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On the lack of a VP with SAP A

المؤلف:  SPIKE GILDEA

المصدر:  RECONSTRUCTING GRAMMAR

الجزء والصفحة:  C3-P95

2026-08-13

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On the lack of a VP with SAP A

In all modern reflexes of the Set I system, when A is first, second, or first person inclusive, the verbal personal prefix is obligatory regardless of the order of O and V (Gildea 1998:78); in this clause type, there is no evidence for a VP constituent, with wide variation in possible orders of explicit O arguments (although the actual number of order possibilities and the statistical frequency of each allowed order apparently varies widely across the family). Derbyshire (1985:76) points out that in Hixkaryana, postverbal O is allowed with first or second person A; he adds (in personal communication) that in recent translation work by native speakers, he is finding that the postverbal order of O is apparently preferred with first or second person A. Following Jelinek’s (1984) theoretical lead, Payne (1994) argues that in Panare, the verbal prefix is the true O argument of any verb that bears one, thus giving any external (pro)nominal refence to O the syntactic status of merely a coreferential adjunct (although a high-frequency adjunct). Only when a preverbal O NP replaces the personal prefix can we argue that this O is syntactically internal to the verb phrase. As a preverbal O NP never supplants the prefix when A is non-third-person (SAP), the implication is that Panare never presents an [OV] VP with SAP A.

Hoff (1995) reinforces the point for Carib of Surinam by use of the second position particle test: not only does the free O (pro)nominal behave like an adjunct in terms of syntactic freedom, but it can be followed by the second position particle hkuru ‘certainly’ (28a), whereas the OV sequence cannot be (28b). Recall that in the 3A3O clause, the [OV] sequence showed precisely the opposite pattern (25a–b), conclusively demonstrating the difference between the two types of clause. Similar data for Tiriyó can be seen in (29a–b) (Meira 1999:533–4).