A Historical Grammar of the Maya Language of Yucatan (1557-2000)
Page 68
Input
Output
Gloss
Examples
(93a) b’ey laʔ
b’ey _aʔ
like this
(28b)
b’ey loʔ
b’ey _oʔ
like that
(28d)
3. SUMMARY OF CHANGES IN DEICTIC PARTICLES THROUGH TIME
The principal changes that have taken place in deictic particles since the sixteenth century involve the
reduction of the terminal deictics, la and lo, to aʔ and oʔ, respectively, and the raising of medial /a/ before
final /y/ in initial deictics (bay, lay, uay) to /e/ (b’ey, ley, wey). The second set of changes began during the
second half of the seventeenth century and are still in progress today, the replacement of way by wey
already completed in some towns but not others.
NOTES
1. During a visit to Yucatan in 1979, while I was living in Ebtun, my colleague, Munro Edmonson, observed
that the Maya who populated the region around Merida (e.g., in Hocaba and Telchaquillo) seemed to
use these demonstrative pronouns more often than the Maya in the region around Valladolid (e.g.,
in Ebtun and Chan Kom), where letíʔ ‘this one’ and le héʔelaʔ ‘the one here’ seemed to have the same
function as le laʔ (V. Bricker 1979a:112,115).
2. Although only rarely represented orthographically, the vowel hiatus resulting from the concatenation
of phonetic [laʔ] and [loʔ] with [eʔ] was resolved by inserting a glide between [aʔ] or [oʔ] and [eʔ]:
(a) bal oc laie
‘what does this mean?’ (Ciudad Real 1600?:fol. 46v)
(b) he oc laye
‘this means ...’ (Ciudad Real 1600?:fol. 340v)
(c) ma tun v ɔa tac hele laye
‘then he does not give it even today’ (XOC782)
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DEICTIC PARTICLES
(d) bal oc t a vayil tħanex loie
‘what does that mean in your language here?’ (Ciudad Real 1600?:fol. 340v)
(e) hi=mac yacunic y etel ɔaic v ba t u pec=oltzilil babale ah çatal loye
‘whoever loves and exposes himself to dangerous things, he will perish in that!’ (Ciudad Real
1600?:fol. 371r)
3. The Book of Chilam Balam of Tizimin has 21 examples of lei, 103 examples of lai, and 2 examples of lay
(V. Bricker 1990b:224–227), which is consistent with the late eighteenth-century date of the surviving
version of the manuscript. (The Book of Chilam Balam of Chumayel has 308 examples of lay and no
examples of lei or ley [V. Bricker 1990a:297–302].)
4. There is one example of bey in a document originating in Ebtun in 1840 that is not part of the Titles of
Ebtun:
bey xan c uy alic D.n Lusyano Denis
‘thus also, Don Luciano Denis says it’
However, neither ley nor lay nor any of their variants appears in this document.
5. This ai combination change to ei was not a global change in the grammar. It was triggered only in the
deixis domain. Nor was there a parallel change of au combinations to ou in the grammar. I am aware
of only two such changes, namely from Colonial Yucatec chauac ‘long’ and chacau ‘hot, warm’ to čowak
‘long’ and čokow ‘hot, warm’ in Modern Yucatec.
CHAPTER 16
SYNTAX AND DISCOURSE
Chapters 4 through 15 have dealt with the morphological structures of Colonial and Modern Yucatec that
underlie the syntax and discourse patterns in this language. Among the topics considered in this chapter
are the Basic Word Order and the departures from it, especially several kinds of focused constructions and
topicalization, and their functions in discourse.
My analysis of syntactic examples from Colonial and Modern Yucatec is represented in two ways: first
by a line of the Maya text with the morpheme boundaries indicated by hyphens, equal signs, and juncture,
followed by a line of text with the roots glossed in English and the prefixes, suffixes, clitics, and enclitics
labelled in terms of their function (Table 16-1). They, in turn, are followed by a free translation of the examples in English (explanatory notes appear between square brackets, if necessary).
1. BASIC WORD ORDER
The Basic Word Order in both Colonial and Modern Yucatec is Verb-Object-Subject in transitive clauses and
Verb-Subject in intransitive clauses. However, as already explained in 1.1. and 5.1. in Chapter 5, both dialects of the language have a split ergative pattern of pronominal inflection, and it would be more accurate
to describe the Basic Word Order of transitive clauses as Verb-Patient-Agent.
