Morfossintaxe verbal das variedades Timbira faladas pelos povos Gavião do Pará e do Maranhão

Abstract

Parkatejê and Pykobjê, spoken, respectively, by the Gavião do Pará and by the Gavião do Maranhão peoples. The objective is to show the grammatical constraints that regulate the relationship between the verb and its arguments, as well as to describe the Case system that results from this relationship. The methodology enfolds the collection of natural and elicited data from Pykobjê and secondary data collected from available publications about Parkatejê. After describing these data, we compare their argument structures in order to establish the split case systems. Finally, we show that subjects can receive four Case morphemes, namely {Ø} for nominative case, {te} for ergative case, {mỹ ~ mǝ} for dative case, and {Ø} for absolutive case. These differential markings are the result of the syntacticsemantic splits that emerge in the complex verbal system of these languages.