
fokuegu, nighjar
fopïgï, ear piercing
foto, nest
fotugui, the first one
fuati, shaman
fugogo, in the plaza
fugombo, the plaza
fui, egg
fuseuki, black (adv)
fũ, two headed (blind) snake

G
gehale, again
Giti, sun
Gitïgï, the head
516

I
i, wood, tree, plant
idyakїgї, spiny fins
idyali, tapir
i-dyimo 3-children
idyo-gu, the uncle; tï-dyogo-kaiŋa.
idyondaniŋa, between the (3p’s) legs
(i)faki, far, distant
ifaki ekugu, really far
ifakitsetse, a little bit farther (adv)
ifanda, comb; centipede
ifaŋagïpe, fish cheeks
i'faũ, the cousin
ife-gï, clearing
ifegu, stalk
ifepïgï, tips (of stalks)
i'fidyau, the (his/her) brothers)
i-fi-gï, his (the) grandchild
ifiŋu salt plants (water hyacinth)
ifisuagï, the brother
ifisufi, ‘fruiting’ (from ifisu, ‘fruit’)
i-fitse-ke, quickly
i-fitsu, the wife
ifigi-fi-dyo-i, bristles, prickles
ifo,the image
ifota, the point
ifopidyї, beak
ifutugu, dirty
ifũ, egg
igagïpe, fish’s cheek (flesh)
igei, this one
igeŋimbïgïko, their former taker
igifïkïgï na, to the center
igoko, tail feathers
igipaŋagï, the ear
igipisu, ‘the left-over (cut off) head’
igiñoto, song leader
igisï, 3p’s song
igitati, centrally located (adv)
igïgï, woman’s inside (vagina)
igokogo, tail feather.PL
i:gu, seed
igu, tooth, squirrel
ikene, the younger sister
ikiŋo bark net
ikugu, the (3p’s) semen, sap
ila, in that (far) direction
ilї(u), necklace
imïtï, the face
imïtoŋo, surface (n)
 517

ina, to here
inde, near me
intsene, fermented piqui pulp (from intse, ‘piqui’ tree or
fruit)
inuGi empty (adv)
iŋadyomo, their brothers
iñalï, negation
iñalu ekugu, each and every one, none left over
iñaŋo, the (3p) food
iñatïgï, the (3p) hand
iñe, thatching grass
iñegi-, cover, lid
intsoño, small
iñu, land snail
iñukugu, her(or 3p) son
iŋge(iŋgi), honey, bees nest
iñuŋu roots
iŋila, for a long time
iŋilaŋo, in the beginning (long ago)
iŋiso, her husband
iŋkomugu, unknown person
iŋkomunde, unknown place
ipa, lake
ipefegï , the bee’s pollen caches
ipotsipïgï; a straightened path
ipufi, skin, bark,
ipugi , fish skin, scales
ipugu, hair, mould
isaGiŋo, someone like,(n)
isahatofo, bride service worker
isatakegeniŋogu, their fourth born
isata , inside
isepagï, ‘portions, groups’
isepo, across from, opposite
isatakegeni-, their fourth
isetilaŋoi , 3p fourth
isi, the (her) mother
isilu, thunder (n)
isiŋïŋope, one of those behind
isoa, dry season;
isogoko, maned wolf
isuataguko, co-wife
isupoŋa, beneath
isususu, falling apart, decrepit (adv)
isuwĩ, the, (3person’s) father
itau, woman
itetu ŋu , heavy thing
itigï, the (3p’s) hammock
itologu, the (3p’s) pet
itopui, the squash
itoto, male, man (see utoto, ablaut)
518

itsahene, their female cousin

itseke, powerful being
its'oŋ.o.i,married person?
itsu, creek
itsufupe, cut down trees, slash
itali, resin
itau, the woman (female)
itaugopïŋï, some faulty women
tï-ti-tsofo. cover, lid
itï, feces
i'ts-aŋ.a.gï, his fish catch
i'tsa.he.ne, younger sister
its-aŋa-gï, his fish catch
itsiGikugu, her hot manioc soup
itsu, animal call or human interjection, ‘noise’
itsuGi, stream; itsu-Gi-ŋa stream-on
ito, fire
itofuegï, Fiery (Fire Monster)
itopui, squash
itsu, creek, dog bark (call of an animal)
itsufi, his clearing;
itu, woodpecker

Ï
ïgï, fish hook
ï ŋaupuau, your grandfather
ïŋïne, the person’s house

Ĩ
ĩtse, net trap

K
kadyaGima, Port. pirapeuaua or colheireiro (Pimelodidae)
kafu, sky
kagaifa, Christians; people of European culture
kaGikGagi, armored catfish
kagupe, flat bread cracker
kaidyï, monkey
kaiŋa, beside
kagutu, large flute used in men’s ceremonies
Kanasï, campo deer
kaŋa, fish
kaŋikigope, some fishermen
kapaŋa-miti, different from
kapehe, high up
katote, all
kefege, spell
kine, flat bread made from manioc starch
kïakuegï, black eagle
koh, unknown
kohotsi, late afternoon (sun is setting)
 519

koŋofo, storm(y)
koko night
kuadyapiɳo, yellow, from the name of a Compositae plant kuadya
kuati, into (water)
kuaku. parrot; nightjar
kufisoko, black skimmer
kuGife, needle, witches dart, spine
kuG-iti together-ADV-
kuigiku, hot manioc soup
kuiginupe, some manioc flour
ku(ï)piguko, ‘our grandchild’;
kukuge, us (1+2)
kukugeko , ‘all of us’
kuiñandsu, "our sister" (man speaking)
kuluta, type of flute
ku-mugu, our son
kuna, ani bird
kunitsu, our grandmother
ku-pahene, our (1+2) female cousin;
kupegï , our crops
kupisu, our younger brother
kupisuagï, our older brother
kuõ (fruit)
kusiugu, sweet manioc
kutufi, our (1+2)-crops
kwi, oriole
kwifi, witches dart
kwifi, “needle
kwigi, bitter manioc plant
kwitsipĩgĩ , our dead

L
ila, far away
lata, can (from Portuguese, lata)

M
madyafi, hardwood bow
masope, secluded maiden;
mbatata, sweet potato (from Portuguese, batata, ‘potato’)
mbučina, boots (from Portuguese bota, boots)
melanzia, melon (from Portuguese, melancia, watermelon)
mitote, pre-dawn, time of crepuscular light
muGiki, grubs;
mugu, son (of a man)
mukutsi, sweet potato
mukwe, in vain
musketo, ‘musket’ (from Portuguese, mosquete)

N
namunde, darkness,
ndagï, mouth
520

ndukugu, her own gourd container (water carrier)

netune, sand bank
noto, snake name
ñefugu, their own canoe
nzage, alone
nzueŋi, cicada
nzïŋaitsïko, ‘their cotton armbands’

Ñ
ñafe, quickly (this direction)
ñatui, five
ñefugu, their canoe
ñetïne, sand bank
ñïnegï, her own house
ñunduŋe, infected, pus-filled (n)

Ŋ
ŋafaŋi, bee species
ŋafingoko, householders (residents of other houses)
ŋaupuau, their grandfathers
ŋgïtahe, tiny pestiferous ants living in large colonies, attracted by sweets
ŋïne, house
ŋoŋo, dirt, land
ŋoŋogu, their land
ŋune, moon

O
odyo, ideo (don’t)
ofiña, beneath
ogi, distal hortative
ogo, grill, platform
okaŋi, let’s wait
okogetsi, tomorrow, the next day
okõ, wasp
oku, liquid food (general word for types of manioc soup)
okogetsi, tomorrow
ondo, resinous red paint
oño, large green lizard
oŋi, fruit name
oko, watch out (ex)
opa(h), so much (ex)
oti, grasslands
oto, owner, sponsor, founder (of a settlement)
otomo relatives; people associated with a particular settlement
otu, food
owï, your father
õ , ‘and’

P
 521

padye, shaman (Brazilian Portuguese, from Tupian pajé)

paŋia toasted.starch
pidyïi, barbed catfish
pupu, great horned owl

S
sagagei, (3p) likeness
saŋakafi, large hollow bamboo
sike, tocandira ant
sisoanïgï, (3p’s) completion of the dry season
sitïgï, ‘his head’
solo, manioc cracker bread
sogro, parent –in- law (from Portuguese, sogro)
susu, pineapple

T
tafa, bottle-neck gourd (shavante?)
tafakugu, someone’s bow
tafaku oto, bow master
tafiŋa, caiman (Port., jacaré)
tafitse, macaw
tafumi-ñï, shade-N
take, grasshopper
takiko, two
takwagï, long flutes
talafi, ‘crouching down’
talaki, white
taloki, for no reason
tamaki,, soft (as hair) (adv)
ta'mi.tsi.la, a short time
tañe, trairaõ fish.
tapïgï, foot
tatakegeni, four
tatakeGisale, on.all.fours (adv)
tate, burity palm fiber
tatitsuGi, sweet (adv)
tatsiŋi, bitter (n)
tefu, rock
tekafukiñu, thin person
teloi, a different kind
tilako, three
tilati, quickly
teñiñĩ , tobacco
tifombïgï, ‘his former widow’
(i.e., new wife of a man who has married his dead
brother’s wife)
tikuGi, small parrot
timofo, five
tipaki, frequently
tï-kiŋo, design on body
tilati, quickly
522

tilopo ? noun chapter

ti-mu-ki-mbïŋï, without children
tisago, ‘our (excl) people here’
tis-aũpuau, our (1+3) grandfathers;
tis-efugu, our (1+3) canoe(s
tis-ifu-gu-i. our ancestors
tisigatigofo, ‘what we use for going outside’ (i.e., doorway)
tis-iñaŋo, our (excl) liquid food
tisuge, 1+3 exclusive ‘we’
titï, name
titsine, the one who got up (n)
titsïgï, his own head
tiŋalï, his own face
tïGipoŋagï, his own knee
tїGitalokiñi, the wide one (as, a path)
tïiñaŋoi, his own food
tïiñoi, the one who served as her own husband
tïkiŋo, design on body
tïpopïgïGine, pierced (n)
tïñokimbïŋï, without her own husband
tïtafisu, her own squeezing mat
tĩteñiñĩgĩ, his own tobacco
tofopidyï, it’s smooth (soft?) beak
tohoŋo, another one (same kind)
toki, remaining (adv)
tolo, bird, pet
tolokuegï, harpy eagle
topu, squash
tõ, “ema”.
tsapïgïko, his footprints (feet)
tsekegï, large
tseta, there, that same place
tuafi, sweezing mat
tufiliñe, “strong” (n)
tufugu, fully
tugufi, painted catfish (pintado)
tugukumi, ‘bruised’ (adv)
tuilї-fiti, wearing his own necklace (adv)
tuku, gourd
tukumiluiñe ‘blue/green’ (n)
tupisuGi, red (adv)
tuwa, water
tuwakualupe, ‘something from the water’ (n)
tuwa-kuati, into the water (adv)
tute, star cluster
tűwa, ‘water’;
tuwã=kuati, ‘into the water’

