3.1. Oblique clitic pronouns

When the clitics occur with postpositions, they function as the object of the postposition. Like Tegey (Reference Tegey1977: 34), I call these types of clitics “oblique clitic pronouns”. Oblique clitic pronouns are part of the system of weak pronouns in Pashto which are used for topic continuity in Pashto discourse (Tegey Reference Tegey1977: 12; Pate Reference Pate2012: 13–24). In (11) to (13), the (a) examples contain oblique clitic pronouns, while the (b) examples contain free pronouns.

1. (11)

   1. a. Clitic as object of adpositional phrase

      spoʐməirā=sarənāst-ədə

      Spozhmeioc.1=withseated-fsgbe.3fsg

      ‘Spozhmei is seated with me/us.’

   2. b. Free pronoun as object of adpositional phrase

      spoʐməizmʊʐsarənāst-ədə

      Spozhmeiwith +1pl.oblwithseated-fsgbe.3fsg

      ‘Spozhmei is seated with us.’

2. (12)

   1. a. Clitic as object of adpositional phrase

      zədər=tsəxəliriy-əm

      1sg.nomoc.2=fromfar be-1sg

      ‘I am far from you (sg/pl).’

   2. b. Free pronoun as object of adpositional phrase

      zəstātsəxəliriy-əm

      1sg.nomfrom +2sg.oblfromfarbe-1sg

      ‘I am far from you (sg).’

3. (13)

   1. a. Clitic as object of adpositional phrase

      husenwər=təwāy-i

      Husseinoc.3=tosay.prs-3

      ‘Hussein is telling him/her/them.’

   2. b. Free pronoun as object of adpositional phrase

      husenhaɣatəwāy-i

      Hussein3msgtosay.prs-3

      ‘Hussein is telling him.’

      (taken from Pate Reference Pate2012: 17–8)

As shown in these examples, the oblique clitic pronoun has no real directional function. Instead, it simply replaces an oblique NP as the object of the adposition. The oblique clitic pronoun must match its referent in person only.

3.2. Verbal directional clitics

The second major use of person markers involves the verb. When these clitics attach to a motion predicate (i.e. a verb which takes a theme argument), they encode the direction of the action.Footnote ⁷ Tegey (Reference Tegey1977: 44) labels these clitics as “deictic preverbs”. While identical in form to the oblique clitic pronouns, they play quite a different role, as will be shown later in this section. As per Babrakzai (Reference Babrakzai1999) and Pate (Reference Pate2012), I call these clitics “verbal directive pronouns” or “verbal directive clitics”.Footnote ⁸ In (14), the verbal directive clitics appear on the verb leʐəl ‘send’, which takes a theme as its object, in this case yəw xat ‘one letter’.

1. (14)

   1. a. habibmātəyəwxatrā=wəleʐ-əi

      Habib1sg.obltoonelettervc.1=pfvsend.pst-3msg

      ‘Habib sent me a letter [to where I am].’

   2. b. habibtātəyəwxatdər=wəleʐ-əi

      Habib2sg.obltoonelettervc.2=pfvsend.pst-3msg

      ‘Habib sent you a letter [to where you are].’

   3. c. habibtortəyəwxatwər=wəleʐ-əi

      HabibTortoonelettervc.3=pfvsend.pst-3msg

      ‘Habib sent Tor a letter [to where a 3^rd party is].’

      (taken from Pate Reference Pate2012: 20)

For four verbs in Pashto, the verbal directive pronouns have become lexicalized into the verb so that they have lost their status as true clitics. These four verbs are rā-tləl ‘come’, rā-kəwəl ‘give’, rā-wɽəl ‘bring (things which cannot move on their own)’, and rā-wistəl ‘bring (things which can move on their own)’. For each of these verbs, the use of a verbal directive marker is mandatory, and without such a marker, each of these verbs' meanings would change.

