A Grammar of Tamashek (Tuareg of Mali)

8.1 Causative 463

The cases in (473) appear to be simple cases of a causative of
mediopassive. Note that the core stems are light (-vCvC-, -vCCi>).

(473) Causative of Mediopassive

a. -s-vm-vdvd- 'gnaw at' (-vdvd- 'bite')

PerfP -aes-m-aedaed-

Imprt s-amm-adad

LoImpfP -s-am-asdad-

VblN a-s-smm-adad

b. -s-vm-vlsu- 'contaminate' (-vlsu- 'dress')

PerfP -ses-m-aslsa-

Imprt s-amm-als

LoImpfP -s-am-aelsa-

VblN a-s-smm-als

For the semantic nuances, cf. Mediopassive -m-vdvd- 'be eaten (all over)'
and -m-vlsu- '(disease) be contagious'.
In other cases, a combination of -s- with -m- (-n-) has a specialized
aspectual sense, involving (spatiotemporal) distributivity or iterativity. These
combinations may be lexicalized (i.e. occur frequently and have idiosyncratic
sense). Often the corresponding simple Mediopassive is not attested, at least in
a sense closely related to that of the doubly prefixed combination. Arguably
the original sense was reciprocal rather than mediopassive, since the reciprocal
category has a built-in distributivity, but some mediopassives have a similar
quantificational element, cf. 'be eaten (all over)' just illustrated. Examples
involving spatiotemporal distributivity are in (474).

(474) Spatiotemporal Distributive Cases

a. -s-vn-vffvy- 'pour (over and over)' (-vffvy- 'pour')

PerfP -ses-n-asffasy-

Imprt s-snnafay

LoImpfP -s-m-affuy-

VblN a-s-snn-sffay

b.-s-vm-vYvttvs- 'do intermittently' (-Yvtvs-/-Yvttvs- 'snap')

PerfP -aes-m-Eeraettaes-

Imprt s-smm-srattas

LoImpfP -s-lm-Y3ttis-

VblN a-s-3mm-3Y3tt3s