U
u-aki-sï, ‘my talk, speech’ (possessed nominal)
u-efu-gu-pe, one of my canoes
 523

uege , you
ueŋikogu, my possessions
ufameti, my brother in law (voc)
ufaű, my cousin;
ufi’, short for ufiñano
ufiñano, my older brother
ufigï, my grandson
ufïgi “my arrow
ufisï, “my younger brother
uguka, shell disc necklace, belt
ugupoŋopeŋine, out (away) from above
uĩfogu, my respect relation
ukifugu, our ancestors
ukwoto, our parent (polite term for parent-in-law)
uge, me
ugupo-ŋo, on top of a surface
uigu, my tooth
ukiminïgï, our dawn
ukwetu, our settlement
ukw-indisї , our daughter
unago, that person (people) over there
uño, my husband
uŋafi, householders
uŋele, that same person
upïgï-ko, the last one (in line)
ugufu, vulture
uguiŋï intestine
ugupo, above (adv)
ugupoŋa, on top of (n)
uigu, my tooth
uimaokugu, my cheek
ukuge. human being, one of our people
ukwadyo, ‘ our lover’
ukwoto, our parent (polite term for parent-in-law)
ule, anaphoric topic referent,
ulepe, after all that
ulimo, my child
uma,, “what is it?’
u:m, ‘I’m thinking”
una, where
uña, ‘outside’
unde, where
untsi, my young relative (voc)
uñati, located outside (the house)
uñu, my dear child
untsi , my younger relative (voc)
uñu, my little child (ref)
uŋafi, resident (adv)
uŋata, inside the house
uŋati, inside (the house);
uŋalï, one who is housed (i.e., secluded);
524

uŋele, that same person

uŋu, house
uŋu, interrogative, who, where
uotu, my solid food
utefugu, my stomach
utoto, the man (male)
utsu, woman’s fish scooping basket
utu, large conical fish trap set into dams
utukufifi-ti space.filled.in
uwa, enclosure
uwaGike, packrat
uetigitegï, my peanuts

W
wagi, jatoba tree
wãke, epistemic marker
wegufi, ritual tree
wende , located away from speaker, near addressee

Y
yaŋatïgïko, ‘their breasts’
yatsi, their “misery” (expression of sympathy)
yeŋikogu, their possessions
 525

Appendix C

The Tree Termites’ Arrow, told by Kakaku at Aifa, 7/23/80 . The speaker is a
survivor of the earlier Dyagamï community. He married a Kalapalo leader and lived in
Aifa with his large extended family. His son Fagema is now one of the leaders at Aifa.

1. kaŋamukwe te-lï i-kai kutufu ata-ni.

children go.to-PI tree-on termites.nest EX-ANT
‘Some children went to where there was a termite’s nest growing on a tree.’

2. lepene tu-fe-tsï-ŋapa i-feke, tsï, tsïk,

afterwards REF-shoot-VT-EM 3-ERG (sound of small arrows hitting)
iti-ki-tsï-fa
palm.leaf.shaft arrow-INST-M-PTP
‘Then they probably shot at it, tsï, tsïk with little palm arrows.’

3. tï-ge-pa-dya-kai.
REF-repeated-LOC-DO-on
(until) it was covered with them.’

4. Ø-ñ-ond-su-le≈i-fekeni=lefa, ñondi-lu=lefa.
3-OB-left.behind-PEJ=MT, DE-left.behind-PI=MT
‘and so they left them behind, they left them behind.’

5. lepene ukuge t-u-te, tu-inzage-tsï-fa, tititi

afterwards person REF-come.to-TH, REF-alone-M-PTP, (sound of walking)
its-aiŋa
3-beside
‘Later on a person approached, someone alone, tititi walking until he came beside
it.’

6. tï-ge-pa-dya-kai-itsu tu-fe-pïgï ata-ni.

RQ-repeat-on-DO-on-EX? REF-shoot-VPE EQA-ANT
‘It was shot full of arrows.’

7. ika-tsu-fata, ika-tsu-fata.
groan-VI-SIM, groan-VI-SIM
‘and groaning, groaning.’

8. tu-mbe-k-egei-i Ø-nïgi-feke
RQ-SS-EM-DEM-CL, 3-PS-ERG
“‘What happened to this thing here?’ he said to himself.”
526

9. tï-ka-tsu-nda=tiga
RQ-groan-VI-CI=EM
‘Why should this be groaning?’

10 uwa fitsa-tu=kiŋi fegei i-tsa-iŋa

Q hallucinate-N=EM ADEM 3-EX-CF
‘Could this turn out to be some kind of regrettable hallucination?’

11. iŋ-ge-fofo u-kiŋi-ke. e-ti-dyi-pïgï ag-iŋo-feke u-fe-pïgï

see-I-IT 1-see-I, 2-come.out.of-VPE same-N-ERG 1-shoot-VPE
‘Look right now and think of me, I’m shot by someone like your offspring.’

12. eŋi-ke at-iti u-kwai iku-i-ke.iku-i-ke at-iti u-kwai

2-look-I EQS-DES 1-on pull.out-VT-I.pull.out-VT-I EQS-DES 1-on.
‘Look perhaps you can pull out what is on me, pull out what is on me perhaps.
ikuike.
pull.out-VT-I
‘Pull it out.’

13. eh he Ø-nïg≈i-feke.
agreement 3-PS≈3-ERG
“‘All right,’ he answered.”

14. ande=taka e-hipï-gï–iŋo. u-fi-pïgï-pe-i-fa e-tsa-ni

here.now=EM 2-pay-POSS-POT, 1-pay-VPE-SAL-CL-PTP 2-EX-ANT

ufi-pïgi-pe-i. eh he.
1-pay-VPE-SAL-CL. agreement
‘You’ll see that payment will be given to you, you’ll have something. I will pay
you.’

15. lepe tikű-Ø i-feke sïki.sïki.sïki, katote.sïki.

next pull.out-RES 3-ERG (sound of pulling things out),all. (pulling out)
Aifa
(pull out).done
‘Next he pulled them out sïki sïki sïki, all of them, sïki. Finished.’

16. ande-fa u-fïgi-pe. ige-pe fei-tse.

here.now-PTP 1-arrow-SAL, this-SAL take-I
‘Here’s one of my own arrows, take this one.’
 527

17. ule-pe-fa kutufu fïgi.

ATR-SAL-PTP termite arrow
‘That was what he was talking about before, that was the tree termites’ arrow he
was talking about.’

18. ige-pe fei-tse. ete-lï-iŋo-fa, kaŋaki ete-lu-iŋo-fa.

this-SAL take-I go.away-PI-POT-PTP, fish-INST go.away-POT-PTP

19. kaŋa-ki-tsu-fa ete-lu-iŋo.

fish-INST-M-PTP go.away-PI-POT

kaŋa-ki ete-lu-iŋo, atïpo-ŋa.

fish-INST go.away-POT river.bank-SN
‘Take this one when you go away to fish, when you go away to fish I mean,
when you go away to fish, when you’re at the river bank’

20. tseta-fa tifigu afi-tsi-lu-iŋo e-feke, tifigu a-fi-tsi-lu-iŋo

there-PTP vine scrape-VT-PI-POT 2-ERG, vine scrape-VT-PI-POT
‘There you will scrape a vine, you will scrape a vine

ñotigï-i-fa, kaŋa ñoti-gï-i.

string.up-POSS-CL-PTP, fish string.up-POSS-CL
as a stringer, a fish stringer.’

21. lepe-ta-hal≈egei a-ŋ-aGi-lu-iŋo-i, lepe a-ŋ-aGi-lu-iŋo-i

next-DIS-UT≈ADEM 2-OB-throw-POT-CL next 2-OB-throw-POT-CL
“Then just before you get ready to throw that, then you get ready to throw that,

22. e-ki-lu-iŋo iñoti-gï ake-ts-igei,

2-utter-PI-POT string.up-POSS SD-EX-IDEM
you will say, “This must be their stringer,”

e-ki-lu-iŋo iñoti-gï ake-ts-ige-i,

2-utter-PI-POT string.up-POSS SD-EX-IDEM
you will say, ‘This must be their stringer,’

e-ki-lu-iŋo iñoti-gï akets-ige-i

2-utter-PI-POT string.up-POSS DEO-IDEM
you will say, ‘This must be their stringer’,

e-ki-lu-iŋo-fa.
2-utter-PI-POT-PTP
You will say about that.”
528

eh.he.
agreement
‘All right.’

23. lepe agilu-iŋo i-feke igi-tati=mbe-fa, ekuGita iGi-tati.

next throw-PI-POT 3-ERG middle-ADV-SS-PTP, current middle-ALOC
‘Then he will throw it into the middle of the current after that, into the middle of
the current.’

24. iñoti-nde=ale-fa, kïdïkïdïkïdï,

string-VT=UT-PTP, (sound of fish being strung),

iñoti-nde=ale ta-i-feke.
string-VT=UT tell-3-ERG
“‘It will keep stringing them up, kïdïkïdïkïdï, it will keep stringing them up,’ (the
tree termites) told him.”

25. kutufu ki-ta.

tree.termites utter-CI
‘The tree termites’ nest was speaking.’

26. iñoti-nde=ale ete-lu–iŋo kaŋa iñoti-nde=ale-fa

string.up-VT=UT go.away-PI-POT fish string.up-VT=NT
kïdïkïdï,
(IDEO)
‘When it goes away it will keep on stringing them up, keep on stringing up the
fish kïdïkïdï,

bah ha: iño-ti-nde-ale-fa.

IJ string.up-VT-UT-PTP
it will keep on stringing up so many,”

27. lepene ige-a=lefa eñïmiŋo, efu-ta=lefa, Ø-ta i-feke.

afterwards DEM-U=MT come.back-POT, canoe-to=MT, tell-CI 3-ERG
“‘Following that this thing will come back to the canoe,’ it was telling him.”

28. lepe-fale boh boh nïm-iŋo-fa i-feke iGita-fa

next-DT boh boh EQ-POT-PTP 3-ERG middle-PTP
nïm-iŋo-fa i-feke boh boh.
EQ-POT-PTP 3-ERG boh boh.
‘But then boh boh it will go to you, from the middle it will go to you boh boh.’
 529

29. afïtï et-imï-kei-lu-iŋo-la, afïtï et-imï-kei-lu-iŋo-la.

denial MV-face-raise.up-PI-POT-NEG, denial MV-face-raise.up-PI-POT-NEG
‘But no, you will not look up. No, you will not look up.’

