Nahuatl Derivational Morphology : Denomial Verbs

Verbalization of nouns by adding affixes:

• these affixes added are always suffixes
• We will be looking at 2 specific affixes, and will explore what kind of verb is created (semantics and morphology) with the addition of these affixes to a noun.

1) N + -tiá

• –tiá added to noun X makes a verb with an approximate meaning of “to provide with X ” or “to become X”.
• These derived verbs are always intransitive
• The suffix is added to the root of the N, i.e there must not be any other suffixes attached to the N

Example a: Here we see that when –tiá is attached the root of ‘night’, it is changed to a verb whose meaning is also derived from the noun root.

N root	N  -tiá     = Intransitive V
tayowa Nroot ‘night’	tayowatiá Nroot – verbalizing suffix [+prst] ‘night comes on’

Shown below is the 1) Word Structure Tree    2) Deep Structure Syntax Tree     3) Surface Structure Syntax tree with movement of noun head

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Example b: Here we see that before –tiá is attached to result in a derived verb, the noun must first be stripped down to the root form, and so the ʔ suffix must be taken off (our source did not provide a gloss that explains what the role of ʔ is).

N root	N  -tiá     = Intransitive V
xi:lo: dependant root of xi:lo:ʔ                                  ‘green corn’	xi:lo:tiá Nroot – verbalizing suffix [+prst] ‘It becomes green corn’

Note: Addition of –tiá to a noun with object and subject prefixes attached can result in a transitive verb. An example of this is:

Example c: Here a transitive verb derived from a noun, but has object and subject prefixes attached for its transitivity. Note that the absolutive suffix –tli has to be removed before the –tia verbalizing suffix is attached.

N root	N  -tiá     = transitive V
na:mictli Nroot – ABS suffix ‘spouse’	ni -no -na:mictia SUB 1p sing. – OBJ 1p sing. – spouse – verbal. suffix [+prst] ‘I get married’

Shown below is the 1) Word Structure Tree    2) Deep Structure Syntax Tree     3) Surface Structure Syntax tree with head movement

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Correction: the two topmost NLC arrows going from V<Ag<Th>> should actually be BPCs, and instead there should be NLC arrows coming from the prefixes ni- and no- to the V<Ag<Th>>.

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2) N + -huiá

• -huia added to noun X makes a verb referring to a noun that is put around something/on the surface of something: for example, salt is put on the surface of things. (The noun affects the object in some way)
• This suffix is always attached to the root form of nouns
• These derived verbs are always transitive
• Note that the ʔ suffix on the noun root must be taken off before the verbalizing suffix is added. After the transitive verb is derived, subject and object prefixes are attached.

Example a:

N root	N  -huiá  = transitive V
ista dep. root of istaʔ ‘salt’	∅ – ki-istahuiá SUB 3p sing – OBJ 3p. sing – salt – verbalizing suffix [+prst] ‘he salts it’

The WST and syntax trees for this example will be similar to the trees for Example c of Affix 1.