Syntax

Upper Necaxa Totonac has flexible word order, the unmarked sequence of constituents probably being VOS. A prominent feature of its syntax is its use of somatic and partonymic prefixes on verbs. Most commonly, these localize actions or effects of actions on sub-parts of the affected entity (e.g., lakalása ‘slap (las-) someone in the face (laka-)’. The prefixes designating bodyparts frequently take on highly abstract meanings (laka- ‘face’ > ‘flat surface’; cha:- ‘shin’ > ‘tree trunk’ > ‘long, thin object’), and in some cases these prefixes have grammaticized into valency-increasing morphemes. In the following example, the bodypart prefix pu:- ‘vagina’ allows the expression of an instrument (specifically, a container-like instrument), tzakat ‘sling’, which would otherwise be excluded from the clause:

tzakát ikta:pu:la'hmakamílh chiwíx kistánku' tzamá: chixkú'

tzakát
sling

ik–ta:–pu:–la'h–makamín–lh
1SG.S–CMT–vagina–ALTV–throw.at–PFV

chiwíx
stone

kin–stánku'
1PO–younger.sibling

tzamá:
this

chixkú'
man

‘my younger brother and I shot that man with a rock using slings’

Here, we see a simple transitive stem (makamin ‘throw something towards a target’) increasing its valency to include an additional three objects through the affixation of partonymic prefixes (in this case, pu:-) and applicatives (ta:- ‘comitative’ and la'h- ‘allative’). In this language, word-formation processes take the place of typologically more common strategies for adding arguments to clauses such as the use of oblique cases or prepositions (neither of which exist in Totonac).

Further Reading on UNT Syntax

Beck, David. (2000). The syntax, semantics, and typology of adjectives in Upper Necaxa Totonac. Linguistic Typology 4, 213–50.
Beck, David. (2001). Primer vocabulario práctico del idioma totonaco del Río Necaxa. (First practical vocabulary of Upper Necaxa Totonac.) Edmonton: University of Alberta. (185pp)
Beck, David. (2001). Heterogeneous person-hierarchies in Upper Necaxa Totonac. Proceedings of the 6th Workshop on Structure and Constituency in the Languages of the America, 1–8. Vancouver: UBC Working Papers in Linguistics.
Beck, David. (2003). Person-hierarchies and the origin of asymmetries in Totonac verbal paradigms. Linguistica Atlantica 23, 1–33.
Beck, David. (2003). Complex predicates in Upper Necaxa Totonac. Presented by invitation to the Annual Meeting of the Society for the Study of the Indigenous Languages of the Americas. Atlanta.
Beck, David. (2004). A Grammatical Sketch of Upper Necaxa Totonac. LINCOM: Europa.
Beck, David. (2006). Control of agreement in multi-object constructions in Upper Necaxa Totonac. In Atsushi Fujimori & Maria Amelia Reis Silva (Eds.), Proceedings of the 11th Workshop on Structure and Constituency in the Languages of the Americas. Vancouver: UBC Working Papers in Linguistics.
Beck, David. (2008). Ideophones, adverbs, and predicate qualification in Upper Necaxa Totonac. International Journal of American Linguistics 74,1–46. (Slideshow)

1,2,3 = first-, second-, third-person; ALTV = allative; CLF = classifier; CMT = comitative; FUT = future; IMPF = imperfective; NEG = negative; O = object; OPT = optative; PFV = perfective; PL = plural; PO = possessive; S = subject; SG = singular; TOT = totalitive; UNR = unrealized.