Although the relative ordering of affixes within a wordform is generally considered to be invariant, recent work has suggested that in some languages affix-order can vary and may be determined by conditions other than a fixed affixal template. In Upper Necaxa Totonac, a number of affixes show variable relative ordering, the conditioning factors ranging from purely formal rules governing the co-expression of inflectional and quasi-inflectional categories to considerations of semantic scope and free (or perhaps stylistic) variation. Although the relative ordering of affixes within a wordform is often considered to be fixed, recent work has suggested that in some languages affixorder can vary (Baker 1985; Mithun 2000; Rice 2000). In Upper Necaxa Totonac (UNT), a relatively large number of affixes show variable ordering conditioned by one of three factors: formal rules for the co-expression of inflectional and quasi-inflectional categories; considerations of semantic scope; and free (or perhaps stylistic) variation. While there have been brief mentions of similar phenomenon in descriptive grammars, it remains an open question how common variable ordering of affixes is in natural language. 1 Upper Necaxa Totonac verbal morphology UNT has an exceptionally rich verbal morphology, its verbs being inflected for three tenses (‘past’, ‘present’, ‘future’), four aspects (‘imperfective’, * The author would like to acknowledge the help and advice of Alexandra Aikhenvald, Frank Trechsel, Paulette Levy, Teresa McFarland, and Igor Mel’čuk in putting together some of the thoughts behind this presentation — any mis-assembly is my own responsibility. Much of the data here came to light as a result of joint research with Josh Holden and Vianey Varela, to whom I am indebted for their hard work and enthusiasm. I would also like to thank my Upper Necaxa consultants, whose patience and willingness to play with their language made it all possible. This research was funded by the Social Sciences

Abstract: This article investigates the synchronic status and diachronic origin of an incorporation-like construction in Japhug, a polysynthetic Sino-Tibetan language of Eastern Tibet. This construction constitutes the intermediate stage on a path of development from denominal derivation to incorporation, the opposite of the usual path of development from incorporation to denominal derivation. Additionally, this article shows that similar phenomena exist in other languages, and that coalescence between noun and verb is not the only attested diachronic origin of incorporating verbs.

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