Spanish infinitives are commonly borrowed into Zapotec languages. The borrowed infinitive construction is here analyzed as a special type of light verb construction. In Southern Zapotec languages the construction occurs in a transitive version using ‘do’ and an intransitive version using ‘become’. This chapter analyzes the syntax of these constructions in Southern Zapotec, including the lexical status of the borrowed infinitives and the argument structure of the different forms of the construction.
Article outline
1.Introduction
1.1Argument order
1.2Zapotec languages have light verb constructions
1.3Spanish infinitives appear to be borrowed into these LVC’s
2.Syntactic analysis of borrowed infinitive constructions
2.1Syntactic status of borrowed infinitives
2.1.1Borrowed infinitives occur in the same position as nominal complements
2.1.2Borrowed infinitives do not occur in the same position as native verbal complements
2.2Argument structure of Borrowed Infinitive Constructions
3.The level of integration of Spanish infinitives in Zapotec grammar
4.Unresolved issues for future work
4.1Can borrowed infinitives be incorporated?
4.2Comparison of reduced loanwords and other forms vs. borrowed infinitives
4.3Can other verbs function as light verbs with borrowed nouns?
2014Unevenly mixed Romani languages. International Journal of Bilingualism. .
Antonio Ramos, Pafnuncio
2008Los posesivos atributivos en el zapoteco de San Pedro Mixtepec (ZSPM). In Memorias del IX Encuentro Internacional de Lingüística en el Noroeste, Vol. 1, Zarina Estrada Fernández & Ana Lidia Munguía Duarte (eds), 443–461. Hermosillo: Unison.
Backus, Ad M.
1996Two in one: Bilingual Speech in Turkish Immigrants in the Netherlands. Tilburg: Tilburg University Press.
Beam de Azcona, Rosemary G.
2004A Coatlán-Loxicha Zapotec Grammar. PhD dissertation, University of California, Berkeley.
Beam de Azcona, Rosemary G.
2009Clasificación de verbos en el zapoteco miahuateco de San Bartolomé Loxicha. Cuadernos del Sur 28: 59–70.
Beam de Azcona, Rosemary G.
2013El hombre que conoció a Cocijo. Tlalocan 19: 93–223.
Beam de Azcona, Rosemary G.
2014aAlgunos rasgos lingüísticos del zapoteco sureño. In Estructuras, lenguas y hablantes. Estudios en Homenaje a Thomas C. Smith Stark, Rebeca Barriga Villanueva & Esther Herrera Zendejas (eds). Mexico City: Colegio de México.
Beam de Azcona, Rosemary G.
2014bAlgunas isoglosas de la Sierra Sur. Paper presented at the Coloquio de Lenguas Otomangues y Vecinas VI in honor of Mario Molina Cruz. Oaxaca: Biblioteca de Investigación “Juan de Córdova”. Powerpoint. [URL]
Beam de Azcona, Rosemary G.
2015Valency-changing devices in two Southern Zapotec languages. In Operstein & Sonnenschein (eds), 139–173.
Beam de Azcona, Rosemary G.
In preparation. El zapoteco de la Sierra Sur: Estudios diacrónicos y comparativos.
Beam de Azcona, Rosemary G., Mario Lunaet al.
In preparation. La posesión en el zapoteco de la Sierra Sur.
Benton, Joseph
n.d. 7 Rivers (a transcribed text in Chichicapan Zapotec). Ms, Summer Institute of Linguistics International.
Black, Cheryl A.
1994Quiegolani Zapotec Syntax. PhD dissertation, University of California, Santa Cruz.
Black, Cheryl A.
2000Quiegolani Zapotec Syntax: A Principles and Parameters Approach. Arlington TX: SIL International & University of Texas at Arlington.
de Córdova, Juan
1987[1578]Vocabvlario en lengva çapoteca. Mexico City: Ediciones Toledo & Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia.
Cruz Santiago, Emiliano
Forthcoming. Moód kéh' mén noó tixu't mén dí'z déh noó na'r kwent, Para leer y escribir el zapoteco de San Bartolomé Loxicha con cuentos, Rosemary G. Beam de Azcona ed.
Dixon, Robert M. W.
2002Copula clauses in Australian languages: A typological perspective. Anthropological Linguistics 44: 1–36.
Jäger, Andreas
2004The cross-linguistic function of obligatory ‘do’-periphrasis. Paper presented at the 2004 Conference of the Australian Linguistic Society. [URL]
Karttunen, Frances E. & Lockhart, James
1976Nahuatl in the Middle Years: Language Contact Phenomena in Texts of the Colonial Period [University of California Publications in Linguistics 85]. Los Angeles CA: University of California Press.
Long C., Rebecca & Cruz M., Sofronio
1999Diccionario zapoteco de San Bartolomé Zoogocho, Oaxaca. Mexico City: Instituto Lingüístico de Verano.
Munro, Pamela, Lillehaugen, Brook Danielle & López, Felipe H.
2008Cali Chiu? A Course in Valley Zapotec, Vol. 3. Los Angeles CA: Department of Linguistics, University of California.
Myers-Scotton, Carol & Jake, Janice L.
2013Nonfinite verbs and negotiating bilingualism in codeswitching: Implications for a language production model. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition 13: 511–525.
Nellis, Neil & Goodner de Nellis, Jane
1983Diccionario zapoteco de Juárez. Mexico City: Instituto Lingüístico de Verano.
1978Vocabulario zapoteco del Istmo, 4th edn. Mexico City: Instituto Lingüístico de Verano.
Romero Méndez, Rodrigo
2005Spanish light verb constructions: Co-predication with syntactically formed complex predicates. Paper available at: [URL]
Sakai, Hiromu, Ivana, Adrian & Zhang, Chao
2004The role of light verb projection in transitivity alternation. English Linguistics 21: 348–375.
Sicoli, Mark A.
2015Agency and verb valence in a West Zapotec language. In Operstein & Sonnenschein (eds), 191–212.
Smith Stark, Thomas C.
2007Algunas isoglosas zapotecas. In Clasificación de las lenguas indígenas de México. Memorias del III Coloquio Internacional de Lingüística Mauricio Swadesh, Cristina Buenrostroet al. (eds), 69–133. Mexico City: Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México & Instituto Nacional de Lenguas Indígenas.
Speck, Charles H.
1998Zapotec Oral Literature; El folklore de San Lorenzo Texmelucan. Dallas TX: Summer Institute of Linguistics.
Stubblefield, Morris & de Stubblefield, Carol Miller
1991Diccionario zapoteco de Mitla, Oaxaca. Mexico City: Instituto Lingüístico de Verano.
Stubblefield, Morris & de Stubblefield, Carol Miller
1994Mitla Zapotec Texts. Dallas TX: Summer Institute International.
Thomason, Sarah Grey & Kaufman, Terrence
1988Language Contact, Creolization, and Genetic Linguistics. Berkeley CA: University of California Press.
van der Auwera, Johan
1999Periphrastic ‘do’: typological prolegomena. In Thinking English Grammar: To Honour Xavier Dekeyser, Guy A. J. Tops (ed.), 457–470. Leuven: Peeters.
Wichmann, Søren & Wohlgemuth, Jan
2008Loan verbs in a typological perspective. In Aspects of Language Contact. New Theoretical, Methodological and Empirical Findings with Special Focus on Romancisation Processes, Thomas Stolz, Rosa Salas Palomo & Dik Bakker (eds), 89–121. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
This list is based on CrossRef data as of 12 april 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers.
Any errors therein should be reported to them.