Volume 63, Issue 3 -

Functional similarities between the expression of reportative evidentiality and the grammatical representation of reported speech manifest themselves in varying degrees of corresponding formal similarity across languages. Assuming a systematic correlation between these domains this paper investigates and compares two likely sources for the expression of reportative evidentiality: non-referential reportative matrix clauses with generic utterance verbs and functionally specialized dependent clauses. The argument is based primarily on parallels in the development from biclausal to monoclausal structures in a number of genetically and areally diverse languages.

This article provides a description of the noun phrase in Boruca, a recently extinct Chibchan language once spoken in Costa Rica. Divided into four main sections, this paper addresses noun formation processes, the constituents of the noun phrase, and its syntactic processes, as well as illustrating all of the above characteristics in a sample text. In sum, both the internal structure and the external relations of the noun phrase are presented. Given the state of the language, the author has relied primarily on secondary sources, complemented by examples of sentences produced by the last semi-speaker of the language.

The present paper provides a concise survey of the tonal inventory of Prinmi as well as some discussion of intonation proper. The approach is largely based on observable surface phenomena found in a corpus of several semi-controlled production studies. Unlike in earlier frameworks, three tonal classes are assumed: H, L (with the lexical tones H, L, L+H, H+L) and a Toneless category. The use of Toneless lexemes, which mainly comprise discourse particles, seems to be strongly intertwined with certain pragmatic functions presumably licensing emphasis and the boundary tone L%. Finally, a strong intonational downtrend and possible tone sandhi effects may trigger tonal alternations. These alternations as well as the complex interaction between intonation, pragmatics and the Toneless particles require further research.

This paper deals with morphosyntactic and semantic characteristics of the spatial case called motative in the Ardeşen-variety of Laz. The motative can be used to mark the ground-nominal in allative as well as in ablative spatial expressions, while the ground-nominal in static spatial expressions is unmarked for case. Hence, the motative case shows a conflation of the allative with ablative spatial semantics, while at the same time excluding locative spatial meaning. Given that this kind of syncretism has been claimed to be non-existent, the findings for Ardeşen-Laz are of special relevance for the refinement of the typology on spatial case-systems.