The morphological causative in Panãra: A Grammar Matrix implementation

Abstract

In this paper, we describe the modeling of the causative morpheme in an implemented HPSG grammar for the Panãra language. The Panãra causative morpheme appears on the verb between the agreement markers for the ergative and absolutive arguments, increasing the verb's valency to two core arguments. Due to the linear ordering of inflectional morphemes (position classes) in Grammar Matrix grammars, the position of the causative morpheme would require the verb to have information about its valence before the morpheme is attached. We model the descriptive data with a new lexical rule that introduces the causative morpheme and changes the verbal inflection path from intransitive to transitive using the existing Valence Change library. This analysis is validated in an implemented grammar fragment for Panãra.