Capa Vista

Middle voice characteristically presents a situation in which the subject (or his or her interests) are affected in some way by the action of the verb (Lyons 1969:373). Typical middle constructions reduce transitivity by merging the semantic agent and patient roles into a single argument (Mithun 2006:223). Just as semantic roles are less differentiated, subevents in the situation are also less differentiated (Kemmer 1993:208). As a result, observes Kemmer, middle voice can be situated as a semantic category “intermediate in transitivity between one-participant and two-participant events” (1993:3). Hopper and Thompson make a similar point with respect to reflexives (1980:277).¹³¹

meaning. Instances of -ku literally expressing a reflexive are possible but rare, and are not in fact attested among the 143 exemplars of -ku in the coded section of the SCQ corpus. The term

“mediopassive” (both middle voice and passive voice) would be misleading in SCQ because -ku does not express passive voice. Instead, passive is expressed by the suffix -ka:.

131 Kemmer subsumes the reduced distinguishability of participants and events under a single umbrella referred to as the “relative elaboration of events,” that is, “the degree to which the facets in a particular situation, i.e., participants and conceivable component subevents in the situation, are distinguished” (1993:208). In other words, middles are characterized by low elaboration of both participants and events.

8 Aspect and middle voice 167

The derivational suffix -ku (lowered allomorph -ka) serves a wide range of semantic functions pertaining to reflexive and middle voice. These two conceptual domains are expressed as a single formal category in SCQ. Any lexical verb root can appear with or without this extremely productive, high frequency suffix.¹³²

Reflexives typically mark situations in which a single referent fills the semantic roles of both the agent and the patient, with a clear conceptual distinction maintained between these two roles (Kemmer 1993:94). As in other nominative-accusative systems, in SCQ the agent of a reflexive situation corresponds to the subject, and the patient to the coreferential direct object, e.g., ‘don’t cut yourself’ in (222) and ‘I burned myself’ in (223).This direct reflexive sense of -ku continues to be well understood in SCQ, but the contexts for its use are relatively rare.¹³³

(222) shuma:-lla roqu-ku-ski-nki-man-ta:

beautiful-DLM cut-MID-PFV-2-COND-WARN

‘Be careful, don’t cut yourself.’ (roqu-nki ‘you cut it’)

(223) diyablu-pa wacha-shqa-n, rupa-ku-ski-:

devil-GEN give.birth-NMLZ.R-3 burn-MID-PFV-1

‘Son of the devil, I burned myself.’ (rupa-: ‘I burn it’)

Direct reflexive meaning has spread to contexts in which the action has a less direct effect on the coreferential participants. Following Kemmer (1993:74-7), I refer to the former as direct reflexives, and the latter as indirect reflexives. In indirect reflexive situations, a single referent fills the semantic roles of both the agent and the recipient/beneficiary or patient, interpreted by context. This includes the grooming verbs, as illustrated in (224) with the verbs awi- ‘rinse’ and naqtsa- ‘comb’.

132 The existence of miku- ‘eat’, etymologically consisting of the root mi- and the middle suffix -ku, might seem a counterexample, since the simple root mi- does not occur in SCQ. However, in this example lexicalization has taken place diachronically, so that synchronically in SCQ the root ‘eat’ is miku- and the corresponding middle is miku-ku- ‘eat for oneself’. Note, however, that miku- does still retain one feature of its historical origin, namely the fact that the final u is lowered to a when followed by a “trigger” suffix, just as happens to the middle suffix ku, e.g., mika-ma-nki-tsu ‘don't eat me’.

133 A verb marked with -ku, such as rupa-ku-ski-:, can be interpreted as a reflexive ‘I burned myself’ or as a middle ‘I burned it for myself’. The reflexive pronoun form kiki (obligatorily inflected for person and case) can appear optionally as the direct object to further specify that the intended meaning is reflexive, e.g., kiki-:-ta rupa-ku-ski-: ‘I burned myself (not ‘I burned it for myself’). Note that kiki places special emphasis on the referent.