Table 16-1. Abbreviation conventions.
abstr abstractive
imper imperative
pperf
present perfect
ag agentive
impf imperfective
prep preposition
aj adjectival
inch inchoative
prox proximal
ap antipassive
interrog interrogative
ps passivizer
clas
classifier
masc
masculine classifier
rel
relative pronoun
caus causativizer
nc
numeral classifier
sg singular
defut
definite future
nom nominal
subj subjunctive
det determiner
partic participle
top topicalizer
dist distal
partit partitive
trans transitivizer
dstpl
distributive plural
perf perfective
usat usative
dubit dubitative
pl plural
voc vocative
encl enclitic
pos positional
fem
feminine classifier
pot potential
423
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SYNTAX AND DISCOURSE
1.1. BASIC WORD ORDER IN TRANSITIVE CLAUSES. An example of the use of both nominal arguments in
Colonial Yucatec appears below:
(1)
tan u-ɔa-ic-Ø u-han-al-ob hal-ach vinic
durative 3sg-give-impf-3sg 3sg-food-nom-3pl truth-aj person
‘the chief is giving them their food’ (Gordon 1913:38)
However, such sentences are rare in Maya discourse. Once the nominal agent and patient have been
specified, only one of them is usually mentioned, as in the following example that directly follows the one
quoted in (1):
(2)
tan-ix v-kat-ic-Ø v-han-al ti-ob xan
durative-and 3sg-request-impf-3sg 3sg-food-nom prep-3pl also
‘and he requests their food from them too’ (Gordon 1913:38)
In this case, only the nominal patient of the verb is mentioned, not the nominal agent, but the noun is fol-
lowed by an indirect object marked by the third-person plural suffix on the preposition, a contraction of ti
letiob ‘from them.’
In the next example, the indirect object, ton ‘to us,’ appears directly after the transitive verb, ɔa ‘to
give,’ instead of following the direct object, in this case the nominal phrase, u yabal lob ‘much harm,’ sug-
gesting that the placement of the indirect object is variable:
(3)
ca t-hop-i-Ø u ɔa-ic-Ø ton u-yab-al lob
and completive-begin-perf-3sg 3sg-give-impf-3sg to-us 3sg-much-nom harm
‘and he began to give us much harm’ (HB784C-207D-E)
The Calepino de Motul contains another example of a transit
ive verb followed by a nominal patient:
(4)
bin a-ppo-Ø-ob a-nok çamal
future 2sg-wash-subj-3pl 2sg-clothes tomorrow
‘you will wash your clothes tomorrow’ (Ciudad Real 1600?: fol. 257v)
In this case, the noun is followed by the adverbial particle, çamal ‘tomorrow.’ Adverbs appear at the end of
clauses in the Basic Word Order in Colonial and Modern Yucatec.
The nominal patient in another transitive clause is followed by a deictic enclitic:
(5)
ma v-teel a-cħa-ic-Ø v-hel huun-la
not 3sg-benefit 2sg-take-impf-3sg 3sg-other letter-prox
‘it is not necessary that you take a reply to this letter’ (Ciudad Real 1600?: fol. 452r)
Nominal agents may also appear alone in transitive clauses:
(6)
v-key-ah-en batab
3sg-scold-perf-1sg leader
‘the leader scolded me’ (Ciudad Real 1600?: fol. 244r)
SYNTAX AND DISCOURSE
425
Whenever nouns representing both the patient and the agent co-occur with the transitive verb in the Basic
Word Order, it is understood that the first noun that follows the verb is the patient, and the second is the
agent. However, when only one nominal argument is represented in a transitive clause, and the verb is
inflected with both third-person prefix and suffix, then it may not be clear whether the single nominal argu-
ment refers to the agent or the patient. This is the case in (2), but there the noun refers to an inanimate
object (hanal ‘food’), whereas the verb (kat ‘to request’) implies an animate agent. Therefore, the single
noun that follows the noun must refer to the patient, not the agent.
The manifestations of the Basic Word Order in Modern Yucatec are similar to those in Colonial Yucatec.
