Chapter 82Multiple Applicatives, Incorporation, and Relative Clauses
Documented applicative combinations, noun incorporation and prefix order, and relative clauses with applied objects or retained role markers.
82.1 Two applicatives in one stem
A verb can contain two applicative prefixes. Bugaeva gives the Chitose form e-ko-isoytak “tell stories to someone about something,” with ko- introducing the addressee and e- the content Bugaeva (2006: 188). The Handbook describes adjacent e-ko- and ko-e- with these roles and reports no visible difference in meaning between the two combinations. This is a limited set of combinations Bugaeva & Kobayashi (2022: §4.1.1).
Other derivations can intervene between applicatives. Nakagawa's e-yay-e-isoytak means to tell about something as one's own life story. Its two occurrences of e- are separated by the reflexive Nakagawa (2024: 210). The distinction between adjacent prefixes and prefixes at different derivational stages matters when describing their possible order.
‘Eat meagre meals (literally, lie to oneself about food).’
Bugaeva & Kobayashi 2022: §4.1.1; Lexical excerpt from example 5
The Handbook quotes K8010291UP.183. The full sentence prohibits meagre meals and recommends preparing proper food. This display isolates its complex verb.
The Handbook analyzes this form as a three-place double applicative whose content object is incorporated as ipe “food” and whose addressee is identified with the subject by yay-. The resulting verb is one-place Bugaeva & Kobayashi (2022: §4.1.1, example 5). The number of prefixes alone therefore does not determine the final number of arguments.
82.2 Applicatives and noun incorporation
Applicatives can make an instrument, companion, or other participant available for noun incorporation. Nakagawa illustrates this with at-e-uk “catch with a net,” pira-ko-hokus-te “cause to fall toward a cliff,” and turepta-e-arpa “go to dig lily bulbs.” These are his lexical illustrations of compound structure Nakagawa (2024: 484).
In Shibatani's analysis of pone-ko-kuykuy “bite with the bones,” the applicative introduces the accompanying bones and incorporation removes that object from the free argument frame. Starting from the two-place verb “bite,” the proposed steps are 2 → 3 → 2. His displayed intermediate applicative sentence is explicitly artificial Shibatani (1990: 68, example 122). The complete comparison appears in Chapter 90 (Incorporation, Quasi-Incorporation, and Word Structure).
An applicative prefix can also precede the incorporated noun. Shibatani contrasts o-tumi-osma with forms such as pone-ko-kuykuy, and distinguishes the phrase ni o-pici from the incorporated verb o-ni-pici. These constructions involve different relations between the noun and the verbal stem; they do not establish free permutation of affixes Shibatani (1990: 63, 70–71). The incorporation chapter compares the structural analyses and their limits.
82.3 Relativization with an applicative
An applied object can correspond to the head of a relative construction. Bugaeva gives a Chitose example in which the place for sleeping is expressed through e-hotke Bugaeva (2012: 479).
‘The housewife prepared a place for me to sleep and gave it to me.’
Bugaeva 2012: 479; Chitose, Example 36; AB400
Bugaeva cites her 2004 text collection. The source's written zero person indexes are omitted. A=e-hotke modifies usi ‘place’.
Relative constructions also allow overt expressions of nonargument roles. The following instrumental relative retains ani and uses the ordinary verb “shoot” Bugaeva (2012: 480).
Bugaeva also gives a comitative relative with retained tura-no and a locative relative with or-o ta. Dal Corso discusses this retention of role-marking expressions in his review of relative clauses Bugaeva (2012: 480, examples 38–39); Dal Corso (2020: 51–52). Applicatives are one available construction in this domain; the published examples also document other ways to relate the clause to its head.
References cited in this chapter
Bugaeva (2006) ·Bugaeva (2012) ·Bugaeva & Kobayashi (2022) ·Dal Corso (2020) ·Nakagawa (2024) ·Shibatani (1990)