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Huehuetla Tepehua
Glottocode: hueh1236
Genalogical classification: Totonacan
Original alignment pattern: Nominative
Source construction: Transitive clauses with unexpressed third person A and verbal indexing of P.
Developmental mechanism: Some transitive constructions with plural indexes of P, denoting inanimate entities, and non-overt third person A are reanalyzed as intransitive constructions.
Resulting construction: The original inanimate P index of the transitive sentence is reanalyzed as the S index of an intransitive sentence, as in (1); animate S retains the original affix system, as in (2).
Type of change: Reinterpretation of argument structure
Alignment in the resulting construction: Ergative-Absolutive
Global alignment pattern following the change: NP-based split ergativity
Constraints on the distribution of the resulting alignment: Split in the marking of plural S based on animacy.
Grammatical domains: Verbal indexation
Symmetry: Symmetric
Type of data: Internal reconstruction
References: Kung 2007:215-221
Examples
(1) Huehuetla Tepehua (Totonacan; Kung 2007:216)
| lak-patajuu | juu | x-lak-makaʔ | juu | k'iw |
| PL.OBJ-fall.PFV | ART | 3POSS-PL-hand | ART | tree |
‘The tree branches fell.’
(2) Huehuetla Tepehua (Totonacan; Kung 2007:216)
| ta-paatajuu | juu | tz'al-an |
| 3PL.SUBJ-fall.PFV | ART | boy-PL |
'The boys fell.'