Verbal domain

Goals

This section delves into the verbal domain's intricacies, exploring phenomena tied to argument structure and its morphosyntactic manifestations. It examines the behavior of person markers, their co-indexation with arguments, valency-change operations, and syntactic traits that shed light on ergativity. A focal point of numerous studies is the 'agent-focus' construction, notably present in constructions like relativization, wh-questions, and focus movement. Its exact properties vary among different Mayan languages and have attracted significant scholarly attention in the syntactic research on Mayan.

Lecturers

Lauren Clemens

University at Albany, State University of New York, USA

Michael Yoshitaka Erlewine

University of Helsinki, Finland; National University of Singapore, Singapore

units

The Restriction
against Non-finite Transitivity
by Mike Berger

DOI: doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.10524969

ergativity, transitivity, (non-)finiteness, nominalization, selection, complementation

slides

Beneath the surface:
word order in Mayan
by Lauren Clemens

DOI: doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.10550978

V-initial orders: derivation and reordering; preverbal orders and extraction restrictions; explaining ergativity

slides

Split intransitivity in Mayan,
with special reference to Mopan
by Eve Danziger

DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.10510955

aspects and predicate classes (activities/change of states/states), set A/B markers, antipassive, Mopan and further Yucatecan

slides

Kaqchikel Agent Focus
and multiple extraction
by Michael Yoshitaka Erlewine

DOI: doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.

Introducing Mayan Agent Focus, “anti-locality”-based account and counterarguments

slides

Split ergativity
and nominalization in Mayan
by Yusuke Imanishi

DOI: doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.

split ergativity in Mayan, split ergativity and nominalization, variation in alignment and nominalization

slides

The acquisition of ideophones and split ergativity in Chuj
by Pedro Mateo Pedro

DOI: doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.XXX

ideophones, acquisition of ideophones, verb types, productivity, split ergative alignment

slides

Microvariation
in Mayan agent focus
by Barbara Stiebels

DOI: doi.org/

agent focus, ergativity, ergative extraction constraint, voice, morphology-syntax mismatch, agreement, antipassive

slides

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sources

basic recommendations

Bohnemeyer, Jürgen. 2001. Argument and Event Structure in Yukatek Verb Classes. In J.-Y. Kim & A. Weerle (Eds.), The Proceedings of SULA: The Semantics of Under-Represented Languages in the Americas. Amherst, MA: GLSA. University of Massachusetts Occasional Papers in Linguistics 25, 8-19.
Coon, Jessica, Pedro Mateo Pedro, and Omer Preminger. 2014. The role of case in A-bar extraction asymmetries: Evidence from Mayan. Linguistic Variation 14, 179-242.
Danziger, Eve. 1996. Split Intransitivity and Active-Inactive Patterning in Mopan Maya. International Journal of American Linguistics 62(4), 379–414.
Grinevald, Colette and Marc Peake 2012. Ergativity and voice in Mayan languages: a functional-typological approach. In Authier, Gilles and Haude, Katharina. Ergativity, Valency and Voice, Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter Mouton. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110227734.
Erlewine, Michael Yoshitaka. 2016. Anti-locality and optimality in Kaqchikel Agent Focus. Natural Language and Linguistic Theory 34(2), 429–479.
Imanishi, Yusuke. 2019. Parameterizing split ergativity in Mayan. Natural Language and Linguistic Theory 38, 151-200.
Stiebels, Barbara. 2006. Agent Focus in Mayan languages. Natural Language and Linguistic Theory 24, 501-570.
Tollan, Rebecca and Lauren Clemens. 2022.Syntactic Ergativity as a Constraint on Crossing Dependencies: The Perspective from Mayan. Linguistic Inquiry 53(3), 459–499. doi: https://doi.org/10.1162/ling_a_00421.
Zavala Macdonaldo, Roberto. 2017. Alignment patterns. In Judith Aissen, Nora C. England, Roberto Zavala Maldonado (eds.), The Mayan Languages, 226-258. London, New York: Routledge.