Copyright

by

Mark C. Brown

2004
 Topics in Iquito Syntax:
Word Order, Possession, and Nominal Discontinuity

by

Mark C. Brown, B. A.

Thesis

Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School

of the University of Texas at Austin

in Partial Fulfillment

of the Requirements

for the degree of

Master of Arts

The University of Texas at Austin

May 2004
 Topics in Iquito Syntax:
Word Order, Possession, and Nominal Discontinuity

APPROVED BY
SUPERVISING COMMITTEE:

____________________________________
Nora England

____________________________________
Anthony C. Woodbury
 Soli Deo Gloria

(May the Glory be to God Alone)

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 Topics in Iquito Syntax:
Word Order, Possession, and Nominal Discontinuity

by

Mark C. Brown, M. A.
University of Texas at Austin, 2004
SUPERVISOR: Nora England

Iquito (Zaparoan) is spoken by about 26 individuals in a small community

located in Amazonian Peru. The community is called San Antonio de Pintuyacu
and is located about 40 miles due west of Iquitos, Peru, along the Rio Pintuyacu.
This thesis presents a description and an analysis of discontinuous nominal
phrases, nominal morphology, possession, topicalization, and Iquito’s basic word
order. These topics are much more inter-related than they first seem. Consider
these two facts: 1) Discontinuous nominal phrases can occur as the direct objects
of irrealis constructions but not the direct objects of indicative constructions. 2)
The irrealis constructions typically have an SOV word order, while the indicative
constructions have SVO. Therefore, a complete analysis of discontinuous
nominal phrases ought to examine the effect that the different word orders have
on nominal discontinuity. Furthermore, while I show that Iquito word order is
underlyingly SVO, one can only arrive at this conclusion after first understanding
the constituency of the Iquito noun phrase, including possession, the
distributional idiosyncracies of nominal discontinuity, and the properties of
various pre-verbal grammatical positions such as the topic.
The thesis begins with a broad introduction to the Iquito language
designed to give the readers a general understanding of the nature of the language,
including short discussions on intransitive vs. transitive sentences, verb
morphology, and SVO vs. SOV word orders. Then a more in-depth examination
is made of the following topics: 1) noun phrases and nominal morphology, 2)
possession, 3) nominal discontinuity, and 4) a reconciliation of Iquito’s two basic
word orders.
The sources for this research are the body of primary data collected by
myself during the summers of 2002 and 2003 and consist of about 600 pages of
hand-written notes, about 15 hours of recorded elicitation sessions, two short
texts, and 52 pages of typed documents that provide a preliminary description and
analysis of these topics. This thesis also makes use of some of the data collected

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by other researchers of the Iquito Language Documentation Project. This data
consists of more audio recordings and about 250 pages of additional working
papers that discuss various aspects of Iquito syntax. Finally, there are resources
created with the mutual help of every researcher on the project, which are a 1400
word dictionary and a searchable electronic database of about 600 sentences.

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 Table of Contents

Chapter 1: Introduction.............................................................................1
1.1 Language Background.....................................................................2
1.2 Previous Research on Iquito.............................................................3
1.3 Orthography...................................................................................4
1.4 Basic Iquito Syllable Structure.........................................................6
1.5 Diacritical Marks and Example Format.............................................6

Chapter 2: Syntactic Overview....................................................................9

2.1 Sentences with intransitive verbs......................................................10
2.2.1 Sentences with transitive verbs: SVO word order..............................13
2.2.2 Sentences with transitive verbs: SOV word order..............................16
2.3.1 Topicalization: Textual Evidence.....................................................18
2.3.2 Topicalization: Structure and Definitional Characteristics.................21
2.3.3 Topicalization: More on the Resumptive Pronoun Rule.....................24
2.4 Order of grammatical positions in Iquito..........................................33
2.5 Copula Constructions.....................................................................37

Chapter 3: The Iquito Noun Phrase...........................................................46

3.1 Overview of nominal morphology and noun phrases..........................47
3.2 The morphology of pluralization......................................................48
3.3.1 Nouns and Adjectives.....................................................................56
3.3.2 Adjectives and non-obligatory agreement..........................................59
3.4 Nouns and demonstrative determiners..............................................64

Chapter 4: Possession...............................................................................72
4.1 Overview of common problems and issues in describing possession.....73
4.2 Predicate nominative possession......................................................77
4.3 Possessive phrases where the possessor is a pronoun...........................80
4.4 Possessive phrases where the possessor is a name or noun not
modified by a determiner.................................................................84
4.5 Possessive phrases where the possessor is a noun modified by a
determiner......................................................................................86
4.6 Possessive phrases and adjectives......................................................90
4.7 Complex possessive phrases..............................................................92
4.8 Compound possessive phrases...........................................................93
4.9 Possession and Nominal Compounding............................................95

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4.10 Possessums and Adpositions............................................................101

Chapter 5: A Discussion of Discontinuous Nominal Phrases in Iquito..........112

5.1 Subjects of Intransitive Verbs..........................................................113
5.2 Object of Transitive Verbs in SOV constructions.............................118
5.3 Possession and discontinuous objects................................................139

Chapter 6: Reconciling SVO and SOV Word Orders..................................151

6.1 Evidence for an XP position in SVO: Predicate Elements.................152
6.2 Evidence for an XP position in SVO: Double Object
Constructions and Time Adverbs......................................................159
6.3 Evidence for Verb Movement...........................................................165
6.4 The Iquito Inflectional Head............................................................168

Appendix 1 - List of Abbreviations Used in this Thesis.................................173

Appendix 2 - Bibliography..........................................................................174
Vita..........................................................................................................176

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 Chapter 1: Introduction

Chapter Outline
1.1 Language Background
1.2 Previous Research on Iquito
1.3 Orthography
1.4 Basic Iquito Syllable Structure
1.5 Diacritical Marks and Example Format

This paper analyzes primary research data in order to provide a concise and
empirical description and linguistic analysis of several major characteristics of
Iquito syntax, especially the distribution of nominal phrases, possessive
constructions, and discontinuous phrases.
The goal of this paper is to provide an accurate description of each type of
construction rather than to couch the description within a major theoretical
framework such as Government & Binding Theory. This first chapter provides a
general overview of the goals of this paper, as well as an explanation of the
orthographic system used for the Iquito language. The second chapter provides a
broad introduction to the Iquito language designed to give readers a general
understanding of the nature of the language, especially with regard to intransitive
vs. transitive sentences, verb morphology, and SVO vs. SOV word orders. This
section provides more of a summary of the current analysis rather than a robust
defense. In the third chapter, a more in-depth examination is made of noun
phrases and their modifiers. Chapter four discusses the nature of Iquito
possession, and chapter five presents a discussion and typology of different kinds of
discontinuous nominal phrases in Iquito. Finally, relying upon the
generalizations made about discontinuous phrases, chapter six reconciles the
differences found in the two basic word orders, SVO and SOV, that are found in
Iquito. This reconciliation lays the foundation for arguing that the typical Iquito
sentence has both an inflectional position and a grammatical focus position.

