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Timbira
Glottocode: timb1254
Genalogical classification: Jê
Original alignment pattern: Ergative
Source construction: Nominalized verb forms with ergative pattern: S and P are marked by possessive verbal prefixes, as in (1) and (2), whereas A is marked as a possessor with the adposition -tɛ, as in (3).
Developmental mechanism: Nominalized verb forms are used in complex constructions with modal main verbs in the recent past tense. These constructions are reanalyzed as monoclausal main clause transitive constructions, as in (3)-(4). The original possessor marker becomes an ergative marker of A, while S and P remain indexed on the verb, as in (5).
Resulting construction: Ergative construction with A marked by the adposition -tɛ and S and P indexed on the verb.
Type of change: Reinterpretation of argument structure
Alignment in the resulting construction: Ergative-Absolutive
Global alignment pattern following the change: TAM-based split alignment
Constraints on the distribution of the resulting alignment: The new ergative pattern is restricted to the recent past tense.
Grammatical domains: Verbal indexation, Case marking
Symmetry: Asymmetric
Type of data: Internal reconstruction
References: de Castro Alves 2010
Examples
(1) Timbira (Jê; de Castro Alves 2010:467)
| *i-mã | [i-mɔ̃r] | prãm |
| 1-DAT | 1-leave.NF | want |
'I want to leave.' (lit. 'I want my leaving')
(2) Timbira (Jê; de Castro Alves 2010)
| *i-mã | [a-mɔ̃r] | prãm |
| 1-DAT | 2-leave.NF | want |
'I want you to leave.' (lit. 'I want your leaving')
(3) Timbira (Jê; de Castro Alves 2010:468)
| *i-mã | [a-tɛ | [iˀ-pɨr]] | prãm |
| 1-DAT | 2-GEN | 3-pick.up.NF | want |
‘I want you to pick it up.' (lit. ‘I want the taking of it by you’)
(4) Pre-Timbira (Jê; de Castro Alves 2010:470)
| *(wa) | i-tɛ | a-pupun | mpɛj |
| 1.TOP | 1-GEN | 2-see(NF) | be.good |
‘I see/saw you well’ (lit. ‘(I), your being seen by me is good’)
(5) Timbira (Jê; de Castro Alves 2010:470)
| i-tɛ | a-kakhwin |
| 1-ERG | 2-hit(NF) |
‘I hit you’