Mismatch: morphosyntax: subject~object
Active verbs mark subject and object (if present), whereby there are two sets of object markers:
| direct object | indirect object | |
|---|---|---|
| 1SG | ca- | am- |
| 2SG | ci- | cim- |
| 3 | Ø | im- |
| 1PL | ko- | kom- |
| 2PL | haci- | hacim- |
| (p. 127) | (p. 130) |
With stative verbs,1 however, these object markers are used for the subject. With a few stative verbs the choice between direct or indirect object markers is correlated with the distinction between permanent and temporary states and the indirect object markers used for temporary states (e.g. ca-hó:p 'I am sick.' versus am-hó:p 'I am hurt' (p. 254)), but for the most part the choice of one or the other prefix set must be lexically specified, without any obvious semantic motivation.
Since the third person active subject marker is zero, stative verbs are morphologically identical to transitive verbs with a third person subject, with the subject of the former corresponding to the object of the latter. Note that a nominal subjects are marked with the accusative case ending regardless of which type of person marking is used on the verb:
|
active verb
|
stative verb
|
|||||||
| nihahcí | íkba-k | ca-libátli-t | anó-k | am-hó:p | ||||
| grease | hot-NOM | 1SG.OBJ-burn-PST | I-NOM | 1SG.IOBJ-be.hurt | ||||
| 'The hot grease burned me.' | 'I am hurt.' | |||||||
| (p. 251) | (p. 391) | |||||||
There is also a small number of transitive stative verbs (all involving emotions). Most use the direct object markers for their subject and the indirect object markers for their object, but there are three verbs which use the direct object marker for both):
| cim-ca-ofáhy | ci-ca-bàn | |
| 2SG.IOBJ.-1SG.OBJ-be.ashamed.of | 2SG.OBJ.-1SG.OBJ-need | |
| 'I am ashamed of you.' | 'I need you.' | |
| (p. 258) | (p. 256) |
What is interesting to note here is the polyfunctionality of the direct and indirect object markers, which are involved in the following contrasts:
1 Kimball writes '...stative verbs consist of that class of verbs in which the syntactic subject is perceived as not having control of the performance of the action. Because certain actions can be performed either under the control of the dyntactic subject or not under here control, verbs that refer to these actions can be inflected as active verbs or as stative verbs.'
Kimball, Geoffrey. 1991. Koasati grammar. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press.