Acerca de las lenguas factivas: El sufijo –ta en yaqui.

Abstract

This article retraces the use of deverbative nouns (gerundive nominals) in two Mayan languages (Tojolabal and Kanjobal), as well as in Yaqui, a Uto–Aztec language, spoken in the Northern Mexican State of Sonora, and in Arizona, USA. It demonstrates that the Yaqui suffix –ta marks both the genitive and accusative functions. The three sequences possessor–possessed, direct object–verb, and noun–post-position, in which the first term receives the suffix –ta, are identical in their surface structure. Applying Hansjakob Seiler’s proposal on the complementary distribution of applicative and relational constructions in Cahuilla and German, the main argument claims that the suffix –ta transforms most of the transitive relational sentences into an applicative one. The use of a logical predicate ¥ proposed by Seiler explains the actual structures of these applicative, nominalized, sentences. The term “factive (gerundive nominal)” describes the actual use of gerundive nominals in Yaqui, and in some other Native languages from the Middle American region. In Yaqui, the suffix –ta also marks the subject of relational and subordinate clauses, as well as the subject and the object of causative and citation clauses.