30. ami=gele boh nïm-iŋo-fa i-feke a-ke-foŋa.

again=PT boh go.to-POT-PTP 3-ERG 2-COM-ADV
‘Once again boh, it will go to you, close to you.’

31. afïtï et-imï-kei-lu-iŋo-la.

denial MV-face-raise.up-PI-POT-NEG,

afïtï et-imï-kei-lu-iŋo-la,
denial MV-face-raise.up-PI-POT-NEG,

afïtï et-imï-kei-lu-iŋo-la
denial MV-head-raise.up-PI-POT-NEG,
‘You won’t look up, no you will not look up, you will not look up.

32. ami boh, ake-foŋa=lefa ñ-eŋo-lu–iŋo=lefa i-feke.

again boh, 2-COM-ADV=MT. OB-go.downstream-PI-POT=MT 3-ERG
‘Again (calling) boh, while close to you. The others will go downstream,’

33. boh tïtïtïtï ñ-eŋo-lu–iŋo=lefa i-feke,

boh tïtïtïtï OB-go.downstream-PI-POT=MT 3-ERG

ñeŋo-lu–iŋo=lefa
OB-go.downstream-PI-POT=MT
‘Boh, tïtïtïtï while the others go downstream, will go downstream.’

34. ule-ake et-imï-kei-lu-iŋo=fale i:ña-fa et-imï-kei-lu-iŋo.

ATR-COM MV-face-raise.up-PI-POT=DT 3-ALL-PTP MV-face-raise.up-PI-
POT
‘This time, as it comes near you, you will look at it, you will look up.

e-te-lu–iŋo=lefa iti-gi. e-te-lu–iŋo=lefa.

2-go.away-PI-POT=MT get-SUP, 2-go.away-PI-POT=MT
and you will go get it, you will go.’

35. e-te-lu–iŋo, ah kaŋa iñoti-gi in-ïm–iŋo e-feke.

go.away-PI-POT, EXP fish string.up-POSS come-to-VT-POT 2-ERG
You will go away until you surely reach the fish stringer.
530

36. uŋele-fa kutufu fïgi nï-m–iŋo e-feke.

ANA-PTP termite arrow come.to-VT-POT 2-ERG
‘That same one, you will reach the fish stringer.’

37. kutufu fïgi nï-m–iŋo e-feke bouk’

tree.termite arrow come.to-POT 2-ERG (sound of something thrown down)
‘When you reach the tree termites’ arrow bouk.’

38. iña=lefa satsa-gati agi-lu–iŋo e-feke.

DAT=MT close.by-ADV throw-PI-POT 2-ERG
‘When you are close to it you will throw something to it.

satsa-gati, agetsi-tsï-fa.
close.by-ADV, one-M-PTP
close to it, just one that is.’

39. kukuku te-ŋe-lu–iŋo i-feke. te-ŋe-lu –iŋo.

(sound of eating) eat.flesh-VT-PI-POT 1-ERG, eat.flesh-VT-PI-
POT
‘It will eat it up kukuku, will eat it up.’

40. lepe=lefa kaŋa e-nïm-iŋo. eh.he. Ø-ta i-feke,

next=MT fish come.to-VT-POT, agreement, 3-CI 3-ERG,
kutufu ki-ta.
tree.termite utter-CI
‘“And then the fish will come.” “All right.” That’s what they told him, the Tree
Termites’ Nest was speaking.’

41. lepene si-nïgï=lefa uŋ-ati, ifo-Gi-ŋi-mbïgï

afterwards come.back-PERF=MT house-ADV, find-VT-FO
etimbe-lï=lefa
arrive-VI-PI=MT
‘Afterwards he came back to the house, the person who had found it arrived.’

42. tseta=lefa ŋu-ŋiŋ-unda. afugu-ti-lï=gele, afugu-ti-lï.

there=MT think-VI-CI, sunset-VI-CI=PT, sunset-VI-CI.
‘There he stayed thinking even as the sun set, the sun set.’

43. lepe okogetsi kaŋa-fofo uk-ue-ta-ni, tu-fitsu-feke.

next next.day fish-IM 1-go.get-CI-ANT, REF-wife-ERG
“The next day, ‘I’m going to get some fish right now,’ to his wife.”

44. kaŋa-fofo uk-ue-ta-ni, tu-fitsu-feke. eh.he

fish-IM 1-go.get-CI-ANT, REF-wife-ERG. agreement
“‘I’m going to get some fish right now,’ to his wife.” “All right.”
 531

45. i-fitsu e:ta ts-iŋand-ote-lï–iña

3-wife come.to-CI 3-make.food-CONC-PI-DAT/BEN

kine tu-i-lï ifuŋu-ki.

flatbread make-VT-PI twigs-INST
‘His wife came to make his traveling food for him; she prepared flatbread with
some twigs.’

46. t-agisu-gu-Gati=lefa tu-i-pïgї i-feke,

REF-net.bag-POSS-ADV=MT put.in-VT-PS 3-ERG,
t-agisu-gu-Gati
REF-net.bag-POSS-ADV
‘He put it inside his net bag, inside his net bag.’

47. intsoño ekugu.

small very
‘A very small one.’

48. lepe telu=lefa atïpo-ŋa, atïpo-ŋa

next go.away-PI=MT river.bank.LOC, river.bank.LOC
‘Then he went away to the river bank, the river bank.’

49. lepene efu-gati=lefa ñï-ŋgo.

afterwards canoe-inside=MT travel-POT
‘Later on he was going to travel in the canoe.’

50. lepe tifigu titsa-ke-t≈i-feke, lepe tafitsi-feke.

next vine scrape-VT-CI≈3-ERG, next ? 3-ERG,

51. lepene ekï iñoti-gï–iŋo=taka igei.

afterwards so-and-so string.up-POSS-POT=EM IDEM
‘Later on, “This will certainly be so and so’s stringer.”’

52. iŋuGi=mbedya itetu-ŋu iŋu-Gi

lighten-SSO weight-SN lighten-ADV
‘Saying that lightened the weight.’

53. okoh-mbe=nafa kaŋa itetu-ŋu.

IJ=SS=EM fish heavy-SN
‘We have to be careful of that because fish are heavy.’

54. lepene te-lu=lefa pupupu segati.

532

afterwards go.away-PI=MT (soubnd of paddling) same.place,

ekuGita-na=lefa.
whirlpool-ALL=MT
‘Afterwards he went paddling away to that same place, to the whirlpool.’

55. lepene ekï iñoti-gï ake-tsa-ŋe igei,

afterwards‘so and so’ stringer-POSS DEO-EX-I IDEM’

ekï iñotigï ake-tsa-ŋe igei

so-and-so stringer-POSS DEO-EX-I IDEM’

ekï iñotigï ake-tsa-ŋe ige-i”

so-and-so stringer-POSS DEO-EX-I IDEM’
‘Following that,” this must be so-and-so’s stringer, so and so’s stringer, so-and-
so’s stringer.”’

56. eh.he, teke-fa.

agreement, go-I-PTP
‘All right, go ahead.’

57. tu!, agi-lu=lefa i-feke, agi-lu=lefa.

(sound of throwing), throw-PI=MT 3-ERG, throw-PI=MT.
‘Tu! He threw it, threw it.’

58. lepe tum, ete-lu-mbe tuwa-kuati.

next tum, go.away-SS water-ADV
‘Then tum, it went away into the water when he did that.’

59. ete-ta=ŋapa-fa kaŋa iño-ti-nde-ale.

go.away-CI=EM-PTP fish string.up-CI=UT
‘It must have gone away stringing up the fish all the while.’

60. kïdïkïdïkïdïkïdïkïdïkïdï aifa.

kïdïkïdïkïdïkïdïkïdïkïdï ready.done
‘kïdïkïdïkïdïkïdïkïdïkïdï finished.’

61. lepene boh, Ø- nïg≈i-feke boh iGita.

afterwards boh, 3-PS≈3-ERG boh middle
‘Following that boh, it said to him boh from.the.middle’.

62. iñalï ti-mï-keĩ-lu-i.

negation REF-face-raise.up-PI-CL
‘He didn’t look up.’
 533

63. ami=mbe gehale boh, ake-fo=lefa, ake-fo-la.

once.again-SS again boh close.by=MT, close.by-NEG
‘And again it did that boh, closer this time, still not close.’

64. ene-fa e-timï-ke-ifo-lï, tu-e-folï=lefa i-feke,

suppose-PTP MV-face-raise-HYP-CI, REF-shoot-HYP=MT 3-ERG

tu-e-folï.
REF-shoot-HYP
‘If he had looked up, he would have been shot by it, he would have been shot.’

65. tu-e-folï=lefa i-feke.

REF-shoot-HYP=MT 3-ERG
‘He would have been shot by it.’

66. ige-a itsa tu-fuŋguga-fi.

DEM-only EX REF-?-ADV (his head down).
‘He only stayed this way, with his head down.’

67. ami boh, akefo, akefo boh tïtïtïtïtï Ø-nïg≈i-feke.

again boh, near.by, near.by boh tïtïtïtïtï 3-PS≈3-ERG
‘Again “boh”, close by, close by drawing closer tïtïtïtïtï it said to him.’

68. ande-la eti-mï-ke-i-lï bok.

here.now-NEG MV-face-raise.up-VT-PI bok.
‘This time he looked up bok.’

69. ah, kugu ata-ni-mbe kaŋa=lefa, kaŋa=lefa.

EXP fully EQA-ANT-SS fish=MT, fish=MT
‘Surely, this time when he did that there were lots of fish, fish.’

70. ati-fa iti-gi. akua-ki-lï =-tsa-fa i-feke. akua-ki-ta=lefa.

come.to-PTP get-SUP. excited-VT-PI=EX-PTP 3-ERG. excited-VT-CI-MT
‘He came to get them so excited by that, he was excited.’

71. ego fïgi, Ø-nïg≈i-feke, ego fïgi, ego

,
well behaved arrow, 3-PS≈3-ERG, well.behaved arrow, well.behaved
fïgi Ø-nïg≈i-feke.
arrow, 3-PS≈3-ERG
“‘Such a well behaved arrow,’ he said to it, ’such a well behaved arrow, such a
well behaved arrow,’ he said to it.’
534

72. lepene agetsi-ŋo-pe t-isi-feke bok, satsa-gati.

afterwards one-N-SAL T-throw-TH-ERG bok current-ADV
‘After that he threw one of them bok, into the current.’

73. te-ŋe-lu=lefa i-feke. te-ŋe-lu=lefa fegei i-feke.

eat.flesh-VT-PI=MT 3-ERG, eat.flesh-VT-PI=MT ADEM
3-ERG
‘It ate it up, it ate it up, that one.’

