Musqueam (Salish) exhibits an interesting set of...

Musqueam (Salish) exhibits an interesting set of morphologically related verbs that differ in valency. Analyze the following forms and describe both the affixes used and their effects on argument structure (Suttles 2004: 235) (note that the first two examples are a bit different from the second two): $$ \begin{array}{|c|c|c|c|c|c|} \hline \text { háy } & \text { 'finish' } & \text { shá'? } & \text { 'finished' } & \text { shá'? st?xw } & \text { 'have it finished' } \\ \hline \text { tólqt } & \text { ‘dip it’ } & \text { s?éla } & \begin{array}{l} \text { 'in the } \\ \text { water' } \end{array} & \text { s?élqstaxw } & \begin{array}{l} \text { 'keep it in } \\ \text { the water' } \end{array} \\ \hline \text { xé' 't't } & \text { 'measure } & \text { t'sx? e?é 't } & \begin{array}{l} \text { 'measured, } \\ \text { marked' } \end{array} & \text { sx? e?étetstaxw } & \begin{array}{l} \text { 'blaze (as a } \\ \text { trail), designate } \\ \text { (as a time)' } \end{array} \\ \hline \text { ?áyt } & \text { 'fixit' } & \text { s????? } & \text { 'right' } & & \text { 'keep it on course' } \\ \hline \end{array} $$

Musqueam (Salish) exhibits an interesting set of morphologically related verbs that differ in valency. Analyze the following forms and describe both the affixes used and their effects on argument structure (Suttles 2004: 235) (note that the first two examples are a bit different from the second two):
$$
\begin{array}{|c|c|c|c|c|c|}
\hline \text { háy } & \text { 'finish' } & \text { shá'? } & \text { 'finished' } & \text { shá'? st?xw } & \text { 'have it finished' } \\
\hline \text { tólqt } & \text { ‘dip it’ } & \text { s?éla } & \begin{array}{l}
\text { 'in the } \\
\text { water' }
\end{array} & \text { s?élqstaxw } & \begin{array}{l}
\text { 'keep it in } \\
\text { the water' }
\end{array} \\
\hline \text { xé' 't't } & \text { 'measure } & \text { t'sx? e?é 't } & \begin{array}{l}
\text { 'measured, } \\
\text { marked' }
\end{array} & \text { sx? e?étetstaxw } & \begin{array}{l}
\text { 'blaze (as a } \\
\text { trail), designate } \\
\text { (as a time)' }
\end{array} \\
\hline \text { ?áyt } & \text { 'fixit' } & \text { s????? } & \text { 'right' } & & \text { 'keep it on course' } \\
\hline
\end{array}
$$

Key Concepts

Argument Structure

Argument structure refers to the pattern of underlying relationships between a verb and its associated participants, such as subjects, objects, and other complements. Changes in argument structure are central to understanding how different affixes or morphological modifications can increase or decrease the verb's valency. By analyzing affixes and their effects, linguists can determine whether a verb is used transitively, intransitively, or in other configurations that reshape the semantic roles of its participants.

Derivational Morphology

Derivational morphology involves the process by which new words or forms are created from existing ones through the addition of affixes, often changing the word class or meaning. In verbs, these derivational processes can modify not only the meaning but also the argument structure, thereby affecting the overall structure of the sentence. The affixes in such languages may encode qualities such as aspect, modality, or control of argument structure, indicating processes like completion, causation, or the maintenance of a state.

Affixation

Affixation is the process of attaching morphemes, such as prefixes, suffixes, or infixes, to a base word to create a new form or modify its meaning. In the context of verb morphology, affixes can indicate changes in tense, aspect, mood, or, as highlighted in the question, valency. The addition of specific affixes may alter the number of arguments that a verb requires, thereby shifting its syntactic and semantic roles.

Valency

Valency refers to the number and type of arguments that a verb can take. In morphological and syntactic studies, examining valency helps linguists understand how different morphological processes can add, remove, or modify subjects, objects, and other complements in a clause. Valency-changing operations often involve affixation or other derivational techniques that alter the verb's argument structure, thereby affecting the related syntactic and semantic roles in a sentence.

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