This brief article presents data from Nahuatlepec de Santiago Ramón y Cajal, with a focus on the evocative case, which has not previously been described in the literature. The evocative case is used in narrative and hortatory texts to evoke an emotional response from the listener. This will be most easily seen from the free translations below.
The language has a surface SOV word order, and basic nominative-
The evocative case marker can replace any other case marker in the language, which motivates its analysis as a case marker as opposed to some other suffix. The next example is parallel to (1), but with the direct object marked with the evocative case.
As the translation above indicates, use of the evocative case replaces the accusative in a transitive sentence. In intransitive sentences, however, only the nominative can be replaced with an evocative case marker.
Consistently with the ergative pattern illustrated above, non-
Moreover, only one argument can be promoted to evocative position. Examples such as the following, where both nominative and accusative NPs receive the evocative case are judged ungrammatical
The sample of data offered here is a small portion of what is to be found in my records. Future publications will explore the fascinating morphosyntactic research that was only possible through my close collaboration with the last remaining speaker of Nahuatlepec de Santiago Ramón y Cajal, who has unfortunately recently passed away. Although the data access restrictions he insisted upon mean that the notebooks and recordings can never be published in full, my informant gave explicit permission for me to publish as much language data as I wished in journal articles, of which I anticipate publishing many.