Volume 19, Issue 3 -

Verbs in San Pedro Amuzgo, an Oto-Manguean language of Mexico, often have two different stems in the paradigm, one used with singular subjects and the other with plural subjects. This split motivated by number is typologically interesting due to its rarity, since number splits are commonly along the S/O vs. A distinction, not the S/A vs. O distinction. Apart from at stem level, the split is also manifested in the incompletive of an inflectional class of verbs. At stem level the plural stem is derived in a variety of unproductive ways, making the relation between singular and plural stems, synchronically, one of suppletion. In this article, we study the distribution and the morphological properties of this split in depth, using a sample of almost 600 fully inflected verbs from a large database compiled by native linguist Fermín Tapia and now publicly accessible on the Surrey Morphology Group’s website. We also place it in a typological context, relating it to other systems we have observed.

The Ecuadorian Siona reportative is prima facie an evidential par excellence because it indicates that the information contained in the utterance has been acquired through hearsay. However, the morphosyntactic and semantic behavior of the reportative verb form demonstrates that it is not an evidential. Rather, it is part of the clause-typing system, together with the assertive, interrogative, and imperative. Clause-typing relates to the assignment of authority: the speaker holds the epistemic authority in assertions, the addressee in questions, and a non-speech-act participant in reports. The hearsay reading of the reportative clause type emanates from a shift of epistemic authority.

In the indigenous languages of Malekula Island, members of Oceanic, diverse standard negation strategies have been identified, including double negation, simple preverbal negators, and simple postverbal negators. Individual languages may display more than one strategy. In this article, evidence from Malekula is considered for the typological hypothesis known as the Jespersen Cycle(s). Six standard negation strategies are described in detail and illustrated using data from a sample of Malekula languages. Here, the Jespersen Cycle hypothesis is employed to understand diversity in the synchronic patterning of standard negation in a comparative analysis of the sample: the diverse standard negation strategies found both language-internally and comparatively can be understood as iterations of the Jespersen Cycle(s).