4.1. Important properties of the COME verb

Pashto COME and GO have some “peculiar” properties that do not correspond to the uses of COME and GO in other Indo-European languages. In this subsection I outline two main properties of the COME verb that differ from English usage. These properties are highly relevant to subsequent sections of this paper (cf., §4.2 and §4.3).

4.2. Mismatches in dative goal and person marker on COME

As described above, COME has three different person markers – rā ‘1’, dər ‘2’, and wər ‘3’ – one of which must be chosen when using the verb. COME also takes a semantic goal as an argument. This goal can be unexpressed or overt. When overt, the goal appears as the dative object of the adposition tə ‘to’. This goal is often a place, as in (15b). However, the dative goal can also be a person, as in (15c).

Some descriptions of rā, dər and wər simply state that they represent movement towards a 1^st, 2^nd, or 3^rd person, respectively. Babrakzai (Reference Babrakzai1999: 33) states: “The directive pronouns are used as prefixes with verbs, denoting the direction of the movement of the subject with intransitive verbs, and that of the direct object with transitive verbs”. He then gives examples of certain verbs, stating that rā is “toward speaker”, dər is “to 2^nd person” and wər is “to 3^rd person” (p. 34). He further labels these directive pronouns as “dative agreement” (p. 82) and states, “Since the agreement is between the indirect object phrase and the directional pronoun, any mismatch between them results in an ungrammatical sentence” (p. 83). He presents one ungrammatical example (here as (24)) in which the dative argument is 2^nd person tā and the verbal directional pronoun is 3^rd person wər.

1. (24) *zətātəyəwkitābwər=leʐ-əm

   1sg.nom2sg.obltoonebookvc.3=send.prs.ipfv-1sg

   ‘I am sending a book to you.’

   (transcription modified from Babrakzai Reference Babrakzai1999: 83)

Roberts (Reference Roberts2000: 105) also asserts that clitic doubling takes place in Pashto and that “verbal pronominal clitics correspond to NPs that would be marked dative, or as other sorts of indirect arguments”. This matching of dative argument with verbal directive pronoun is shown below in (25).

1. (25)

   1. a. (1^st person dative argument; 1^st person verbal directional marker)

      ahmadrā=tərā-dz-i

      Ahmadoc.1=to1-go.prs.ipfv-3

      ‘Ahmad is coming [to where I am] to me.’

   2. b. (2^nd person dative argument; 2^nd person verbal directional marker)

      ahmaddər=tədər-dz-i

      Ahmadoc.2=to2-go.prs.ipfv-3

      ‘Ahmad is coming [to where you are] to you.’

   3. c. (3^rd person dative argument; 3^rd person verbal directional marker)

      ahmadwər=təwər-dz-i

      Ahmadoc.3=to3-go.prs.ipfv-3

      ‘Ahmad is coming [to where a 3^rd party is] to a 3^rd party.’

Babrakzai's (Reference Babrakzai1999) and Roberts' (Reference Roberts2000) analyses of these verbal markers is not quite accurate, however. Under these analyses, the verbal directional markers rā, dər and wər must always align with the dative argument in person, as shown in (25). However, this is not always the case. The verbal directional markers do not always align with the dative argument in person, as exemplified in (1). First of all, when the dative argument is a place, then clearly there is no dative 1^st or 2^nd person argument. First and second person directional markers rā and dər can still be used, however, as in (26).

1. (26)

   1. a. zəbəwādətədər-dz-əm

      1sg.nomfutweddingto2-go.prs.ipfv-1sg

      ‘I'll come [to where you are] to the wedding.’

      (taken from the story of Adam Khan and Darkhanei from Mili Hindara)

   2. b. nāwaxtəkortərā-s-ə

      latehouseto1-go.imp.pfv-sg

      ‘Come [to the place where I am now] home late!’

      (taken from the story of Hets)Footnote ¹⁰

Furthermore, what is missing in Babrakzai (Reference Babrakzai1999) and Roberts' (Reference Roberts2000) analyses is that the verbal directional markers do not mark the movement towards a 1^st, 2^nd, or 3^rd person, but rather they point to the person's location. As shown in §4.1, the location of the discourse participant (whether 1^st, 2^nd, or 3^rd person) is the focus of the movement as opposed to the discourse participant himself. When a discourse participant appears as the dative argument, then mismatches of dative argument and verbal directional pronoun can occur.