74. apu-ŋu=lefa te-ŋe-lu=lefa i-feke, aifa

end-N=MT eat.flesh-VT-PI=MT 3-ERG, ready.done
si-nïgï=lefa,
come.to-PS=MT
‘This was the end, when it had eaten (the fish), so he came back.

75. ele=ale iŋ-ge te-ti-mb=lefa.

PDEM=UT look-I go.away-TH-SS=MT
‘That one (sun) was still thinking of it, moving towards the west.’

76. inde Giti ata-ni, ite-lï. si-nïgï=lefa ti-ŋi-Ø-feke.

here Sun EQA-ANT, go.away-PI. arrive-PS=MT REF-see-TH-ERG
‘The sun was over here, going away when he arrived and (the others) saw him.’

77. hoh hoh, eki kaŋa-gi.

“Ho hoh”, so.and.so fish-POSS
‘“Ho hoh, so-and-so’s fish”’

78. koh, ñali fi-nu-mi kuge-feke.

koh, NEG know-VT-N person-ERG
‘ “Koh”, none of the people knew about it.’

79. kuge-feke ŋa-fi-ŋo ñali.

person-ERG house-ADV-PREC negation
‘None of the neighbors, no.’

80. eti-mbe-lu=lefa aka-i ekugu eki kaŋa-gi.

arrive-VI-PI=MT IJ-CL intensive so.and.so fish-POSS
‘So when he arrived, “Wow, that guy has so much fish!”’

81. uwa-me-ni tu-i-pigi i-feke, uwa-me-ni tu-ipigi

Q-FACS-CONT REF-do-VPE 3-ERG, Q-FACS-PL REF-do-VPE
i-feke
3-ERG,
“How did he get all those? How did he get all those?”
 535

82. ai gehale ule-pe-kai ñali, aifa.

finally again ATR-SAL-on negation, ready.done
‘So finally when there was nothing left of what he had (caught before), he got
ready.’

83. lepene ata-ŋe gehale ete-ŋali.

afterwards EQA-I again go.away-REP
‘Afterwards he decided to go back again to do that.’

84. ege-a gehale ah s-i-nalï inde-ŋu=gele s-i-nalï.

this.way again EXP 3-come-REV here-LT=PT 3-come-REV
‘Again just like that again, really, he came back when the sun was just about to
set, he came back.’

85. uwa-me-ni tu-i-ŋalï i-feke, ukuge ki-ŋalï

Q-FACS-CONT REF-bring-REP 3-ERG, people utter-REP
‘“Is there something different he did to bring them again?,” the people spoke
again.”’

86. uwa-me-ni tu-i-ŋalï i-feke, uwa

Q-FACS-CONT REF-bring-REP 3-ERG, Q
‘Is there something different he did to bring them again. What?’

87. ande-la kugu=lefa igei efameti-gï tu-ẽ-ti.

here.now-NEG fully=MT IDEM br-in.law-POSS REF-come-TH,
efameti-gï.
br.in.law-POSS
‘Not long after that his brother-in-law showed up, his brother-in- law.’

88. efameti-gï tu-ẽ-ti tikii.

brother.in.law-POSS REF-came-TH, (sound of entry)
‘His brother- in- law showed up in the house, tikii.’

89. aka-ekugu-mbe ogo-fo-ŋo-ko.

IJ-intensive-SS grill-PL-LOC-PL
‘There were so many (fish he had brought back) on his grills!’

90. uwa-me-ni u-fameti-gï-feke tï-i-ŋalï ige-i.

Q-FACS-CONT 1-bro.in.law-POSS-ERG REF-bring-REP IDEM-CL
‘Is there something different my brother-in-law did to bring them again?’

91. uwa-me-ni u-fameti-gi-feke tï-i- ŋalï, uwa?

Q-FACS-CONT 1-bro.in.law-POSS-ERG REF-bring-REP, Q?
‘Is there something different my brother-in-law did to bring them again, what?’
536

92. uwa-me-ni kaŋa tï-i-ŋalï u-fameti-gï-feke.

Q-FACS-CONT fish REF-bring-REP 1-bro.in.law-POSS-ERG
‘Is there something different my brother-in-law did to bring these fish?’

93. u:m, Ø-nïg≈i-feke. fisua-gi ki-li, i-ŋandzu ki-li.

EXP, 3-PS≈3-ERG, sibling-POSS utter-PI, 3-sister utter-PI
‘I’m thinking”, she answered, his sibling spoke, his sister spoke.’

94. la-ni-ke e-ke-ŋe, Ø- nïg≈i-feke. la-ni-ke

like.that-CONT-I 2-speak-I, 3-PS≈3-ERG. likethat-CONT-I
e-ke-ŋe
2-speak-I
‘“Don’t say that”, she answered. “Don’t say that.”’

95. eŋi-mbal≈igei kutufu f-o-Gi-tsïgï i-feke.

“reason-CAT≈IDEM termite.nest find-VT-IPE 3-ERG
‘Because this is the result of his coming across a termites’ nest.’

96. kutufu fo-Gi-tsigi i-feke, ika-tsu-fata, ika-tsu-nda.

termite.nest find-VT-IPE 3-ERG, groan-VI-SIM, groan-VI-CI
‘He came across a termite’s nest, that was groaning, it was groaning over and
over.’

97. ikï-ike at-iti u-kwai tu-fïgi-mbale i-feke.

pull.out-I EQA-DES 1-on REF-arrow-CAT 3-ERG
‘“Please try and pull out what’s on me,” in return it gave him its arrow.’

98. ikï-ike at-iti ukwai, u-fïgi-pe-fa e-i-tsani

pull.out-I EQA-DES 1-on 1-arrow-SAL-PTP 2-EX-ANT
tu-fïgi fegei i-feke.
REF-arrow ADEM 3-ERG
‘“Please try and pull out what’s on me, and I will give you one of my arrows,”
this is the arrow he gave him.’

99. ule-pe=mbal ≈egei.

ATR-SAL=CAT≈IDEM
‘This is what came of all that.’

100. unde=male a-nigi

where=DAD EQS-PS
‘Where did he put it?’

101. koh, la-itsa-ni ke-ni=mbale.

EXP, NEG-EX-ANT PREV-CONT=CAT
‘I don’t know, leave it be don’t do it.’
 537

102. ke-ni-fa, iŋ-andzu ki-li. ke-ni-fa.

PREV-CONT-PTP, 3-sister utter-PI, PREV-CONT-CAT
‘“Don’t do it” his sister said, “Don’t do it.”’

103. afïtï uwa-tsï-ma kukw-i-ŋali i-feke. uwa-tsï=ma kukw-i-ŋali

denial Q-M=EM 1+2-do-REP 3-ERG, Q-M=EM 1+2-do-REP
i-feke.
1-ERG
“You’re wrong, what could that ever do to us, what could that ever do to us?”

104. lepe tu-fisi-ti-feke is-agisu-nda at-ani.

next REF-take-TH-ERG 3-net.bag-inside EQA-ANT
‘Then she took it from inside his net bag.’

105. ule-ŋapa=lefa igei, Ø-nïg≈i-feke.

ATR-EM=MT DEM, 3-PS≈3-ERG
‘“Probably this is what he used”, she said to him.’

106. ige-ta-ni, ige-ta-ni, iŋga-ti-lï=lefa i-feke.

bring-I-ANT, bring-I-ANT, take.away-VT-PI=MT 3-ERG
iŋga-ti-li.
take.away-VT-PI
‘“Bring it, bring it”, and so he took it away, he took it away.’

107. kwig-anda iŋ-ke oto, kwig-anda.

manioc-ALOC see-I owner, manioc-ALOC
‘Think, the owner was at the manioc fields, the manioc fields.’

108. lepene ete-lu=mbele. ete-lu=lefa, tu-figi

afterwards go.away-PI=ANA, go.away-PI=MT REF-arrow

i-nigi=ŋapa-fa
have-PS=EM-PTP

if-eke, ete-lu=lefa, ete-lulefa.

3-ERG, go.away=MT, go.away=MT
‘Following that he went away as his brother-in-law had done, he went away,
probably holding his arrow, he went away, he went away.’

109. isa-ki-fata-mbembege iŋandsu-feke.

3-speech-SIM-RSA 3-sister-ERG
‘While his sister kept warning him over and over about that.’
538

110. la ke-tsa-ŋe tu-i-lï-iŋo e-feke.

NEG DEO-EX-I REF-use-PI-POT 2-ERG
‘You must not go shoot it.’

111. iŋ-andsu ki-ta-mbembege.

3-sister utter-CI-RSA
‘His sister kept saying that to him over and over’.

112. lepene te-lu=lefa-au:m, se-gati, efu-Gati.

afterwards go.away-PI=MT-(extended motion sound),same. place-ADV, canoe-
ADV
‘Afterwards he went awaaay, to that same place, into the canoe.’

113. iñoti-gї=gele-feke.
tie.up-POSS=PT-ERG
‘To use the stringer again.’

114. lepe=ŋapa-fa afi-tsi-ta i-feke, tifigu afi-tsi-ta i-feke,

next-EM-PTP scrape-VT-CI 3-ERG vine scrape-CI 3-ERG

iñoti-gïi afi-tsi-ta.
string.up-POSS, scrape-VT-CI.
‘Next he probably scraped some vine, he scraped it, he scraped a stringer.’

115. lepene te-lu=lefa efu-G≈igati,

afterwards go.away-PI=MT canoe-POSS≈by.means.of,

efu-G≈iGati.
canoe-POSS-by means of
‘Following that he went away by means of his canoe, by means of his canoe.’

116. lepene t-agi-Ø-feke, tuh, puk, ete-lu-mbele.

afterwards REF-throw-TH-ERG, tuh, puk go.away-PI-ANA
‘Following that he threw it into the water tuh, puk, and it went away as
before.’

117. iñoti-nde-li-ŋapa-fa i-feke

string.up-VT-PI-EM-PTP 3-ERG
kuduk, kuduk, kuduk, kuduk, kuduk, kuduk, kuduk, kuduk.
kuduk, kuduk, kuduk, kuduk, kuduk, kuduk, kuduk, kuduk.
‘Probably it strung up (the fish) kuduk, kuduk, kuduk, kuduk, kuduk, kuduk,
kuduk, kuduk.’
 539

118. aifa, boh, boh, ifaki-la.

ready.done boh boh, far-ADV-NEG
‘Finally, “boh boh”, from close by.’

119. ami, boh tututu Ø-ni-mba-ta igi-a te-timi-kei,

again, boh tututu 3-PS=DS-CI like this-U REF-face-raise.up
‘Again boh tututu it said but now (unlike his brother-in-law) he looked up like
this.’

