A Historical Grammar of the Maya Language of Yucatan (1557-2000)
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(85c) dyèes déeh ʔáabril kóoh-ik-en
ten of April arrive-perf-1sg
‘it was on the tenth of April when I arrived’ (V. Bricker 1979a:268)
2.4.3. LOCATIVE ADVERBIAL FOCUS. Locative adverbials refer to where an action takes place. They include
particles like te ‘there,’ tolo ‘out there,’ vay ...-e ‘here,’ taba, tab-x, and tux, all meaning ‘where?,’ and num-
eral classifier compounds like hun=auat ‘one=shout’ and hun=lub ‘one league.’
The use of focused locative adverbials with transitive verbs in my Colonial database is limited to those
inflected for the imperfective and immediate past aspects, the ones whose suffixes are most similar to
the ones used in the Basic Word Order. However, the full suite of aspectual stem suffixes associated
with intransitive verbs in contexts with focused locative adverbials permits a more consistent compari-
son of their inflection for aspect and person with their behavior after manner ahd temporal adverbials in
Colonial times.
2.4.3.1. FOCUSED LOCATIVE ADVERBIALS WITH TRANSITIVE STEMS. The earliest example of a transitive
verb following a locative adverbial in my database was marked by the imperfective suffix, -ic. The adverbial
particle was tolo ‘out there,’ and it replaced the aspectual head word:
(86a) tolo a-ɔa-ic-Ø
out-there 2sg-give-impf-3sg
‘place it over there!’ (Ciudad Real 1600?: fol. 426r)
Later examples retained the incompletive particle:
(86b) ti c-in-ppat-ic-Ø ah-cumkal-i
there incompletive-1sg-leave-impf-3sg ag-Conkal-encl
‘there I leave [the land of] the Conkal people’ (Barrera Vásquez 1984:25, lines 158–159)
(86c) uay c-in-ppat-ic-Ø ah-cumkal-ob-la-e
here completive-1sg-leave-impf-3sg ag-Conkal-3pl-prox-encl
‘here I leave [the land of] these Conkal people’ (CHX-134)
There are no Colonial examples of such verbs following a locative adverbial that were also inflected for
the remote future.
452
SYNTAX AND DISCOURSE
The immediate past of transitive verbs in a focused locative adverbial context is represented by two
Colonial examples:
(87a) tab-x t-av-il-ah-Ø ix-nuc-ob
where-interrog completive-2sg-see-perf-3sg fem-woman-3pl
‘where did you see the old woman?’ (Gordon 1913:69)
(87b) lai cah-ob u-bin-ell-ob he=tux y-ol-ah-ob-e
det town-3pl 3sg-go-impf-3pl where=ever 3sg-heart-perf-3pl-encl
‘these people are the ones who were going wherever they pleased’ (HB783A-029A-C)
Both of them are preceded by locative interrogative pronouns (tab-x, he=tux). The completive clitic particle
appears in the first example, but not in the second.
There are no examples in my Colonial database of transitive verbs following locative adverbials that are
also inflected for the historical past.
The transition from Colonial to Modern Yucatec had essentially no effect on the inflection of imperfec-
tive transitives that followed locative adverbial particles:
(88a) le
túʔuš k-uy-il-(i)k-Ø-óʔob’ u-krusàar máak téʔe b’éeh lìinyá-oʔ
det where incompletive-3sg-see-impf-3sg-3pl 3sg-cross person there road line-dist
‘where they would see someone cross that [rail]road line there’ (V. Bricker 1981a:240, lines 693–694)
(88b) tíʔ k-u-ȼ’(á)-ik-Ø-óʔob’ le kàartá-oʔ
there incompletive-3sg-place-impf-3sg-3pl det letter-dist
‘there they placed that letter’ (V. Bricker 1981a:240, line 699)
(88c) túʔuš k-uy-il-(i)k-óʔon-óʔob’-oʔ b’ey u-ȼ’on-(i)k-óʔon-óʔob’
where incompletive-3sg-see-impf-1pl-3pl-dist thus 3sg-shoot-impf-1pl-3pl
‘wherever they see us, they shoot us’ (V. Bricker 1981a:241, lines 731–732)
The aspectual suffix associated with the remote future is -eh/-Ø for transitive verbs after locative adver-
bial particles in Modern Yucatec:
(89)
k-u-pul-(i)k-eč héʔe=túʔuš b’íin uy-óoh-t-Ø-Ø-eʔ
incompletive-3sg-hurl-impf-2sg where=ever future 3sg-heart-trans-subj-3sg-encl
‘he would hurl you wherever he pleased’ (V. Bricker 1981a:219, line 11)
The perfective stem of transitive verbs with focused locative adverbial particles is marked by -ah, con-
tinuing the pattern associated with the immediate past in Colonial Yucatec:
(90a) way t-uy-il-ah-Ø-eʔ
here completive-3sg-see-perf-3sg-encl
‘he saw it here’ (V. Bricker et al. 1998:301)
(90b) tíʔ-iʔ tíʔ t-kan-ah-Ø-iʔ
there-partit, there 1pl-learn-perf-3sg-partit
‘there, we learned it there’ (Blair and Vermont-Salas 1965:52)
SYNTAX AND DISCOURSE
453
2.4.3.2. FOCUSED LOCATIVE ADVERBIALS WITH INTRANSITIVE STEMS. The imperfective stem suffix for in-
transitive verbs after locative adverbials was -el in Colonial Yucatec:
(91a) te v-ben-el cumkal-e
there 3sg-go-impf Conkal-encl
‘there he goes to Conkal’ (Ciudad Real 1600?: fol. 415r)
(91b) hun=auat hun=lub u-tal-el
one=shout one=league 3sg-come-impf
‘for one shout, one league he comes’ (Gordon 1913:87)
The focused adverbial particle and numeral classifier phrases in these examples replaced the aspectual
particle that normally appeared in the Basic Word Order.