1.1 - Language Background

Iquito is among the last three remaining languages of the Zaparoan

language family and is only spoken today by about 26 individuals who live in a
village of about 400 people located on the banks of the Rio Pintuyacu,
approximately 120 km west of Iquitos, Peru. The data for this thesis was gathered

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during two summers of fieldwork and consists of about 500 pages of hand-written
notes, 30 hours of recorded elicitation sessions, two and half transcribed texts
totaling about 7 pages, and another 52 pages of typed documents that provide a
preliminary description and analysis of these topics. This data represents my own
personal research into this language. In addition, this thesis will use some of the
data collected by other researchers of the Iquito Language Documentation Project.
This data consists of more audio recordings and about 250 pages of additional
typed documents discussing various aspects of Iquito syntax. Finally, there are
resources created with the mutual help of every researcher on the project, which
are a 1400 word dictionary and a searchable electronic database of about 600
sentences.

Section 1.2 - Previous Research on Iquito

Previous research on Iquito is almost nonexistent. The only in-depth

studies that exist of Iquito are Iquito Syntax by Robert and Elizabeth Eastman
(1963) and Estudios del Idioma Iquito (2003). The Eastmans’ Iquito Syntax is a
47 page tagmemic grammar of Iquito. The Estudios del Idioma Iquito is an
anthology of papers produced by myself and other researchers involved in the
Iquito Language Documentation Project.
Iquito itself is sufficiently different from its related languages (Kaufman,
1968) that previous research on Arabela (Pike,1957; Rich, 1963; Rich, 1975,
1981, 1999; Stark, 1990) and Zaparoa (Elson, 1962; Kaufman, 1968; Payne,
1984; Peeke, 1962, 1991; Sargent, 1959) are of little help in understanding
Iquito syntax. This thesis aims to expand upon some of the syntactic themes first
discussed in Iquito Syntax and Estudios del Idioma Iquito by providing a more in-
depth linguistic analysis of noun phrases, possession, phrasal discontinuity, and
the basic grammatical positions within an Iquito sentence.

Section 1.3 - Orthography

Iquito uses a Spanish-based orthography developed by Robert and

Elizabeth Eastman and modified by a consensus between the community and
current linguistic researchers on the language. As such, the Iquito alphabet
employs the following alphabet with their IPA correspondents:

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1.1)
Iquito IPA Notes
Grapheme Correspondent
1. a a
2. aa a contrastive vowel length
3. c k occurs before a, aa, u and uu
4. hu w
5. i i
6. ii i
7.  
8.  
9. j h
10. m m
11. n n
12. p p
13. qu k occurs before i, ii, , and 
14. r r
15. s s
16. t t
17. u u
18. uu u
19. y j

In addition to the phonemes listed in the alphabet above, the sounds /s/
and /r/ have two allophones completely predictable from their phonological
environments. These rules are:
1.2) s p  / _ i
1.3) r p  / {a, #} _

Section 1.4 - Basic Iquito Syllable Structure

Iquito is essentially a CV language, except for the beginnings of words

which can be onsetless. Therefore, sequences of homorganic vowels should be read
as long vowels. Occasionally, vowel-initial suffixes create a vowel hiatus. This

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hiatus is usually resolved through glide formation or vowel deletion, occasionally
though separate syllabification.

Section 1.5 - Diacritical Marks and Example Format

Although the details of Iquito stress are still a source of ongoing research,
the data at this point seems to indicate that Iquito primary stress falls on the
penult. However, if the antepenult vowel is long and the penult vowel is short,
then primary stress is realized on the antepenult. That is, primary stress is
attracted to the long antepenult vowel if the penult vowel is short. Apart from this
regular exception, primary stress does not normally occur on any other syllable,
regardless of the other possible combinations of short versus long vowels. Because
stress is fairly regular, stress is only marked on words where the primary stress
occurs in an irregular location:

1.4) cájinani ‘a domesticated animal [dog, cat, chicken]’

Moreover, in addition to the regular stress pattern, there are many

situations in Iquito in which different lexemes can prosodically fuse to form a
single word for purposes of receiving stress. In these situations, the fused words
are marked with a hyphen, as illustrated by the following examples:

1.5) Iina icuani nu-maqui amacajina.

Iina icuani nu-maqui-i amaca-jina
DET man 3S-sleep -INC road -LES
‘That man, he is sleeping on the road.’

1.6) Amicaaca qui-nu-niquir

Amicaaca qui-nu-niquir-
Tomorrow 1S-3S-see -INC
‘Tomorrow I will see it.’

The first line shows the sentence using the Standard Iquito orthography.
The second line provides a morpheme-by-morpheme breakdown of the sentence.
The third line provides a gloss for each morpheme. The last line provides an
English translation for the sentence. Finally, the data in parenthesis is a code
indexing the location where the sentence was recorded on audiotapes or transcribed
in field notes.

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 Chapter 2: Syntactic Overview

Chapter Outline
2.1 Sentences with intransitive verbs
2.2.1 Sentences with transitive verbs: SVO word order
2.2.2 Sentences with transitive verbs: SOV word order
2.3.1 Topicalization: Textual Evidence
2.3.2 Topicalization: Structure and Definitional Characteristics
2.3.3 Topicalization: More on the Resumptive Pronoun Rule
2.4 Order of grammatical positions in Iquito
2.5 Copula Constructions

This chapter provides a basic syntactic sketch of Iquito. The chapter

begins with examples of intransitive sentences, followed by a section on transitive
sentences, first in SVO word order and then in SOV word order. Next, an
analysis of Iquito topicalization is provided. Finally, the data is summarized by
providing a sketch of the basic order of grammatical positions within Iquito, and
concludes by showing how a knowledge of the order of these positions leads to
analyzing copula constructions as fundamentally SVO, rather than SOV .

Section 2.1 - Sentences with intransitive verbs

Iquito sentences typically occur with an obligatory subject preceding the

verb, as illustrated by the following:

2.1) Mja yaa iiyacumaata.

mja ya-: iiyacumaata.
hummingbird fly-INC quickly
‘The hummingbird is flying quickly.’

2.2) Naraquiica iyujuucura atii.

nu- araquiica iyujuu -cura atii
3S- nephew stay -PS2 ADV
‘His nephew had remained there.’

In the two sentences above, hummingbird is the subject of the first

sentence, and his nephew is the subject of the second sentence. In both cases the

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subject precedes the verb. There is one situation in which the subject noun follows
an intransitive verb, which occurs when there is no topic and when a determiner
modifies the subject noun. In this case, the determiner alone precedes the verb,
while the subject noun follows after, resulting in a discontinuous nominal phrase:

2.3) Iina maquii icuani.

Iina maqui-i icuani
Det sleep -INC man
‘That man is sleeping.’

Because topics are frequently used in Iquito, this exception is relatively

infrequent. This type of nominal discontinuity is discussed in some detail in
Chapter 5.

