NOUN INCORPORATION (NI) in Mapudungun is different from NI in better-studied languages like
Mohawk in three ways: the incorporated noun is invisible to verbal agreement, incorporation into
unaccusative verbs is impossible unless a possessor is stranded, and possessors are the only
modifiers that can be stranded. These differences can be explained by saying that the trace of NI
retains its person, number, and gender features in Mohawk but not in Mapudungun. Those aspects
of grammar that do not involve these features treat NI in the two languages the same; thus, NI
has the same gross distribution and anaphoric possibilities in both languages. We extend these
results to Nahuatl, Chukchee, Ainu, Southern Tiwa, Mayali, and Wichita, showing that our theory
accounts for MithunÕs (1984) distinction between Type III and Type IV noun incorporation in a
general way.
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