Françoise ROSE (DDL) : "Reconstructing two functionally-related Tupi-Guarani ta- clauses"
This paper will deal with two constructions involving a prefix ta- in Tupi-Guarani languages, a subgroup of Tupi languages from the Amazonian basin. The first construction is made of a prefix ta- attached to the main verb and its meaning is hortative/polite imperative/jussive. The second construction is also made of a prefix ta- attached to the verb, but it attaches to a dependent finite verb and the resulting meaning of the construction is purposive. This paper shows that data from a non-Tupi-Guarani Tupi language, Xipaya (Rodrigues 2007b), points to two possible source constructions involving a ta auxiliary. The paper hypothesizes two different processes of reanalysis from these two source constructions resulting in the two constructions under study. This paper shows that although a functional explanation for the close resemblance of two synchronic constructions is attractive, diachronic syntax can reveal that this resemblance is actually an epiphenomenon.