Papers by Fernando Zúñiga
In Search of Balance: Agent and Patient Voices
Grammatical Voice
Apart from common cases of differential argument marking, referential hierarchies affect argument... more Apart from common cases of differential argument marking, referential hierarchies affect argument marking in two ways: (a) through hierarchical marking, where markers compete for a slot and the competition is resolved by a hierarchy, and (b) through co-argument sensitivity, where the marking of one argument depends on the properties of its co-argument. Here we show that while co-argument sensitivity cannot be analyzed in terms of hierarchical marking, hierarchical marking can be analyzed in terms of co-argument sensitivity. Once hierarchical effects on marking are analyzed in terms of co-argument sensitivity, it becomes possible to examine alignment patterns relative to referential categories in exactly the same way as one can examine alignment patterns relative to referential categories in cases of differential argument marking and indeed any other condition on alignment (such as tense or clause type). As a result, instances of hierarchical marking of any kind turn out not to present a special case in the typology of alignment, and there is no need for positing an additional non-basic alignment type such as ‘hierarchical alignment’. While hierarchies are not needed for descriptive and comparative purposes, we also cast doubt on their relevance in diachrony: examining two families for which hierarchical agreement has been postulated, Algonquian and Kiranti, we find only weak and very limited statistical evidence for agreement paradigms to have been shaped by a principled ranking of person categories.
Spanish in Contact with South-American Languages, with Special Emphasis on Andean and Paraguayan Spanish
Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Linguistics
The effect of indigenous languages of South America on Spanish is strongest in the lexicon (espec... more The effect of indigenous languages of South America on Spanish is strongest in the lexicon (especially with toponyms, zoonyms, and phytonyms) and identifiable, but much more modest, in phonetics/phonology (e.g., vowel variability and reduction and nasalization) and morphosyntax (e.g., the different use of selected verb forms and constituent order). The phenomena called Media Lengua and Yopará differ from this picture in that the former roughly consists of a Spanish lexicon combined with Quechua grammar, while the latter is a fluid Guaraní-based system with numerous borrowings from Spanish. The effects of contact are socially and areally variable, with low-prestige, typically rural, varieties of South American Spanish showing the most significant systemic impact, while high-prestige, typically urban, varieties (including the national standards) show little more than lexical borrowings in the semantic fields mentioned. This result is hardly surprising, due to historical/sociolinguisti...
Antipassivization in Basque revisited
John Benjamins eBooks, 2021
In this paper, we explore three phenomena that have been considered to be antipassives in Basque ... more In this paper, we explore three phenomena that have been considered to be antipassives in Basque linguistics. First, we briefly review “ergative displacement” (Laka 1988), related to antipassives as mentioned by Heath (1976). This is not a bona fide instance of the antipassive, since the ergative displacement affects only the agreement pattern (the A argument appears indexed as S in finite verb forms) while the case frame and syntactic status of A and P are as in the default transitive construction; besides, there is no demotion or suppression of the P argument. Second, we review two biclausal constructions, namely the ari-progressive (Hualde & Ortiz de Urbina 1987; Laka 2006) and participial clauses (Ortiz de Urbina & Uribe-Etxebarria 1991). Although regarded as antipassives by Postal (1977) and Coyos (2002), respectively, their biclausality, long argued by some Basque linguists, is incompatible with the antipassive, which is monoclausal by definition. Finally, de Rijk (2003) labels as antipassives some intransitive constructions that alternate with transitive ones. This is the closest to true antipassives that can be found in Basque, but these constructions are lexically constrained and idiosyncratic, and unlike canonical antipassives attested in other languages of the world
PolySynthesis 6.0 -- bicentennial edition
Even 197 years after its introduction, the notion of polysynthesis remains one of the most intrig... more Even 197 years after its introduction, the notion of polysynthesis remains one of the most intriguing and controversial tools in the (morphological) typologist's toolbox. Several --occasionally contradictory--definitions have been proposed, employed for various purposes, and debated to this very day, but neither practitioners nor theoreticians have reached a comfortable level of consensus regarding its most effective and efficient form yet. The present talk maps the evolution of the notion, discusses its usefulness, and contends that the tool can be made better by updating it minimally with respect to its form and substantially with respect to its conceptual foundations. The former aspect of the update consists of making the notion more precise via explicit qualification; the latter bears relation to our arguably problematic understanding of the pairs lexical vs. grammatical and word vs. clause.
