Tolowa reflexives

[Tom Givon]

Dear FUNK people,


A while back Vic Golla commented on my suggestion, in a previous note,
that in Tolowa Athabascan reflexive clause, the agent retains the
subject/nominative grammatical role. At the time I was away from my
Tolowa files, so I could not respond properly, tho in private I conceded
to Vic that I may have been in error.

I have now had a chance to review my files on the subject, and to my
great surprise I was right (it very seldom happens to me in an argument
with Vic). Here are some examples that suggest the nominative status of
the agent in the reflexive clause. This may, of course, be another
grammatical innovation in Tolowa grammar, where the reflexive marker
/dU/ is used in addition to the old de-transitive ('classifier') /D/.
Tolowa may thus not reflect the pan-Athabaskan situation (of which Vic
is infinitrely more knowledgeable than I am). My analysis is based on
the one (most) reliable subjecthood criterion in Athabaskan verb
morphology -- subject pronominal agreement. The data is taken from Dave
Watters' paper on reflexives & reciprocals.

For third persons, there is no real subject agreement, so the criterion
cannot be used. The old yU-/bU- Athabaskan contrast has been
re-analyzed, whereby yU- is just a transitivity marker. Thus  (U =
schwa; lh = voiceless l; i~ = nasalized i):

             yU-lh-ts'a's
             TR-L-whip
              's/he is whipping it/him/her'

             dU-d-lh-ts'a's
             REFL-D-L-whip
             's/he is whipping him-/herself'

For 1st or 2nd person subjects, however, the subject-agreement criterion
is available:

             'U-sh-k'Usr
             THM-1s/SUBJ-shave
             'I am shaving him/it'

             dU-sh-d-k'Usr
             REFL-1s/SUBJ-D-shave
             'I am shaving myself'

             na-sh-tlh-mi~sh
             ADV-1s/SUBJ-L-hang
             'I am hanging it/him/her'

             naa-dU-sh-d-lh-mi~sh
             ADV-REFL-1s/SUBJ-D-L-hang
             'I am hanging myself'

             ghee-s-ii-'i~'
             THM-PFV-1s/SUBJ-see
             'I saw it/him/her'

             dU-ghee-sU-s-d-'i~'
             REFL-THM-PFV-1s/SUBJ-D-see
             'I saw myself'

             naa-'ii~-tlh-te
             ADV-2s/SUBJ-L-care
             'You care for it/him/her'

             naa-d-ii~-d-lh-te
             ADV-REFL-2s/SUBJ-D-L-care
             'You care for yourself'

However uncharacteristic Tolowa may be of the rest of Athabascan (we
know it has done much re-structuring in other areas of the grammar), the
agent in its reflexive clause certainly abides by the much more common
cross-linguistic pattern, whereby it remains the nominative/subject.

Cheers,  TG