UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA Los Angeles The Morphosyntax of Subjects in Macuiltianguis Zapotec A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy in Linguistics by John Olen Foreman 2006 The dissertation of John Olen Foreman is approved. ____________________________________ Kevin Terraciano ____________________________________ Hilda Koopman ____________________________________ Timothy Stowell, Committee Co-Chair ____________________________________ Pamela Munro, Committee Co-Chair University of California, Los Angeles 2006 ii Què' yhí'nitó'yà'ni. Ríbeedáyà' què'ní ca ìttsìni gúúncanàlù' compa què' gúthèètè'lù' xtììsà' ca benné' cho'á. iii Table of Contents List of Tables ..................................................................................................................... ix List of Figures..................................................................................................................... x List of Abbreviations ......................................................................................................... xi Acknowledgments............................................................................................................xiii VITA..............................................................................................................................xviii PUBLICATIONS AND PRESENTATIONS.................................................................. xix ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION ........................................................................ xxi 1 Introduction................................................................................................................. 1 1.1 General Background........................................................................................... 2 1.1.1 The People.................................................................................................. 4 1.1.2 The Language..............................................................................................7 1.2 Previous Work on Zapotec................................................................................ 11 1.3 The Data............................................................................................................ 12 1.4 Organization of the Dissertation ....................................................................... 16 2 Phonetics and Phonology.......................................................................................... 19 2.1 Consonantal Phonology.................................................................................... 20 2.1.1 Bilabials .................................................................................................... 23 2.1.2 Affricates................................................................................................... 25 2.1.3 Fricatives................................................................................................... 29 2.1.4 Palatal Glides............................................................................................ 33 2.1.5 Labiovelars................................................................................................ 33 iv 2.1.6 Non-Zapotec Phonemes............................................................................ 35 2.2 Vowels .............................................................................................................. 37 2.3 Supersegmentals ............................................................................................... 39 2.3.1 Tone .......................................................................................................... 39 2.3.2 Stress......................................................................................................... 40 2.4 Practical Orthography....................................................................................... 46 2.4.1 Segmental Orthography............................................................................ 47 2.4.2 Orthographic Representation of Tone and Stress ..................................... 52 2.4.3 Representation of Other Languages.......................................................... 54 2.5 Phonotactics ...................................................................................................... 55 2.5.1 Consonant Sequences................................................................................56 2.5.2 Codas......................................................................................................... 62 2.6 Morphophonology of n-Vowel Sequences ....................................................... 64 2.6.1 Non-Verbal nV Phonology ....................................................................... 67 2.6.2 Synchronic nVC Phonology ..................................................................... 76 2.7 Conclusion ...................................................................................................... 104 3 Verbs, Pronouns and Nouns.................................................................................... 105 3.1 Verbal Morphology......................................................................................... 105 3.1.1 Aspect ..................................................................................................... 106 3.1.2 Other Prefixes......................................................................................... 134 3.1.3 The –ya'a Suffix ...................................................................................... 142 3.1.4 Noun Roots and Compound Verbs ......................................................... 143 v 3.1.5 Clitic Adverbs......................................................................................... 147 3.1.6 Applicative Clitic =ni ............................................................................. 153 3.2 Pronouns ......................................................................................................... 184 3.2.1 Clitic Personal Pronouns......................................................................... 184 3.2.2 Independent Personal Pronouns.............................................................. 197 3.2.3 Demonstrative Pronouns......................................................................... 201 3.3 Noun Phrases.................................................................................................. 203 3.3.1 Demonstratives ....................................................................................... 205 3.3.2 Possession ............................................................................................... 211 3.4 Conclusion ...................................................................................................... 221 4 Nominative Subjects............................................................................................... 223 4.1 Syntactic Position of Subjects and Topics...................................................... 224 4.1.1 VSO and SVO Ordering ......................................................................... 225 4.1.2 A Possible SVO Structure....................................................................... 228 4.1.3 Against The [Spec,TP]-SVO Analysis ................................................... 232 4.1.4 The Postverbal Subject Position(s) ......................................................... 244 4.1.5 Topicalization ......................................................................................... 260 4.1.6 Other Preverbal Positions ....................................................................... 269 4.1.7 Overview of A/A' Positions .................................................................... 277 4.2 Properties of Nominative Subjects/Diagnostics for Subjects ......................... 280 4.2.1 Morphological Properties: Nominative Case......................................... 280 4.2.2 Lack of pro-Drop .................................................................................... 282 vi 4.2.3 Word Order............................................................................................. 284 4.2.4 Imperatives.............................................................................................. 286 4.2.5 Non-Finite Verbs.................................................................................... 289 4.2.6 Covert Subject Binding........................................................................... 292 4.2.7 Movement ............................................................................................... 296 4.2.8 Summary of Nominative Subject Properties........................................... 314 5 Dative Subjects....................................................................................................... 316 5.1 Overview of =ni Subjects ............................................................................... 317 5.1.1 Semantics of =ni Subject Verbs.............................................................. 318 5.1.2 Dative Case Marking.............................................................................. 322 5.2 Dative Subjects............................................................................................... 326 5.2.1 Against the Theme Subject Alternative .................................................. 329 5.2.2 Against the Null Expletive Alternative................................................... 331 5.2.3 Dative Subject Evidence........................................................................