The focusing of locative adverbials with intransitive verbs inflected for the remote future with bin pro-
duced an ergative split that contrasted the first- and second-person subjects with the third and marked
them with the subjunctive suffix, -ebal:
(92a) lay be bin man-ebal-Ø procesion
det road future pass-subj-3sg procession
‘this is the road on which the procession will pass’ (Coronel 1620a:44)
(92b) ciac-ciac bin in-ben-ebal
here-there future 1sg-go-subj
‘I will go here and there’ (Ciudad Real 1600?: fol. 70v)
The same kind of ergative split characterized both the immediate and the historical pasts of intransitive
verbs preceded by locative adverbials. The following examples illustrate the use of the immediate past in
this focused context:
(93a) tab-x au-oc-il a-tal-ic
where-interrog 2sg-foot-nom 2sg-come-perf
‘from where have you come?’ (Ciudad Real 1600?: fol. 342r)
(93b) hal tan pay ca-tal-ic
edge presence beach 1pl-come-perf
‘next to the beach we have come’ (Ciudad Real 1600?: fol. 360r)
They are marked by the perfective suffix, -ic. The historical past of such intransitives was marked by the
perfective suffix, -ci:
(94a) ti hoo cah-ci-ob
prep Merida settle-perf-3pl
‘it was at Merida that they settled’ (XIU685-025D)
(94b) matuz a-bin-ci-ex-e
far 2sg-go-perf-2pl-encl
‘you-all went far from here’ (Ciudad Real 1600?: fol. 301r)
454
SYNTAX AND DISCOURSE
In the transition from Colonial to Modern Yucatec, bin ‘to go,’ man ‘to pass,’ and tal ‘to come’ lost the
use of -el as their imperfective suffix in the Basic Word Order. The imperfective examples, tàal and máan,
after the locative particles, téʔe ‘there’ and túʔuš ‘where,’ reflect this change:
(95a) téʔe k-u-tàal-Ø ȼ’òon-iʔ
there incompletive-3sg-come-impf gun-encl
‘guns were coming there’ (V. Bricker 1981a:227, line 1
40)
(95b) túʔuš k-u-máan-Ø máak túʔuš k-u-tàal-Ø
where incompletive-3sg-pass-impf person where incompletive-3sg-come-impf
‘where people passed, from where they came’ (V. Bricker 1981a:230, lines 273–274)
Another change is the retention of the incompletive aspect clitic particle, k, in such contexts (compare with
[91a–b]).
The -ebal suffix that marked subjunctive intransitive stems in adverbially focused contexts is no longer
in use, having been replaced by -ak. The remote future with b’íin also co-occurs with the -ak suffix in such
contexts:
(96)
tíʔ b’íin káʔa=čil-ak-en b’e=h(e)l-aʔ t-u-káʔa=tén-eʔ
there future twice=lie down-subj-1sg thus=today-prox prep-3sg-twice=time-encl
‘I’ll lie down there today again’ (Blair and Vermont-Salas 1967:676)
I have only one Modern example of a perfective intransitive stem in a locative adverbial context:
(97)
tíʔ k’áʔal-Ø-Ø le ȼ’òon-óʔob’-oʔ
there be locked up-perf-3sg det gun-3pl-dist
‘those guns were locked up there’ (V. Bricker 1981a:244, line 879)
The verb is passive and is marked with the same perfective suffix (-ih/-Ø) as intransitives in the Basic
Word Order, instead of the -ik suffix that marks perfective intransitives with focused manner and temporal
adverbials. The historical past had disappeared before the end of the Colonial period and for this reason is
not represented in any context in Modern Yucatec.