Section 2.2.1 - Sentences with transitive verbs: SVO word order

Most transitive sentences in Iquito follow an SVO pattern. So sentences

with transitive verbs simply have the object following after the verb:

2.4) Qui-tijaacaa iina naana nacajinacu.

Qui-tijaaca-a iina naana nacajinacu
1S-cut-INC DET wood in.half
‘I am cutting that wood in half.’

2.5) Qui-miiyaa nuquica iita iyaracata.

Qui-mii -yaa nuquica iita iyaracata
1S- make-INC one house quickly
‘I will make a house quickly.’

2.6) Qui-niquiqui myaara.

qui- niqui-qui myaara
1S- see -PSI dog
‘I saw the dog.’

2.7) Leo tata-a cusi iinami -jina

Leo remove-INC pot cooking.fire-LES

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 ‘Leo is taking the pot off of the fire.’

2.8) Ja Marcos jihutaqui nucansi

Ja Marcos jihuta-qui nu-cansi
Already Marcos find -CMP 3S-bag
‘Marcos has already found his bag.’

Sentences (2.4) - (2.6) have pronominal subjects, while sentences (2.7) -

(2.8) involve 3rd person nominal subjects. Notice that in (2.4) - (2.6), the
pronoun is prosodically bound to the verb, while in (2.7) - (2.8), the subject is
unbound. However, the pronominal subject is not subject agreement marking,
and Iquito is not a pro-drop language. For example, the subjects in (2.7) - (2.8)
occur without the “pronominal marking” on the verb. Or, put another way, the
nominal subjects in (2.7) - (2.8), occur in place of a pronominal subject.
In addition to these basic sentence types, Iquito has a topic construciton
which employs a resumptive pronoun whose antecedent is the noun or noun
phrase residing in the topic position. The topic position is usually the first word in
the sentence. Although one can topicalize all manner of nominal arguments and
adjuncts, when one topicalizes the subject, the topic noun and the resumptive
pronoun are adjacent:

2.9) Ja Marcos nu-jihutaqui nucansi

Ja Marcos nu-jihuta-qui nu-cansi
Already Marcos 3S-find -CMP 3S-bag
‘Marcos, he has already found his bag.’

For more on the topic construction and it’s relationship to sentential

subjects and resuptive pronouns, see section 2.4.3 below.
The pronouns in sentences (2.4) - (2.6) occur as bound morphemes for
phonological reasons. Essentially, current research on this topic by Lev Michael
(2003a) shows that morphemes of a single syllable are too small to receive
independent stress, and so monosyllabic pronouns bind to the first word to their
right in order to participate in a stressable domain. Since the 1P exclusive and
the 2P pronouns are disyllabic, in contrast to the other pronouns, the 1P
exclusive and the 2P pronouns always occur as independent words:

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2.10) Cana niquiqui.
Cana niqui-qui
1Pe see -CMP
‘We will see.’

The pronoun in (2.10) now has exactly the same distribution as the nouns in (2.7)
- (2.8). That is, located as a free morpheme just before the verb. It is believed the
only reason the monosyllabic pronouns are bound is because of their small size.
Therefore, the bound pronouns in (2.4) - (2.6) still count as the grammatical
subject of the sentence, and are not simply subject markers of the verb. See
“Seminario 32” (Michael 2003a), for more information on prosodic fusion. The
chart below summarizes the complete paradigm for pronouns. Pronouns that
receive their own stress occur without a hyphen.

2.11)
Person/Number Iquito Person/Number Iquito
morpheme morpheme
1S Qui- 1P,inclusive P-
1P,exclusive Quina
2S Quia- 2P Cana
3S Nu- 3P Na-

Section 2.2.2 - Sentences with transitive verbs: SOV word order

An SOV or OV structure is found in infinitival clauses and future

constructions, as illustrated by the examples below, and also in counter-factual and
hypothetical clauses. Essentially, the SOV word order occurs in ‘irrealis’
constructions.

2.12) Amicaaca Pedro Maria quihuacu-r

Tomorrow Pedro Maria hug -MPA
‘Tomorrow Pedro will hug Maria.’

2.13) Amicaaca qui-nu-niqui-r.

Tomorrow 1S-3S see -MPA
‘Tomorrow I will see it.’

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2.14) Qui-nacaryaa aaca rariini.
qui-nacar-yaa aaca rarii -ni
1S- want -INC water drink-INF
‘I want to drink water.’

2.15) Quinacaryaa nusiquitani.

Qui-nacar-yaa nu-siquita-ni
1S- want -INC 3S-wash -INF
‘I want to wash it.’

In (2.12) - (2.13), the object of a verb in a future construction occurs

immediately before the verb and just after the subject. In (2.14) - (2.15), the
object of the infinitival verb occurs before the infinitive. The subject of the main
verb serves as the subject of the infinitive1. Notice how in sentence (2.13), the
subject pronoun ‘qui’ is phonologically bound to the first word on its right, which
in an SOV construction is typically the object. The object pronoun itself is also
phonologically bound to the first word on its right, which one can see in (2.13)
and (2.15).

Section 2.3.1 - Topicalization: Textual Evidence

Iquito has a topic construction. Based on texts, the function of the topic
construction, and hence the rationale for calling this construction topicalization,
is to add emphasis to a discourse participant in order to bring the participant to
the foreground of the discourse. First, topicalization is used to distinguish one

1
Note that the subject of the infinitival clause must be the same as the subject of
the matrix verb. Trying to change the subject of the infinitival verb results in a
complement clause, rather than an infinitival clause:

a) Quiinacaryaa Juan nu-amicaaca canasir maiyasini.

Quii-nacar-yaa Juan nu-amicaaca canasi -r maiyasini
1S -want -INC Juan 3S-tomorrow win -MPA game
‘I want Juan to win the game tomorrow.’

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speech participant from others that are also on the discourse stage. In the example
below, a nephew and an uncle are both fishing in the same body of water, but they
are situated some distance from each other. The storyteller dedicates six sentences
to describing the nephew’s success at fishing. Then, the storyteller switches to
discuss the uncle’s fishing, and at this juncture, topicalization is used to highlight
that the story is now returning to the uncle, who bears the title of tragon in the
narrative:

2.16) Iina aniita-asaana nusiuuyaa tiirr.

iina aniita-asaana nu- siuu-yaa tiirr
DET tragón 3S- fish -INC further.away
‘That Tragón, he was fishing further away.’
(T.ANI.HDC.LJD.030702), ll 63b

Given that both the uncle and the nephew were engaged in the same
activity, topicalization is notable at this point, because it would be easy for a
careless listener to confuse what was happening to each fisherman. By
foregrounding the uncle, the storyteller makes it clear that he is now commenting
on the uncle, rather than on the nephew.
Topicalization also occurs to add emphatic emphasis to a current speech
participant. After naming six distinct species of fish which had been caught, the
storyteller then uses a topicalization construction to summarize that the two
caught all manner of fish.