120. tsuk’ ah t-e-ti=mbe tu-e-lu-iña.

tsuk’ EXP REF-come-TH=SS REF-shoot-PI-DAT
“‘tsuk’ really, it came (after he did that) to shoot him.”

121. ige-a=mbe=gele tututu ni=mba-ta=gel≈i-feke,

like.this=SS=PT tututu PS-DS=CI≈3-ERG,

ah, tu-e-l≈i-feke.
EXP, REF-shoot-PT≈3-ERG
‘Still (with his head up) this way tututu it spoke to him still and surely, it shot
him.’

122. apu-ŋu-Ø=lefa.
finish-VI-RES=MT
‘And as a result he died.’

123. lepene ete-lu=lefa t-oto-iña=lefa.

afterwards go.away-PI=MT REF-owner-DAT/BEN=MT
‘After that it went away to its owner.’

124. t-oto-iña=lefa ete-lu=lefa.

REF-owner-DAT/BEN=MT go.away-PI=MT
kutufu-ña=lefa. kutufu-ña.
tree.termites-DAT/BEN=MT. tree.termites-DAT/BEN
‘It went away to its owner, to the Tree Termites, to the Tree Termites.’

125. lepene efameti-gï eti-mbe-lï.

afterwards bro.in.law-POSS arrive-VI-PT
‘Afterwards the brother-in-law arrived.’

126. e-fameti-gï aŋi-pi ake-tsa-ŋe egei. e-fïgi.

2-bro.in.law-POSS EQS-ADV DEO-EX-I ADEM, 2-arrow.
‘Your brother-in-law had to have your arrow.’
540

127. to-to-nimi ifa-ta i-feke. apu-ŋu-Ø ake-ts-igei,

RQ-RQ-PURP tell-CI 3-ERG, die-VI-RES DEO-EX-IDEM,

apu-ŋu-Ø ake-ts-ige-i,
die-VI-RES DEO-IDEM
‘Why oh why did you tell him about it? I’m sure this wanted to do away with
him as a result, I’m sure this has wanted to do away with him as a result.’

128. tu-e-lu-iŋo ake-ts-igei.

shoot-VI-PI-POT DEO-EX-IDEM
‘I’m sure it’s going to want to shoot him.’

129. iñali, Ø-nïg≈i-feke.

negation, 3-PS≈3-ERG
‘“It won’t,” she answered.’

130. lepe-ti tu-te iŋi-lu-iña.

next-EV approach-TH see-PI-DAT/BEN
‘Then he came to see.’

131. tu-figi i-nigi i-feke.

REF-arrow bring-PS 3-ERG
‘Bringing his own arrows.’

132. te-lu=mbele, iŋi-lu-iña, iŋi-lu-iña.

go.away-ANA, see-PI-DAT, see-PI-DAT
‘In the end he went away, to see what had happened, to see what had happened.’

133. efu-amba-li ule-ti-fa i-feke.

canoe-inside-PI ATR-EV-PTP 3-ERG
‘They say he was in the canoe after all that had happened.’

134. apuŋu-fïg≈at-ani, apu-ŋu-fïg≈at-ani.

die-VPE≈EQA-ANT, die-VPT≈EQA-ANT.
‘He was dead, he was dead.’

135. tu-fitsu-feke ifa-tїfїgї.

REF-wife-ERG warn-PAC
‘What his wife had been warning him about.’

136. ule-pe Ø-nïg≈i-feke kaŋa-pe e-ŋe-pïgï=lefa i-feke,

ATR-SAL 3-PS≈3-ERG fish-SAL 2-kill-VPE=MT 3-ERG,
 541

kaŋa-pe.
fish-SAL
‘About that she had said, “Some fish are your killers, some fish.”’

137. ifa-ki=mbele at-ani=lefa t-oto-ña=lefa, fugei-feke.

leave-ADV=ANA EQA-PL=MT REF-owner-DAT/BEN=MT, arrow-ERG
‘In the end, the arrow was gone, on behalf of its owner.’

138. ete-ku=mbal≈egei. ete-lu fegei.

go.away-INT-CAT≈IDEM, go.away-PI ADEM
‘As a result of what he had done it went away for good, they went away.

139. tsa-ke-fa.
listen-I-PTP
‘Listen to that.’
542

Appendix D

Mïti, a story told by the Kalapalo leader Kambe at Aifa, 1/79

This unflattering story about the origin of some Kayapo people was told by Kambe, one
of the main hereditary leaders living in Aifa during my visit during 1979-82. Tufule,
another hereditary leader, told me this story is “not good”, and that in the past women did
not listen to it because it was thought to cause the birth of twins. Consequently, he said,
not many people know about it. As Kambe told it, this story has many good examples of
the use of multiple epistemic morphemes as used in conversational interaction.

1. Mïti, its-ahene-fa t-ïño-ki-fa i-kene.

Mïti 3-OZ-PTP REF-husband-INST-PTP 3-YZ.

t-iño-ki-lefa ŋele i-fasï.

REF-husband-INST-MT ANA 3-OZH
‘Mïti.Her older sister was married but the younger sister was unmarried. She,
their younger sister.’

2. ifi-fo-ta=tahale i-feke. afïtï o-ta i-feke,

touch-HYP-CI=NEGDT 3-ERG. denial reject-CI 3-ERG,

o-ta-lefa. t-ïño-ko o-ta.

reject-CI-MT. REF-husband-PL reject-CI
‘He wanted to have his way with her but she rejected him, she rejected him each
time. She rejected their husband.’

3. ñalï. ñalï iti-ñïmi.

negation. negation desire-CONS
‘No, no, she didn’t desire him.’

4. ule-fiñe fagu-na tute.

ATR-SUB ox.bow.lake-ALL come.to/TH
‘Because she was doing that he came to an ox-bow lake.’

5. tïte eke fu-i tï-fogi-Ø-s ≈i-feke, eke

fu-i=mbe
come.to/TH snake egg-CL REF-find-TH-PEJ≈ 3-ERG, snake
egg-CL=SS
‘He came to a snake’s egg he had found, a snake’s egg.’

6. tseta t-ami-s≈i-feke to-ŋo-te i-feke

same.place REF-wrap.up-ADV≈3-ERG roast-N-VT 3-ERG
 543

i-ñaŋo-tsï-fa ñ-eŋe-lu-iŋo-fa tu-pahene-iña.

3-food-M-PTP OB-eat-PI-POT-PTP REF-YZ-DAT
‘There he wrapped and roasted it up as food, that is, for her younger sister to eat
later on.’

7. timbe-lu-lefa inde Giti atani.

arrive.PI-MT here Sun EQ-ANT
‘And he arrived home when the sun was moving over here.’

8. its-aŋa-gï=mbedya=lefa asaŋu-ta.
3-fish.catch-POSS=SSDO=MT carrying.basket-in
‘He had brought his catch in his carrying basket.’

9. ambi-tsïgï i-feke amb-itsïgï.

wrap.up-IPE 3-ERG wrap.up-IPE.
‘What he had wrapped up, wrapped up.’

10. eke fui amb-itsïgï-i=mbe-tï=mbale i-feke, eke-kuegï fu-i

snake egg-CL wrap.up-IPE-CL=SS-EV=CAT 3-ERG, snake-AUG egg-CL
‘A snake egg that was wrapped up, they say, that he was going to do that other
thing with, a monster-snake egg.’

11. ambi-tsïgï-lefa. eke-kuegï=mbe-fa.

wrap.up-IPE-MT. snake-AUG=SS-PTP
‘That was wrapped up. The monster snake he had found.’

12. a-fasï-iña tïŋg-we ege, Ø-nïg≈i-feke.

2-YZ-DAT give-I DEM, 3-PS≈3-ERG
‘”Give this to your younger sister”, he said to her.’

13. wende kaŋa fu-i-pe ami-tsïgï u-feke.

over.there fish egg-CL-SAL wrap-up-IPE 1-ERG
‘Over there are some fish eggs I wrapped up.’

14. asaŋu-ta ata-ni ogo-nda. apoki-ne-tïfïgï i-feke

carrying.basket-inside Eq-ANT grill-on put.down-N-IMP 3-ERG
‘”It’s inside the carrying basket on the grill.”’ What he had put down.’

15. eh.he, tund≈i-feke. wende ege teŋe-ke.

agreement, give.to-CI≈3-ERG. over.there DEM eat.flesh-I
‘”All right”, she gave it to her. “There it is. Eat this.”’
544

16. tï-ge-po-lï, ami-tsïgï i-feke.

REF-conceal-VT-PI, wrap.up-IPE 3-ERG
‘He hid it in the wrapping.’
17. lepe te-ŋe-feke, te-ŋe-lï-eku-tsï-ŋapa ule.
next eat.flesh-VT-ERG, eat.flesh-VT-PI-intensive-M-EM ATR
‘Then she ate it up, probably she ate it all up.

18. kagaidya felei. ikene=fale t-ïño-ki. ele=fale

single.woman DEM. YZ=DT REF-husband-ADV DEM-DT

t-ïño-ki-la.
REF-husband-ADV-NEG
‘She was unmarried. But her younger sister had a husband, she however had no
husband.’

19. ai-tsï-fa ts-efu-ati ete-lï. lepe t-epe=mbe

And-M-PTP 3-stomach-inside go.to-PI. next REF-crack.open=SS

its-efu-ati
3-stomach-inside
‘And so it went into her stomach. Then it cracked open when it did that, inside
her stomach.’

20. eŋi-ko-na=mbe=ko-wapa-ha epe-lï

reason-EM-CONT=SS=EM-EM-PTP crack.open-PI
‘I don’t know what made it do that, crack open.’

21. ts-efu-ati boh, e-ñïgï.

3-stomach-inside INT, EX-TR
‘Boh, inside her stomach it grew huge.’

22. igea-ku=mbe-le ñofa-nïgï tï-o-kisi-ŋu ifï

this-way-intensive=SS-MT pregnant-PS REF-emaciate-ADV-N body
‘While she grew pregnant because of that, her body grew thinner.’

23. tue-lï-ŋu-dya-fa i-feke-lefa itsa-mukwe-lefa.

kill-PI-small-XO-PTP 3-ERG-MT 3-EX-EM-MT
‘Poor thing, it was killing her bit by bit as she lived on.’

24. ande la mb≈itsa ts-efu-a.

there like.that SS≈EX.CI 3-stomach-inside
‘There, having cracked open it lived inside her stomach’.
 545

25. at-ai-pïgï eke-fa.

MV-curled.up-VPE snake-PTP
‘That curled up snake.’

26. boh, ige-fuŋu ife-gï

boh, DEM-resemble size-POSS
‘Boh, one this big.’ (He gestures while telling about how huge the snake was.)