1. (27)

   1. a. (2^nd person dative argument; 1^st person verbal directional marker)

      byābəbəl-əwrədz dər=tərā-s-əm

      againfutanother-fsgday oc.2=to1-go.prs.pfv-1sg

      ‘I'll come to you again [to where I am now speaking] another day.’

      (taken from the story of The Weeping Pomegranate Tree and the Laughing Apple Tree from Mili Hindara)

   2. b. (3^rd person dative argument; 1^st person verbal directional marker)

      yəw-ə  onəi wrustə bə  byertə  wər= tə  rā-dz-əm

      one-fsg week later  fut back  oc.3=  to 1-go.prs.ipfv-1sg

      ‘I will come back [to the place where I am speaking now] to it in a week.’

      (taken from De Kabul Tag, 2^nd chapter)Footnote ¹¹

   3. c. (3^rd person dative argument; 2^nd person verbal directional marker)

      (Hussein and Ahmad are together. I call Hussein and inform him)

      zmāwrorbəahmadtədar-s-i

      gen+1sg.oblbrotherfutAhmadto2-go.prs.pfv-3

      ‘My brother will come [to the place where you are] to Ahmad.’

In (27a), the context involves an old woman taking her leave of a young girl. The dative argument is the 2^nd person oblique clitic dər=. However, the directional marker is 1^st person rā because the old woman is present at the goal of motion at utterance time (cf. 4.1.2). In (27b), the speaker is talking to himself about his plans to leave his job in the city, and then possibly come back to the job a week later. The dative argument is the 3^rd person oblique clitic wər= and it refers to his job. However, since his utterance is made at the destination location, first person rā-tləl is used instead of 3^rd person wər-tləl. In (27c), the speaker is not at the goal location at utterance time. The theme is the speaker's brother and is intended to reach Ahmad, who is the overt dative argument. However, since the speaker thinks Ahmad and Hussein are together in one location, and since the addressee – Hussein – is present at the goal location, the 2^nd person directional marker dər is used on the verb.

While the three “non-matching” combinations of dative marker and verbal directive pronoun in (27) are possible, other “non-matching” combinations are not possible. The examples in (28) show the three combinations which are never possible.

1. (28)

   1. a. (1^st person dative argument; 2^nd person verbal directional marker)

      *ahmadrā=tədər-dz-i

      Ahmadoc.1=to2-go.prs.ipfv-3

      ‘Ahmad is coming [to where you are] to me.’

   2. b. (1^st person dative argument; 3^rd person verbal directional marker)

      *ahmadrā=təwər-dz-i

      Ahmadoc.1=to3-go.prs.ipfv-3

      ‘Ahmad is coming [to where a 3^rd party is] to me.’

   3. c. (2^nd person dative argument; 3^rd person verbal directional marker)

      *ahmaddər=təwər-dz-i

      Ahmadoc.2=to3-go.prs.ipfv-3

      ‘Ahmad is coming [to where a third party is] to you.’

In short, there are nine possible combinations of dative argument and verbal directive pronoun (i.e. {3 choices for the dative pronoun} × {3 choices for the verbal directive pronoun} = {9 combinations}). The possible combinations are shown in Table 1. (An * marks an ungrammatical combination in Pashto). The examples in (25) correspond to the diagonal of the table, and the examples in (27) correspond to the three areas below the diagonal. The impossible combinations in (28) correspond to the three areas above the diagonal that are marked by an asterisk.

Table 1.

Possible combinations of dative argument and verbal directive pronouns

The combinations summarized in Table 1 can also be depicted in a spatial diagram (see Figure 1).

Figure 1.

