Adverbial clauses in Chaco languages and beyond

VAN GIJN, RIK; GOLLUSCIO, LUCIA; GONZÁLEZ, HEBE; VIDAL, ALEJANDRA

Boston

Congreso; Meeting of the Linguistic Society of America; 2013

Linguistic Society of America and Society for the Indigenous Languages of the Anmericas

Previous research has shown that the languages of the Chaco area share phonological and grammatical features (Comrie et al. 2010), independently of the genetic affiliation of the languages. With this special issue, we want to explore topics in syntax, following up on Golluscio & Vidal (eds. 2010). The issue will be devoted to the strategies that languages of the Chaco use to encode adverbial relations, in which one event modifies the other (e.g. temporal, conditional, purpose, reason relations). Looking at subordination strategies in South American languages from an areal perspective seems a promising endeavor, because in spite of the extreme linguistic diversity of the continent, and in spite of the alleged conservatism of subordinate clauses (cf. e.g. Ross 1973, Bybee 2001), recurring strategies are found across language families (cf. van Gijn et al. 2011). For the Chaco area, adverbial subordination strategies are of particular interest. Many languages in neighboring areas like the Andean area (Torero 2002), and the Guaporé-Mamoré area (Crevels & Van der Voort 2008) have a preference for nominalized structures, whereas most languages in the Chaco area have a preference for more ?verbal?, paratactic structures for adverbial relations. Moreover, these neighboring languages often mark switch reference for some of their adverbial clauses, a feature absent in the Chaco (Ciccone et al. 2008). The use of serial verb constructions for e.g. manner or purpose-of-motion relations - not uncommon in the Chaco area- seem to be a more Amazonian feature (cf. Aikhenvald 2011, Van Gijn et al. 2011: 17). Vilela is somewhat deviant in that it makes use of converbial constructions for some of its adverbial relations (Golluscio 2010), which is perhaps more reminiscent of Quechuan strategies. In short, adverbial subordination strategies in the languages of the Chaco seem to present a mix of structures that on the in part sets the area apart from neighboring areas, and in part connects it to different neighboring areas. This situation warrants, in our opinion, taking a closer look at adverbial subordination strategies in languages of the Chaco and neighboring languages.