Q'anjob'al agreement

Q'anjob'al, of the Q'anjob'alan branch of Mayan, is a verb-initial language that marks person with the two Mayan sets: Set A, prefixes with pre-consonantal and pre-vocalic shapes, indexes the transitive subject and the possessor, and Set B the transitive object and the intransitive subject. Set B follows the aspect marker and precedes the stem, so Q'anjob'al is a high-absolutive language. The aspect markers are clitics, completive (ma)x-, incompletive chi- and irrealis (ho)q-, unlike the auxiliaries of Chol. The alignment is ergative in every clause with a preverbal aspect marker, the incompletive included, and Set A marks every subject in a clause without one, such as the progressive with lanan. Mateo-Toledo's dissertation and Imanishi's comparison of the splits are the sources, and Coon, Mateo Pedro and Preminger give the paradigms.

Main declarations

• Qanjobal.setAExponent, Qanjobal.setBExponent: the Set A markers by the following segment and the Set B markers.
• Qanjobal.template, Qanjobal.assignCase: the verbal complex and the case of each argument by aspect.

Implementation notes

Set A on the subject of an aspectless clause is Alignment.extendedErgative, Coon's genitive rather than a nominative; the descriptive grammars call the pattern nominative-accusative. The case function sees aspect only, so the other aspectless contexts, purpose clauses and aspectless complements among them, lie outside it.

References

• [MT08]
• [Ima20]
• [CMPP14]
• [Coo13]

The verbal complex

def Qanjobal.template : Morphology.AffixTemplate Mayan.VerbSlot

The Q'anjob'al verbal complex has the aspect marker, Set B and Set A before the stem and the status suffix after it ([MT08]).

Equations

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

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

Q'anjob'al is ergative in every clause with a preverbal aspect marker, the imperfective chi- included, and puts Set A on every subject in clauses without one, of which the progressive with lanan is the one an aspect category names ([MT08], [Ima20]); the other aspectless contexts, purpose clauses and aspectless complements among them, lie outside the aspect vocabulary.

Equations

• Qanjobal.assignCase UD.Aspect.Prog = Alignment.extendedErgative
• Qanjobal.assignCase UD.Aspect.Perf = Alignment.ergative
• Qanjobal.assignCase UD.Aspect.Imp = Alignment.ergative
• Qanjobal.assignCase UD.Aspect.Prosp = Alignment.ergative
• Qanjobal.assignCase UD.Aspect.Hab = Alignment.ergative
• Qanjobal.assignCase UD.Aspect.Iter = Alignment.ergative

Person-number paradigm

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

Set A (ergative/possessive) markers by following-segment environment ([CMPP14] table (13)). The 3pl cells are discontinuous exponents: person prefix plus the free plural word heb'.

Equations

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

def Qanjobal.setBExponent : Mayan.ExponentTable

The Set B (absolutive) markers, suffixed to the aspect marker ([CMPP14] (13)), with a zero third person singular; the third person plural is the free plural word heb' alone.

Equations

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

theorem Qanjobal.p3sg_abs_null : Agreement.Paradigm.realize setBExponent (Agreement.Bundle.personNumber Person.third Number.singular) = some []

3rd person absolutive has zero exponence.

theorem Qanjobal.p3sg_erg_allomorphy : Agreement.Paradigm.realize (setAExponent Phonology.Segment.Class.consonant) (Agreement.Bundle.personNumber Person.third Number.singular) = some [Morphology.Morph.pref "s"] ∧ Agreement.Paradigm.realize (setAExponent Phonology.Segment.Class.vowel) (Agreement.Bundle.personNumber Person.third Number.singular) = some [Morphology.Morph.pref "y"]

3rd person ergative is s- pre-consonantally, y- pre-vocalically.