Person and Gender Hierarchies in Micmac

Abstract

There is a well-known hierarchy of grammatical persons in the Algonkian languages that determines the direct and inverse forms of the transitive verb. We may represent this hierarchy as follows: 2 > 1 > 3 > 3', which means that second person takes precedence over first, and these two take precedence over third proximate, which in turn takes precedence over third obviative (3'), the third person who is marked as secondary or derived. In the direct forms of the transitive verb the agent is hierarchically superior to the patient; in the inverse forms of the transitive verb the agent is hierarchically inferior to the patient.

But this hierarchy concerns only animate actors. Alongside this person hierarchy there is also a gender hierarchy where animate takes precedence over inanimate. It is of interest to note that there is an interplay of these two hierarchies: when the agent of a transitive verb is inanimate, an inverse form is required. The end result of the interplay between these two systems is a very close parallel to the kind of person hierarchy that has been proposed by Seiler (1983) as a linguistic universal.