2.17) Pyni paapaaja na-casiitacura na.

Pyni paapaaja na-casiita-cura na
All fish 3P-grab -PSR 3P
‘Every [kind of] fish, they caught them.’
(T.ANI.HDC.LJD.030702), ll 062

Topicalization can also occur to introduce a new speech participant that

has no discourse background. The following example comes from two sequential
lines near the beginning of a text, in which initial background information is being
established by the storyteller:

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2.18a) Aniita asaana nu-asaariqu.
aniita-asaana nu-asaa-riqu
Tragón 3S- eat-PS1
‘The Tragón, he would eat [a lot].’
(T.ANI.HDC.LJD.030702), ll 4

2.18b) Anuu naja nu-nucuaariqu asuraaja capiijija, ...

Anuu naja nu-nucua-a -riqu asuraaja capiijija
3S.emph ?? 3s- steal -INC -PS1 manioc cooked
‘He, he would steal cooked manioc, ...’
(T.ANI.HDC.LJD.030702), ll 5

In these examples, the grammatical subject is the 3S pronoun nu. In

(2.18a), the topic is the compound word aniita-asaana, while in (2.18b), the topic
is the emphatic pronoun anuu.

Section 2.3.2 - Topicalization: Structure and Definitional Characteristics

This construction is definable by two distributional characteristics: 1) the

topic noun occurs first in a sentence, before all other elements except vocatives
and some discourse-related adverbs (‘and then’ , ‘next’). 2) Topicalization of
verbal arguments and possessors works by having a resumptive pronoun in the
typical position where the verbal argument or possessor normally occurs. The
antecedent of the resumptive pronoun is the topic noun. The next examples
illustrate the topicalization of subjects, objects, and possessors.

[Topicalization of a Subject]
2.19) Iina myaara uumana nu-maquii.
Iina myaara uumana nu-maqui-i
Det dog big 3S-sleep -INC
‘That big dog, it is sleeping.’

2.20) Iina icuani nu-niqui nuuquiica siir.

[Iina icuani]i nui-niqui-i nuuquiica siir
DET man 3S-see -INC one alligator
‘That man, he is looking at an alligator.’

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2.21) Anuuja nu-aricuaa ssa.
anuuja nu-aricua-: ssa.
3S 3S-sing -INC ugly
‘He, he is singing horribly.’

[Topicalization of an object]
2.22) Nuuquiica cuusi nu-niqui nuu.
[Nuuquiica cuusi]i nu-niqui-i nuui.
one pig 3S-see -INC 3S
‘One pig, he is looking at it.’

2.23) Pyni paapaaja na-casiitacura na.

Pyni paapaaja na-casiita-cura na
All fish 3P-grab -PSR 3P
‘Every fish, they caught them.’
(T.ANI.HDC.LJD.030702), ll 062

[Topicalization of a Possessor]
2.24) Jorge qui-tuujiyaacura nu-prajuuni.
Jorge qui-tuuji -yaa -cura nu-prajuuni.
Jorge 1S-listen -INC-PSR 3S-caña
‘Jorgei, I was listening to hisi music.’

2.25) Iina Aapu Celso t nu-yaaca.

Iina Aapu Celso t nu-yaaca.
DET community.leader Celso COP 3S-name
‘That Aapu, Celso is his name.’

The topic corresponds to the subject in the examples in (2.19) - (2.21), to

an object in (2.22) - (2.23), and to a possessor in (2.24) - (2.25). All of these
examples illustrate the generalization that topicalization works by having a
resumptive pronoun in the main clause. Finally, it should be noted that double
topicalization, where one topicalizes more than one noun phrase, or a noun phrase
and an adpositional phrase, does not seem to take place in Iquito. Instead, one
can topicalize one and only one noun or adpositional phrase per sentence.

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Section 2.3.3 - Topicalization: More on the Resumptive Pronoun Rule

Since the topic position and the subject position are adjacent, it is easy to
confuse the two positions. For example, on the basis of the following two
sentences, one may be tempted to argue that Iquito has optional subject agreement
markers:

2.26) Icuani maquii.

Icuani maqui-i
man sleep -INC
>A man is sleeping.=

2.27) Icuani nu-maquii.

Icuani nu-maqui-i
Man 3S-sleep -INC
>A man is sleeping.=

However, the correct analysis is that sentence (2.26) has no topic, and the
subject is icuani, while in (2.27), the sentence has a topic, and the grammatical
subject is the pronoun nu-. It is fairly easy to show this is the case because 1)
other elements can be topicalized besides the subject, as has already been shown in
(2.19) - (2.25), and 2) one can introduce adverbs or wh-question words between
the topic and subject positions. If there is no resumptive pronoun, then the
sentence becomes ungrammatical because it would lack a subject:

2.28a) Iina icuani juurami nuniqui siir. TOP ADV SUBJ-VERB OBJ
Iina icuani juurami nu-niqui-i siir.
DET man truly 3S-see -INC alligator
“That man, in truth, is looking at an alligator.”

2.28b) *Iina icuani juurami niqui siir. TOP ADV VERB OBJ

2.29a) Iina icuani saaca nu-miiyaa. TOP WhQ SUBJ-VERB

Iina icuani saaca nu- mii -yaa
DET man what 3S-make-INC
>What is this man making?=

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2.29b) *Iina icuani saaca miiyaa TOP WhQ VERB
iina icuani saaca mii -yaa
DET man what make-INC
>What is this man making?=

Since the wh-word or adverb separates the topic position from the subject
position, (2.28b) and (2.29b) are ungrammatical sentences because in each case
the verb lacks a subject. The topic phrase alone cannot serve as the grammatical
subject.
The sentences above illustrate how the resumptive pronoun is obligatory
when the topic corresponds to the subject. Having a resumptive pronoun also
seems to be obligatory for a possessor. For an object, the resumptive pronoun is
common, but there are instances in which it does not occur, and for nominal
adjuncts, there can never be a resumptive pronoun. The examples below illustrate
‘topicalization’ without a resumptive pronoun:

2.30) Paapaaja cuasaa.

Paapaaja qui-asa -a
fish 1S -eat -INC
‘I am eating fish.’

2.31) Paapaaja quimityaa Pedro.

Paapaaja qui-mit-yaa Pedro
fish 1S- give -INC
‘I am giving fish to Pedro.’

2.32a) Psca quijihutaqui.

Psca qui-jihuta -qui.
sachavaca 1S- find -PSI
‘I found a sachavaca.’

2.32b) Psca iina icuani jihutaqui.

Psca iina icuani jihuta -qui.
sachavaca DET man find -PSI
‘That man found a sachavaca.”

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2.32c) Iina psca iina icuani jihutaqui nuu.
Iina psca iina icuani jihuta -qui nuu.
DET sachavaca DET man find -PSI 3S
‘That man found a sachavaca.”