27. tï-m-itsi-ñu elei ts-efu-a.

REF-length-N DEM. 3-stomach-inside
‘It was a long one, inside her stomach.’

28. uwa eku-ki≈gei-i e-ima-gu-mbuŋu-i.

Q intensive-MIR≈DEM-CL 2-delivery-POSS-W-CL
‘“Why in the world haven’t you come out yet? “’

29. ete-ŋalï i-ka, ipufi-ki te-ŋalï.

go.away-REP tree-for, bark-INST go.away-REP

agi-mbi-dyo-ki ete-ŋalï, ete-ŋalï-lefa ipufi-ki

tree wrap-VI-CI-INST go.away-REP, go.away-REP-MT bark-INST
‘Over and over again, she kept going to get firewood, she kept going to get bark,
she kept going for the tree wrapping , she would go for the bark.

30. akëi-ŋalï i-feke boh, eti-mbe-ŋalï-mukwe

strip.off-REP 3-ERG boh, arrive-VI-REP-EM
‘Poor thing, she would strip off a large piece, boh, and come back home.’

31. lepene=mukwe tuwa-ka te-ŋalï

afterwards-EM water-get go.away-REP
‘Poor thing, then she would go to get some water.’

32. itï-tefu-fes-ale ete-ŋalï t-uguku-mi t-uguku-mi.

REF-somach-bad-UT go.away-REP REF-bruise-ADV REF-bruise-ADV
‘She went around with her stomach in bad shape, bruised, bruised.’

33. eke=mbe-tï=mb≈ale.
snake=SS–EV=SS≈UT
‘The snake was doing that to her, they say.’

34. afïtï-fa ku-mu-ŋe-tu-fïŋï eke.

denial-PTP 1+2-child-grow-N-unlike snake
‘Not at all like a growing child of ours, a snake.’
546

35. Mïti ititë.

Mïti name
‘Her name is Mïti.’

36. ite-ŋalï gehale i-ka, te-ŋalï-lefa.

go.away-REP again tree-for, go.away-REP-MT
‘And so she went away again to get firewood, she went away to get firewood.’

37. ai-lefa t-aGi-mbi-dya-ki-ku=mbe-fa, ipufi ata-ni,

ready-MT REF-cover-VT-CI-INST-intensive=SS-PTP, bark EQ-ANT

fala aGi-mbi-dyo,
fala.tree cover-VT-CI,
‘She was ready to pull off the fala tree’s bark wrapping when

38. ama uge ñ-i-tomi Ø-nïg≈i-feke

Mother(VOC) me OB-go.get-PURP 3-PS≈3-ERG

its-efu-a=mbe ita-gi-ñu.
3-stomach-inside=SS tell-VI-N
‘”Mother, I’ll get it”, it said to her, what said that was the thing inside her
stomach.’

39. ita-gi-ñu ts-efu-a. uge Ø-ñ-i-tomi ama.

tell-VI-N 3-stomach-inside. me 3-OB-get-PURP mother(VOC)
‘What was inside her stomach spoke, “Mother, I’ll get it”.

40. akua-ki-lï fege i-feke.

self.fright-cause-PI DEM 3-ERG
‘That frightened her.’

41. eh.he, i-ta-papa, Ø-nïgï-ti=feke its-efu-a=mbe

agreement, go.get-I-EM, 3-PS-EV-ERG 3-stomach-inside=SS

i-a-ta-gi-ñu.
tree-at speak-VI-SN
‘All right, go get it if that’s what you want to do,” they say she answered. By the
tree, she was talking to what was inside her stomach’.

42. lepe-tï te-ti u: en-ati

next-EV go.away-TH (sound of sitting down slowly) beneath

t-imbo-fi≈ñïgï=lefa.
REF-crouch.ADV≈-EX-TR=MT
‘Then, they say she went uuu beneath the tree and crouched down.’
 547

43. t-iŋga-Gi-dyu=lefa fala en-ati bok.

REF-open.legs-cause-PI=MT fala.tree beneath-ADV (sound.of.placement)
‘And opened her legs underneath the fala tree bok.’

44. lepene tututu tsi-tsi-ŋalï mbedya-fa ege-te

afterwards tututu REF-urinate-REP SSDO-PTP DEM-LOC

eke=mbe-fa.
snake=SS-PTP
‘Following that tututu it urinated when she did that, that thing, the snake did
that.’

Note: As here, the verb tsi- ‘urinate’ is also used for the obstetric ‘breaking of waters’
when a woman is giving birth.

45. itsa-iŋo mbe=lefa po po po, kapehe mbedya-fa

up.on.it-POT SS=MT popopo, high SSDO-PTP

i-dyatïte ete-lï
tree-top-on go.to-PI
‘After that it when up onto the tree, going higher up until it reached the tree top.’

46. chuk bom, chiuk bom, akï-i-ta-lefa

(sound of pulling off brittle object, sound of landing), pull.off-VI-CI-MT

i-feke
3-ERG REF

tïti-gï akï-i-ta ipufi akïi-ta chiuk.bom, aifa.

REF-mother-POSS pull.off-VT-CI bark pull.off-VT-CI chiuk.bom. done.
‘It pulled off the bark and threw it down, it pulled off its mother’s bark chiuk
bom until it was finished.’

47. is-ata=mbe=gele-fa.
3-inside=SS-PT-PTP
‘It was still inside here when it did that.’

48. lepene te-ñïts-itsi tï.tï.tï te-ñïts-itsi

afterwards REF.inside-ADV (sound of snake moving) REF=inside-ADV
‘Following that it went back inside her, inside her.’

49. ata-i-lï=mbedye=ŋapa-fa its-efu-ati=lefa te-lï

curl.up-VI-PI=SSSO=EM-PTP 3-stomach-inside go.away-PI
‘Probably it curled up inside her stomach when it went away.’
548

50. ts-ika-i-dyu=lefa i ka-mi-tsa-lefa i-feke,

3-get.up-EP-PI=MT tree collect-tie.up-CI-MT 3-ERG

tï-tefu-fes≈ale s-i-ta=lefa.
REF-stomach-bad≈UT 3-come.back-CI=MT
‘She got up and tied up her firewood, coming back with her stomach just as bad
as ever.’

51. kuge-fïŋï-ku=tiki u-tefu-a egei, kuge-fïŋï.

human-unlike-intensive=EM 1-stomach-inside DEM, human-unlike
“How can it be something not human like this is inside my stomach, not human?”

52. si-nïgï=lefa bom, eti-mbe-lï.

3;come.back-PS=MT (sound of object thrown to ground), arrive.home-VI-PI
‘And so she came back and bom, threw down her firewood when she arrived
home.’

53. ñaku-i-pïgï=mbe-fa bom tïti-ña bok

pull.off-VT-VPE=SS-PTP bom REF-mother-DAT bok.
‘What that thing had pulled off for his own mother, and threw down bom she put
inside bok,

sïŋï-lï≈le-tï-fa, s-ïŋï-lï=lefa.
3-sleep-PI≈ATR-EV-PTP, 3-sleep-PI=MT
‘and then she slept, they say, she fell asleep.’

54. ts-efu-fesu-ki≈tsa i-feke.

3-stomach-bad-ADV≈EX 3-ERG
‘Her stomach was hurting.’

55. uwa-ma-laka tï-i-l≈u-feke, kaa

Q-EM-EM REF-do-PI≈1-ERG, FRUST
“Can there be anything at all I can do about this?”

56. ifa-ki-lï=lefa tuwa-ka ke-te ikene ki-lï. te-lu=lefa

get.up-VI-PI=MT water-for get.I YZ utter-PI go.away-PI=MT

tuwa-ka.
water-for
‘When she woke up, “Go get some water” her younger sister said.” So she went
to get some water.’

57. ikwo-tu-fïŋu-i itsa ts-efu-fesu-ki≈tsa i-feke

sad-N-resemble-CL 3.EX 3-stomach-bad-INST≈EX 3-ERG
‘She felt sad. Because there was something very wrong with her stomach.’
 549

58. uwa-male ñïm-iŋo ta=mbedya i-feke

Q-DAD EX-POT tell=SSDO 3-ERG
‘“Something bad is going to happen isn’t it?” she said to herself this time.’

59. e-tsa-ke-fa, aifa.

2-listen-I-PTP, ready.done
‘So listen to what happened in the end.’

60. itate ukw-e-tani Ø-nïg≈i-feke, i-kene-feke.

burity.palm.shoot 1→2-go.get-ANT 3-PS≈3-ERG, YZ-ERG
‘“I’ll go get some burity palm shoots for us,” she said to her younger sister.’

61. u-tate ukw-e-tani Ø-nïg≈i-feke

1-burity.palm.shoot 1→2-go.get-ANT 3-PS≈3-ERG
‘“I’ll go get my burity palm shoots for us,” she said to her.’

62. eh.he te-ke-papa Ø-nïg≈i-feke

agreement go.away-I-EM 3-PS≈3-ERG
‘“All right, I agree you should go if that’s what you want to do,” she answered.’

63. ñafe-tsaŋe ete-te eh u-te-ta-ni=fofo.

fast-DEO 2-go.away-I yes 1-go.away-ANT=IT
“You go quickly.” “Yes, I’ll go right away”.

64. Aŋafuku-na etelï ikiŋi

Aŋafuku-ALL go.away-PI burity.palm.fruit
‘She went away to Aŋafuku Lake, (where there was) burity palm fruit.’

65. ule ufis=ale ete-ta kapoho-ŋa

ATR look.for=UT go.away-CI tall-N
‘She went away to look for a tall one (with) that.’

66. i-fisu=mbe ti-dyatu-fi=dya-ki, i-fisï=dye≈tsa,

tree-fruit=SS REF-hang.down-ADV=DO-INST tree-fruit=SO≈EX,

tis-i-ñï, ule fisï

1+3-eat.fruit-N, ATR fruit
‘She went away to look for some fruit that was hanging down, some fruit that
was there like that, which we eat, the fruit of that kind (of tree).’

67. kapohoŋo ekugu=mbe.

tall-N very=SS
‘A really tall one with fruit like that.’
550

68. lepene egei-ina ket-iñ-its-iŋa u-iña

afterwards PDEM-ALL pull.off-VT-SN 1-DAT/BEN

Ø-nïg≈i-feke, ip-itsi-ñi u-iña

3-PS≈3-ERG have-SUP-SN 1-DAT/BEN
‘Following that “If only you could go up there to pull that off for me”, she said to
it, “So I could have it.”’

69. uge ñ-i-tomi ama, uge ñ-i-tomi.

me OB-do-PURP mother(VOC), me OB-do-PURP
“I want to do it Mother, I want to do it.”

70. ts-efu-a=mbe gehale.

