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Paulina and Rodrigo with Ted Levin in German Journal of Linguistics

January 24, 2021 Linguistics

Linguistics PhD student Paulina Lyskawa standing in front of a white screen, speaking, elbows at her side, two hands up in front of her

Paper argues that optional agreement in Santiago Tz’utujil is syntactic.

Congratulations to Paulina Lyskawa and Rodrigo Ranero, and former postdoc Theodore Levin, who have a new article in the Zeitschrift für Sprachwissenschaft (Journal of Linguistics) arguing that "Optional agreement in Santiago Tz’utujil (Mayan) is syntactic." Using novel data from fieldwork started in 2017 in Santiago Atitlán, Guatemala, the paper shows that agreement is optional only for arguments generated in complement position, and is governed not by phonological or morphological factors, but by the syntactic 'size' of the argument: DP or reduced nominal. 

 

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First group to Guatemalan Field Station

Bon voyage to Rodrigo Ranero, Chris Baron, Paulina Lyskawa, Gesoel Mendes, Theodore Levin, Omer Preminger and Maria Polinsky, who on May 31 leave for Tecpan, Patzun, and Lake Atitlan in Guatemala, on the first group trip to the Guatemalan Field Station.
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Rodrigo, Paulina and Ted working in Guatemala

Back in Patzún for a week of field work on Tzu'tujiil are Rodrigo Ranero, Paulina Lyskawa and former postdoc Theodore Levin, continuing their investigation of absolutive agreement in the Santiago variety of the language.
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2018 at the Guatemala Field Station

A new international group is at the Guatemala Field Station, for two weeks of intensive Kaqchikel, then two weeks of research with local languages: Kaqchikel, Tz'utujil, Q'anjob'al, and Chuj.

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Two kinds of syntactic ergativity in Mayan

Mayan languages often distinguish transitive from intransitive subjects syntactically. But they do so in two different ways, argues Rodrigo Ranero.