The goal of the present paper is twofold: First, it presents a description of the kinship terminology of Apalai, a Cariban language of the Amazon, based on primary field data. Morphological and syntactic constructional patterns, including suppletion, as well as patterns of semantic colexification and morphophonological alternations are discussed. Second, it offers observations of a comparative nature with other Cariban kinship terminology systems. I seek here to foreground certain family-wide patterns, to raise and to some extent support diachronic hypotheses, to improve upon existing areal characterizations of kinship terminology systems in the Guianas region, and to locate the Apalai terminological system in relation to broader typologies.
Phonemic analysis is a cornerstone of linguistic description. Some phonemic contrasts in morphologically complex or polysynthetic languages may go undiscovered for years because of the scarcity of minimal pairs. In this paper I present a reanalysis of the Blackfoot (Algonquian) vowel inventory, based on arguments of distribution (1) in static contexts, (2) across patterns of root alternation, and (3) within headwords in the most recent dictionary. I argue that the vowel inventory includes two additional long vowels, /epsilon:/ and /(sic):/. Consequently, the labiovelar glide [w] that occurs at the left edge of some roots is epenthetic. This reanalysis has several synchronic and diachronic implications for Blackfoot and phonological theory more broadly. This project shows that minimal pairs and phonetic similarity are not always the most reliable test for discovering phonemic contrast. Instead, the methods used here to investigate distribution could be adapted to other languages without many minimal pairs.
Cross-linguistic research shows that languages differ in how they encode the basic semantic components of motion events (figure, motion, manner, path, and ground) in their grammars and lexicons. While manner and path encoding have received significant attention, one core component has been underestimated: ground, the object or surface relative to which motion occurs. In fact, the possibility of ground being a structuring part of motion verb inventories has been previously excluded. However, novel methods of data collection and insights from underrepresented languages suggest that ground lexicalization in motion verbs is more common than assumed and can even influence basic-level motion verbs. This study examines the largely unknown semantic and morphosyntactic design space of ground-encoding motion verbs in D & acirc;w (ISO 639-3: kwa, Naduhup, Brazil). The findings illustrate that the ground component can be deeply integrated into basic motion verb semantics and how linguistic structure, culture, and environment can impact lexical elaboration.
In this paper we provide a diachronic characterization of two lexicalization processes in Paraguayan Guarani and their extension across the Tupi-Guarani family involving two prefixes: the middle je-/& ntilde;e- and the Old Guarani third person patient index jo-/& ntilde;o-. In both cases lexical semantics explains the distribution of the prefixes in the different verbs. While an animacy constraint underlies jo-/& ntilde;o- lexicalization, middle situation types are key to understanding je-/& ntilde;e- lexicalization. Regarding their reanalysis, jo-/& ntilde;o- lexicalization followed from changes in the alignment system of dependent verbs that occurred in certain languages. For je-/& ntilde;e- lexicalization, semantic shifts alongside lexical replacements ultimately resulted in the lack of transparency of the derived verbs. Finally, we argue the two processes differ in their temporal depth and life cycles, with je-/& ntilde;e- lexicalization being older and still ongoing, while jo-/& ntilde;o- lexicalization is more recent and restricted to only certain Tupi-Guarani languages.
This paper investigates the semantics and pragmatics of polar questions (PQs) in Gitksan. Four types of PQ are examined: PQs formed using the sentence-final clitic aa; PQs that contain aa plus the negation marker nee; PQs that contain aa, nee, and the focus marker dii; and PQs that contain aa plus verum marking. I show that PQs formed only with aa are the preferred option when the speaker believes the addressee will commit to the proposition in the question. PQs that contain negation are felicitous in some types of negatively biased context, but also-surprisingly-in pragmatically neutral contexts. PQs containing nee and dii are unambiguously negatively biased. I sketch an analysis that involves a distinction between monopolar and bipolar questions and an optional falsum operator. Gitksan is a language where monopolar questions are morphosyntactically simpler than bipolar questions; the latter are created in two explicit steps.