In sentences (2.30) and (2.31), the first word is the topic, but it also
functions as the sentence’s direct object. Sentences (2.32a) - (2.32c) show that as
more material is added, one eventually reaches a point where it is more natural for
the speaker to supply a resumptive pronoun, which may indicate that the object is
moving in (2.30) and (2.31). Finally, one never encounters a pronoun when one
topicalizes an adjunct. The following examples all illustrate the topicalization of
different kinds of adjuncts:

2.33) Hua iyaquira juurami cuasacura paapaaja.

Hua iyaquira juurami qui-asa-cura paapaaja.
Juan place in.truth 1S-eat-PSR fish
‘I was eating fish at Juan’s place.’
[Topicalization of a location]

2.34) Iitajina quicuaa nunanicura.

Iita -jina qui-icua-a nunani-cura.
house-LES 1S-go -INC river -LDS
‘From my house I am going to the river.’
[Topicalization of a point of origin]

2.35a) Nunanicura quicuaa.

Nunani-cura qui-iicua-a
river-PSR 1S -go -INC
‘I am going to the river.’
[Topicalization of a destination]

but note:

- 15 -
2.35b) *Nunanicura quicuaa iitajina.
Nunani-cura qui-iicua-a iita -jina
river-PSR 1S -go -INC house-LES
‘I am going from my house to the river.’2

2.36) Iinajata llahui juurami quijuutaa pacaricui.

Iina -jata llahui juurami qui-juu -taa pacaricui.
DET -COM key surely 1S -open-REV door
‘I am surely opening that door with this key.’
[Topicalization of an instrument]

2.37) Pedroiira juurami pmayasiini miir.

Pedro-iira juurami p- mayasiini mii -r.
Pedro-BEN in.truth 1Pe-party make-MPA
‘For Pedro, we will throw a party.’
[Topicalization of a benefactive]

There is a potential analysis of topicalization here that almost works but

for the exceptions to the resumptive pronoun rule seen in the topicalization of
objects. Topicalization, despite its process-oriented name, does not work by any
kind of movement in Iquito. In other words, it’s not the case that a subject
‘moves’ to the topic position and leaves behind a resumptive pronoun, not only
because a pronoun is an odd thing to ‘leave behind’, but also because the pronoun
doesn’t occur when adjuncts are in the topic position. Instead, the hypothesis is
that topic nouns are always base-generated in the topic position, but that this
noun must be semantically connected with the rest of the sentence. A resumptive
pronoun allows the topic to be connected to a verbal argument. Nominal
adjuncts, however, occur with their own morphology which indicate their place in a
sentence. That is, a benefactive noun, as in (2.31) above, occurs with the affix -
iira which indicates the noun is benefactive. Since this morphology already serves
to connect the topic with the rest of the sentence, then nominal adjuncts do not
need to occur indexed to a resumptive pronoun in the main clause. Possessors are
a good test for the hypothesis, because the possessor in Iquito does not occur with
any affixes indicating that it is a possessor or indicating what other noun it
possesses. Possessors in the topic position, as the data above shows, occur

2
Another possibility here would be “Iitajina nunanicura qui-cuaa.” While I have
not tested for this sentence, I believe it would be ungrammatical.

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together with a resumptive pronoun that semantically connects the topic noun to
its possessum.
This hypothesis works well, but has one major flaw: the examples where
objects can occur in ‘topic position’ without a resumptive pronoun. The topic
noun should be semantically unconnected to the rest of the sentence, according to
the hypothesis, but the topic noun is nevertheless interpreted as the verb’s direct
object. In some recent work by Lynda DeJong measuring referential distance of
discourse topics together with their persistence in narratives, there seems to be
some evidence that constructions in which the object occurs in topic position
without a resumptive pronoun may pattern differently in narratives than
constructions in which there is a resumptive pronoun, and furthermore that the
former constructions may actually be a type of inverse construction based on the
way speakers use these constructions. Since her research into this matter is still
ongoing at the time of writing, the reader is referred to her for a better explanation
and defense of her conclusions, but her research may provide a reasonable
explanation for why objects can sometimes occur in a ‘topic’ position without a
resumptive pronoun: when they do, the sentence is actually a completely different
construction with its own discourse functions, rather than an example of
topicalization.
Another possible explanation for why objects sometimes occur without a
resumptive pronoun may just lie in word order. That is, when the subject is
topicalized, omitting the resumptive pronoun would make the topic into the
grammatical subject, since the two positions are adjacent. So the resumptive
pronoun is necessary in the case of the topicalized subject in order to make the
topicalization clear. In the case of topicalizing the object, since the object is
normally post-verbal, a pre-verbal object is enough to signal topicalization. The
untested prediction would then be that topicalization of an object in an SOV word
order sentence (as in example 40 below) would result in an obligatory resumptive
pronoun, since otherwise the topic could be interpreted as the grammatical subject.
Finally, a third explanation may just be that one can have a zero
resumptive pronoun when the topic is an adjunct. When the topic is a direct
object, a zero resumtive pronoun is an optional strategy.

Section 2.4 - Order of grammatical positions in Iquito

The examples from the previous section show that the order of the
canonical grammatical positions within Iquito are in the following order:

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2.38) SVO word order: [Topic] [Wh-Word] [Subject] [Verb] [Object]

In addition, one can show that the position of the topic and the wh-words
does not change in the SOV word order constructions. The following two
sentences show that a topic position exists in SOV word order:

2.39) Quija qui-iimina miir.

Quija qui-iimina mii -r.
1S 1S-canoe make-MPA
‘I, I will make a canoe.’

2.40) Iimina qui-nu miir.

Iimina qui-nu mii-r.
Canoe 1S-3S make-MPA
‘A canoe, I will make it.’

The next group of sentences show that a position for wh-words exists
between the topic and the subject positions in SOV word order as well as in SVO
word order.

2.41) ¿Saacai quia-amicaaca miir?

Saacai quia-amicaaca mii-r
What.things 2S -tomorrow make-MPA
‘What things will you make tomorrow?’

2.42) ¿Amicaaca sacai quia-miir?

Amicaaca sacai quia-mii -r
Tomorrow what.things 2S -make-MPA
‘What things will you make tomorrow?’

2.43) Amicaaca quiaja saaca caa quia saji-r.

Tomorrow 2S what NEG 2S cut-MPA
‘Tomorrow, what is it that you are not cutting?’

The first two sentences show a wh-word serving as the direct object
occurring before the 2S subject. The last sentence shows a second person

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emphatic pronoun, quiaaja, in the topic position, with the wh-word occurring next.
The emphatic pronoun is the topicalized subject.
Note that wh-movement words behave differently from topicalized words in
that one can never have a pronoun in the main clause “indexed” to the wh-word:

2.44) *Saacai qui-nu capir.

Saacai qui-nu capi-r.
What 1S-3S cook-MPA
‘What will I cook tomorrow?’

2.45) *Amicaaca canca nu-iina sajir naana.

