This volume contains 20 papers on semantic issues in under-represented languages of the Americas, ranging from the interpretation of noun phrases (plurality, definiteness, temporal interpretation) and verb phrases (pluractionality, argument structure, serialization) to clause- and discourse-level phenomena of tense, aspect, modality, switch reference, evidentiality and anaphora. Languages analyzed include American Sign Language, Blackfoot, Brazilian Portuguese, Cuzco Quechua, Imbabura Quechua, Juruna, Karitiana, Kiowa, Kotiria (Wanano), Kuikuro, Mebengokre, Mbyá, Mocoví, Nez Perce, Oji-Cree, Skwxwú7mesh, St'át'imcets, Tupí-Guaraní, and Waikhana (Piratapuyo).

This collection will interest scholars and students of semantics, typology, variation, syntax and field methodology for under-documented languages.

Contents

Video as a tool for eliciting semantic distinctions / Leora Bar-el. A unified modal semantics for 'out-of-control' marking in St'át'imcets / Henry Davis, Lisa Matthewson and Hotze Rullman. Antipassive and indefinite objects in Nez Perce / Amy Rose Deal. The "durative" in Blackfoot: understanding imperfectivity / Joel Dunham. The Cuzco Quechua conjectural: an illocutionary analysis / Martina Faller. A unified semantics for the Quechua question and negation marker –chu / Carlos Fasola. Concepts and forms of 'plurality' in Kuikuro (Southern Carib, Brazil) / Bruna Franchetto, Mutua Mehinaku and Mara Santos. Plurality and distributivity in Juruna: some considerations about verbal cumulativity / Suzi Oliveira de Lima. Tense in Mocovi: the temporal property of DP / Hector Manni. The argument structure of classifier predicates in American Sign Language / Gaurav Mathur and Christian Rathmann. Non-canonical switch-reference and situation semantics / Andrew McKenzie. The semantics of the free choice item qualquer in Brazilian Portuguese / Roberta Pires de Oliveira. The form and function of two futures in Blackfoot and St'át'imcets / Maria Amélia Reis Silva and Jennifer Glougie. An instantaneous present tense in Blackfoot / Maria Amélia Reis Silva and Lisa Matthewson. The building blocks of aspectual interpretation / Andres Salanova. Grammatical encoding of anaphoric relations in Tupi Guarani languages / Heloisa Salles. The meaning of pluractionality in Karitiana / Luciana Sanchez-Mendes and Ana Muller. In search of the event argument: a semantic analysis of the preverb ishi- in Oji-Cree / Tanya Slavin. The semantics of serial verb constructions in two Eastern Tukanoan languages: Kotiria (Wanano) and Waikhana (Piratapuyo) / Kristine Stenzel. Quantification, completive aspect and degree modification in Mbya / Guillaume Thomas.