3-stomach-inside=SS again
‘Again, what was inside her stomach said that.’

71. eh.he te-ke-apa Ø-nïg≈i-feke

agreement go.away-I-CONF 3-PS≈3-ERG
‘“All right, go if that’s what you want to do,” she said to it.’

72. ata-it≈ïgï-i=lefa.
EQA-DES≈VPE-CL=MT
‘This made her very happy.’

73. aue-mbe-tïfa ip-i, ndo-ŋo-mbe-fa aue.

oyster.shell-SS-EV have-TH, close-LOC=SS-PTP oyster.shell
‘I’m told she held an oyster shell close to her when he said that.’

74. tu-iki-ñï fegei ip-i.

REF-sharp-N DEM have-TH
‘One of those sharp ones.’

75. ige=ale-fa bok, i-ñïgï en-ati

DEM=UT-PTP (sound of sitting), EX-TR beneath-ADV
‘Still holding this, she sat down beneath the tree bok.’

76. tï tï tï ai-mbe gehale igi-pi-su

(sound of snake waking up) ready=SS again 3-head-point-POSS

po.po.po ata-ŋe=mbe-fa i-tïgï ete-lï

(sound.of.snake.crawling) EQ-LOC=SS-PTP 3-head go.away-PI
‘tï tï tï moving as before the front of it’s head po po po it’s doing as before, it’s
head going out.’
 551

77. i-tsa-iŋo fegei itsa-iŋo ule-kai. ikiŋi-kai

3-EX-EP-PREC ADEM 3-EX-EP-PREC ATR-on, burity.palm-on
‘Moving right up onto it like that, moving right onto that tree, onto the burity
palm
po.po.po
(sound.of.snake.moving),
popopo

eh, kapoho-ŋo ekugu=mbe-fa.

yes, tall-PREC very=SS-PTP
yes, it was moving up right onto that very tall one,

78. aifa, mbisuk, ts-ïmbï-ki-lï=mba=hale.

ready.done (sound of something ended), 3-finish-VI-PI=DS=DT.
‘It was done, mbisuk, but this time it came out completely.’

79. ete-mbu-ki-lï=lefa. mbisuk, igia≈tani.

go.away-without-cause-PI=MT mbisuk, like.this≈EX
‘It made the end of itself come out, mbisuk, that’s how it was.’

80. wende-fa Ø-nïg≈i-feke, ti-tsa-ka-t≈i-feke

over.there-PTP 3-PS≈3-ERG, REF-cut.off-VT-CI≈ 3-ERG
‘“Here it comes”, it said to her, as it cut it down’

81. tuluk, si-nïgï=lefa. wende aketsaŋe.

(sound of bunch of fruit dropping), come.to-PS=MT. over-there DEO
‘Tuluk, as it came back. “I’m coming down”’

82. t-eñu-tsi-tsi= , tsiuk, ai=mbe-fa

REF-crawl.down-VI-ADV=SS, (sound of cutting) ready=SS-PTP
‘As it was crawling down after that tsiuk, she was ready to do something.’

83. tsake-nïgï i-feke tefu-alu-pe tsake-nïgï,

cut.up-PS 3-ERG stomach-content-SAL cut.up-PS,

eke tsake-nïgï.
snake cut.up-PS

84. tsiuk, dzi dzi dzi, tsiuk, tsiuk, tsiuk,

(sound of cutting), (sound of snake trying to come back) (sound of repeated
cutting)

is-i-nïgï=lefa kapehe-ekugu=lefa
3-come.back-PS=MT high-very=MT
552

‘She cut it up over and over as it come back down from so high up, tsiuk, dzi dzi
dzi, tsiuk, tsiuk, tsiu.’,
85. ige-ŋu-i-ku=mbe-tsu atani, bom, apu-ŋu-lefa.
DEM-small-CL-INT=SS-M EX, (sound of falling) finish-VI-MT
‘When just a very small piece of it was left after she had done that, bom, it fell
down dead. ‘

86. lepe tï-ge-pa-te i-feke, pok pok

next REF-pile.up-N-VT 3-ERG (sound of putting down)

tilako ise-pa-gï, tilako.

three portion-N-POSS, three.
‘Then she piled them up pok pok into three groups, three.’

87. idyo-nda-mbe igia tsa-ke-ta-tïfïgï i-feke.

length-N=SS this.way cut.up-VT-CI-IMP 3-ERG
‘According to how long these were when she was cutting them off.’

88. kapohoŋo-fa igia, ule tetsua tufugu.

tall-N-PTP like.this ATR, others all.of.them
‘Those that were long like this, and all of them that she had cut off.’

89. pok, Ø-ina s-itï-gï-pe=mbe

(sound of picking up something) 3-ALL 3-head-POSS-SAL=SS

ti-t≈i-feke.
pick.up-TH ≈3-ERG
‘Pok, she went and picked up its head part’.

90. pïï.pïï.pïï, wende a-fa-ko otu-iŋo

(sound of whirling something), over.there 2-tell-PL food-POT
‘pïï pïï pïï, “Over there will be food for the Tellers”.’

91. tits-otu-iŋo=mbe-ku-tifa adyamu-fa i-ñïgï

1+3-food-POT=SS-INT-EM electric.eel-PTP EX-TR
‘I’m told that the very thing she threw was going to be our food, it became the
electric eel.’

92. tum, a-fa-ko otu

(sound of something falling into water), 3>2-teach-PL food

ete-ke. ule-pe-fa
go.away-I. ATR-SAL-PTP

te-ŋe-lu-i-ti-feke s-itï-gï-pe-fa ige-pe.

 553

eat.flesh-VT-PI-CL-OP-ERG 3-head-POSS-SAL-PTP DEM-SAL

‘Tum, into the water, “Go away, ‘food for those who tell about you’. That part of
it, its head part is what we like to eat again and again.’

93. lepe tu-i-feke, pok.pok.pok,

next put-3-ERG (sound of putting things down)
tilako ispagu tugupisi.
three portions pile.up-ADV
‘Then she put on top of the three piles she had made,
kedyite tu-kufe-ti i-feke, kedyite
fragrant.leaves REF-break.off-ADV 3-ERG, fragrant.leaves
kufe-nïgï i-feke. pok,
break.off-PS 3-ERG, pok,
ugu-pe-tofo-i.
on.top-SAL-USIN-CL
‘broken off branches of fragrant leaves pok.’

94. si-nïgï=lefa. its-efu-gu=lefa iii, isi-nïgï=lefa tate

‘come.back-PS=MT, 3-stomach=MT INTJ, come.back-PS=MT burity
s-ipo-ga.
3-on-top-ADV
‘And then she came back, her stomach looked really flat, and she came back
(carrying) the burity shoots on her head.’

95. undiki, we-nïgï.

(sound of coming inside), come.inside-PS
‘undiki she pushed open the door and came into the house.’

96. ikene ki-lï, eke, Ø-nïg≈i-feke

YZ utter-PI, IJ, 3-PS≈3-ERG
‘Her younger sister commented on her small stomach, “Eke”, she said to her.’

97. uwa-me-ki atïfïgï Ø-nïg≈i-feke. uwa≈tïfïgï

Q-FACS-MIR EQ-IMP 3-PS≈3-ERG. Q-EQ-IMP
‘What ever happened to you?’ she said to herself. “What happened?”

98. iŋila=lefa ta-tsa-ti at-ani, tï-ti-iña=lefa atsa-nïgï=lefa.

early=MT REF-EX-TH EQ-ANT, REF-mother-DAT=MT listen-PS=MT
‘For a long time she was telling about herself while her mother listened.’

99. ama Ø-nïgï-t≈i-feke

mother(VOC) 3-PS-EV≈3-ERG
“Mother”, they say she said to her,

100. kuge-fïŋï eku-ti=maki u-tefu-a Ø-nïg=i-feke,

554

human-unlike INT-DES=EM 1-stomach-inside 3-PS≈3-ERG

kuge-fïŋï
human-unlike
“It turned out what was in my stomach was not human, after all,” she said to her.
“Not human”.’

101. eh.he=kiŋi.
Agreement=EM
‘Unfortunately that’s so.’

102. eke-maki tefu-a egei, tï-ti-feke. atsa-nïgï fegei

snake-EM stomach-inside DEM 3-mother-ERG. listen-PS DEM
‘“It turned out that was a snake inside my stomach,” her mother listened to that.’

103. uŋele-pe-fale n-tsake-ta-nïmi=lefa.

ANA-SAL-NT OB-cut off-PURP=MT
‘Those parts, this time, of what she had intended to cut up.’

104. lepe-lefa itsa=lefa, ñalï=lefa etidyi-mbedya=lefa.

next-MT EX=MT NEG=MT come.out-PI=SSDO=MT
‘Then, as she lived on, now however it didn’t come out of her as before.’

105. lepe itsalefa egea aka-nïgï=lefa ñune-gï aka-nïgï

next EX=MT DEM appear-PS=MT 3.moon-POSS appear-PS
‘Then as she lived on like that her new moon appeared, appeared.’

Note: the seasonal and astronomical events are framed from the perspective of the main
character, that is, as possessives.

106. tseta=mukwe ŋita-ni-fofo ete-lï=lefa i-ŋi-lï-iña.

there=EM OB-see-ANT-IT go.away-PI=MT 3-see-PI-DAT
‘For what it’s worth I’m going right now to see it.’

107. itsake-tïfïgï-na i-feke

cut.up-PAC-ALL 3-ERG
‘To those things that had been cut up by her.’

108. lepene ŋ-upu-Gi-lï-fata=lefa, ŋ-upuGilï-fata.

afterwards OB-mould-VT-PI=SIM=MT, OB-mould-VT-PI=SIM
‘Following that, something had been making it grow mould making it grow
mould.’
 555

Note: the noun for ‘mould’ upu refers to the body hair that was growing on the cut-up
snake parts, ie., they were becoming human. Note that this noun+ the causative
radical –Gi forms the stem of the verb ‘making it grow mould’.

109. aifa, its-upu-Gi-ta fegei, its-ukuge-ti-ta fegei.

ready.done 3-body. hair-CAUS-CI ADEM 3-human-CAUS-CI ADEM
‘It was ready, that was its body hair being made to grow, that was it turning itself
into human beings.’

110. lepe itsa=lefa, takiko ñune-gï ete-lï ami

next EX=MT, two moon-POSS go.away-PI again
ŋ-i-lï-iña
OB-see-PI-DAT
‘Next while she lived on, after the second moon of here she went again to see.’

111. is-epa-gï, is-epa-gï, is-epa-gï, at-ani

3-portion-POSS, 3-portion-POSS, 3-portion-POSS EQA-INT
kuge=lefa at-ani.
human=MT EQA-ANT
‘The three piles there were going to be human beings.’