Amicaaca canca nu-iina saji-r naana
Tomorrow who 3S-Det cut-MPA wood
‘Who will cut this wood tomorrow?’

So the data presented above motivates the same order of grammatical

positions in the SOV word order as in the SVO word order, with the exception of
the direct object of course:

2.46a) SVO word order: [Topic] [Wh-Word] [Subject] [Verb] [Object]

2.46b) SOV word order: [Topic] [Wh-Word] [Subject] [Object] [Verb]

The differences between SVO and SOV word orders are harmonized in
Chapter 5 with the proposal of verb movement and the addition of two more
grammatical positions.

Section 2.5 - Copula Constructions

Copula constructions occur with the verb t or one of its allomorphs.
Only one argument is required for the copular verb. It occurs before the copula in
the position that verbal subjects normally occur in. This single argument can be a
noun, a pronoun, or an adjective.

2.47a) Umaana t.

big COP
‘It is big.’

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2.47b) *T umaana.
‘It is big.’

2.48a) Icuani t.

‘It is a man.’

2.48b) *T icuani.

‘It is a man.’
2.49a) Quiija t
‘It is I.’

2.49b) *T quiija

‘It is I.’

The copula can also occur with an optional complement, in which case the
copula serves simply to link together two nouns or a noun and an adjective. This
additional noun, however, can occur either to the right of the copula or to the left
of the copula as the first word in the sentence:

2.50a) Celso t aapu.

Celso COP mayor.
‘Celso is mayor.’

2.50b) Celso aapu t.

Celso mayor COP.
‘Celso is mayor.’

2.51) Iina paapaaja umaana t.

DET fish huge COP
‘That fish is large.’

The example in (2.50) illustrates how one can generally choose to place the
optional complement before or after the copula. Speakers generally accept the two
possible orders as interchangeable in elicited sentences, although some discursive
difference between the two orders surely exists. So far, the data seems to indicate
two possible patterns for copulas with two nouns:

- 20 -
2.52a) [Noun1] [Copula] [Noun2]
2.52b) [Noun1] [Noun2] [Copula]

At the end of section 2.5, ‘Order of Grammatical Positions in Iquito’, it

was noted in (2.46) that two patterns existed for the order of the grammatical
positions that were essentially the same except for the position of the object.
These patterns are re-stated below in (2.53):

2.53a) SVO word order: [Topic] [Wh-Word] [Subject] [Verb] [Object]

2.53b) SOV word order: [Topic] [Wh-Word] [Subject] [Object] [Verb]

Given that copula constructions also seem to exhibit two common word orders,
the order of the grammatical positions seen in non-copula constructions are useful
for analysing the nature of the two possible word orders in copula constructions.
The essential difference in the two basic word orders seen in (2.53) is essentially
SOV, where two nouns occur before the verb, versus SVO, where a noun occurs
after the verb. This is the same pattern seen in copula constructions, where two
nouns can occur before the copular verb, as in (2.52b), or one noun can occur
after the verb, as in (2.52a). So there is a theoretical question as to how real the
analogy is in the types of word orders seen in copular and non-copular
constructions. Specifically, does the order of the words seen in (2.52a) parallel the
order of words seen in non-copular SVO word order constructions (2.53a), while
the order of the words seen in (2.52b) parallels the order of words seen in non-
copular SOV constructions:

2.52a) N V N Copula Order: ------- ----------- Noun1 Copula Noun2

2.53a) SVO word order: Topic Wh-Word Subject Verb Object

2.52b) N N V Copula Order: ------- ----------- Noun1 Noun2 Copula

2.53b) SOV word order: Topic Wh-Word Subject Object Verb

This comparison is not meant to suggest that the copula has an object,
since the copula itself is not a transitive verb. Rather, it is meant to suggest that
perhaps one of the nouns in a two-noun copula construction is occupying the
same syntactic position that the object of a transitive verb occupies. A related
question is whether copulas in an N N V word order should be analyzed as a sub-
type of SOV word order. That is, the language already exhibits SOV word order
for ‘irrealis’ constructions involving the future, infinitive clauses, and conditional

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constructions. Should this list be expanded to include copula N N V
constructions as a special sub-type of SOV word order? The answer is probably
no, for two reasons.
First, in comparing SVO vs. SOV word orders, the semantic shift
between the two word orders is very noticeable. If one provides a native speaker
with two sentences that are exactly the same in every respect except that one
sentence is SVO and the other is SOV, the native speakers always insist the
sentences are different and will provide different glosses. In the case of copula N
V N vs. N N V, the semantic difference must be extremely nuanced, because the
speakers do not identify the sentences as being different and their glosses for the
sentences are the same.
Second, if the comparison between (2.52b) and (2.53b) were correct, then
(2.53b) should have an empty topic position. In section 2.5 it was shown that a
topic position exists in SOV constructions. Therefore, if the syntactic positions
in a copula N N V construction are parallel to those in an SOV construction,
then there should be an empty topic position that one could fill. This turns out
not to be the case:

2.54a) Nu-umaana t

3S-big COP
‘It is big.’

2.54b) *Iina paapaaja nu-umaana t.

DET fish 3S-big COP
‘That fish, it is big.’

The sentence in (2.54b) is ungrammatical, presumably because iina

paapaaja is not able to connect with the sentence in any meaningful way. That is,
there is no topic position to the left of the pronoun nu in an N N V word order
copula construction.
If copula N N V constructions are not parallel to SOV constructions,
there is still one more possibility: that the syntactic positions of copula N N V
and copula N V N are both parallel to the syntactic positions seen in SVO word
order, but that they line up differently. That is, the comparison is as follows:

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2.52a) N V N Copula Order: ------- ----------- Noun1 Copula Noun2
2.53a) SVO word order: Topic Wh-Word Subject Verb Object

2.52b) N N V Copula Order: Noun1 ----------- Noun2 Copula -------

2.53a) SVO word order: Topic Wh-Word Subject Verb Object

If the comparison between (2.52b) and (2.53a) is correct, then it would

explain why (2.54b) is ungrammatical: there just simply are not enough ‘positions’
before the verb to accommodate three words unless, possibly, the second word is a
wh-word. In another prediction, if the comparison between (2.52b) and (2.53a) is
correct, then there ought to be an empty position after the copula. This is the
position where objects of transitive verbs go, but for the copula, it would be where
an optional complement would reside. It turns out that such a position does
indeed exist, and one can fill it:

2.55a) Iina aapu Celso t nu-yaaca.

Det mayor, Celso COP 3S-name.
‘That mayor, Celso is his name.’

2.55b) Celso t iina yaaca aapu.

Celso COP DET nombre aapu
‘Celso is that mayor’s name.’

The first example, (2.55a), shows that one can have both a topic and a
subject to the left of the verb, and an optional complement to the right. The first
noun phrase, iina aapu, is the antecedent of the third person singular possessive
pronoun, nu,’his’. Sentence (2.55b) shows the corresponding sentence without
the possessor topicalized.3 These examples show that all copular constructions are
parallel to SVO word order, with respect to the order in which the syntactic
positions occur. Since the copular verb only requires one argument, any
additional word can occur either as an optional complement (yielding the N V N
pattern), or as a topic (yielding the N N V pattern).

