LINGUIST List 13.1883

Tue Jul 9 2002

Books: Syntax:Relativization in Shipibo-Konibo

Editor for this issue: Dina Kapetangianni <dinalinguistlist.org>

Directory

1. LINCOM EUROPA, Native American languages:Relativization in Shipibo-Konibo by Pilar Valenzuela

Relativization in Shipibo-Konibo:
A typologically-oriented study 

Pilar Valenzuela 
Max-Planck-Institut for Evolutionary Anthropology 

This study provides the first account of the relativization system of
Shipibo-Konibo (SK), a Panoan language from the Peruvian Amazon. It is
based on a corpus of spontaneous text, complemented by plenty of
elicited material. In addition to examining the rich variety of
relative constructions available in SK, major grammatical features of
the language are addressed and illustrated to different degrees (e.g.,
basic constituent order, case-marking, agreement on adverbials, second
position clitics, etc.). The dominant relativization pattern in SK
involves embedded, moderately nominalized relative clauses; however,
nominalization is not a differential strategy since nominalizers do
not help identify the grammatical role of clausal arguments. Although
SK has a fairly complex switch-reference system and clause-chaining is
pervasive in discourse, reference-marked clauses do not generally take
part in relativization.

A finding of special typological interest is the use of structurally
similar prenominal, postnominal, and internally-headed relatives;
non-referential relatives may be of the adjoined type. As for
relativization strategies, SK may employ anaphoric pronouns all along
the "Accessibility Hierarchy"; this strategy is clearly attested
prenominally, violating the order found in the normal interclausal
anaphoric situation. Another remarkable finding is the use of an
absolutive pivot in internally-headed relativization; i.e., an
instance of syntactic ergativity in a language with an otherwise
nominative-accusative syntax.

ISBN 3 89586 304 1. 
LINCOM Studies in Native American Linguistics 42. 
100pp. USD 44 / EUR 44 / � 28. 

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