Two Kinds of Syntactic Ergativity in Mayan (original) (raw)
Related papers
Ergativity and the complexity of extraction: a view from Mayan
Natural Language & Linguistic Theory, 2014
Researchers using different methods have converged on the result that subject relative clauses are easier to process than object relative clauses. Cross-linguistic evidence for the subject processing advantage (SPA) has come mostly from accusative languages, where the covariance of grammatical function and case prevents researchers from determining which of these two factors underlies the SPA. Languages with morphological ergativity allow for the separation of case and grammatical function, since the subject position is associated with two cases: absolutive (intransitive subjects) and ergative (transitive subjects). Prior experimental results on the processing of ergative languages suggest that grammatical function and surface case may be equally important in relative clause processing. On the one hand, as a syntactic subject, the ergative DP has a processing advantage over the absolutive object. On the other hand, the appearance of an ergative serves as a cue for the projection of the absolutive object, which gives processing preference to that object. This paper further tests these findings by examining the processing of relative clauses in Ch'ol and Q'anjob'al, two languages that mark ergativity via agreement on the predicate (head-marking). We address two main questions: (a) does the SPA hold in ergative languages? and (b) are case and agreement equally able to license grammatical functions, and if so, is this reflected in processing? With regard to (a), our results support the SPA, suggesting that it is present in both ergative and accusative languages. With respect to (b), we do not find evidence for a cueing effect associated with the ergative agreement marker. We conclude that dependent-marking is superior to head-marking in tracking grammatical function; in the absence of case cues, universal structural preferences such as the SPA become more pronounced. We also consider and reject a processing explanation for syntactic ergativity, according to which some languages categorically avoid A-bar movement of the ergative with a gap because it imposes a heavy processing load. Our results show that the processing of ergative gaps is not associated with greater cost than the processing of absolutive object gaps; this suggests that an explanation for syntactic ergativity should be sought outside processing.
A typology of antipassives, with special reference to Mayan
This dissertation presents the results of a typological study that investigated the global distribution of antipassive constructions, as well as the distribution of the relevant antipassive-related features. The sample includes data from 445 languages, which represent 144 language families and isolates. This larger study is informed by an in-depth analysis of Kaqchikel antipassives, and how this influences our understanding of antipassives of Mayan languages. The goals of this study are (1) to provide a more comprehensive look at antipassives and antipassive-type structures than had previously been attempted; (2) to provide an updated account of antipassives in Mayan languages, based on primary data; (3) to discover which other typological factors relate to the existence of antipassives in a particular language (4) to discover the types and distribution of features in antipassive-type constructions cross-linguistically, and (5) to establish guidelines for the identification and description of antipassive-type constructions in a wide variety of languages. Among other discoveries, findings show that about 25% of the world’s language have antipassive constructions. Antipassives tend to exist in languages with ergative-absolutive verb alignment, although there are also non-ergative languages which have antipassives. Additionally, while there is on some level a division between antipassives which serve primarily syntactic functions and those which serve primarily pragmatic functions, the more consistent distinction is between antipassives with allow the patient to be expressed in an oblique phrase and those which do not. There are also a small number of languages which can be said to have more than one antipassive. Mayan languages are known for having a rather large number of voice distinctions, including passives and antipassives. I identify five morphosyntactically distinct agent-preserving vii detransitivizing constructions in Kaqchikel, two of which I considered to be antipassives. I also look at several issues involving the markers for these constructions, the syntactic contexts in which they appear, and how they differ in terms of their function. The facts for Kaqchikel are also compared with what is known about other K’ichean and non-K’ichean languages.
A ch'olti'an explanation for ch'orti'an grammar: a postlude to the language of the Classic Maya
Mayab, 1998
In the Mayan classificatory tradition, the Ch'olti' language, as recorded in the 1695 grammar of Pedro Morán, is generally held to be related to but separate from the modern language of Ch'orti' (see Kaufman's 1976 classification, for example). Ch'olti' is said to be extinct, having no descendent daughter languages in modern times. This paper aims to show that Ch'orti' is «extinct» in the same way that Colonial Kaqchikel or Elizabethan English are extinct: they were spoken at an earlier time, but they are not dead, for both have continued through time and are spoken today in their descendent forms. The data presented here suggest that minimally, Ch'orti' is the modern descendent of Ch'olti'; or, at most, that ancestral Ch'olti' and Ch'olti' were mere dialects of each other, as say, Southern and Standard American English are dialects of each other. The evidence supporting this assertion grows out of a careful comparison of the grammatical paradigms of Colonial Ch'olti'an and modern Ch'orti'an, which reveals that the particulars of Ch'olti'an grammar offer the best (and probably only) hypothesis by which the unique characteristics of modern Ch'orti'an