The prefix in Isletan Tiwa: A functional approach

The goal of this dissertation is to find, describe, and explain a grammar-culture nexus. The verbal prefix in Isletan Tiwa, a Tanoan language spoken at Isleta pueblo, New Mexico, has been analyzed using a Relational Grammar framework. In this dissertation, the prefix is reanalyzed using the functional framework, Role and Reference Grammar, to demonstrate that more is at issue in the analysis of the prefix than a simple subject-object relation. The prefix codes semantic, syntactic and pragmatic information in such a fashion that three levels of transitivity are postulated, each corresponding to a prefix paradigm. One paradigm, the one indicating the highest degree of transitivity, contains gaps. This suggests that there exist some "impossible person combinations" in expressions which contain agented entities. Reference to ethnographic material from Isleta indicates that these impossible person combinations reflect nonlinguistic concerns.