# Pied-piping with inversion

Pied-piping with inversion is a special word order phenomenon found in some languages, such as those in the Mesoamerican linguistic area.

## Introduction

The phenomenon was first named and identified as an areal characteristic of the Mesoamerican linguistic area in Smith Stark (1988). Some sources also refer to pied-piping with inversion as "secondary wh-movement".
The phenomenon can be described as follows:
* the language has wh-movement.
* the language has pied-piping; that is, when certain words undergo wh-movement, the interrogative word and also the rest of the phrase moves.
* the word order within the pied-piped phrase is different from the order of ordinary phrases.
The following examples from San Dionisio Ocotepec Zapotec illustrate the phenomenon. As the following example shows, a possessor normally follows the noun that is possessed in the language (Broadwell 2001):
Cù’á
COM:grab
Juààny
Juan
[$_{NP}$
x-pè’cw
P-dog
Màríí ].
Mary
Cù’á Juààny [$_{NP}$ x-pè’cw {Màríí ].}
COM:grab Juan P-dog Mary
‘Juan grabbed Mary’s dog.’
Cù’á
COM:grab
Juààny
Juan
[$_{NP}$
Màríí
Mary
x-pè’cw ].
P-dog
* Cù’á Juààny [$_{NP}$ Màríí {x-pè’cw ].}
 COM:grab Juan Mary P-dog
If the possessor is questioned, the whole noun phrase must pied-pipe to the beginning of the sentence. However, the order of the initial phrase must have the possessor before the possessed:
¿ [$_{NP}$
Túú
who
x-pèh’cw ]
P-dog
cù’á
COM:grab
Juààny?
Juan
{¿ [$_{NP}$} Túú {x-pèh’cw ]} cù’á Juààny?
 who P-dog COM:grab Juan
‘Whose dog did Juan grab?’
* ¿ [$_{NP}$
X-pèh’cw
P-dog
túú ]
who
cù’á
COM:grab
Juààny?
Juan
{* ¿ [$_{NP}$} X-pèh’cw {túú ]} cù’á Juààny?
 P-dog who COM:grab Juan
The difference in order between the noun phrases in (1) and (2) illustrates pied-piping with inversion. (1) shows the ordinary order in which the noun is the first element of the noun phrase, and (2) shows the inverted order found in the pied-piped noun phrase.
The following examples from Tzotzil (Aissen 1996) show the same process:
I-cham
COM-die
[$_{NP}$
x-ch’amal
A3‍-child
li
the
Xun ]-e
Xun-ENC‍
I-cham [$_{NP}$ x-ch’amal li {Xun ]-e}
COM-die A3‍-child the Xun-ENC‍
‘Xun’s child died.’
[$_{NP}$
Buch’u
who
x-ch’amal ]
A3‍-child
i-cham?
COM-die
[$_{NP}$ Buch’u {x-ch’amal ]} i-cham?
 who A3‍-child COM-die
‘Whose child died?’

## Types of phrases that show pied-piping with inversion

Pied-piping with inversion is most often found in noun phrases (NP), prepositional phrases (PP), and quantifier phrases (QP). The following example, also from San Dionisio Ocotepec Zapotec, shows pied-piping with inversion in a quantifier phrase (Broadwell 2001):
¿[Xhíí
what
tyóp]
two
ù-dàw
COM-eat
Juààny?
Juan
¿[Xhíí tyóp] ù-dàw Juààny?
what two COM-eat Juan
‘What did Juan eat two of?
¿[Tyóp
two
xhíí]
what
ù-dàw
COM-eat
Juààny?
Juan
¿[Tyóp xhíí] ù-dàw Juààny?
two what COM-eat Juan
‘What did Juan eat two of?’
As the example shows, languages may differ in the degree to which pied-piping with inversion is obligatory in different types of phrases. Therefore, (2) above shows that the interrogative must be initial in a pied-piped noun phrase, but (5) shows that the interrogative is only optionally initial in a pied-piped quantifier phrase.
The following example, from Quiegolani Zapotec (Black 2000), shows pied-piping with inversion in a prepositional phrase:
[Txu
who
lo]
to
n-dux
STAT-angry
xnaa
mother
noo?
1.EX
[Txu lo] n-dux xnaa noo?
who to STAT-angry mother 1.EX
‘With whom was my mother angry?’
$^*$[Lo
to
txu]
who
n-dux
STAT-angry
xnaa
mother
noo?
1.EX
$^*$[Lo txu] n-dux xnaa noo?
to who STAT-angry mother 1.EX

## Environments for pied-piping with inversion

The most frequently-cited type of sentence with pied-piping with inversion is a wh-question. However, a number of Mesoamerican languages also show fronting of negative or indefinite phrases to a position before the verb.
Fronted negative and indefinite phrases may also show pied-piping with inversion in some languages, as in this example from San Dionisio Ocotepec Zapotec:
Rú-tè’cà
ANIM:NEG
[túú
anyone
x-pè’cw]
p-dog
ù-dííny
COM-hit
Màríí.
Maria
Rú-tè’cà [túú x-pè’cw] ù-dííny Màríí.
ANIM:NEG anyone p-dog COM-hit Maria
‘Maria didn't hit anyone’s dog.’
$^*$Rú-tè’cà
ANIM:NEG
[x-pè’cw
p-dog
túú]
anyone
ù-dííny
COM-hit
Màríí.
Maria
$^*$Rú-tè’cà [x-pè’cw túú] ù-dííny Màríí.
ANIM:NEG p-dog anyone COM-hit Maria
The noun phrase "anyone's dog" has been fronted to a position before the verb and shows the same pied-piping with inversion that is seen in other syntactic environments.

## Languages that show pied-piping with inversion

Pied-piping with inversion seems to be found in all Mesoamerican languages. It is documented in many of them, including several Zapotec languages (San Dionisio Ocotepec Zapotec, Tlacolula de Matamoros Zapotec, and Quiegolani Zapotec), several Mayan languages (Kʼicheʼ, Kaqchikel, Chuj, Tzotzil), and several Mixtecan languages (Ocotepec Mixtec, and Copala Triqui).
Pied-piping with inversion is unusual outside Mesoamerica but is documented in Sasak, an Austronesian language of Indonesia(Austin 2001).
A somewhat similar phenomenon is found in a number of Germanic languages in which certain pronominal objects of prepositions appear before the preposition. The following Dutch examples show that ordinary objects follow the preposition op "on," but the pronouns er "it," daar "there," and hier "here" precede the preposition:
    Ik reken [op je steun]. ("I count on your support.")
    Ik reken erop/daarop/hierop ("I count on it/on that/on this.")
Those examples show inversion of a prepositional phrase, but the inversion does not necessarily occur in contexts of pied-piping.
Possibly related is the phenomenon known as swiping in which a wh-phrase is inverted with a governing preposition in the context of sluicing:
    Ralph was arguing, but I don't know who with.
Such inversion requires pied-piping but also ellipsis, unlike Meso-American languages.