※ 清華語言所新021次專題演講公告 ※
講者：Judith Aissen (University of California, Santa Cruz)
題目：Deriving VOS in Mayan: Right Edge Topics in Tsotsil
日期：2016年11月2日 (星期三)
時間：中午12時30分 開始
地點：語言所研討室(人社院 B305 室)
摘要：All Mayan languages are verb-initial.
However, they divide into two groups: a 'rigid' group which permits only VSO order and a more `flexible'
group which permits both VOS (the more frequent order) and VSO.
An unresolved question has been the derivation of the two orders and the relation between
them. Recent work (L. Clemens and J. Coon 2016, 'Deriving verb-initial order
in Mayan', ms) proposes that all Mayan languages are underlying VSO, with VOS
derived via three possible routes: prosodic incorporation of a 'light' O
into the phonological phrase containing the verb; Heavy NP Shift of S; and
movement of a topical S to a right-edge topic position.
This talk addresses the possibility of a right-edge topic position in Mayan. Drawing on data from
Tsotsil, a flexible language, I present a number of structural arguments for
such a position, including ones based on coordination and separability of
constituents. Having established the plausibility of a right-edge topic
position, I compare right-edge topics with the better known left-edge topics
in this language, showing that the two contrast both prosodically and
pragmatically.