WHO DID WHAT TO WHOM IN MAGDALENA (ITONAMA)

Itonama, a language isolate on the brink of extinction, is spoken in the northeastern Amazonian lowlands of Bolivia. The language exhibits an interesting type of argument encoding: the predominant accusative alignment system, which is visible only in the person cross-reference markers on the verb, combines with an inverse subsystem in independent clauses, which is based on a 1/2 > 3 indexability hierarchy. This subsystem is active only in mixed configurations, in which a third person acts on a Speech-Act Participant (SAP). Dependent clauses, however, show straightforward accusative alignment patterning.