168 Crossing aspectual frontiers

(224) hamara-yka-mu-y silla-:-cho:. awi-ka-ra-mu-sha:

rest-PFV.O-FAR-IMP2 chair-1-LOC rinse-MID-PUNC-FAR-1FUT

naqtsa-ka-ra-mu-sha:-ra:

comb-MID-PUNC-FAR-1FUT-YET

‘Rest here in my chair. I will wash myself and comb myself over there and return quickly.’ (awi-sha: ‘I will wash it’, naqtsa-sha: ‘I will comb it’)

As more and more verb stems were derived with -ku, the original direct and indirect reflexive meanings were applied to more abstract contexts in which the subject is more indirectly affected by the action. Currently, middle voice -ku subsumes the reflexive category from which it developed. A wide variety of middle voice situation types marked by -ku are illustrated in the remainder of this section. Most of these are identified by Kemmer (1993).¹³⁴

Direct and indirect reflexive situations, such as those illustrated in (222)-(224), are distinguished from most middles in SCQ in that the entity which is coreferential with the semantic agent is never the semantic patient but invariably fills another semantic role, such as (self)-beneficiary. This self-benefactive sense is the most prevalent middle voice function of -ku in SCQ. For example, in (225) the ‘other devil’ (agent) was helping himself to ‘the figs’

(patient), formally expressed as a direct object. Similarly, in (226) the speaker (agent) is waiting for a bus (patient) for himself.

(225) hukaq diyablu-qa yarku-rku-r altu-chu miku-ku-na: ari other devil-TOP climb-PFV.M-SS high-LOC eat-MID-PST.N yes i:gus-ta-qa kushi-sh

fig-^OBJ-^TOP be.happy-^PTCP

‘The other devil climbing above was happily eating (helping himself to) the figs.’

(226) tsa karrete:ra-man cha-rpu-r ka:rru-ta shuya-ku-ru-:

that road-ALL arrive-COMPL-SS vehicle-OBJ wait-MID-PST.R-1

‘Then arriving down to the road, I waited for a bus (for myself).’

Each lexical verb root in examples (222)-(226) specifies a canonical two-participant event.

Middle -ku also appears with one-participant verb roots. The following three middle situations involve the body: posture (non-translational motion) in (227), change of location (translational motion) in (228), and change of state in (229).

134 The related categories of passive and reciprocal are marked in SCQ by the suffixes -ka: and -naku, respectively. Those are beyond the scope of the present discussion of aspect and middle voice.

8 Aspect and middle voice 169 (227) waray-nin-qa sha:ri-ka-ra-mu-n

tomorrow-3-TOP stand.up-MID-PUNC-FAR-3

‘The next day she gets herself up.’ (sha:ri-ra-mu-n ‘she stands up’)

(228) kuti-ku-ya:-sha: ke: Huaraz-pita pani-: Rita-wan Erwin-wan-pis return-MID-PL.V-FUT1 this Huaraz-^ABL sister-1 Rita-^COM Erwin-^COM-^EVEN

‘We ourselves will return home from here in Huaraz with my sister Rita and also with Erwin.’ (kuti-ya:-sha: ‘we will return’)

(229) tsay-chu-chir achikay wanu-ku-ra-n that-LOC-APP witch die-MID-^PST-3

‘The witch died there.’

Middle -ku also appears with verbs of emotion and cognition. For example, in (230) -ku conveys the subject’s internal state of fear, and in (231) -ku reports personal knowledge available to the subject. See also llaki-ku-n ‘feel sad’ above in (70).

(230) tsay wa:ray-pa ima-ta-ta: mantsa-ku-n-man-pis that dawn-GEN what-OBJ-WARN fear-MID-3-COND-EVEN

‘That early no one would feel fear about that.’

(231) pay-kuna musya-ku-n ima-no: ka-ku-na-n-pa: ka-q-ta-pis s/he-^PL.^N know-^MID-3 what-^SIM be-^MID-^NMLZ.^I-3-^PURP be-^AG-^OBJ-^EVEN

‘They themselves know how they should behave (but they don’t behave accordingly).’

In some contexts the situation marked by middle -ku has an even more indirect effect on the subject or the subject’s interests. For example, in (232) ‘our marriage certificate’ is the inanimate subject of the verb ‘remained’. In this case, -ku appears to evoke the semantic role of possessor, which is formally marked as first person in the subject ‘our marriage certificate’. The semantic connection linking the subject with a possessor would involve metonymy, that is, -ku presents the possessor and the possessed item as coreferential based on their association in a broad sense.

(232) sigu:ru parti:da.de.matrimoniyu-: ke:da-ku-ra-n ke: Huari-cho:

surely marriage.certificate-1 remain-MID-PST-3 this Huari-^LOC

‘Surely our marriage certificate remained permanently (for us) here in Huari.’

In other contexts the subject of a verb derived with -ku is not coreferential with another participant at all. For example, middle meaning extends to spontaneous events which have an inanimate patient as the subject and no implied agent, as in (233). Note that ‘sun’ may be animate.

170 Crossing aspectual frontiers

(233) rupay-na-m tsaka:-ku-ski-rqa-n sun-NOW-DIR be.dark-MID-PFV-PST-3

‘Now the sun itself became dark.’