List of Zapotec Languages - Grammar - Verbal Morphology - Causative Morphology

Causative Morphology

Most if not all varieties of Zapotec languages have intransitive-transitive verb pairs which may be analyzed as noncausative vs. causative. The derivation may be obvious or not depending on the kinds of sounds that are involved. In the simplest cases, causative is transparently seen to be a prefix, cognate with /s-/ or with /k-/, but it may also require the use of a thematic vowel /u/, as in the following examples from Mitla Zapotec:

Setting aside possible abstract analyses of these facts (which posit an underlying prefix /k-/ that causes the changes seen superficially, we can illustrate the kinds of non-causative vs. causative pairs with the following examples. (Basic intransitive verbs are more common than basic transitive verbs, as in many languages.) The presence of the theme vowel /u-/ should be noted in the causative verbs, and in some cases is the only difference between the two verbs. One example of a double causative is also included here; these are not possible in all varieties.