(Jump to Puluqish master post)
Prefixed *paka-, originally a causative with *pa- of stative verbs prefixed with *ka- (Zeitoun 2000), retains its causative function in a broad range of Formosan languages: Saisiyat (pak-), Pazeh, Mayrinax Atayal and Mantauran Rukai (examples in Zeitoun’s paper); Siraya (Adelaar 2012:117), Kavalan (paq -̴ paqa-, Li & Tsuchida 2006:17), Central and Northern Amis (Bril, in press), and Puyuma (as in pa-ka-ulaŋ ‘make crazy’, Cauquelin 2015). paka-causatives are also found in the Philippines (Liao 2011).
In the Puluqish languages of Taiwan (Amis, Puyuma, Paiwan), in addition to paka-causatives, one also finds abilitative verbs with paka-: in the words of Liao Hsiu-chuan (2011:858), paka- expresses an actor’s ability to perform an action: ‘can V, able to V’. The present discussion is largely based on Liao’s findings on the distribution and functions of paka- and maka- abilitatives, and on her examples for Taiwan and the Philippines.
Here is an example of paka- abilitative in Paiwan, cited by Liao from Wolff (1995:567):
su=paka-qati-n ‘you (SG) can do it.’ (qati ‘succeed, achieve’).
In addition to paka-, Paiwan and Amis have an Actor-Focus prefix maka- which is also abilitative. A Paiwan example:
maka-qati ‘can do something’ (Wolff, ibid.)
Bril finds maka- abilitatives in Northern Amis too (p.c.):
maka-tengil tiya suwal
(he) could hear these words
Wolff (ibid.) derives Paiwan maka- from an earlier *<um>paka-. This seems likely. I assume the same explanation works for Amis.
Philippine languages use maka- not paka- in abilitatives (Liao 2011:859). maka-abilitatives are also found elsewhere in MP, as in Malagasy, under the form maha- (maha-fotsy ‘qui peut blanchir’).
paka- abilitatives | maka-abilitatives | |
Northern Amis | + | + |
Puyuma | + | |
Paiwan | + | + |
MP-Philippines | + | |
MP-Malagasy | + | |
Kra-Dai | ? | ? |
In view of the fact that Siraya has been claimed to be phylogenetically close to PMP, it is interesting that Siraya uses paka-Vstat to form causatives of ma-statives:
ma-kuptix ‘clean’, paka-kuptix ‘to purify’
In addition paka-Vstat preceded by the auxiliary verb ’lpux ‘can’ (Adelaar 2011:133) results in a abilitative construction ‘lpux pa-ka-V ‘can V, able to V’:
paka-‘lpux=kaw pa-ka-kuptix ĭau-an=da
AS-can=2s.NOM. CAUS-v1-clean 1s-OBLl=ADV
‘you are able to purify me’
In this example, paka– preceding the auxiliary is not a prefix but a copy of the main verb’s initial syllables, which here coincide with the main verb’s prefix. See Adelaar (2011:135) on ‘anticipating sentences’ (AS).
This construction provides a missing link between PAN *pa-ka- ‘causative of nonfinite stative verbs’ and abilitative. It is likely that *paka- abilitatives originate in a similar construction with paka-Vstat preceded by an auxiliary verb meaning ‘can -, able to’: elision of the auxiliary verb resulted in paka- acquiring its abilitative meaning.
These facts are susceptible of phylogenetic interpretation. *paka- and/or *maka- abilitatives are only found in the southern languages Paiwan, Amis, Puyuma, and in PMP: the innovations creating these two forms should therefore be assigned to proto-Puluqish.
Since proto-Kra-Dai is a Puluqish language, one would like to know whether these two innovations were present there too. Unfortunately the Kra-Dai languages do not preserve the left edge of words well enough for us to know the answer.
References
Adelaar, Alexander. 2011. Siraya, Retrieving the Phonology, Grammar and Lexicon of a Dormant Formosan Language. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton.
Bril, I. in press. Northern Amis. Handbook on Formosan languages, ed. by P. Jen-kuei Li, E. Zeitoun, R. De Busser. Leiden: Brill
Cauquelin, J. 2015. Nanwang Puyuma-English dictionary. Institute of Linguistics, Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan.
Liao Hsiu-chuan. 2011. Some morphosyntactic differences between Formosan and Philippine languages. Languages & Linguistics 12, 4:845-876.
Wolff, John U. 1995. The position of the Austronesian languages of Taiwan within the Austronesian group. Austronesian Studies Relating to Taiwan, ed. by Paul Jen-kuei Li, Cheng-hwa Tsang, Ying-kuei Huang, Dah-an Ho & Chiu-yu Tseng, 521-583.
Taipei: Institute of History and Philology, Academia Sinica.
Zeitoun, E. 2000. Concerning ka-, an overlooked marker of verbal derivation in Formosan languages. Oceanic Linguistics, 39.2: 391-414.
OpenEdition suggests that you cite this post as follows:
Laurent Sagart (April 7, 2020). Puluqish *paka-/*maka- abilitative. Sino-Tibetan-Austronesian. Retrieved March 27, 2025 from https://doi.org/10.58079/ukcl
Jacques 2015 proposes a pathway from causatives to abilitatives via negative clauses in Rgyalrongic. It does not seem that the Puluqish maka-/paka-abilitatives have a notable tendency to be negated. If the abilitatives do come from causatives, then a pathway such as ’cause to V’ > ‘enable to V’ has to be envisioned. Here is an example of maka-inaba ‘make someone or something good’ in Puyuma (Cauquelin 2015:351) which can be construed both ways:
na kuaɭəŋ na ʈaw, kianunay ɖa pa-ka-ʔinaba-[y]an, payas
ʔinaba-naba-la
“The sick person prayed to feel better and he
immediately felt better.”
This can be understood as a causative, “prayed to be made to feel better” or an abilitative “prayed to be able to feel better”
There is a typological parallel of reanalysis from causative to abilitative in Rgyalrongic with the causative sɯ-/z- , see the following article §2.3 and §3.2, in particular (60):
Jacques, Guillaume . 2015. The origin of the causative prefix in Rgyalrong languages and its implication for proto-Sino-Tibetan reconstruction. Folia Linguistica Historica, (36): 165-198.
A preprint is available here.