A problem I'm currently grappling with for my dissertation is the syntactic function of a small word in Copala Triqui—a particle? Maybe a preoposition? This word is the second part of phrasal verbs which deal with emotion. A few examples are laid out below.
Normal verbs in Copala Triqui are monomorphemic, consisting of a single word. These verbs seem to be made of two words, a normal one and this small particle, rá. I call it a particle because I lack a better word for it; a particle is sort of a word that linguists use for a small thing that they don't fully understand. It is homophonous with the preposition rá 'with', which is used in both the instrumental and comitive senses. However, this rá does not behave like a preposition at all; it seems to be a single unit with the verb. It is also obligatory, with the verb losing all meaning without it.
Aran' rá Juán chá so' chraa a.
like rá Juan eat he tortilla declarative
'Juan likes to eat tortillas.'
*Aran' Juán chá so' chraa a.
??? Juan eat he tortilla declarative
Ungrammatical sentence
Despite the verb seeming to be a single unit, there are still reasons to consider it to be two words. For one, Copala Triqui is tonal, but tones are only contrastive on the final syllable of words. However, some of the rá verbs have a lexical tone that is not a mid or default tone on the first element, such as the low tone on e̱e̱ rá 'like'.
Additionally, while most adverbs either come before or after a single-word verb, the typical place for an adverb to occur with one of these rá verbs is actually in between the two elements, as below.
Aran' ndo'o̱ rá Juán chá so' chraa a.
like really rá Juan eat he tortilla declarative
'Juan really likes to eat tortillas.'
For older speakers this in-between position is obligatory, but for some younger speakers, it is optional to put the adverb after the entire verb.
Aran' rá ndo'o̱ Juán chá so' chraa a.
like rá really Juan eat he tortilla declarative
'Juan really likes to eat tortillas.'
I hypothesize that in an older, unrecorded form of the language, this rá element was originally a preposition which a certain class of verbs required to be attached to the subject, which occurs post-verbally in Copala Triqui, since the default word order is VSO (Verb Subject Object). To clarify, a brief discussion of prepositions is required.
Preposition in Oto-Manguean languages typically derive from body part words, and are either homophonous to body part words or verb similar. For example, che'e means both 'feet' and 'about', rihaan means both 'face' and 'to, towards', and man means both 'body' and introduces indirect arguments, like the English 'to'. Additionally, emotions and feelings in Copala Triqui are typically discussed as coming from the heart. For example:
A'ngaj nimán 'u̱nj a
hurt heart 1sg declarative
'I'm in pain' (literally 'my heart hurts')
All of the verbs which use rá seem to form a semantic class, that is to say, they are all logophoric, either expressing emotions or being actions you do in your mind, like deciding things or thinking of solutions. It could be that there was an older preposition, formed from some word for 'heart', 'mind', or 'spirit' (nimán means both 'heart' and 'spirit'), which was required with subjects of such verbs. After all, the subject of such a verb is often cross-linguistically and thematically distinct from other, more active verbs, like 'jump'; the subject expresses an experiencer rather than an agent. There is little wonder it might be distinguished or marked in a syntactically distinct manner.
There are some issues with this, however. The particle rá does not phonologically resemble the relevant body part, nimán. In fact, it looks closest to ra'a, 'hand'. As far as I am aware, there is not a body part preposition derived from 'hand' in Copala Triqui.
Another issue is that rá now seems to behave nothing like a preposition. If the subject is focused to the preverbal position, rá does not move with it, as other prepositions do in Copala Triqui.
Taj ma', Juán aran' rá chá so' chraa a.
negative Juan like rá eat he tortilla declarative
'No, JUAN likes to eat tortillas.' (as when correcting someone)
Taj ma', Rihaan mesá cuta' Mariá ñanj a.
negative on table put Maria book declarative.
'No, Maria put the book ON THE TABLE.'
My guess is that this element was originally a preposition, but since the subject is always right after the verb, speakers began rebracketing it into the verb. For older speakers, where putting the adverb in between is required, there might still be some sense that the main verb is the first element. For younger speakers, though, they can put the adverb after the whole thing, before the subject. Maybe to them, rá is beginning to merge more closely into the verb.
Still, even for these younger speakers, the in-between position is still available. I wonder if in a future generation of Triqui speakers, the obligatory position will be after the verb, and if the initial tones will start to flatten, as the process moves further and the phrasal verb merges into a single unit.
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