Spatial diagram of verbal directive pronouns

When Pashto speakers use the COME verb, they cognitively determine their location and those who are with them in that location. If speakers view their own location as the same as the goal location either at utterance time or event time, then rā ‘1’ is used. However, the motion could be designated for anyone in the left circle; i.e. the dative argument could be S, A, or 3 for rā ‘1’. If speakers do not view themselves at the goal location either at utterance time or event time, and if they do view the addressee at the goal location at event time, then dər ‘2’ is used. Then the only possible people in the addressee's location are the addressee himself and a 3^rd person entity, as depicted in the middle circle. So the dative argument could be A or 3. If speakers do not view themselves or the addressee as present at the goal location, but if they view a 3^rd person discourse-salient entity as present at the goal location, then wər ‘3’ is used, and the only possible participant in the goal location is a 3^rd person entity. So the dative marker can only be 3.

The inclusion of entities in the circles in Figure 1 is tied to the fundamental concepts of 1^st, 2^nd, and 3^rd person in Pashto. Pashto is similar to English in its categorization of person. In English, the first and second persons can refer to the following:

1. (29) English first person

   1. (a) speaker(s)         sg: I need a drink.

      pl: We are the champions! (in unison)

   2. (b) speaker(s) + other(s)      We want you to come to dinner.

   3. (c) speaker(s) + addressee(s)    Shall we go?

   4. (d) speaker(s) + addressee(s) + other(s) Can't we all get along?

      (Wechsler Reference Wechsler2010: 333)

2. (30) English second person

   1. (a) addressee(s)         sg: You should behave yourself.

      pl: You should behave yourselves.

   2. (b) addressee(s) + other(s)    How do you guys handle yourselves

      over in Philosophy?

      (Wechsler Reference Wechsler2010: 334)

The Pashto 1^st and 2^nd nominative pronouns are listed in Table 2.

Table 2.

Pashto 1^st and 2^nd nominative pronouns

The 1^st and 2^nd person categories in Pashto are in alignment with those in English. Any group which includes the speaker is still a 1^st person plural mʊʐ idea. Any group without the speaker, but with the addressee, is a 2^nd person plural tāsi idea.

1. (31) Pashto first person

   1. (a) speaker(s)

      sg: zə

      pl: mʊʐ

   2. (b) speaker(s) + other(s)

      (zə əw ahmad), (mʊʐ əw dui)= mʊʐ

      (I and Ahmad), (we and they)

   3. (c) speaker(s) + addressee(s)

      (zə əw tə),(zə əw tāsi),(mʊʐ əw tāsi) = mʊʐ

      (I and you(sg))(I and you(pl))(We and you(pl))

   4. (d) speaker(s)+addressee(s)+other(s)

      (zə əw tə əw ahmad), (mʊʐ əw tāsi əw dui)= mʊʐ

      (I and you(sg) and Ahmad)(We and you(pl) and they)

2. (32) Pashto second person

   1. (a) addressee(s)

      sg: tə

      pl: tāsi

   2. (b) addressee(s) + other(s)

      (tə əw ahmad),(tāsi əw dui) = tāsi

      (you(sg) and Ahmad),(you(pl) and they)

Any person or group of which the speaker(s) or addressee(s) are not a part is 3^rd person.

What is relevant in this description of person in Pashto is that for a 1^st person plural mʊʐ group, both 2^nd person and 3^rd person entities can be included. For a 2^nd person plural tāsi group, a 3^rd person entity can be included; however, a 1^st person entity cannot. Finally, for a 3^rd person group, neither a 1^st nor a 2^nd person entity can be included.

