Abstract

REGUNAGA, María Alejandra. THE PASSIVE VOICE IN YAHGAN. Forma funcion, Santaf, de Bogot, D.C. [online]. 2019, vol.32, n.2, pp.255-297. ISSN 0120-338X.  https://doi.org/10.15446/fyf.v32n2.80823.

The Yahgan language, spoken in the southernmost part of the island of Tierra del Fuego and other islands close to Cape Horn (though it is now practically extinct), features the prefix form «tūmū-», understood as a passivizer, made up of the causative «tū» and the reflexive «m(a)-». The paper analyzes the functioning of the prefix «tūmū-» on the basis of diverse documentary sources from the period of linguistic vitality (mid-19th century to the end of that century), as well as descriptions carried out by linguists together with the last speakers of the language, around 1980. First, the results make possible the systematization of morphological strategies for passivization in Yahgan; secondly, the establishment of the manner in which this phenomenon is codified, through the comparison of syntactic and semantic structures in textual examples; and, finally, the correlation of the phenomenon with other known, non-canonical cases of passives.

Keywords : indigenous languages; Yahgan; morphology; verbal diatheses; passive voice.

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