The Algonquian language Potawatomi has two future tenses. This paper presents a description and analysis of those tenses and the modal to show how these markers overlap and differ. I give special attention to the future ge- because it has been scarcely and sparsely discussed in previous literature. I draw examples from archived Potawatomi narratives. I argue that contrary to what has been previously argued, the future tenses overlap in the future times which they can refer to. Semantically, I find that the modal da- is used in sentences with circumstantial, deontic, bouletic, and epistemic meanings, while the future tenses differ in that wi- co-occurs in sentences with a bouletic meaning and ge- co-occurs in sentences with a deontic meaning. I also find that ge- differs from wi- in terms of illocutionary mood. Only ge- is used in sentences with an indirect command for politeness, jussive, or hortative meanings.
This article provides the first detailed study of Kiowa personal names. It analyzes the grammar of Kiowa names built from words, phrases, and sentences, as well as how Kiowas abbreviated them. This paper also discusses the meaning behind personal names. Unlike many communities, Kiowa names tend to commemorate significant events, rather than just describing people. The meaning of Kiowa names is typically rooted in a story. Kiowa names also hold particular value in both Indigenous and assimilated aspects of life. Names are uniquely held at any one time and passed down within families. Many names and abbreviations became last names for BIA record-keeping, however poorly transcribed. We aim to help researchers draw comparative conclusions about Native naming practices, to exemplify the value of tying grammatical and cultural studies of onomastics, and to help community members find out about names in their own families.
Expressions of comparison and measure are subject to significant cross-linguistic variation. Beck et al. (2009) develop a parametric approach according to which such variation can be predicted via a limited set of dependent parameters. Despite the typological richness documented in theirs and subsequent work (Bochnak 2015; Deal and Hohaus 2019, among others), little is known about this topic in Mayan languages. This paper addresses that gap with new data from Ch'ol (Mayan). We argue that while Ch'ol is maximally degreeful, our data indicate that there is finer-grained micro-variation within maximally degreeful languages. We formulate two novel generalizations: (1) if a language has subcomparatives, it will also have Measure Phrases and degree wh-words directly modifying gradable predicates; (2) having subcomparatives entails being maximally degreeful, but lacking them is not indicative of the opposite. We propose an extension of Beck et al.'s (2009) model that can capture these small-scale differences. Las expresiones de comparaci & oacute;n y medida est & aacute;n sujetas a mucha variaci & oacute;n crosling & uuml;& iacute;stica. Beck et al. (2009) han propuesto una aproximaci & oacute;n param & eacute;trica seg & uacute;n la cual la variaci & oacute;n se puede reducir a un n & uacute;mero limitado de par & aacute;metros dependientes. A pesar de la riqueza tipol & oacute;gica de su investigaci & oacute;n y otras que la han seguido (Bochnak 2015; Deal & Hohaus 2019, entre otros), se sabe muy poco de las lenguas mayas. Este art & iacute;culo se concentra en llenar ese vac & iacute;o tipol & oacute;gico con datos nuevos de ch'ol (maya). Argumentamos que mientras que el ch'ol tiene un valor positivo para el par & aacute;metro dependiente m & aacute;s subordinado, nuestros datos indican que hay variaci & oacute;n muy minuciosa dentro de ese par & aacute;metro (ingl & eacute;s vs. Ch'ol). Formulamos dos generalizaciones nuevas: i) si una lengua tiene subcomparativas, tambi & eacute;n tiene Sintagmas de Medida y expresiones interrogativas de grado que modifican directamente a los predicados graduables; ii) el tener subcomparativas implica tener el inventario m & aacute;s rico de expresiones de grado pero el no tenerlas no implica lo contrario. Proponemos una extensi & oacute;n del modelo de Beck et al. (2009) que da cuenta de estas diferencias a tan peque & ntilde;a escala.
Across the Enlhet-Enenlhet family, there is a recurring process whereby Imperfective and Perfective verb forms undergo grammaticalization, losing aspects of their morpho-semantic productivity and getting recruited for a range of different functions, including as various kinds of negators, markers of semantic roles and inter-clausal relations, and adverbs. Although the broad strokes of this process are visible in all Enlhet-Enenlhet languages, which form has grammaticalized with a particular function differs across the family. Using data primarily from Sanapan & aacute;, Enxet Sur, Enlhet Norte, and Enenlhet, this comparative study describes this phenomenon across the family, including what morphosyntactic features distinguish productive uses of these forms from grammaticalized ones. We also compare these grammaticalization trajectories to other cases in the literature to identify several previously unattested grammaticalization pathways. Finally, we explore factors that might have contributed to the Perfective/Imperfective grammaticalizing with a particular function, including morpho-semantics, cross-linguistic tendencies, and language contact.