Because of the nature of persons in Pashto, the seeming “mismatches” between the dative argument and the verbal directive pronoun are possible. When the action is speaker-oriented (i.e. rā-tləl is used), the speaker can cognitively frame a 2^nd or 3^rd person entity as part of his surroundings. Thus, the verbal directive marker can encode the movement to the speaker's group, but the dative argument can mark some other 2^nd or 3^rd person entity inside that group. Hence, in these circumstances, the first column of Table 1 and the left circle of Figure 1 are possible. When the action is addressee-oriented (i.e. dər-tləl is used), the speaker can cognitively frame a 3^rd person entity as part of the addressee's surrounding. But the speaker is no longer able to put himself together with the addressee. So in the middle column of Table 1, the combination of (1^st person, dər ‘2’) is impossible. The verbal directive marker can encode the movement to the addressee's group, and the dative argument can point to 3^rd person entity but not a 1^st person entity. Finally, if the action is oriented to a 3^rd person discourse-salient entity (i.e. wər-tləl is used), then the speaker can no longer cognitively put himself or the addressee into the third party's group. Thus, in column three of Table 1, only the bottom rectangle is possible. The two upper combinations – (1^st person, wər ‘3’) and (2^nd person, wər ‘3’) – are not possible.

Thus we find a rule involving the person hierarchy in (33).

1. (33) Person Hierarchy:  1 > 2 > 3

The verbal directional marker must outrank the dative argument on the person hierarchy. That is:

1. (34) Rule of verbal directional markers and dative arguments:

   Let A = the person of the verbal directional marker, and let B = the person of the dative argument marked by tə ‘to’. Then A ≥ B on the Person Hierarchy.

So, as listed in Table 1, the following possibilities are possible for ordered pairs (A,B):

1. (35) Possible ordered pairs

   A = B : (1^st person, rā ‘1’), (2^nd person, dər ‘2’), (3^rd person, wər ‘3’)

   A > B : (2^nd person, rā ‘1’), (3^rd person, rā ‘1’), (3^rd person, dər ‘2’)

   Impossible ordered pairs

   A < B : (1^st person, dər ‘2’), (1^st person, wər ‘3’), (2^nd person, wər ‘3’)

4.3. Deictic projection in narrative discourse

As detailed in §4.1.2, rā-tləl is used for motion towards the speaker's location either at utterance time or event time. In all the examples presented, the speaker was directly involved in the motion. In 3^rd person narrative discourse, however, the speaker is the narrator. As the narrator, the speaker is not a part of the events taking place; i.e. is not a character in the story. Thus, the question arises as to what constitutes the deictic centre and where the narrator stands in direction to that centre.

In many languages, deictic projection occurs in narrative discourse. Deictic projection refers to the speaker projecting the deictic centre onto a participant other than him/herself (Lyons Reference Lyons1977: 579, Fillmore Reference Fillmore and Rauh1971). The narrator adopts a point of view inside the story setting.

Fillmore (Reference Fillmore and Rauh1971: 227) presents the following example in English narrative. In (36)a), the verb come is used deictically. The narrator is not a character in the story, and neither is the addressee. Thus, in normal English direct speech situations, come would not be appropriate. However, the narrator has projected the deictic centre to a new place – the mentioned bedroom. The use of come “indicates that the point-of-view is the location or the person inside the mentioned bedroom” (Fillmore Reference Fillmore and Rauh1971: 227). In (36b), the verb enter is not deictic; i.e. it is not interpreted by the immediate context. Thus, in contrast to (a), the (b) sentence does not mark anything about the narrator's perspective from within the bedroom.

1. (36)

   1. a. The men came into her bedroom.

   2. b. The men entered her bedroom.

      (Fillmore Reference Fillmore and Rauh1971: 227)

Feiz Zarrin Ghalam (Reference Feiz Zarrin Ghalam2007: 149–50) also points out examples of deictic projection in Persian. In example (37), a man appears in the story with a goat and is moving towards a tree where another man is picking fruit. The narrator used the COME verb aamadan (here the past form oomad) to signal the man's arrival at the scene instead of the GO verb raftan. Thus the narrator has projected the deictic centre to the location under the tree, and thus the narrator uses COME.

1. (37) Persian

   ye^ aa^ghaai oomad baa bo^zesh ra^d shodo:^,

   ‘A guy came passed by with a goat.’

