The usual suspects

In the grammaticalization of verbs, a small group of lexical verbs is particularly prominent, invariably found on the short-list of ‘light verbs’ (Wilson 1999) that display peculiar grammatical properties. This chapter describes the behavior of a small group of such verbs in Ute. In addition to the properties noted above, these verbs in Ute display one conspicuous morphotactic irregularity: Unlike most lexical verbs that appear as the first element in the verbal word, these usual suspects can only appear as the second (or last) element in the complex verbal word. That is, in the characteristic position of Ute verbal suffixes.