Certain K'iche' (Mayan) verbal suffixes have phrase-final and phrase-medial forms. This alternation has been alternately analyzed as dependent on syntax (clause boundaries) or prosody (intonational phrase [IP] boundaries), primarily on the basis of elicited data. This paper presents a study of the alternation in a corpus of spontaneous speech from the Chichicastenango dialect. The results show that phrase-final forms correlate strongly with both clause boundaries and IP-final boundary tones in most contexts, but this alignment breaks down in structures with clause-level recursion. It is argued that phrase-final forms occur before all IP boundaries, while boundary tones are limited to the end of the highest IP. Recursive syntactic structures may be parsed into different prosodic structures, recursive or non-recursive. This produces a highly correlated but not identical distribution of clause boundaries, boundaries tones, and phrase-final status suffixes.
The article presents all extant documentation on the extinct Cotoname language, once spoken near the Rio Grande. The primary sources are two nineteenth-century manuscripts, each containing a little more than 100 Cotoname words. The more recent source consists of field notes by the linguist Albert S. Gatschet, dating from December 1886. The earlier source is a vocabulary collected by the French naturalist Jean Louis Berlandier around 1828. Berlandier's vocabulary has not been previously published. Both these sources were collected near Camargo, Tamaulipas, and are about as different as might be expected from two researchers recording the language of the same group 58 years apart. The vocabulary of Cotoname has some interesting loanwords and compounds which reflect the history of the region. The phonology, morphology and syntax of the language can only partially be recovered, but some tentative conclusions are presented.
Chicahuaxtla Triqui (TRS; ISO code [trs]) is an Otomanguean language spoken in San Andr & eacute;s Chicahuaxtla and eleven other communities located in the state of Oaxaca, Mexico. There are two other Triqui languages. One is spoken in San Juan Copala and the other in San Mart & iacute;n Itunyoso. The text presented here is a legend titled "Ruhu & acirc; ru'man hio'& oacute; gatsii" 'In the Hole of White Dirt'. The legend was written and recited by Felipe Santiago Rojas, a native speaker of TRS. In this manuscript, I present a map of the Triqui region, an overview of TRS, its consonant and vowel inventories, its tones, and information on current and competing spelling conventions. Other sections focus on Chicahuaxtla Triqui grammar, including a brief introduction to word structure, pronouns, glottally interrupted syllables, verbs, tone and aspect, and sentence-final particles.
Wari', a Chapacuran language spoken in Western Brazil, has a large number of verbal pairs that alternate between singular and plural forms, most typically according to the number of participants involved, but also according to emphasis. We document the semantics and morphology of these alternating pairs, some of which are suppletive and some of which have lexically restricted morphology, and compare the verbs recognized by modern speakers with those reported in the previous literature. We compare Wari' with other Chapacuran languages and provide historical sources for morphological processes and the etymology of some singular/plural roots. Our analysis shows that Wari' has an unusually large inventory of these verbal pairs and typologically rare features, such as alternation based on the plurality of the transitive subject and atypical verbal semantics. Wari', uma l & iacute;ngua txapakura falada no oeste do Brasil, possui um grande n & uacute;mero de pares verbais que alternam entre formas singulares e plurais. Esses verbos s & atilde;o usados tipicamente de acordo com o n & uacute;mero de participantes envolvidos, mas tamb & eacute;m conforme a & ecirc;nfase. Documentamos a sem & acirc;ntica e a morfologia desses pares alternantes, alguns dos quais s & atilde;o supletivos e outros possuem morfologia lexicamente restrita, e comparamos os verbos reconhecidos pelos falantes modernos com aqueles relatados na literatura anterior. Comparamos Wari' com outras l & iacute;nguas txapakura e fornecemos fontes hist & oacute;ricas para os processos morfol & oacute;gicos e a etimologia de algumas ra & iacute;zes singulares/plurais. Nossa an & aacute;lise mostra que Wari' possui um invent & aacute;rio incomumente grande desses pares verbais que apresentam caracter & iacute;sticas tipologicamente raras, como altern & acirc;ncia baseada na pluralidade do sujeito transitivo e sem & acirc;ntica verbal at & iacute;pica.
