Particles in Rikbaktsa

Abstract

In Rikbaktsa (Macro-Jê), particles comprise a lexical class alongside adverbs and postpositions. Usually particles are described as invariant elements in this language; however, there are two sets of particles, one marking focalization and another denoting modality of empathy, which present a morphological complexity involving the genre and number of the focalized element in the former element and the genre and number of the speaker/listener in the latter. Among the many meanings expressed by these language particles, I identified focalization, epistemic modality, and evidentiality. In terms of the evidentiality category, the auxiliary verb is undergoing a process of grammaticalization to indicate the reportative.

Keywords
Rikbaktsa language; Particles; Topicalization; Evidentiality; Grammaticalization