subject prefix

[John Sullivan]

We are having a grammatical discussion here in Warsaw concerning the nature of the Nahuatl subject prefix.  I guess you could say that ti- functions as a subject in:
	a) titlacah, We are people 
	b) tinehnemih, We are walking
But what about in:
	c) Xitechpalehui in timomacehualhuan, Help us, your vassals
	d) topampa in timomacehualhuan, because of us, your vassals
Iʻm using these examples because the “subject prefix” is explicit. But the question actually arose after looking at an example like:
	e) niquitta in chichi, Iʻm looking at the dog. (which I would literally translate as “I´m looking at it, the dog"
In this case, some people say that there is not even a meaningful Ø- at the beginning of chichi. Now I know that there is. But I want to know exactly what it is doing. It seems that what we have called a “subject prefix” can serve:
1. as the subject of a noun, i.e. titlacah, We are people
2. as the subject of a verb, i.e. tinehnemih, We are walking
3. as something that links the noun referent of a verbal object prefix to that very verbal object prefix via the category of person/number (in conjunction with the noun´s number suffix), i.e., Xitechpalehui in timomacehualhuan, Help us, your vassals
4. as something that links the noun referent of relational prefix to that very relational prefix via the category of person/number (in conjunction with the noun´s number suffix), i.e., topampa in timomacehualhuan, because of us, your vassals
	So the question is, Is there a better term that “subject” to refer to the “subject prefixes”? Or are the Poles just unnecessarily complicating things?
John
_______________________________________________
Nahuatl mailing list
Nahuatl at lists.famsi.org
http://www.famsi.org/mailman/listinfo/nahuatl