   (Feiz Zarrin Ghalam Reference Feiz Zarrin Ghalam2007: 150)

In Pashto, deictic projection also occurs in narrative discourse. In both English and Persian, only two verbs, COME and GO, are in contrast with each other. In a case of deictic projection, COME is used in place of GO. However, in Pashto, COME has three forms (rā-tləl, dər-tləl, and wər-tləl). Which form, then, is used in cases of deictic projection?

It turns out that first person rā-tləl is used when the semantic theme moves towards the projected deictic centre. That is, the action towards a projected deictic centre in a narrative is seen as action towards a first person participant's location. In this way, the narrator projects himself into a location, and movement that occurs towards his location is encoded with rā-tləl. As the narrator does not interact with the characters in the story however, there is never an addressee within the story. So there is never an addressee upon which the deictic centre can be projected, and thus dər-tləl is not used with deictic projection. Movement to a third person discourse-salient entity away from the narrator's point of view is encoded with wər-tləl.

In (38), word has just come to the king that the princess, who is in her chambers, has been healed of her madness, for which they had bound her in chains. The narrator's use of COME – rā-tləl in the second clause – is a use of deictic projection. The narrator is not a part of the story, yet he has projected himself into the princess's room. Thus the king comes to his daughter himself, and first person rā-tləl is appropriate.

1. (38) bātʃāɖerxwʊʃhālə s-u.

   kingveryhappybecome.pst.pfv-3msg

   pəxpələ Footnote ¹²lurtərā-ɣ-əi

   himselfdaughterto1-go.pst.pfv-3msg

   luryexlās-əkɽ-ə

   daughtererg.3free-fsg do.pst.pfv-3fsg

   ‘The king became very happy. He himself came to his daughter. He freed his daughter.’

   (taken from the story of Upright and Scoundrel from Mili Hindara)

Note that in the example above, if the narrator had not deictically projected himself into princess' room, then the third person wər-tləl would have been used in place of rā-tləl.

Some other examples of deictic projection in narrative are given in (39) to (41).

1. (39) sperkwənɖə rā-ɣl-əfiltə.

   crested lark1-go.pst.pfv-3fsgelephantto

   ‘The crested lark came to the elephant.’

   (taken from the story of The Crested Lark and the Elephant from Mili Hindara)

2. (40) dəxwāja-gān-otsəxə pəzorrā=ters-u.

   fromeunuch-pl-oblfromwithforcevc.1=passbecome.pst.pfv-3msg

   rā-ɣ-əibarābar dəʂədzo xemetə.

   1-go.pst.pfv-3msgdirectly gen women.obl tent.obl to

   ‘He passed through the eunuchs by force. He came right up to the women's tent.’

   (taken from the story of Musa Jan and Wali Jan from Mili Hindara)

3. (41) deitʃiwər=tərā-ɣ-əi,kəgor-i,

   hecompoc.3to1-go.pst.pfv-3msgiflook.prs -3

   yəwbātʃāməɽdəi

   onekingdeadbe.prs.3msg

   ‘When he came to them, he saw that a king is dead.’

   (taken from the story of Jalat Khan and Shamaila from Mili Hindara)

In (39), the crested lark arrives at a field where an elephant is. The narrator adopts the perspective of being in the field. Thus rā-tləl is used. In (40), the king's harem has set up camp for a picnic. Eunuchs are guarding the camp. Wali Jan passes through the eunuchs by force and arrives at the women's tent. The narrator takes the perspective as being inside the camp at the women's tent. Thus, rā-tləl is used.Footnote ¹³ In (41), a man named Muslim sees a commotion among some people in the town, so he goes to them to find out what is happening. (The oblique dative marker is the clitic wər= which refers to the townspeople.) The narrator thus takes the perspective of being among the townspeople. So in the first clause, rā-tləl is used.

Note that in examples (38), (39) and (41), the dative argument and the verbal directional marker do not agree in person.Footnote ¹⁴ For each of these examples, the dative argument is 3^rd person while the verbal directional marker is 1^st person. Thus, deictic projection introduces more examples of the seeming “mismatches” of dative marker and verbal directive marker outlined in §4.2. Namely they are (3^rd person, rā ‘1’) combinations.

