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Predicate fronting in Māori Jonathon Herd University of Toronto
Māori word order is often referred to as verb initial (VSO) in verbal clauses (1), but predicate initial (predicate-subject) in non-verbal clauses (2-5). A central issue is how to derive these different word orders in a unified manner. This paper argues that Māori is always predicate initial, a descriptive generalisation noted by Johanson (1948), Clark (1976), and derives this syntactically within a minimalist framework (Chomsky (1998, 1999). I will argue that a single predication operation functions in Māori whereby the clausal predicate, defined structurally as v-complement, dislocates to Spec,TP, satisfying EPP requirements on T. This analysis draws on recent work utilizing predicate-fronting for Malagasy (Pearson 1996, Rackowski & Travis 2000), Niuean (Massam & Smallwood 1997 Massam 2000) and Quiavini Zapotec (Lee 2000). This analysis departs from recent proposals (Pearce & Waite 1997, Pearce 2000, DeLacy 1999) where Māori word order is derived by V-fronting. These authors, focussing on verbal clauses (1), assume Māori to have basic VSO word order, with verb-initial order derived by adjunction of the verbal head to T and then C. To account for non-verbal clauses, where the initial constituent is a DP (2,3) or a PP (4,5), DeLacy 1999 proposes that examples such as (2,3) contain a null verb, which undergoes V-T movement, and develops as a series of DP movements to derive the required surface order. Pearce (2000) derives VOS 'object incorporation' clauses (6,7) by a series of head adjunctions, with the nominal head incorporating into the verb, and the N-V sequence adjoining to T. I argue that these proposals are problematic from a Minimalist standpoint, utilising unmotivated or language-specific movement strategies. Furthermore, I argue that positing verb-raising for Māori, a morphologically isolating language, departs from current treatment of V-raising as driven by inflectional requirements (Chomsky 1995, 1998, 1999, Alexiadou & Anagnostopolou 1998). To derive the correct order of arguments, I propose that grammatical subjects are assigned nominative case in situ in Spec,vP by matching with a T-probe. Internal objects undergo obligatory Object Shift to Spec,vP, 'tucking in' between the subject and v. Here they receive an interpretive complex INT (specificity, definiteness etc. (Chomsky 1999)), and are assigned accusative case. Failure of the object to Agree with v (i.e. if it lacks an uninterpretable case feature) results in the internal object receiving neither INT nor accusative case. The non-specific, caseless nominal will subsequently move with VP to Spec,TP, and be interpreted as a part of the predicate. This derives the alternation between (1) and (6,7). This analysis raises interesting questions about phases (Chomsky 1999), which I will explore. Since terms within the domain of the head of a phase are assumed to be non-visible to probes in a higher phase (Phase Impenetrability Condition), matching VP with T-probe in (1), where transitive v is a phase, should be illicit. I will discuss the idea that the phasehood of C is universal, but phasehood of v is parametric. Briefly, support for the non-phasehood of v in Māori will come from the Actor-Emphatic construction (9).
Examples: (1) E tuhituhi ana ia i te reta T/A write Asp. she acc. the.sg. letter 'She is writing the letter' ND (2) He rangatira a Rewi cls. chief p. Rewi 'Rewi is a chief' Foster (1987:25) (3) Ko te rangatira a Rewi eq. the.sg. chief p. Rewi 'Rewi is the chief' Foster (1987:25) (4) Kei te whare rūnanga ngā manuhiri loc.pres. the.sg. house meeting the.pl. guest 'The guests are at the meeting house' Foster (1987:49) (5) A te Mane te hui At.fut. the.sg. Monday the.sg. gathering 'The gathering is on Monday' Bauer (1997:30) (6) E tuhituhi reta ana ia T/A write letter Asp. she 'She is writing letters (i.e. letter-writing)' Bauer (1997:199) (7) E rukuruku kōura nunui ana ia T/A dive crayfish big Asp. she 'She is diving for big crayfish (i.e. big crayfish-diving) Bauer (1997:316) (8) Kei te āwhina a Pani i a Hera T/A help p. Pani acc. p. Hera 'Pani is helping Hera' Bauer (1997:40) (9) Nā Pani i āwhina a Hera belong Pani T/A help p. Hera 'Pani is helping Hera' Bauer (1997:43)
References: Johansen, J.P. 1948. Character and structure of the action in Maori. Danske Videnskabernes Selskab, Historik-filogiske Meddelelser, vol. 31, no. 5. Copenhagen: Munksgaard Clark, R. 1976. Aspects of Proto-Polynesian Syntax. Te Reo monograph. Auckland: Linguistic Society of New Zealand Chomsky 1995. The Minimalist Program. Cambridgr, MA: MIT Press 1998. Minimalist Inquiries: The Framework. MIT Occasional Papers in Linguistics, 15, 1-56 1999. Derivation by Phase. MIT Occasional Papers in Linguistics, 18, 1-43 Rackowski, A. & Travis, L. 2000. V-Initial languages: X or XP movement and adverbial placement. In A. Carnie and E. Guilfoyle (eds.) The Syntax of Verb Initial Languages. New York: Oxford University Press. pp.117-142 Massam, D. & Smallwood, C. 1997. Essential Features of Predication in English and Niuean. NELS 27 Massam, D. 2000. VSO and VOS: Aspects of Niuean word order. In A. Carnie and E. Guilfoyle (eds.) The Syntax of Verb Initial Languages. New York: Oxford University Press. pp.97-117 Pearce, E. & Waite, J. 1997. Kia and Ki te complementation in Maori: an unaccusative analysis. Te Reo 40, 45-75 Pearce, E. 2000. Argument positions and anaphora in the Maori clause. In Steven Fisher and Wolfgang Sperlich (eds.) LEO PASIFIKA: proceedings of the fourth international conference on Oceanic Linguistics. Auckland: The Institute of Polynesian Languages and Literatures, Monograph Series, Vol. 2, pp. 313-325 DeLacy, P. 1999. Predicate nominals in Maori. m.s. MIT, Cambridge, MA. Alexiadou, A. & Anagnostopolou, E. 1998. Parametrizing AGR: Word Order, V-Movement and EPP-Checking. NLLT, 16, 491-539 Lee, F. 2000. Remnant VP-movement and VSO in Quiavini Zapotec and Berber. In A. Carnie and E. Guilfoyle (eds.) The Syntax of Verb Initial Languages. New York: Oxford University Press. pp.143-163
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