Possession in Vamale (Southern Oceanic, New Caledonia)
Many non-Polynesian Oceanic languages are known to have two morphological strategies to express a... more Many non-Polynesian Oceanic languages are known to have two morphological strategies to express attributive possession, namely direct and indirect possession: the host of the affixes indicating person and number of the possessor is the nominal with the former and a possessive/relational classifier with the latter (Ross 2004, Lichtenberk 2009). Direct possession is typically found with a distinct set of possessums: kinship terms, body parts, and things done to or used on the possessor. Indirect possession is typically used with items related to food, items related to potables, and general items; Lynch (2000) reconstructs *ka, *m(w)a-, and *(n)a- as the classifiers for these three groups, respectively. Based on original fieldwork, the present paper outlines how possession marking works in Vamale, which shows a picture that is both similar and different from the above, in several intriguing respects. First, there are two sets of possessive suffixes: (1) Set I: xhetham ‘plate’ - xhetham...
What do we (not) know about Blackfoot inversion?
Faits de Langues, 2012
ABSTRACT
Polysynthesis: A review
Language and Linguistics Compass, 2019
The notion of polysynthesis was introduced two centuries ago and is still widely used in linguist... more The notion of polysynthesis was introduced two centuries ago and is still widely used in linguistic typology, as well as in linguistic theory and even language description. Nevertheless, several of its features make it unappealing as a technical term. First, there is no consensus as to which of the competing, partially overlapping, definitions is to be preferred. Second, the different structural phenomena covered by the label show variation both across and within languages; the term is in need of qualification to be precise. Third, neither the synchronic distribution nor the diachronic origins of the phenomena involved is well understood. Fourth, even though the term is essentially framed in typological terms, no robust cross‐linguistic generalizations based on it have been hitherto found. The present paper surveys these features and argues that the notion can be used nonimpressionistically only if defined more cogently and more restrictively.
Mapudungun (for The Oxford Handbook of Polysynthesis)
36. Valency classes in Mapudungun
Case Studies from Austronesia, the Pacific, the Americas, and Theoretical Outlook, 2015
Temperature terms in Mapudungun
Typological Studies in Language, 2015
Mapudungun (unclassified) is spoken in south-central Chile and southwestern Argentina at differen... more Mapudungun (unclassified) is spoken in south-central Chile and southwestern Argentina at different altitudes in climates ranging from tundra and subalpine to Mediterranean. This paper surveys the basic semantics and morphosyntax of nine temperature terms, of which wutre ‘cold’, fushku ‘cool’, enum ‘warm’ and are ‘hot’ are probably the most frequently used ones. While these terms can be used for tactile, ambient, and personal-feeling temperatures, the other five are specialised for one or two of these kinds of evaluations. Notably, all terms can be used as main verbs in predications; most can also be used as adjectives in order to modify nouns, and only wutre and are are commonly used as nouns referring to ‘cold’ and ‘heat’ respectively.
Studies in Language Companion Series, 2014
Why should beneficiaries be subjects (or objects)?
Typological Studies in Language, 2011
... All remaining errors and misconceptions are my own. References Arka, I Wayan & Ross, Malc... more ... All remaining errors and misconceptions are my own. References Arka, I Wayan & Ross, Malcolm (eds). 2005. The Many Faces ofAustronesian Voice Systems. ... Revista de Lingüística TeóricayAplicada 34: 9–38. Bresnan, Joan & Kanerva, Jonni. 1989. ...
Nominal compounds in Mapudungun
Studies in Language Companion Series, 2014
It is perhaps unsurprising that the rich agglutinative-polysynthetic verb morphology of Mapudungu... more It is perhaps unsurprising that the rich agglutinative-polysynthetic verb morphology of Mapudungun has drawn most attention in linguistic studies. So far unnoticed in the literature are Mapudungun complex noun phrases, which show a puzzling distribution in terms of the internal structure they display. Some complex NPs are head-final (mapu-che ‘people of the land’). Others are head-initial, and of these a subset appears to be less lexicalized. In some cases, all three possibilities are found with the same components: mamull-che ‘wood people’, che-mamull ‘people made of wood’, and che mamull ‘wood-like people’. The present paper reviews the comparatively modest literature on these phenomena, deals with them in an account based on semantic factors, and places them in a broader typological context.
