Doctoral Dissertation Research: Verbal Semantics and Morphosyntax in Tsafiki (Colorado)

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The current project is for doctoral dissertation research on the morphosyntactic and semantic verbal system of Tsafiki (Colorado). Tsafiki is the native language of the Tsachila (Colorados), an indigenous minority (2,000 speakers) of the tropical western lowlands of Ecuador. The dissertation topic will accomplish two goals: 1) present a thorough description of one of the major grammatical systems of the language; and 2) explore a topic of theoretical interest to the linguistic community. Tsafiki is an under-documented language which belongs to a little-described family of languages of South America, Barbakoan-Paesan. A detailed description of the morphosyntax of the verbal system will contribute greatly to both the understanding of Tsafiki and knowledge about this family of languages. Tsafiki is of theoretical interest in that it has an interesting system of verbal classification, incorporation of both subjects and objects and perhaps, most importantly, a very elaborate evidential (source of knowledge) system. This evidential system is an integral part of the grammar. Much of the morphosyntactic resources of the language are devoted to coding not only the source of information but also the type of information and whether the information falls into the category of cultural, general knowledge or knowledge based on the speaker's own immediate perceptions and internal states. The evidential system interacts in some interesting ways with the person-marking system, the tense-aspect system and the verbal classification system. While evidential systems are attested in a number of languages worldwide they also appear to be an areal phenomenon in South America. They appear in Quechua, Aymara and languages of the Amazonian basin. But very little descriptive or theoretical work has been done on such systems. This dissertation will advance the theoretical understanding of such systems. The project has also been designed to benefit thr ee different communities: 1) the academic community of the United States; 2) the academic community of Ecuador; and 3) the Tsachila community itself. Copies of all materials produced will be given to the Pontificia Universidad Catolica del Ecuador and to the Tsachila community. In addition, the materials will be used as a basis for eventually producing bilingual materials, a dictionary and pedagogical materials for the community.