2.5. INFORMATION QUESTIONS. The placement of interrogative pronouns at the beginning of clauses
means that information questions represent a focused word order that distinguishes them from other
kinds of questions, in which the interrogative particle appears elsewhere in the clause (see 4. in Chap-
ter 14).
The principal interrogative pronouns in Colonial Yucatec were bal or bal-x ‘what?,’ bahun or bahun-x
‘how many?, how long?,’ bic-x ‘how?,’ bikin, bikin-x, or biy=kin-x ‘when?,’ hay ‘how many?, mac or mac-x
‘who?,’ and tab, taba, tab-x, or tub-x ‘where?’ (see 8. In Chapter 4).
The inflection of the transitive verbs that follow the interrogatives that refer to “who?” and “what?”
agrees with the rules for agent- and patient-focused clauses described in 2.1. and 2.2. above. The following examples contrast the inflection of perfective agent- and patient-focus transitive stems with the interrogatives, mac and mac-x ‘who?’:
SYNTAX AND DISCOURSE
455
(98a) mac _ el-ez-Ø-Ø (in)v-otoch
who _ burn-caus-subj-3sg 1sg-home
‘who set my home on fire?’ (Ciudad Real 1600?: fol. 164r)
(98b) mac-x t-au-il-ah-Ø ti be
who-interrog completive-2sg-see-perf-3sg prep road
‘whom did you see on the road?’ (Gordon 1913:69)
The agent-focus example in (98a) lacks the aspectual and clitic pronominal particles, as well as the perfec-
tive suffix (-ah), that are present in the patient-focus example in (98b), agreeing perfectly with declarative
examples of such clauses.
Similar characteristics distinguish agent- and patient-focus information questions introduced by bal-x
‘what?’:
(99a) bal-x _ ɔa-ic-Ø tech
what-interrog _ give-impf-3sg to-you
‘what does it do for you?’ (Ciudad Real 1600?: fol. 48r)
(99b) bal-x c-a-pac(at)-t-ic-Ø
what-interrog incompletive-2sg-sight-trans-impf-3sg
‘what are you looking at?’ (Ciudad Real 1600?: fol. 355r)
The transitive stems in these examples share the suffix, -ic, because the agent- and patient-focus stems
are both inflected for the imperfective aspect; they are distinguished by the use of the incompletive and
pronominal clitic particles in (99b), but not in (99a), as was also the case with the interrogative clauses
beginning with mac and mac-x ‘who?’ in (98a–b) above.
The examples that follow show that passive and intransitive questions introduced by bal-x ‘what?’ also
lack aspectual head words, but take the imperfective and perfective suffixes normally associated with such
verbs:
(100a) bal-x _ v-kat-b-al tech-e
what-interrog _ 3sg-ask-ps-impf to-you-encl
‘what is being asked of you?’ (Ciudad Real 1600?: fol. 239v)
(100b) bal-x _ vch-i-Ø tech ti be
what-interrog _ happen-perf-3sg to-you prep road
‘what happened to you on the road?’ (Ciudad Real 1600?: fol. 445r)
Information questions introduced by bikin and biy=kin-x ‘when?’ and taba or tab-x ‘where?’ also lack
aspectual head words:
(101a) bikin _ a-bo(l)-t-ic-Ø a-ppax
when _ 2sg-payment-trans-impf-3sg 2sg-debt
‘when are you going to pay your debts?’ (Ciudad Real 1600?: fol. 52r)
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SYNTAX AND DISCOURSE
(101b) bikin _ a-cħab-Ø-Ø a-cħup-(u)l-il
when _ 2sg-take-subj-3sg 2sg-woman-nom-abstr
‘when will you marry? [literally, when might you take your wife?]’ (Ciudad Real 1600?: fol. 52r)
(101c) biy=kin-x _ v-tal-el a-yum
thus=day-interrog _ 3sg-come-impf 2sg-father
‘when is your father coming?’ (Ciudad Real 1600?: fol. 408r)
(101d) tab-x _ a-ben-el
where-interrog _ 2sg-go-impf
‘where are you going?’ (Ciudad Real 1600?: fol. 396r)
(101e) tab-x _ v-mal-Ø padre
where-interrog _ 3sg-pass-impf priest
‘where does the priest pass?’ (Ciudad Real 1600?: fol. 290v)
(101f) taba _ a-cħacat-ah-Ø noh be
where _ 2sg-cross-perf-3sg big road
‘where did you cross the highway?’ (Ciudad Real 1600?: fol. 151r)
However, the manner adverbial interrogative particle, bic-x ‘how?,’ can occur with or without an aspec-
tual head word:
(102a) bic-x _ v-mal-el kin tech
how-interrog _ 3sg-pass-impf time to-you
‘how is your life going?’ (Ciudad Real 1600?: fol. 291r)
(102b) bic-x bin av-utz-cin-ic-Ø-lo
how-interrog fut 2sg-good-caus-impf-3sg-dist
‘how will you improve that?’ (Ciudad Real 1600?: fol. 437r)
The example in (102b) resembles the patient-focus information question introduced by mac-x in the exam-
ple below:
(102c) mac-x bin in-ɔa-ic-Ø-e
who-interrog fut 1sg-give-impf-3sg-encl
‘to whom will I give it?’ (Ciudad Real 1600?: fol. 281r)
The aspectual head word, bin, that refers to the future appears in both cases because the agent is not the
focus of either example.
