DOI: 10.1093/oxfordhb/9780197610411.013.34 ISSN:

Agreement in Malto Conjunctive Participles

Masato Kobayashi

Abstract

Of the two perfective conjunctive participles of Malto, the -ko participle is invariant, whereas the -ke participle shows agreement with the subject, which is identical to that of the main clause. Since the subject of the -ko participle usually differs from that of the main clause, the -ke and -ko participles apparently form a switch-reference system. Given that different-subject affixes tend to be more complex in switch-reference systems, it is unusual that the same-subject affix shows agreement while the different-subject affix does not. Historically, Malto -ke is traced back to the Proto-Kuṛux-Malto verbal adjective. As predicative adjectives, the -ke participles are coindexed with the subjects of the main clause, whereas the -ko participle forms temporal clauses, which are adjuncts. Since the -ko conjunctive participle also has same-subject usage, the -ke and -ko participles are not in complementary distribution and should not be considered a switch-reference system.

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