Beneficiaries and recipients in Toba (Guaycurú)

Abstract

This paper will examine the coding properties of benefaction in Toba (case marking, agreement, and word order), the alignment type in ditranstive derived verbs, and a coordination strategy used to introduce beneficiary arguments. Finally, other applicatives and their distribution around the semantic notions of beneficiary, recipient, human goal are presented in order to understand the semantics of benefaction in this language. The exemples below were mainly taken from narrative texts, relevated and translated by the author of this article, and other texts written by Toba speakers. This preliminary sketch shows that Toba does not have a class of non-derived ditransitive verbs with three obligatory arguments agent, theme and recipient. To incorporate more than two arguments in a clause, applicatives are necessary. In this language, the verb ‘to give’ is a derivated one. In plain arguments clauses, the alignment system of ditansitive clauses is the ‘secundative’ or ‘secondary object’ type; the recipient of the bitranstive behaves as the pacient of the transitive, taking the same functional slot (place) and showing the same criteria for indexing plural arguments. Applicativazation via locative and directional notions is the main strategy to introduce non-subject arguments in ditransitive clauses: there is a scale of degree of affectedness that triggers the selection of one of the four morphemes related to human locative goals and (from more affected to less affected): -lek, -'a, -i, -e', -'ot. Many verbs can allow the alternation of, at least, two of these morphemes. The benefactive marker -em is usually used to express both the notions of reception and benefaction; it could be used to express the notion of solely benefaction with antipassivized transitive verbs. Thus, following Kittilä’s (2005: 277) classification Toba is a beneficiary prominent language.