Inverse markers in Andean languages: A comparative view

Abstract

"The purpose of the present contribution is to compare the use of inverse markers in the verbal morphology of three unrelated Andean languages: Quechua, Puquina and Mapuche. It will be argued that inverse markers tend to develop as a result of typological convergence among languages with a predominantly suffixingmorphology. Inverse markers allow languages with a limited set of personal reference endings (e.g. with subject markers only, or with an incomplete set of endings encoding both an actor and a patient in a transitive relation) to expand their inventorywithout having recourse to object markers specified for grammatical person. Instead, the absence or insufficiency of fully specified object markers can be compensated by assigning the role of patient to what is normally a subject or agent marker. Inverse markers are used to indicate such a switch of roles"