Two kinds of interrogatives refer to quantities: (1) bahun and bahun-x ‘how many?, how much?’ and
(2) hay ‘how many?,’ the interrogative that co-occurs with numeral classifiers. The following examples of
bahun and bahun-x illustrate their multiple uses:
(103a) bahun-x v-ben-el
how-many-interrog 3sg-go-impf
‘how many are lacking?’ (Ciudad Real 1600?: fol. 41r)
SYNTAX AND DISCOURSE
457
(103b) bahun vinic-ob t-av-il-ah-Ø ti be
how-many person-3pl completive-2sg-see-perf-3sg prep road
‘how many people did you see on the road?’ (Ciudad Real 1600?: fol. 41v)
(103c) bahun-x takin a-çam-t-ah-Ø ti be
how-much-interrog money 2sg-expense-trans-perf-3sg prep road
‘how much money did you spend on the road?’ (Ciudad Real 1600?: fol. 97v)
(103d) bahun-x a-man-ci-
Ø tzimin
how-much-interrog 2sg-buy-perf-3sg horse
‘for how much did you buy the horse?’ (Ciudad Real 1600?: fol. 293r)
The examples in (103b–c) behave like patient-focus information questions, in which the patient (vinic-ob
‘people,’ takin ‘money’) immediately follows the interrogative expression. The transitive verb in (103d) is
marked with the perfective suffix (-ci) used in adverbial focus clauses, contrasting in this respect with the
perfective transitives in (103b–c).
The other interrogative meaning ‘how many?’ is hay, which co-occurs with numeral classifiers (see
Chapter 9). The numeral classifiers in the following examples are tul ‘animate’ and kaan ‘length’:
(104a) hay-tul a-mehen-ob
how-many-nc 2sg-son-3pl
‘how many sons do you have?’ (Ciudad Real 1600?: fol. 173r)
(104b) hay-kaan a-col
how-many-nc 2sg-cornfield
‘how many lengths is your cornfield?’ (Ciudad Real 1600?: fol. 237v)
For Modern Yucatec, it was possible to elicit minimal pairs that clarified the relationship between agent-
and patient-focus information questions (V. Bricker 1979b:122):
(105a) máaš _ ʔil-ik-en
who _ see-impf-1sg
‘who sees me?’
(105b) máaš k-aw-il-ik-Ø
who incompletive-2sg-see-impf-3sg
‘whom do you see?’
(105c) máaš _ ʔil-Ø-en
who _ see-subj-1sg
‘who saw me?’
(105d) máaš t-aw-il-ah-Ø
who completive-2sg-see-perf-3sg
‘whom did you see? ‘
458
SYNTAX AND DISCOURSE
The principal difference between the agent-focus questions in (105a) and (105c) and the patient-focus
questions in (105b) and (105d) is that there are no aspectual or clitic pronominal particles in the agent-
focus examples, which are present in the patient-focus examples.
The Hocaba dictionary of Modern Yucatec contains additional examples of agent-focus questions that
lack aspectual and clitic pronominal particles, with máaš ‘who?’ as the interrogative pronoun:
(106a) máaš ʔak-táan-t-Ø-Ø teč š-č’úup-al
who ?-presence-trans-subj-3sg to-you fem-girl-nom
‘who accompanied you, girl?’ (V. Bricker et al. 1998:2)
(106b) máaš híiȼ’-t-Ø-Ø (l)e púuȼ’ tíʔ (l)e nòok’-aʔ
who extract-trans-subj-3sg det needle prep det cloth-prox