This paper describes the phonology and morphophonology of Ikpeng, a Cariban language of central Brazil, based on first-hand fieldwork data. A presentation of the patterns of allophony for each class of contrastive segments is followed by a discussion of Ikpeng phonotactics and of its complex morphophonology. For the former we place special emphasis on attested consonant clusters and on identifying syllable boundaries in stop-liquid clusters. The discussion of morphophonology centers on alternations involving stop consonants at morpheme boundaries, on vowel ablaut, and on the Ikpeng instantiation of the pan-Cariban phenomenon of syllable reduction. The conclusion is that these alternations show a significant degree of morphologization.
The present study provides a detailed account of spatial demonstratives in Secoya (Tukanoan) with special attention to the factors influencing demonstrative selection language use. Secoya, like other Western Tukanoan languages, has a tripartite system, different from Eastern Tukanoan languages, which have a binary system. Regarding the semantic content of the demonstratives, data from a corpus and from an elicitation task reveal that Secoya exhibits features of person-oriented systems (Anderson and Keenan 1985), insofar as the selection of the items seems sensitive not only to the distance between referent and speaker, but also to the distance between referent and addressee, as well as to the space between speaker and addressee. These results challenge the supremacy of the speaker as the only deictic point in the selection of demonstratives, as has been reported for most languages of the family. O presente estudo oferece uma descri & ccedil;& atilde;o detalhada de demonstrativos espaciais em secoya (fam & iacute;lia tukano), com aten & ccedil;& atilde;o especial nos fatores que influenciam a sele & ccedil;& atilde;o de demonstrativos no uso da l & iacute;ngua. Secoya, como outras l & iacute;nguas tukanas ocidentais, possui um sistema tripartido, diferente das l & iacute;nguas tukanas orientais, que possuem um sistema bin & aacute;rio. Em rela & ccedil;& atilde;o ao conte & uacute;do sem & acirc;ntico dos demonstrativos, os dados de um corpus e de uma atividade de elicita & ccedil;& atilde;o revelam que o secoya exibe caracter & iacute;sticas de sistemas orientados por pessoa (Anderson e Keenan, 1985), na medida em que a sele & ccedil;& atilde;o dos itens parece sens & iacute;vel n & atilde;o apenas & agrave; dist & acirc;ncia entre o referente e o falante, mas tamb & eacute;m & agrave; dist & acirc;ncia entre o referente e o ouvinte, bem como ao espa & ccedil;o entre o falante e o ouvinte. Esses resultados desafiam a supremacia do falante como & uacute;nico centro d & ecirc;itico na sele & ccedil;& atilde;o de demonstrativos, como tem sido proposto para a maioria das l & iacute;nguas da fam & iacute;lia.
Southern Wakashan languages (Makah, Nuuchahnulth, Ditidaht) commonly express location concepts with so-called "restrictive" locative suffixes attached to nouns, verbs, and other kinds of morphological bases. This paper examines the syntax of clauses with a restrictive locative suffix as the sole clausal predicator. Four construction types are identified, distinguished by four possible combinations of morphological base and linking pattern of suffixal arguments (Figure and Ground) to grammatical functions. The flexibility of subject linking is argued to follow from the regular transitive linking rules with the crucial difference that, unlike two-place verbs, restrictive locative suffixes do not lexically differentiate their arguments by agency. The variation in morphological base type is shown to be sensitive to the information status of the Figure.
Proto-Matacoan phonology and some lexical items are reconstructed. Sound correspondences across the Matacoan languages are presented and cognates that exhibit each correspondence set are listed. The reconstructed phonemes are discussed, problems identified, and some resolutions of complications are proposed. Several loanwords are examined. More than 150 cognate sets with their corresponding lexical reconstruction are given. These cognate sets involve only cases where cognates are found in at least three of the four Matacoan languages.