The example in (7) contains the nominal agent (h-pèedroh) and patient (b’áʔal), as well as an indirect
object (ten):
(7)
t-uy-áʔal-ah-Ø ten b’áʔal h-pèedroh
completive-3sg-say-perf-3sg to-me thing masc-Peter
‘Peter offended me [literally, Peter said something to me]’ (V. Bricker et al. 1998:4)
The agent is missing in the next example, but the single noun refers to an inanimate object (tàak’in ‘money’)
after a verb that implies an agent (ȼ’a ‘to give’), indicating that the stated noun is the patient, not the agent,
of the clause:
(8)
táan u-ȼ’a-ik-Ø ten tàak’in
durative 3sg-give-impf-3sg to-me money
‘he is giving me money’ (V. Bricker et al. 1998:47)
As in Colonial Yucatec, the placement of the indirect object is not limited to the position directly after the
transitive verb, but can also follow the nominal patient (in this case in a deictic le ... aʔ frame):
(9)
yan im-bis-ik-Ø le b’áʔal-aʔ tíʔ im-papah
compulsive 1sg-take-impf-3sg det thing-prox prep 1sg-father
‘I must take this thing to my father’ (Blair and Vermont-Salas 1965:93)
The following minimal pair documents the variable placement of the indirect object in Modern Yucatec
(Blair and Vermont-Salas 1965:155):
(10a) t-u-n ȼol-ik-Ø wá-b’áʔaš tíʔ le š-č’úup-al-oʔ
durative-3sg explain-impf-3sg some-thing to det fem-girl-nom-dist
‘he’s explaining something to that girl’
(10b) t-u-n ȼol-ik-Ø tíʔ le š-č’úup-al-oʔ wá-b’áʔaš
durative-3sg explain-impf-3sg to det fem-girl-nom-dist some-thing
‘he’s explaining something to that girl’
And the next example illustrates the placement of a temporal adverb (b’e=h[e]láʔeʔ ‘today’) at the end of a
transitive clause:
(11)
t-in-hàan-t-ah-Ø hum p’éel š-b’úʔul-iʔ k’éʔek’en b’e=h(e)l-áʔ-eʔ
completive-1sg-food-trans-perf-3sg one-thing clas-bean-? pig thus=today-prox-encl
‘I ate one serving of pork and beans today’ (V. Bricker et al. 1998:48)
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SYNTAX AND DISCOURSE
1.2. BASIC WORD ORDER IN INTRANSITIVE CLAUSES. The following clause contains the intransitive root, ah
‘to awaken,’ followed by the nominal subject, cab ‘earth’:
(12)
ca tun ah-i-Ø cab
and then awaken-perf-3sg earth
‘and then the earth awakened’ (Gordon 1913:244)
The noun is followed by a temporal adverb in the next clause:
(13)
bin-Ø-Ø v-sucun-ob vch-i
go-perf-3sg 3sg-older brother-3pl happen-perf
‘their older brothers went long ago’ (DZ651B-110)
The same Basic Word Order occurs in Modern Yucatec. The nominal subject follows the intransitive
verb below:
(14)
ȼ’-uy-ah-al aw-íiȼ’in
terminative-3sg-awaken-impf 2sg-younger sibling
‘your brother has woken up’ (Blair and Vermont-Salas 1965:93)
In the next example, the nominal subject appears in a deictic frame:
(15)
ȼ’óʔok u-hóok’-ol u-t’àan le čan š-č’úup-al-oʔ
terminative 3sg-emerge-impf 3sg-word det little fem-girl-nom-dist
‘that little girl has learned how to talk [literally, the words of that little girl have come out]’ (V. Bricker
et al. 1998:109)
A verb of motion may be followed by a noun specifying a destination:
(16)
k-u b’in-Ø šóokempìič le b’eh héʔel-aʔ
incompletive-3sg-go-impf destination det road demonstrative-prox
‘does this road go to Xocempich?’ (Blair and Vermont-Salas 1965:275)
The same Basic Word Order, Verb-Subject, characterizes clauses containing passive and antipassive
verbs. Because mediopassive verbs take the same inflectional affixes as root intransitives, they will not be
discussed further here.
