The expression of reflexivity in Qom/Toba. Semantic and morpho-syntactic aspects of the -laɁt morpheme

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to analyze, from a typological and functional approach, the semantic and morphosyntactic properties of verbal suffix -laɁt in the Toba language. On the other hand, it proposes to characterize the prototypical reflexive construction in this language. Previous studies have described this morpheme as a reflexive verbal suffix, which expresses that the person acts on himself/herself (Buckwalter & Buckwalter 2004). In addition, Censabella (2002) argued that it co-occurs with verbal middle voice and it is used to indicate that a patient participant of a prototypical transitive predicate is coreferential with the agent. In this paper three strategies employed in the reflexivity functional domain are explored: middle voice, -laɁt suffix and the intensifier maiche ‘oneself’. We conclude that -laɁt is a non-inflectional morpheme and it is also a typical verbal operator of change of valence that closes the expression of the (human) patient participant. Finally, it co-occurs with the middle marker to conform the prototypical middle-reflexive construction (n-…-laɁt) that encodes affectedness and maximal involvement of S/A in the action.