Little‐v⁰Agreement and Templatic Morphology in Ch'ol

Abstract

This paper addresses typological differences in subject-verb agreement and provides evidence that transitive subject agreement need not always involve a high functional head, namely T 0 , but may instead be the result of a local relation between the subject and a low functional head, v 0 . In Mayan languages, grammatical relations are head-marked on the predicate through two series of morphemes, known as "Set A" (ergative/possessive) and "Set B" (absolutive). I argue that Set A morphemes reflect a local relationship of agreement between v 0 and the transitive subject in its low base position and, in an analogous structural configuration in the nominal domain, between a possessive n 0 head and the possessor. Crucially, I show that no higher functional projection is involved. This is important in light of proposals that ergative agreement systems are epiphenomenal, resulting from standard nominative agreement from T 0 which is blocked from agreeing with morphologically casemarked ergative subjects (Woolford 2010). In this paper, I examine the morphologically ergative Mayan language Ch'ol to show that true ergative agreement is possible even in the absence of morphological case. This paper has implications for the typology of ergative case and agreement systems and contributes to our understanding of the nature of agreement and clitic doubling. two anonymous Syntax reviewers for helpful discussion and comments on various stages of this work. I am grateful to Virginia Mart ınez V azquez, Morelia V azquez Mart ınez, Juan Jes us V azquez Alvarez, and Nicol as Arcos L opez for discussion of Ch'ol and to Magdalena Torres for Chuj. Any errors in data or analysis are, of course, my own. This work was supported by an FRQSC Nouveaux-Chercheurs grant. 1 Unless otherwise noted, Mayan data below are from the author's field notes. Abbreviations in glosses are as follows: A = Set A (ergative/possessive); ABS = absolutive; ACC = accusative; APPL = applicative; B = Set B (absolutive); CAUS = causative; CL = noun-class clitic; CLF = nominal classifier; DAT = dative; DET = determiner; DTV = derived/nonroot transitive suffix; EP = epenthetic insertion; ERG = ergative; FEM = feminine; IMP = imperative; IPFV = imperfective; ITV = intransitive verb suffix; LOC = locative; MASC = masculine; NML = nominal; NOM = nominative; PASS = passive; PERF = perfect; PL = plural; PFV = perfective; SG = singular; TAM = tense, aspect, mood; and TV = transitive verb suffix.

Choctaw as a Window into the Clitic/Agreement Split

“…The analysis that argument‐doubling clitics are determiners has been formulated in a number of ways (e.g. Uriagereka , Anagnostopoulou , Franks & Rudin , Nevins , Kramer , Harizanov , Coon ). The attraction of this analysis is that it captures several of their properties.…”

“…The second main component of these analyses, especially more recent ones, is that argument‐doubling clitics do not project full syntactic phrases (DPs), but instead adjoin to some position in the clausal spine as non‐projecting heads (Franks & Rudin , Preminger , Roberts , Nevins , Arregi & Nevins , Kramer , Coon , Yuan ). This captures certain facts about their distribution: such as how they are susceptible to further head‐movement of their host head.…”

La sintaxis de la predicación no verbal en maya yucateco

“…The table below illustrates the similarities between strong pronouns and Set B morphemes in Yucatec, and contrasts these with Set A morphemes (see Coon 2017 for similar information on other Mayan languages). …”

“…The main evidence for making this distinction is outlined in Grinevald & Peake (2012), Coon et al (2014) and Coon (2017). The first piece of evidence comes from comparing the position of Set A and Set B morphemes in different Mayan languages.…”

“…b. Agr: Agr is an agreement projection that is the locus of the Set A morpheme (Pye 2011;Gutiérrez Bravo 2015a). c. Set B morpheme: the Set B morpheme is a clitic that must cliticize to v (Grinevald & Peake 2012;Coon et al 2014;Coon 2017). The clitic itself is licensed either by v in transitive clauses or by Infl in intransitive ones (Legate 2008;Coon 2013).…”