1.2.1. BASIC WORD ORDER IN PASSIVE CLAUSES. When a transitive verb is passivized, the former patient
becomes the subject of the passive verb, and the former agent may be moved into a prepositional phrase
after the subject. This word order is illustrated by the following examples in Colonial Yucatec:
(17a) haatz-i-Ø v-baal v-ba ca-yum t-u-men justicia
be divided-perf-3sg 3sg-thing 3sg-self 1pl-father prep-3sg-deed justice
‘the estate of our father was divided by the court’ (Ciudad Real 1600?: fol. 205r)
SYNTAX AND DISCOURSE
427
(17b) ti paax-i-Ø in-pol t-u-men Juan
completive be broken-perf-3sg 1sg-head prep-3sg-deed John
‘my head was broken by John’ (Ciudad Real 1600?: fol. 369r)
(17c) paay-i-Ø v-cux-tal in-yum t-u-men Dios
be called-perf-3sg 3sg-life-pos 1sg-father prep-3sg-deed God
‘my father’s life was called by God [i.e., he died]’ (Ciudad Real 1600?: fol. 360r)
(17d) he tun t-u-hopp-ol v-piɔ-b-il tanam
here then durative-3sg-begin-impf 3sg-gin-ps-impf cotton
‘here, then, cotton begins to be ginned
t-u-men cħup-l-al-e
prep-3sg-deed woman-nom-nom-encl
by women’ (Ciudad Real 1600?: fol. 375v)
(17e) puk-i-Ø in-pucçikal t-u-men v-tħan xib-l-al
be melted-perf-3sg 1sg-heart prep-3sg-deed 3sg-word man-nom-nom
‘my heart was melted by the man’s words’ (Ciudad Real 1600?: fol. 384r)
Passive clauses have the same structure in Modern Yucatec:
(18a) ȼ’óʔok u-hóʔok’-ol uy-òok š-maruč t-u-mèen h-pèedroh
terminative 3sg-be tied loosely-impf 3sg-foot fem-Mary prep-3s
g-deed masc-Peter
‘Mary is engaged to Peter [literally, Mary’s foot has been tied loosely by Peter]’ (V. Bricker et al.
1998:109)
(18b) ȼ’óʔok u-šéʔe-b’-el in-nòok’ t-u-mèen le pèek’-oʔ
terminative 3sg-vomit-ps-impf 1sg-dress prep-3sg-deed det dog-dist
‘my dress has been vomited on by that dog’ (V. Bricker et al. 1998:256)
(18c) táan u-šìiʔ-kun-t-áʔal h-pèedroh t-u-mèen u-čìič
durative 3sg-man-caus-trans-ps-impf masc-Peter prep-3sg-deed 3sg-grandmother
‘Peter is being made a man by his grandmother’ (V. Bricker et al. 1998:257)
The nominal subject is not always mentioned in such clauses in Modern Yucatec:
(19a) ȼ’óʔok uy-ič-t-áʔal t-u-mèen h-wàan
terminative 3sg-eye-trans-ps prep-3sg-deed masc-John
‘she has been adored by John’ (V. Bricker et al. 1998:11)
(19b) máʔak’-Ø-Ø t-u-mèen kisin
be licked-perf-3sg prep-3sg-deed devil
‘he was licked by the Devil [i.e., killed]’ (V. Bricker et al. 1998:178)
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SYNTAX AND DISCOURSE
(19c) č’íʔin-Ø-Ø t-u-mèen h-wàan
be thrown-impf-3sg prep-3sg-deed masc-Juan
‘he was thrown by John’ (V. Bricker et al. 1998:84)
Nor is the agent always mentioned in passive clauses in Modern Yucatec:
(20a) k-u-kóʔon-ol ʔìis way-eʔ
incompletive-3sg-be sold-impf sweet potato here-encl
‘sweet potatoes are sold here’ (elicitation notes 1979)
(20b) k-uy-úuȼ-kíin-s-áʔal č’òoy way-eʔ
incompletive-3sg-good-caus-caus-ps-impf bucket here-encl
‘buckets are repaired here’ (elicitation notes 1979)
These clauses end with the adverbial particle, wayeʔ ‘here.’
1.2.2. BASIC WORD ORDER IN ANTIPASSIVE CLAUSES. The structure of antipassive clauses is similar to that
of passive clauses, except that it is the patient, not the agent, that is deleted from the verb, and the nomi-
nal patient is sometimes moved into an oblique phrase after the verb. In the following examples from the
Calepino de Motul, the noun representing the former patient appears after the preposition ti:
(21a) bax v-chun a-hak-Ø ti takin
what 3sg-reason 2sg-value-ap prep money
‘why do you value money?’ (Ciudad Real 1600?: fol. 174v)
(21b) bool-n-Ø-en
ti han-al