Adverbial clauses in Ayoreo (zamucoan): from parataxis to hypotaxis

DURANTE, SANTIAGO GABRIEL

Regensburg

Exposición; Expositor invitado del Departamento de Lingüística; 2018

Universität Regensburg

The Ayoreo language (Zamucoan) shows a very limited set of quasi-universal formants to encode embedded clauses: the subordinatorsuje and ujetiga, which also mark realis and irrealis, respectively. However, adverbial clauses show a process of specification in which each semantic type of clause tends to receive specific treatment. Within the framework of Role and Reference Grammar, this presentation aims to characterize the various formal resources that the language manifests to codify the different semantic types of adverbial clauses. By showing how the language makes use of quasi-universal markers along with other elements to encode this type of constructions, this presentation supports the characterization of the process of passage from a primarily paratactical system to one with clearly defined forms of clause embeddedness.