Inflectional Morphology in Choctaw

In Choctaw, verbs are inflected for–among some other things–argument agreement markers with prefixes*, and tense with a suffix. Moreover, the argument agreement markers are of 3 distinct classes that, at their most basic, can be seen as subject (I), object (II), and indirect object (III) markers, respectively, that differ with respect to person and number. Nevertheless, the type of arguments used are generally defined by the verb being used, so many verbs take class II or III arguments as subjects.

*Note: the first person singular marker is the only agreement suffix.

The table below describes this pattern:

*

*Note: The N column refers to negation markers, which are inflected in the same way as the person/number agreement markers. The “unmarked” prefixes are used where the verb fails to agree, such as in imperatives. There are no 3rd person agreement markers.

The following examples demonstrate a simple paradigm showing alternation from the 2nd person singular class I prefix (ish-) to the 2nd person plural class I prefix (hash-) in subject position, as well as from the 1st person plural class II prefix (pi-) to the 1st person singular class II prefix (sa-) in object position:

(1)

ish-     pi-           pisa-                    tok

2SI-    1PII-       see-                   Past.Tense

“You saw us.”

(2)

is-       sa-            pisa-                    tok

2SI-   1SII-         see-                   PST.TNS

“You saw me.”

(3)

hash-  pi-            pisa-                      tok

2PI-    1PII-        see-                   PST.TNS

“You all saw us.”

(4)

has-     sa-           pisa-                      tok

2P1-   1SII-        see-                    PST.TNS

“You all saw me.”

Furthermore, in terms of the phonology, we see that both of the 2nd person class I prefixes lose their morpheme-final [h] before the 1st person singular class II prefix, which would otherwise sandwich the [h] between two [s]s. Therefore:

• /hash-/ + /sa-/ becomes /hassa/
• /ish-/ + /sa-/ becomes /issa/

The following examples demonstrate simple variation in tense from present/unspecified tense (-h) to past tense (-tok).

(5)

baliili-      li-           h.

run           1SI-     TNS

“I am running”

(6)

baliili-       li-          tok.

run            1SI        PST.TNS

“I ran.”

The Word Structure tree is below, showing the percolation of tense, person, and agreement, features as they are added to the verb:

 

 

The syntax tree below shows the

 

The syntax tree below shows head movement from TP to VP to AgrII to AgrI.