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In Hiaki, the applicative is a suffix that, when added to a verb, indicates the presence of a new object in the sentence. For example, the Hiaki sentence Uu maaso ye’eka means “the deer dancer danced”, but when the applicative is added, we might get something like Uu maaso uusim yi’iriak, which means “the deer dancer danced for the children”. -ria is the applicative suffix, and uusim is the new object that -ria refers to. For more information on the applicative, see Applicative and Suppletion in Hiaki.
Causation, or something causing something else to happen, is often expressed in Hiaki by the suffix -tua. When the causative suffix is used in Hiaki, the number of subjects in the sentence increases rather than the number of objects as in the cases with applicatives. So, when the causative is added to the sentence Santos karitek (Santos built a house), we could get something like Simon Santohta karitetuak (Simon made Santos build a house). To learn more about causatives in Hiaki, click here.
The passive voice in Hiaki is expressed by the suffix -wa, and when it is used, it changes the sentence so that the ‘doer’ of the action is not mentioned, and the thing that is being acted upon is the subject of the sentence. An example of this can be seen in the following two sentences:
Uu ili uusi uka mansanata bwa’e.
(The little child is eating the apple.)
Uu mansana bwa’awa.
(The apple is being eaten.)
Notice how in the first sentence, which is not passive, uu ili uusi is the subject and uka mansanata is the object. However, in the second sentence, uu mansana is the subject and the passive suffix -wa is attached to the verb.
This paper investigates how the applicative and causative interact in Hiaki and what happens when they are combined with the passive, and it specifically examines the deeper linguistic processes that go into a sentence like:
Uusi avionta aman ni’ituariawak.
Uusi avion-ta aman ni’i-tua–ria–wa-k
child model.plane-acc there fly-caus–appl–pass-pfv
“A model plane will be flown for the child over there”
see also: On the Syntax of Applicative and Causative Constructions