Title: Remnant Raising and VSO Clausal Architecture
Description: San Lucas Quiaviní Zapotec, an endangered and little-examined indigenous language of Mexico, shows a range of syntactic and morphological phenomena incompatible with standard Minimalist accounts of verb movement: verbs and clearly phrasal constituents behave identically in a number of syntactic constructions, and the ordering of verbal morphemes is problematic for standard assumptions of verbal head movement. This work proposes a VP-remnant raising account for these phenomena, motivated by Kayne’s (1992) Antisymmetry program. This work also examines consequences of phrasal remnant movement for negation constructions, question formation; and the interpretation of tense, aspect, and mood.
Subjects: Comparative and general Grammar, Zapotec language, Syntax, Linguistics, Spanish language, grammar, Linguistics (general)