3
The possessive construction is explained more fully in Chapter 4, including a
discussion of the various distributions of pronouns and nouns in these
constructions.

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 Chapter 3: The Iquito Noun Phrase

Chapter Outline
3.1 Overview of nominal morphology and noun phrases
3.2 The morphology of pluralization
3.3.1 Nouns and Adjectives
3.3.2 Adjectives and non-obligatory agreement
3.4 Nouns and demonstrative determiners

This chapter provides a description of the basic Iquito noun phrase. The
chapter begins with a discussion of nominal morphology and the distinction
between true inflectional morphology versus various affixes and clitics. The next
section describes the distribution of adjectives and determiners with respect to
nouns and discusses non-obligatory agreement between a noun and an adjective or
determiner.

Section 3.1 - Overview of nouns and nominal morphology

Iquito nouns might not have any inflection at all. At the least, Iquito
nouns do not participate in any obligatory morphological categories such as case,
gender, or number. Affixes which at times are phonologically bound to nouns are
divisible into three groups: 1) plural markers, 2) possessive pronouns, and 3)
adpositions. The adpositions are clearly clitics, as they often occur prosodically
fused to a determiner or some other word besides the head noun. As has already
been discussed at the end of section 2.2.1, ‘Sentences with transitive verbs: SVO
word order’, subject pronouns which are monosyllabic are bound to the following
word, which is typically the verb in SVO constructions, or the object in SOV
constructions (section 2.2.2, ‘Sentences with transitive verbs: SOV word order’).
The possessive pronouns are identical in shape to the subject pronouns seen
earlier. Consequently, they behave exactly like the subject pronouns in that they
bind to the following word if they are monosyllabic and occur as independent
words otherwise. The possessive pronouns, then, are also not an inflectional
category of the noun. They are discussed more fully in the next chapter. This
leaves only the plural markers as the only affixes which could be a bound
inflectional category of the noun. The plural markers are always bound and occur
only on nouns. However, the next section argues that since plurality is not an
obligatory semantic category of the noun, then the plural markers themselves

- 24 -
cannot be an inflectional category of the noun either, but rather should be
understood as some sort of optional clitic.

Section 3.2 - The morphology of pluralization

Pluralization is marked morphologically by using one of the following

morphemes or a combination of the following morphemes: -ca, -ya, -hua, -hu.
Of these four morphemes, -ca and -ya are allomorphs, as it can be shown that 1)
they are in complementary distribution and 2) a consistent phonological
environment always determines which of the two morphemes occurs. The -ya
variant occurs after //, otherwise the -ca allomorph occurs. That is, there is a
morphological rule that -ca changes to -ya after //:

3.1) -ca p -ya / #__

3.2a) 4 Sg. Pl. Translation

ariicuma ariicuma-ca shoulder
imtari imtari-ca comb
paraatu paraatu-ca plate

3.2b) siir siir-ya alligator

sinaqu sinaqu-ya clothing

The examples in (3.2a) show that the morpheme –ca occurs after the
vowels /a/, /i/, and /u/, but the morpheme –ya occurs after the vowel //.
The -ca ~ -ya morpheme is by far the most common morpheme that
occurs with plural nouns. Of the last two morphemes, -hua is the next most
common, and -hu is relatively rare, having only two known attestations. The
morphemes -hua and -hu occur in complementary distribution, since they never
occur on the same noun, either simultaneously or interchangeably, but they have
overlapping phonological environments:

4
Unless otherwise indicated, all examples of singular and plural nouns come from
Hilter Panduro Güimack’s paper, “La Forma Plural en el Idioma Iquito”,
Seminario 19.

- 25 -
3.3a) Morpheme –hua
Sg. Pl. Translation
pii pii-hua ‘frog’
sy sy-hua ‘itininga’ (flora)

3.3b) Morpheme -hu

Sg. Pl. Translation
icuani icuani-hu-ya ‘man,person’
tat tat-hu-ya ‘casha pona’ (flora)

Therefore, the hypothesis is that -hua and -hu actually signify different
things in addition to plurality or perhaps are agreeing with different semantic
properties of the nouns they modify that is as yet undiscovered, but that these
different meanings explain the complementary distribution rather than a
phonological environment.
The morpheme -ca ~ -ya is not in complementary distribution with either
-hua or -hu. The data below shows that some nouns can form their plurals by
only using the -ca ~ -ya morpheme or only using one of the -hua or -hu
morphemes. Other nouns must use both morphemes at the same time (-hua or -
hu and then -ca ~ -ya). Still other nouns can use either of the two morphemes,
but not at the same time. Some examples:

3.4a) Some words that only take –ca ~ –ya

Sg. Pl. Translation
a) sahuca sahuca-ca carrizo (flora)
b) jinca jinca-ca añashua (fish)
c) catacuhua catacuhua-ca tatatao (bird)
d) aasámaaja aasámaaja-ca yangunturi (flora or fauna)
e) ariicuma ariicuma-ca shoulder
f) tamu tamu-ca guaba (fruit)
g) saapi saapi-ca raya (fish)
h) surucu surucu-ca arambaza (flora or fauna)
i) puruumu puruumu-ca bullet
j) siip siip-ya monk (fish)

- 26 -
3.4b) Some words that only take –hua
Sg. Pl. Translation
a) pii pii-hua frog
b) sy sy-hua itininga (flora)

3.4c) Some words that must take both –ca ~ –ya and –hua
Sg. Pl. Translation
a) suu suu-huaca manco (monkey)
b) mirii mirii-huaca shimbillo (flora)
c) quti qut-huaca salamanca (flora or fauna)
d)marisapa marisapa-huaca melliso (fish)

3.4d) Some words that must take both –ca ~ –ya and –hu
a) icuani icuani-huya person, man
b) tat tat-huya casha pona (flora)

3.4e) Some words that must take either –ca ~ –ya or –hua, but not both
Sg. Pl. 1 Pl. 2 Translation
a) naaqui naaqui-ca naaqui-hua egg
b) imtari imtari-ca imtari-hua comb
c) ahuasya ahuasya-ca ahuasya-hua afaninga (snake)
d) capiihuari capiihuari-ca capiihuari-hua ronsoco (small mammal)
e) caamiy caamiy-ca caamiy-hua plant shoot

So the hypothesis at this point is that -ca and -ya are just allomorphs of
the same morpheme and consequently carry exactly the same semantic content,
while the morphemes -hua and -hu exist in a (possibly) different semantic
paradigm that creates the complementary distribution seen in the data. However,
the semantic distinction between the two forms is unknown. A good place to
begin looking for such a semantic distinction would be to investigate the
distinction between count and mass nouns and what effect, if any, this has on the
formation of plurals in Iquito. This data, of course, must wait until after further
fieldwork.
An alternative analysis of Iquito plurals has been advanced by Hilter
Panduro Güimack in “Seminario 19: La forma plural en el idioma iquito”. This

