The syntax of OVS word order in Hixkaryana
In this paper I propose and motivate a novel syntactic analysis of Hixkaryana, a Carib language spoken in the Amazon in Brazil (Derbyshire 1977, 1979, 1985, i.a.). Hixkaryana displays basic/unmarked Object Verb Subject (OVS) word order, which is found in very few languages of the world (Dryer 2008). Iargue that the syntax of Hixkaryana involves (i) head-finality in the A domain, but head-initiality in the A? domain, and (ii) raising of vP into the A? domain. My analysis accounts for a constellation of properties in Hixkaryana, including the surface order of constituents (OVS), surface constituency (the object and verb form a constituent that excludes the subject), agreement (prefixal portmanteau morphology marking the person of both the subject and the object), and the position of clause-level particles (which are in syntactic second position except for invariantly post-verbal ha).
ovs word order carib agreement syntactic theory