The use of deictic projection is not so much an issue of grammatical correctness as it is a pragmatic matter. For example, the sentence in (42) is taken from a story about an old woman in Afghanistan named Bibo. The entire story is set in Afghanistan. The immediate preceding text of (42) involves events pertaining to the old woman in Afghanistan. In the sentence in (42), one of Bibo's daughters, who lives in Germany, is introduced for the first time in the story as she has recently arrived in Afghanistan from Germany.

1. (42) pəde waxt ki də bibo yəw-ə lur də jarmanitsəxə

   inthis.obl time in gen Bibo one-fsg daughterfromGermanyfrom

   rā-ɣəl / #tləl/ #wər-aɣəl-e w-ə

   1-go.ptcp go.ptcp 3-go.ptcp-fsg be.pst-fsg

   ‘At this time, one of Bibo's daughters had come / #left / #gone from Germany.’

   (taken from the story Ghamjana Budei)

Since the entire story is set in Afghanistan, the narrator's projected centre is in Afghanistan, and thus, first person rā-tləl is appropriate. The use of a tləl or wər-tləl does not result in ungrammatical sentences. However, such sentences are not semantically well-formed. The use of tləl would mean Bibo's daughter had left Germany. However, since the author's projected deictic centre (Afghanistan) is the goal of the motion, and his intent is to show that Bibo's daughter had arrived in Afghanistan, tləl is not suitable here. Third person wər-tləl assumes that Bibo's daughter is moving towards a third person discourse-salient entity. However, the narrator would need to project himself deictically into Germany for this third person COME verb to be appropriate. Thus, since the movement of the theme (i.e. Bibo's daughter) is towards the projected deictic centre, only rā-tləl is appropriate.

5.1. Other motion verbs

So far, the discussion in this paper has focused on the verbs COME and GO. However, as stated in the introduction, any motion verb which takes a theme argument can take the verbal directional markers. Some examples of such motion verbs are listed in (43).

1. (43) Verbs with thematic argumentsFootnote ¹⁵

   tləl*Footnote ¹⁶‘go’

   wɽəl*‘take (things that cannot move on their own)’

   bewəl*‘take (things that can move on their own)’

   axistəl‘take’Footnote ¹⁷

   leʐəl‘send’

   astawəl‘send’

   rasawəl‘make arrive, deliver’

   rasedəl‘arrive’

   watəl‘go out, exit’

   nanawatəl‘go in, enter’

   istəl‘take out’

   nanaistəl‘put in’

   kʂəl‘take out, draw’

   kəʃawəl‘drag’

   xatəl‘go up’

   xeʒawəl‘make go up’

   portə kawəl‘raise’

   portə kedəl‘be raised, go up’

   kʂətə / kuz / tā kawəl‘lower’

   kʂətə / kuz / tā kedəl‘be lowered, go down’

   atʃawəl‘throw, toss’

   lwedəl‘fall’

   ɣwərdzawəl‘throw’

   ɣwərdzedəl‘be thrown, fall’

   teredəl‘pass’

   tskawəl‘scoot (transitive)’

   tskedəl‘scoot (intransitive)’

   dzɣastəl‘run’

   gərdzawəl‘move (transitive)’

   gərdzedəl‘move (intransitive)’

   lɣəɽawəl‘roll (transitive)’

   lɣəɽedəl‘roll (intransitive)’

   alwuzawəl‘fly (transitive)’

   alwutəl‘fly (intransitive)’

   aɽawəl‘turn (transitive), make cross’

   awoʂtəl‘turn (intransitive), cross’

When verbal directional markers are used on motion verbs, they perform the same functions as they do on the COME verb. When no verbal directional marker is used on the verb, then the verb's usage parallels the usage of GO (tləl). As an example, I will show how the verb wɽəl ‘take (things that cannot move on their own)’ is affected by verbal directional markersFootnote ¹⁸ and how the use of such markers with wɽəl corresponds directly to their use with GO (tləl).

5.2. BRING/TAKE