draft manuscript - Linguistics - University of California, Berkeley

2.2.3 Verbal Morphology
In this section we turn to a discussion of Omagua verbal morphology. Unlike the nominal domain,
verbal morphology consists of a broader combination of suffixes and enclitics. We analyze
the Omagua verb phrase as consisting of a number of morphologically fixed positions, occupied by
functionally distinct suffixes and clitics. A leftmost preverbal position is filled by free pronouns or
referential NPs that encode the person and number of an argument. This position is followed by
a morphologically independent negator, and then an additional position that is filled by pronominal
proclitics that encode the person and number of an argument. Typically, only one preverbal
argument position is filled, although doubling may occur with information-structurally marked interpretations.
A series of suffixal positions follow the verb, and these may be filled by activizer, causative,
iterative, reciprocal, attenuative, completive, distributive and progressive morphemes (see Michael
et al. (in prep) for details). With the exception of the causative and the progressive, the remaining
suffixes are unattested in the ecclesiastical texts and do not participate in this sketch. Furthermore,
there is good evidence to believe that the progressive marker had a different distribution within the
VP in Old Omagua (and in Proto-Omagua-Kokama) than in the modern language (see below).
Following the set of verbal suffixes comes a position that may be filled by pronominal proclitics
that encode the person and number of an argument (the object). This is followed by a set of enclitics
that encode direction/position, tense, modality and function as clause-linkers. 32 An additional
argument position appears to the right of all enclitics, which may be filled by free pronouns or
referential NPs. Doubling of morphemes in these two postverbal argument positions does not
occur, as it does for those in the two preverbal positions.
These positions and the functions of the morphemes that occupy them may be summarized as in
Table 2.6. 33 Dots indicate that, synchronically, additional positions exist between the morphemes
that bracket those dots, but which are outside the scope of this work. Note that we assume such
morphemes to have existed in Old Omagua, as they are also attested in Kokama-Kokamilla.
Table 2.6: Modern Omagua Verb Phrase Structure
pers neg pers= v ... -caus ... -prog pers= =dir =tns =mod pers
Lastly, it is important to note that the Old Omagua imperfective marker =aRi was a clitic that
followed clitics encoding direction. Since the time at which these texts were written, =aRi has
become a bound affix -aRi that appears in the rightmost suffixal position and encodes a narrower
range of semantic distinctions (see §2.2.3.1.2).
In what follows we review tense, aspect and mood (§2.2.3.1), and derivational morphology
(§2.2.3.2), including a causative, applicative and a series of nominalizers. As mentioned above, a
wider set of verbal morphology exists in modern Omagua than is attested in the ecclesiastical texts,
and much of this falls outside the scope of this chapter (see Michael et al. (in prep)). Additionally,
some verbal morphology falls outside the scope suggested by the schema in Table 2.6, and we discuss
the distribution of those morphemes on a case-by-case basis.
32 Enclitics that encode directional and positional semantics are analyzed as serial verb constructions in Michael et al.
(in prep). We do not discuss that analysis here for issues of space.
33 pers = person; neg = negation; V = verb; caus = causative; prog = progressive; dir = direction; tns = tense;
mod = modality.
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