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<p><font size="2">I wish to thank you all for your responses and references. I have Suzannes's book with me right here; I must have overlooked the corresponding passus while browsing it.</font></p>
<p><font size="2">As for Enrique's comment about the likely development, it seems that as a perfective aspect marker -<em>du</em> was used with both one-argument and two-argument verbs (in the Bocotá dialect, at least this is still so); now, in Buglere there is a strong tendency to one-argument structures (supression of either subjects and objects is common); as a result, there must have emerged a new stage characterized by the use of -<em>du</em> with one-argument constructions. Interesting is that at present, in Buglere the middle domain is not exclusive of -<em>du;</em> middle situations are expressed with the reflexive pronoun <em>mung</em>, and dative subject constructions with <em>verba cogitandi</em>. Verbs that take -<em>du</em> are mostly verbs expressing spontaneous events. The result: perfective spontaneous events were reanalyzed as self-triggered events. </font><font size="2">It is worth</font><font size="2"> noting, in addition, that the middle voice suffix -<em>du</em> cannot be used with future situations (2), although it is compatible with the past tense markers (recent and remote), as in (1)</font></p>
<p><font size="2">(1)<em> Juga dege-ble-du</em> </font></p>
<p><font size="2"> door open-P.REM-MID</font></p>
<p><font size="2"> 'The door opened'</font></p>
<p><font size="2">but</font></p>
<p><font size="2">(2) *<em>Juga be dege-du</em></font></p>
<p><font size="2"> door FUT open-MID</font></p>
<p><font size="2">' The door will open'</font></p>
<p><font size="2">This incompatibility can be taken as evidence of the likely path and shows as well that this is a recent development.</font></p>
<p><font size="2">Diego</font></p>
<p><font size="2">
<br />--
<br />Prof. Dr. J. Diego Quesada
<br />Escuela de Literatura y Ciencias del Lenguaje
<br />Facultad de Filosofía y Letras
<br />Universidad Nacional
<br />3000 Heredia, COSTA RICA
<br /></font></p>
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