Chapter 15. Verb inflection and valence in Zapotec

This chapter examines several types of synchronic and diachronic connections between valence and verb inflection in Zapotec. Among the issues examined are the origin of the division of Zapotec verbs into four inflectional classes, the alignment between verb classes and valence, the origin of the suppletion in class D verb paradigms, and the origin of the replacive prefixes. Specifically, it is hypothesized that Zapotec verbs may originally have been divided into two classes, that class D arose out of aspect- and valence-based suppletion involving equipollent verb pairs of opposite valence, and that the transitive replacives *k- and *kʷ- both ultimately derive from the marker of the potential mood, in accordance with the diachronic typology of Zapotec.