166 Paulette LevyBeck (2000: 237) suggests, for UNT, that the terms for 'young' and 'old' were
originally adjectives that have been recategorized as nouns, and that the nom-
inal plural is the innovation. Although the details differ, PT has different evidence
pointing in the same direction (for discussion, see Levy 2oo2b). If the direction
of recategorization is the one hypothesized both by Beck and myself, there is yet
another piece of evidence for adjectives in proto-Totonacan.3.6. HUMAN PROPENSITY
A few HUMAN PROPENSITY adjectives that are clearly morphologically adjectives
were shown in (25). These can combine with body-part morphemes to yield more
specific traits, for instance caka:t 'playful, mischievous', kilh-caka:t (kilh- 'mouth')
'witty; argumentative; rude with words'. But they are few, the semantic type filled
out by borrowings from Spanish, e.g. to:nto < Sp. tonto 'fool', integrated as ak-to:nto
head-fool, andplojo < Sp.flojo 'lazy.
Human deformities, adjectives in Spanish or English, are either nouns or dever-
bative nouns in PT, including tantu:putu"one-\egged, maqdputu"one-atmed, qatd:
pa 'deaf person. Adjectives always precede their heads, so the NP cuqa'wasa laqdci':
(young.boy blind) means really 'young (male) blind.person, not 'a blind young-
ster'.
In contrast, HUMAN PROPENSITY concepts having to do with feelings, emotions,
perceptions, appraisals ('happy', 'disgusting', 'attractive', etc.) are basically verbs. As
stated by Dixon (Chapter i of this volume) for Fijian, these adjectives 'describe
an attitude on the part of one participant towards someone or something else'. So
ideas such as jealous of me, envious of his house, proud of making a lot of money,
that would be expressed by means of complex adjectival phrases in English or
Spanish, are expressed as different types of verbal complements.
Most HUMAN PROPENSITY concepts are expressed by what are formally dever-
bative nouns derived from verbs of emotions and sensations, augmented by the
instrumental applicative //:,- producing nouns meaning 'that causes the emotion
expressed by V, as in (38). Morphologically they are recognized as nouns because
the suffixal part involves either suffixes or processes that are present in all other
kinds of deverbal nouns. Consider, for instance, the suffix -t (compare: li:laqdti:t
'likable, nice' < laqati: 's/he likes it' with taskujut'tasK < skuja 'work'), or the process
of truncation of verbal bases with /w, y/ in the last syllable (compare li:pa:xdw 'that
gives joy, happy' < pa:xawd 's/he is happy' with tasiw 'rope' < siwi: 's/he spins X').
(38) li:ma:xana 'that causes shame, shameful' (ma:xanan Vintr 's/he is
ashamed')
Maqapuca 'that makes you sad, unhappy' (laqapuca Vintr 's/he is sad')
li:laqati:t 'likeable, nice' (laqati: 's/he likes it')
li:xkajnit 'revolting' (xkajni 'it revolts him')
li:pa:xaw 'that gives joy, happy' (pa:xawa Vintr 's/he is happy')
li:ci'y 'funny' (ci'yan 's/he laughs')