The “reflexive” prefix je- in Tupi-Guarani

The aim of this paper is to analyze the different functions of the “reflexive” prefix je- in Tupi-Guarani in order to provide an updated reconstruction of its etymon in Proto-Tupi-Guarani and to hypothesize possible developmental paths that can yield the current distribution of functions observed in the family. I show that the Proto-Tupi-Guarani etymon *je- is likely to have had the following functions: Reflexive, Holistic reference to body-part possessors in noun incorporations, Autocausative, and Anticausative. I hypothesize that these functions arise from an original singly reflexive function of **je- in Pre-Proto-Tupi-Guarani via minimal changes in the component features of the semantic roles encoded by the prefix. Finally, I look in more detail at the situation in Avañe’ẽ (Paraguayan Guarani), the TG language that shows the most extensive constellation of functions for je-, and determine that this is due to the interplay of language internal (crosslinguistically common function extensions from reflexive to passive), contact (the existence of se passives in Spanish and Guarani), and social factors (standardization pressures).