San Juan Atitán Mam agreement

Mam cross-references arguments with two sets of person markers that distinguish only first from non-first person and singular from plural: Set A, the prefixes n- before a consonant and w- before a vowel, t-, q- and ky-, and Set B, chin, tz'= or zero, qo and chi. Set A indexes transitive subjects and possessors and Set B intransitive subjects; the enclitics of Mam.Pronouns complete the person distinctions. In San Juan Atitán Mam, the variety Scott describes, a transitive object is not cross-referenced: the verb carries the non-first singular Set B tz'= whatever the object, which is a full pronoun, though some speakers accept agreeing Set B for objects as a more formal variant. The underlying case system is therefore tripartite, an ergative from Voice, an accusative from Voice and an absolutive from Infl, visible only through agreement, and it holds in every aspect. Set B precedes the stem in the verbal complex, the high-absolutive placement. England's sketch gives the ergative pattern of the other varieties, where Set B indexes the object, with the dialectal forms of the enclitics.

Main definitions

• Mam.setAExponent, Mam.setBExponent, Mam.defaultSetB: the two paradigms and the Set B of a transitive clause.
• Mam.template, Mam.assignCase, Mam.caseInventory: the verbal complex, the tripartite case function, and the three cases it realizes.

References

• [Sco23]
• [Eng17]
• [ZM17]

The paradigms

def Mam.setAExponent : Phonology.Segment.Class → Mayan.ExponentTable

The Set A markers by the following segment; only the first person singular alternates, n- before a consonant and w- before a vowel, and t- and ky- serve the second and the third person alike.

Equations

• One or more equations did not get rendered due to their size.

def Mam.setBExponent : Mayan.ExponentTable

The Set B markers; the non-first singular is tz'=, also zero.

Equations

• One or more equations did not get rendered due to their size.

def Mam.defaultSetB : List Morphology.Morph

The Set B of a transitive clause, the non-first singular tz'= whatever the object.

Equations

• Mam.defaultSetB = [Morphology.Morph.procl "tz'"]

The verbal complex and case

def Mam.template : Morphology.AffixTemplate Mayan.VerbSlot

The position classes of the verbal complex, the aspect marker, Set B and Set A before the stem and no status suffix.

Equations

• Mam.template = { prefixSlots := [Mayan.VerbSlot.aspect, Mayan.VerbSlot.setB, Mayan.VerbSlot.setA] }

def Mam.assignCase : UD.Aspect → ArgumentRole → Case

Case is tripartite in every aspect, ergative on the transitive subject, accusative on the object and absolutive on the intransitive subject.

Equations

• Mam.assignCase x✝ = Alignment.tripartite

def Mam.caseInventory : Finset Case

The cases the core roles realize, the ergative, the accusative and the absolutive.

Equations

• Mam.caseInventory = (List.map (Mam.assignCase UD.Aspect.Perf) ArgumentRole.core).toFinset