Benefactive and malefactive applicativization in Mapudungun
Typological Studies in Language, 2010
Benefactive and malefactive applicativization in Mapudungun* Fernando Zúñiga University of Zurich... more Benefactive and malefactive applicativization in Mapudungun* Fernando Zúñiga University of Zurich This paper argues that two productive applicatives in Mapudungun, viz.-(l) el and-ñma, can be labeled benefactive and malefactive respectively, but only in a ...
Knowledge from a Himalayan perspective: a preliminary typology of conjunct/disjunct oppositions in Tibeto-Burman
El estado de la lengua mapuche, diez años después
El presente articulo esboza una evaluacion tentativa de la vitalidad etnolinguistica actual de la... more El presente articulo esboza una evaluacion tentativa de la vitalidad etnolinguistica actual de la lengua mapuche en Chile en el marco de los parametros propuestos por Landweer (2000) y sobre la base de los resultados de la encuesta mapuche CEP 2016. Ademas, se compara la situacion actual con aquella registrada por la encuesta mapuche del CEP de 2006 y analizada por Zuniga (2007). La principal conclusion es que el mapuzugun se encuentra en un estado de mayor precariedad sociolinguistica que hace diez anos, y que la necesidad de politicas publicas e iniciativas privadas que conduzcan a una revitalizacion efectiva y eficaz en el corto plazo es aun mas imperiosa si se quiere salvar a la lengua de la extincion.
Fernando Zúñiga & Denis Creissels (eds.), Applicative Constructions in the World’s Languages. (Comparative Handbooks in Linguistics 7.) Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter Mouton, 2024, pp. 419–471.
This chapter surveys the morphology, syntax, and semantics of applicativizing preverbs in English... more This chapter surveys the morphology, syntax, and semantics of applicativizing preverbs in English, German, Hungarian, and the Slavic and Baltic languages, with some comments on their non-applicativizing uses. Applicativizing preverbs may be particles or affixes, are transparently related to adverbs/adpositions with spatial and/or aspectual functions, and introduce a new participant to the clause (usually a direct object, occasionally an oblique argument, rarely an indirect object). The chapter pays special attention to English out-verbs and German be-verbs, which have semantics of a kind that is not attested frequently found outside Germanic; it also gives a detailed overview of the semantics of the relatively numerous Slavic and Baltic preverbs.
Rla-revista De Linguistica Teorica Y Aplicada, Dec 1, 2018
Este trabajo explora las construcciones posesivas del mapuzugun desde la lingüística tipológica c... more Este trabajo explora las construcciones posesivas del mapuzugun desde la lingüística tipológica contemporánea. A partir de los datos recogidos y previa discusión bibliográfica, se establecen los esquemas posesivos prototípicos del mapuzugun y sus variaciones. Finalmente, se propone una clasificación tipológica de las construcciones de la lengua de acuerdo con la posesión nominal, predicativa y externa, concluyendo con algunas reflexiones generales sobre el fenómeno de la posesión en mapuzugun.
Advances in Research on Semantic Roles
Benjamins current topics, Jun 15, 2016
Especially in functional-typological linguistics, semantic roles have been studied thoroughly, be... more Especially in functional-typological linguistics, semantic roles have been studied thoroughly, because they constitute a good starting point for any study on argument marking due to their semantically defined nature. However, the very concept of semantic roles is far from being without problems, and there is still no consensus on how the roles are best defined. In this volume, the notion will be discussed from novel perspectives with the aim of providing new insights into our understanding of semantic roles. Two of the papers deal with semantic role clusters, one with semantic roles in verbless constructions, one with diachrony of semantic roles and two with individual semantic roles that have not been studied in too much detail in previous studies. The book may not offer answers to all questions the readers may have, but at least it raises interesting further questions relevant to arriving at a better understanding of semantic roles.
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Papers by Fernando Zúñiga