112. ŋele-pe-fa čukahamai, čukahamai-i=lefa.

ANA-SAL-PTP Kayapo.Indians, Kayapo-Indians-CL-MT.
ŋele-pe elei.
ANA-SAL DEM
‘Those parts of it were Kayapo Indians, were Kayapo Indians. Those parts of it.’

Note: Here Kambe uses the outsider’s name for one of the nearby Kayapo groups, spelled
in Portuguese Txukahamae.

113. Mïti tefu-alï-pe elei.

Mïti somach-contain-SAL DEM
‘Parts of what had been inside Mïti’s stomach’.

114. la-ña≈ke itsotu-ko kuge-fïŋï a-nïgï,

like.that-DAT≈COM violent-PL human-unlike EQ-PS,
Mïti-f=isi-ko.
Mïti-PTP ≈3;mother-PL
‘With them like that were these violent non-humans, Mïti their mother.’
556

115. ule-fa tsapoho-ndu-ko-i, itsa-ke-ta=tïfïgï i-feke

ATR-PTP tall-N-PL-CL, cut.up-VT-CI=PAC 3-ERG
tu-mi-tsi-la.
REF-length-ADV-NEG
‘Those were the tall ones, there were some she had cut up that were (also)
smaller.’

116. igei-fuŋu-pe=mbe-fa tsa-ke-ta= tïfïgï i-feke kapehe-la.

DEM-resemble-SAL=SS-PTP cut.up-CI=PAC 3-ERG tall-NEG
‘Some she had done that to that she had cut up, were like this, short.’

117. iñaka-si-ta i-feke-ni, iñaka-si-ta. iñaka-si-ta ts-efu

pollute-VT-CI 3-ERG-PL, pollute-VT-CI. pollute-VT-CI 3-stomach
at-ani, idyogu-fa, fisuagï-fa
EQA-ANT, 3;uncles-PTP, siblings-PTP
‘When her stomach was the way it was the uncles, the brothers were polluted by
her, she polluted them, polluted them over and over’.

Note: Because she touched her people’s food with the snake monster inside her.

118. isi-ko fisuagï, itoto.

3;mother-PL siblings, male
‘Their mother’s siblings were men’.

119. isi-nalï-ti, ti-ŋandsu-ko ugu-pe-mi-ñalï ifeke-ni.

come-to-DES, REF-sister-PL on-SAL-VT-MAL 3-ERG-PL
‘Whenever she wanted to come to them, they pushed their sister away.’

120. tu-guku-mi anï-mbiñe

REF-blue-N EQS-CONS
‘She was covered with bruises.’

121. uŋele ki-ŋalï, odyo-tsï-fa egea uk-iŋandsu-ko tï-i-lu

ANA utter-REP INTJ-M-PTP like.this 1+2-sister-PL do-PI
i-feke-ni, n≈al≈ï-tï i-feke.
3-ERG-PL, 3 ≈UT-EV 3-ERG
‘It’s said that one of them would keep saying, “Don’t do that to our sister”, he
never stopped saying to them.’

122. ŋiko-na-ŋapa-fa uk-iŋandsu-ko atïfïgï t-uguku-mi-sa-ha itsa.

reason-OP-EM-PTP 1+2-sister-PL PAC REF-blue-PEJ-PTP EX
‘“Probably there’s no way of knowing why our sister has become like this.” She
was horribly black and blue all over.’
 557

123. lepene aifa.

afterwards ready.done
‘Finally it ended.’

124. ama Ø-nïg=i-feke, ama, mboh, ah,

mother(VOC) 3-PS≈3-ERG, mother(VOC). IJ EXP
ŋikogo-i tufugu=lefa.
fierce.person-CL fully=MT
‘“Mother,” she said to her. “Mother, wow, they are all fierce people”.’

125. awa-dyu-feke tï-fugi afe-te-gomi, awa-dyu-feke

uncle-END-ERG REF-arrow make-VT-PURP, uncle-END-ERG
ti-fïgi afe-te-gomi.
REF-arrow make-VT-PURP
“My dear uncles need to make their arrows; my dear uncles need to make their
arrows.”

126. eh.he Ø-nïg≈i-feke.

agreement 3-PS≈3-ERG
‘“All right”, she answered.’

127. a-fa-mo fïgi e-ŋafe-te-ke, tu-fe-te i-feke.

2-younger.relative-COLL arrow 2-make-VT-I REF-make-VT 3-ERG
‘“Tell them to make your younger relative’s arrows,” so he made them.’

128. kogetsi, kogetsi, kogetsi igia ikugu its-ami-tsi,

next.day, next.day, next.day this.many intensive 3-length-N
tafaku gehale tï-fa-t≈i-feke,
bow also REF-make-CI≈3-ERG
ts-afaku-gu-ko. aifa.
3-bows-POSS-PL. ready.done
‘Day after day after day after day until there were this many, very long ones, and
he also made some bows. That was all.’

129. itu-ife-nïgï i-feke

bow.string-twined-PS 3-ERG
‘The bow cords were twined by him.’

130. lepe ti-tu-isi-feke, bok.bok, tu-limo-iña

next REF-put.on-ADV-ERG bok.bok REF-children-DAT/BEN
tu-nd ≈i-feke. katote ekugu.
REF-give.to ≈3-ERG all very
‘Then after they had been strung by him, she gave them to her children, every
one of them.’
558

131. mbaha:, ñalï ekugu.

IJ, negation fully
‘Oh, there were so many of them’.

132. lepene ama Ø-nïg≈i-feke, lafa awa-dyu-ko

afterwards “Mother”, 3-PS≈3-ERG, like.that-PTP
itsa-ni-ni.
uncle-END-PL EX-ANT-PL
‘Following that, “Mother”, she said to her, “May my dear uncles stay this way
forever”.’

133. eŋu-eku=wãke e-ugu-pe ŋ-is-atïfïgï, tok,

reason-INT=EM 2-inside-SAL OB-slap-IMP (sound of slap)
“Just because of what was inside you, they were slapping it, tok,”
ets-efu ata-ni-gele ule tso-tu-ko-i.
3-somach EQA-ANT-IT ATR angry-ATN-PL-CL
‘What was still growing inside her stomach made them angry’.

134. eh.he awa-dyu e-tomi fe-tsa-ŋe iña.

` agreement 2;uncle-END shoot-PURP DEO-EX-I 3-DAT/BEN.
awa-dyu e-tomi.
2;uncle-END shoot-PURP
‘“All right. Your dear uncles must be shot in return. Your dear uncles should be
shot.’
agetsi-ŋo-feke-fa.
one-N-ERG-PTP
“Except for that one.”

135. eh he Ø-nïg ≈i-feke

agreement 3-PS ≈3-ERG
‘“All right,” she answered.’

136. mitote=mbe, uh, ta-ta-i-ko=mbele ele, tu-e-lï-ko

before.dawn=SS, INTJ say-CI-PL=ANA DEM, REF-shoot-PI-PL
i-feke. eke-pe-feke-fa, tu-e-lï-ko=lefa
3-ERG, snake-SAL-ERG-PTP, REF-shoot-PI-PL=MT
tïk tïk tïk, mbisuk
(sound of arrows being shot), all.
‘Having done that early before dawn “Uh!”, they shouted as they did that to
them, they shot them, those snake parts did that, they shot them one by one until
there were none left.’

137. agetsi-ŋo-fa idyogu-ko isi-ŋu fele-tsï-fa ata-ni.

one-PREC-PTP 3;uncle-PL 3.last.born-N ADEM-M-PTP EQA-ANT
‘Only one of her uncles, their last born was who was left alive.’
 559

138. aifa-nïgï ake-ts≈igei.

ready.done-PS DEO-EX≈IDEM
‘It was finished, what she wanted to do.’
560

Appendix E

‘Upe, the ‘jaguar’s flanks were crushed’. Told by the song master and story master
Kudyu at Aifa, August, 1979

This is a segment taken from a longer narrative, which includes a few didactic lines from
Kudyu the storyteller, as was usual with this narrator. The explanation concerns upe, a
plant medicine for a child who becomes sick when her father kills a jaguar.

1. ohsi-fa upe=mbe-tï ike-ti, upe ike-nïgï-tu i-feke-ni

HORT-PTP upe=SS-EV cut-DES upe cut-PS-EV 3-ERG-PL
‘“Let’s cut some up to do that”, they say. They wanted to cut some upe.’

2. ulepe-tï-fa ekege tï-fake-fi-tsïgï a-nïmi.

ATR-SAL-EV-PTP jaguar REF-flank-crush-VT-IPE EQS-CONS
‘That concerned what is known as “the jaguar’s flanks were crushed”.’

3. u-kuge ki-lï-fa, ifu-ti-ñi ki-lï.

1-people utter-PI-PTP, know-VI-SN utter-PI.
‘My people say, those who know say.’

4. ekege taki-ŋote,
jaguar illness-CONC
‘when there is “Jaguar illness”,

5. iŋ-ge-apa egei ande idyï i-tsa, iñoño

see-I-CONF IDEM here.now daughter EX-CI, the.little.one
‘Consider that Little Daughter is experiencing it.’

6. i-ŋi-gote-fa ku-pehe sa-fake-fi-tsïgï-ts≈apa e-ta

3-see-CONC-PTP 1+2-ERG 3-side-crush-IPE-M≈CONF 2;go.get people

kuge ki-lï ku-pehe. tits-ilï-fa.

person utter-PI 1+2-ERG 1+3-utter-PTP
‘if we see it, “go get ‘his flanks were crushed’ for that,’”people say to us, we all
say.’

7. upe-feke fegei.
upe-ERG ADEM
‘That’s about upe.’

8. lepe-i-tï-fa sa-fake-fi-tsïgï-pe its-ïgï a-nïgï at-ehe.

next-CL-EV-PTP 3-side-beat-IPE-SAL put-PERF EQS-PS EQA-PER
‘Then, they say, some of “his crushed flank” is put on.’
 561

9. ekege ita-gï iti-tsofo a-nïgï at-ehe i-feke

jaguar leaf-POSS put.on-BN EQS-PS EQA-PER 3-ERG
‘The jaguar’s leaves are what are used to cover someone.’

10. ifuku-gu-i-tï-fa i-ñïgï.

small.pot-POSS-CL-EV-PTP EX-TR
‘Made in a small pot, they say.’

11. lepe ñïgï. bïïh apuŋu≈tsa fegei.

next EX-TR (sound representing a recovery) end≈EX-CL ADEM
‘After it’s made, bïïh, that’s what clears it up.’

12. itsï-fake-fi-tsïgï fegei, upe fegei.

3-side-crush-VT-IPE ADEM upe ADEM
‘That’s “his crushed flank”, that’s upe.’
562

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