LSNAL 54: The Structure and Function on Yaqui complementation

The Structure and Function on Yaqui complementation

Lilián Guerrero
Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México

This book examines the structure and function of Yaqui complementation, an understudied Native American Language spoken in Sonora (Mexico) and Arizona. The analysis follows the lines characteristic of recent works, since it underscores the form-function iconicity principle, and the syntax-semantic interface of the sentence. The language presents interesting challenges. On the one hand, Yaqui-specific relations between event integration and the complement-taking predicates are compatible but not identical to cross-linguistic predictions based on iconicity. On the other hand, the traditional definition of complementation based on morphosyntactic criteria does not cover all the strategies found, especially for those predicates showing alternative encoding.

This study is an important contribution not only to our understanding of the syntax of the Yaqui language and the theoretical framework in which it is formulated, but it also provides linguistic data, virtually absent in most grammatical studies of indigenous languages, relevant for typological studies.

Lilián Guerrero received her Ph.D. in Linguistics at the State University of New York at Buffalo in 2005. When preparing this book, she was an Associated Professor of Linguistics at the Universidad de Sonora. She is now a member of the Instituto de Investigaciones Filológicas, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM). Her publications include several articles on the syntax and semantics of simple and complex constructions. She has realized extensive fieldwork on the Yaqui community.

ISBN 9783895863240. LINCOM Studies in Native American Linguistics 54. 233pp. 2006.