grammar can be explained. It is by comparative-historical explanation that the connection between Ch'olti' and Ch'orti' is best established. Specifically, I will first show that the appearance of a new set of Ch'orti'an pronouns can only derive from the Ch'olti'an grammatical system. I will then give evidence that the negative future marker attested in Ch'orti' is the reflex of a future marker in Ch'olti'. Finally, I will give a series of morphemes that are unique to the two languages. These facts taken together argue persuasively that Ch'orti' descends from Ch'olti'. CH'ORTI' PRONOMINALS One of the unresolved linguistic questions in Mayan linguistics is the fact that Ch'orti' has three pronominal sets, whereas Mayan languages generally have only two such sets. The provenance of Ch'orti's newly formed, third pronominal set has never been successfully explained. It is precisely the explanation, given herewith, that secures the Ch'olti'-Ch'orti' relationship. The normal pronominal distribution for Common Mayan is typologically ERGATIVE and ABSOLUTIVE, with the functional distribution as follows: ERGATIVE signals the subject of transitives and the possessive pronoun, whereas ABSOLUTIVE references the subject of intransitives and the object of transitives, as shown in the following Kaqchikel examples: ERG: Subj Tr Poss Pr x-qa-kamisaj qa-bi COMPL-ERG1PL-kill ERG1PL-name 'we killed him.' 'our name' ABS: Subj Intr Obj Tr x-oj-war x-oj-a-kamisaj COMPL-ABS1PL-sleep COMPL-ABS1PL-ERG2SG-kill 'we slept.' 'you killed us.' In some languages, however, the above schema is complicated by split-ergativity, where the ERGATIVE pronoun marks intransitive verbs in the INCOMPLETIVE aspect, while the ABSOLUTIVE is found in the COMPLETIVE, as shown below:
In this paper I examine comparative data on the applicative -b'e suffix and its related syntax (including antidative constructions) in Mayan languages in order to contribute to their reconstruction. I present evidence in favor of a Proto-Mayan reconstruction of an applicative construction that optionally focused instruments, locatives, and addressees, and a Proto-Central-Mayan (Eastern and Western Mayan) reconstruction of the -b'e suffix. I discuss the possible sequence of events in the history of the applicative and related constructions from Proto-Mayan to the descendant subgroups, including the Greater Tzeltalan subgroup, thought by most linguists and epigraphers to constitute the basis of the language represented in Classic Lowland Mayan hieroglyphic texts. I then hypothesize on possible scenarios that can be tested against the evidence from Classic Lowland Mayan texts.
Nominalized antipassive constructions in Kaqchikel (Mayan)
Proceedings of the Workshop on Structure and Constituency in the Languages of the Americas 24 (ed. by D. K. E. Reisinger and Hannah Green), 2023
The paper examines Voice transformations under event -ik nominalization in Kaqchikel (a Mayan language, ergative) presenting a previously undescribed puzzle: in a variety of Kaqchikel spoken in Patzún, Guatemala, antipassive in deverbal -ik nominals patterns with passive promoting an internal argument instead of the external one, unlike in finite clauses where the external argument survives antipassivization. To account for this peculiar behavior, I adopt Ranero’s (2019) analysis for antipassive, whereby it is not a voice but a realization of the v head in the absence of VoiceP.
The syntax of non-verbal predication in Yucatec Maya
2017
The objective of this paper is to fill a void in the formal syntactic literature on Mayan languages by proposing a syntactic structure for clauses with non-verbal predicates in Yucatec Maya. The paper attempts to integrate the rich descriptions of non-verbal predicate constructions found in more functionally-oriented accounts (Lehmann 2002 [1998]; Verhoeven 2007; Vapnarsky 2013) with insights from the generative literature on argument licensing and clause structure in Mayan languages (Coon 2016 for an overview) as well as small clauses (Citko 2011 for an overview). I conclude that non-verbal sentences in Yucatec are matrix small clauses embedded under an Infl node, which is the locus for finiteness/ stative aspect rather than tense morphology. This simple structure, coupled with independently motivated operations that have been proposed for small clauses and argument licensing/word order in Mayan languages, is able to account for a range of properties of these sentences that improve...
AbstrAct: We present data on the early forms of negation in three Mayan languages (K'iche', Yucatec and Q'anjob'al). These languages mark different contrasts between discourse, clausal and existential contexts of negation. Negation in these languages also interacts with aspect and modality. Children acquiring K'iche' use an internal form of clausal negation while children acquiring Yucatec and Q'anjob'al use an external form of clausal negation. The K'iche' and Yucatec children successfully mark the contrast between the discourse and clausal forms of negation. The data show that children in each language create their own forms of negation.
Historical Reconstruction of Mayan Applicative and Antidative Constructions
International Journal of American Linguistics, 2003
In this paper I examine comparative data on the applicative-b'e suffix and its related syntax (including antidative constructions) in Mayan languages in order to contribute to their reconstruction. I present evidence in favor of a Proto-Mayan reconstruction of an applicative construction that optionally focused instruments, locatives, and addressees, and a Proto-Central-Mayan (Eastern and Western Mayan) reconstruction of the-b'e suffix. I discuss the possible sequence of events in the history of the applicative and related constructions from Proto-Mayan to the descendant subgroups, including the Greater Tzeltalan subgroup, thought by most linguists and epigraphers to constitute the basis of the language represented in Classic Lowland Mayan hieroglyphic texts. I then hypothesize on possible scenarios that can be tested against the evidence from Classic Lowland Mayan texts.