BOAS] HANDBOOK OF INDIAN LANGUAGES TAKELMA 149 



hardly be insisted upon; much depends on idiomatic usage. The 

 indirect reflexive suffix, it would seem, is employed only when the 

 direct object is incorporated in the verb; if the direct object is taken 

 out of the verb-complex and provided with a possessive pronoun, all 

 ambiguity as to the relation between subject and object is removed 

 and the -gwa- falls out. Thus we have dd°'-deHe'p'gwa he pierced 

 HIS OWN EAR with indirect reflexive -gwa- to show the possession of 

 the object (dd'^- ear) by the subject; dd°'dele'p'i would mean he 

 PIERCED another's EAR. The former sentence can also be expressed 

 more analytically by ddnxdagwa Jiadele'p'i his-own {-dagwa) -ear he- 

 IN-PIERCED-IT ; ddnxda hadele^p'i would then have reference to the 

 piercing of another's ear. In other words, the reflexive idea is 

 expressed in the verb or in the noun according to whether the latter 

 is incorporated or independent. 



INTRANSITIVE SUFFIXES (§§ 52-57) 

 § 52. General Remarks 



Under this head are included such sulfixes as intransitivize a transi- 

 tive verb by removing the object (-xa-), transferring the object from 

 without to within the sphere of the subject (reflexive, reciprocal), or 

 changing the character of the action altogether (non-agentive, posi- 

 tional). The passive intransitivizes by removing, not the object, but 

 the subject, the former remaining in exactly the same form in which 

 we find it in the corresponding transitive; the voice is characterized 

 by peculiar suffixes that differ for the various tense-modes, and which, 

 following as they do the pronominal elements of the verb, will receive 

 appropriate treatment in discussing the purely formal verbal elements. 

 The normal transitive, its ancillary passive, the active intransitive 

 irxa-), the reflexive, the reciprocal, the non-agentive, and the posi- 

 tional may be looked upon as the seven voices of a transitive verb, of 

 which only the first five (possibly also the sixth), however, can be 

 freely formed from any transitive stem. Of the seven voices, the 

 first two are provided with a distinct set of pronominal object (and 

 transitive subject) suffixes; the third and the fifth, with Class I 

 intransitive subjects; the remaining, with Class II intransitive 

 subjects. 



Before giving examples of the intransitive suffixes, it may be useful 

 to rapidly follow out a particular transitive stem {dink!- stretch out 

 [ = base din- + transitive petrified suffix -A:.'-]) inits various voices. First 



§ 52 



