Cover not available

Article published In: Studies in Language
Vol. 49:1 (2025) ► pp.1–43

Get fulltext from our e-platform
JBE logo with link
PDF logo with download linkDownload PDF
EPUB logo with download linkDownload EPUB
authorization required

Inflection class interactions and valency changes in Matlatzinca

ORCiD logo with link | CEMCA, CNRS
 | CIESAS
Published online: 6 May 2024
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/sl.23018.pal
Abstract
In this paper, we explore how changes in the inflection class membership of verbs in Matlatzinca (Oto-Pamean, Oto-Manguean, Mexico) lead to changes in both their valency and meaning. In Matlatzinca, verbs often exhibit multiple class membership so that a given verb may be inflected as transitive in one class but as intransitive in another. For instance, the verb chun+ta, when inflected in different classes, can encompass diverse meanings: the action of ‘waking someone up’; the result state of ‘being awake’; and the spontaneous event of ‘waking up’. This linguistic phenomenon is intriguing from both a typological and a theoretical perspective as it challenges our understanding of lexical representation by prompting the question of whether these meanings represent distinct lexical entries or various construals of the same verb (Spencer, Andrew. 2013. Lexical relatedness. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar).
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Morphological properties of the classes
  • 3.Data and methodology
  • 4.Class B verbs
    • 4.1Unpaired verbs of Class B as media tantum verbs
    • 4.2Pairs involving a Class B verb and a transitive verb
    • 4.3A transitive extension of Class B
    • 4.4Productivity of pairs involving a Class B verb and a transitive verb
  • 5.Class A verbs
  • 6.Discussion
    • 6.1How to interpret the pairings?
    • 6.2Typological correlates to Matlatzinca
    • 6.3The diachrony of Class III and Class B
  • 7.Conclusions
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • Abbreviations
  • References
References (38)
References
Anderson, Stephen R. 1992. A-morphous morphology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Apóstol Polanco, Jair. 2014. Clases flexivas verbales en el amuzgo de Xochistlahuaca, Guerrero. Mexico City: CIESAS, Mexico MA thesis.
Aronoff, Mark. 1994. Morphology by itself. MIT Press.Morphology by itself: Stems and inflection classes. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bauer, Laurie & Salvador Valera Hernández. 2005. Approaches to conversion / zero-derivation. Münster: Waxmann.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bonami, Olivier. 2015. Periphrasis as collocation. Morphology 251. 63–110. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Booij, Geert. 2010. Construction morphology. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cazes, Daniel. 1971. La lengua Maclasinca de Nsampaanchu, San Francisco Oxtotilpan. Journal de la Societé des Americanistes 601.191–232. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Chamoreau, Claudine. 2015. Hacia una tipología de construcciones antipasivas en lenguas nominativo-acusativas: evidencia en lenguas mesoamericanas. Amerindia 37(2). 229–258.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Dixon, R. M. W. & Alexandra Y. Aikhenvald. 2000. Changing valency: Case studies in transitivity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Dressler, Wolfgang U. 1989. Prototypical differences between inflection and derivation. Zeitschrift für Phonetik, Sprachwissenschaft und Kommunikationsforschung 42(1). 3–10. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Haspelmath, Martin. 1993. More on the typology of inchoative/causative verb alternations. In Bernard Comrie & Maria Polinsky (eds.), Causatives and transitivity, 87–121. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hernández-Green, Néstor. 2019. Inflectional verb classes in Acazulco Otomi. Amerindia 411. 273–322. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kaufman, Terrence. 1994. Proto-Zapotec reconstructions. Unpublished MS.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Keenan, Edward L. 1985. Passive in the world’s languages. In Timothy Shopen (ed.), Language typology and syntactic description, volume I. Clause structure, 243–281. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kemmer, Suzanne. 1993. The middle voice. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Maldonado, Ricardo. 2006. A media voz. Problemas conceptuales del clítico ‘se’. Mexico: UNAM. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1988. Energetic Reflexives in Spanish. Proceedings of the Fourteenth Annual Meeting of the Berkeley Linguistics Society (1988). 153–165. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Martínez Ortega, Aileen P. 2012. Clases verbales, transitividad y valencia verbal en el pjekakjó, tlahuica de San Juan Atzingo. Mexico City: EI Colegio de México PhD dissertation.
Operstein, Natalie & Aaron H. Sonnenschein. 2015. Introduction: A closer look at Zapotec. In Natalie Operstein & Aaron H. Sonnenschein (eds.), Valence changes in Zapotec: Synchrony, diachrony, typology, 7–22. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Operstein, Natalie. 2015a. Verb inflection and valence in Zapotec. In Natalie Operstein & Aaron H. Sonnenschein (eds.), Valence changes in Zapotec: Synchrony, diachrony, typology, 323–344. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2015ba. Valence-altering operations in Zapotec. In Natalie Operstein & Aaron H. Sonnenschein (eds.), Valence changes in Zapotec: Synchrony, diachrony, typology, 23–54. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Palancar, Enrique L. 2004. Middle Voice in Otomi. International Journal of American Linguistics 70(1). 52–85. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2006. Middle Voice and Intransitivity in Otomi. Linguistics 43(1). 613–643. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2011. Revisiting the conjugation classes of Eastern Highlands Otomi. STUF – Language Typology and Universals 64(3). 213–236. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2012. The conjugation classes of Tilapa Otomi: An approach from canonical typology. Linguistics 50(4). 783–832. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Palancar, Enrique L. & Timothy Feist. 2015. Agreeing with subjects in number: the rare split of Amuzgo inflection. Linguistic Typology 19(3). 337–383. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Palancar, Enrique L. & Leonardo Carranza Martínez. 2022. The conjugations of Matlatzinca. International Journal of American Linguistics 88(3). 361–409. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Sadler, Lisa. & Andrew Spencer. 1998. Morphology and argument structure. In Andrew Spencer & Arnold Zwicky (éds.), The Handbook of Morphology, 206–236. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Salo, Merja. 2006. The derivational passive and reflexive in Mari grammars. Slavica Helsingiensia 271. 328–340.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Smith-Stark, Thomas C. 2002. Las clases verbales del zapoteco de Chichicapan. In Rosa María Ortiz Ciscomani & Zarina Estrada Fernández (eds.), VI Encuentro Internacional de Lingüística en el Noroeste: Memorias, Vol. II1, 165–212. Hermosillo, Sonora: UniSON.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Spencer, Andrew. 2013. Lexical relatedness. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Stump, Gregory. T. 2006. Heteroclisis and paradigm linkage. Language 821. 279–322. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Valera Hernández, Salvador. 2023. The semantics of noun-to-verb zero-derivation in English and Spanish. Zeitschrift für Sprachwissenschaft 42(1). 153–180. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Walther, G. 2011a. A derivational account for Sorani Kurdish passives. Paper read at the International Conference on Iranian Linguistics, June 17–19 2011.
2011b. Measuring Morphological Canonicity. Linguistica 511. 157–180. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2013. Sur la canonicité en morphologie: perspective empirique, formelle et computationnelle. Paris: Université Paris 7 Denis Diderot PhD dissertation.
Wright Carr, David C. 1997. El papel de los otomíes en las culturas del Antiplano Central: 5000 a.C-1650 d.C. Relaciones, Estudios de Historia y Sociedad 721. 225–242.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cited by (1)

Cited by one other publication

Herce, Borja
2025. Central Pame verbal inflection. Studies in Language 49:2 ► pp. 412 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 2 december 2025. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.

Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue