I have so far examined the lexical, pronominal, and aspectual complexes of the verb. A remarkable stability exists across the family in ordering within these complexes; differences between languages can be largely attributed to the noninteraction of systems and to the different importance assigned to contradictory universals. In this chapter I investigate ordering inside the qualifier complex. It is here that the greatest variation in morpheme ordering is found both across languages and within a particular language.

The Qualifiers: Content

Unlike the argument and aspect systems discussed in the previous two chapters, the qualifiers do not form a functionally homogeneous class. As discussed in chapter 9, qualifiers are of several types. Some are aspectual – inceptive, conative, egressive, inchoative, negative. Others are noun class markers that index properties of patient/theme arguments. A third set marks noun class qualities, but does not share all properties with noun class markers. Others mark classes of descriptive stative verbs in some languages. Another one interacts with the middle voice system in marking reflexive and self-benefactive. A final set is difficult to assign meanings to; they might be historical noun class markers that are now frozen in use with particular verbs. This last set is generally called thematic in the Athapaskan literature.

The Noun Class System

Many Athapaskan languages show some productive use of noun class markers, usually called gender in the Athapaskan literature, although the system is more productive in some languages than others.