- 27 -
analysis sought to create a unified analysis of the various morphemes such that -ca
~ -ya only occurred after nouns ending in short vowels, -huaca only occurred after
long vowels, -hua only after the segmental sequence [ii], and -huya was just an
irregular form. In other words, the analysis hypothesized a single plural
morpheme that had five different allomorphs for different phonological
environments. This analysis is problematic for a number of reasons, but most
importantly because the generalizations do not conform to the data. Namely, -
huaca can indeed occur after a number of nouns with final short vowels, and -hua
occurs after other segments besides [ii]. These counter-examples are listed above
in the data in (3.3). The analysis also fails to recognize -huaca as a compound of
two separate morphemes, -hua and -ca, and that -huya is also a compound of the
two morphemes -hu and -ya, where -ya is the phonologically determined
alternation of -ca that follows after the vowel //. For these reasons, the previous
analysis should be abandoned.
Although the morphology above does signal that a noun is plural, the
absence of the plural morphology does not signal that a noun is singular. That is,
without the plural morphology, the number of a noun is simply not specified. The
result is that nouns not marked for plurality can be contextually interpreted as
either singular or plural:

3.5) Masiana t iina misi.

many COP Det cat
‘There are many cats.’

3.6) Nu-pujnihutama isunaja aana.

nu- pujnihutama isunaja aana
3S- abrir.campo trono nejilla
‘Opening up a space among the branches of nejilla (flora).’
(T.ANI.HDC.LJD.030702), ll 239

3.7) Qui-miiyaa masiaani saahuiri.

Qui-mii -yaa masiaani saahuiri
1S- have-INC many machete
‘I have many machetes.’

The examples above illustrate nouns that occur without plural morphology
but are nevertheless interpreted as plural from the context. The conclusion is that

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the absence of plural morphology only indicates that the number of the noun is
not specified. More broadly, the claim is that number is not a property that nouns
must obligatorily mark. Unlike languages such as English or Spanish where every
noun’s number must be specified or have at least a default singular interpretation,
number in Iquito is not an obligatory category. Therefore, the plural morphology
cannot be an inflectional category of the noun, but since the morphology is a
bound affix, the morphology must be analyzed as a type of optional clitic.

Section 3.3.1 - Nouns and Adjectives

This section examines the relationship between nouns and adjectival

complements. This section begins with a description of the distribution of
adjectives and then concludes with a description of the adjective’s morphology.
Adjectives can generally occur before or after a noun:

3.8a) Iina myaara umaana nu-maqui-i.

that dog big 3S-sleep-INC
‘That big dog, he is sleeping.’

3.8b) Iina umaana myaara nu-maqui-i.

that big dog 3S-sleep-INC
‘That big dog, he is sleeping.’

3.9a) Qui-siquita-a umaana cusi

1S-wash-INC big pot
‘I am washing a big pot.’

3.9b) Qui-siquita-a cusi umaana

1S-wash-INC pot big
‘I am washing a big pot.’

The presence of a possessive pronoun doesn’t affect the distribution of the

adjective. In this situation, the possessive pronoun would still occur immediately
prior to the noun and the adjective could occur either before or after the noun, but
it cannot intervene between the noun and the possessive prefix:

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3.10) Suhuaani qui-maaya nu-saata-a
Pretty 1S-child 3S-laugh-INC
‘My pretty child, he is laughing.’

3.11a) *Qui-suhuaani maaya nu-saata-a

1S- pretty child 3S-laugh-INC
‘M pretty child, he is laughing.’

3.11b) Iina nu-myaara mnana nu-maquii.

Iina nu-myaara mnana nu-maqui-i
Det 3S-dog black 3S-sleep -INC
‘That black dog of his, it is sleeping.’

Most noun phrases with adjectival complements typically will not occur
with more than one adjective. Occasionally, one finds sentences with two
adjectives. In these cases, both adjectives can come before the noun, both after
the noun, or one before and one after.

3.12) Iina myaara umana mnana numaquii.

Iina myaara umana mnana nu-maqui-i
Det dog big black 3S-sleep -INC
‘That big, black dog, it is sleeping.’

3.13) Iina umana myaara mnana numaquii.

Iina umana myaara mnana nu-maqui-i
Det big dog black 3S-sleep -INC
‘That big, black dog, it is sleeping.’

3.14) Iina umana mnana myaara numaquii.

Iina umana mnana myaara nu-maqui-i
Det big black dog 3S-sleep -INC
‘That big, black dog, it is sleeping.’

The sentences above show the flexible ordering in which the adjectives can
occur. Despite this flexibility, the most common pattern is for adjectives to occur

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after the noun, as in (3.12). In addition, sentences with two or more adjectives
often strike native speakers as somewhat strange5.

Section 3.3.2 - Adjectives and non-obligatory agreement

Many adjectives, including quantifiers, have a characteristic morphology

that distinguishes them from nouns. Most adjectives have a base form that ends
in -na or -ni. In addition, adjectives have additional forms which end with -p or -
mi. Some examples are listed in the chart below.

3.15)
Translation Base Form +Pl, +Anim +PL, +Inanim
‘pretty’ suhuaani suhuaap suhuaami
‘big’ umaana umaap umaami
‘black’ mnana mnap mnami
‘other/another’ taana taap taami

The -na or -ni endings seen in the base forms do not seem to carry any
semantic information in addition to the lexical information of the adjective. In
other words, these seem to be basic or neutral word forms. The
-p and -mi morphology, on the other hand, signifies plurality and either animacy
or inanimacy, as shown in the chart above.
The -p and -mi forms on the adjectives are never obligatory. That is, an
adjective’s morphology does not have to agree with the noun that it is modifying.
The following example shows the full range of possibilities. First, both the noun
and the adjective have plural morphology. Second, only the noun has plural
morphology and the adjective does not. Third, only the adjective has plural
morphology and the noun does not.

5
There is also some evidence that quantifiers and size adjectives may have a
slightly different distribution from other adjectives, but more work needs to be
done on this topic.

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3.16) Qui-miiyaa taami saahuirica.
Qui-mii-yaa taa-mi saahuiri-ca
1S-have-INC other-CPN machete-PL1
‘I have other machetes.’

3.17) Qui-miiya masiana iitaca.

Qui-mii -yaa masia-na iita-ca
1S -have-INC many-CNE casa-PL1
‘I have many houses.’

3.18) Iina saahuiri suhuami t.

Iina saahuiri suhua-mi t.
DET machete pretty-CPN COP
‘Those machetes are good.’

The examples above show that the adjectives do not undergo obligatory
agreement. Instead, the information provided by the adjective’s inflection seems
to be additive to whatever information the noun’s morphology is conveying. For
example, in (3.18) the noun is singular, but the adjective’s morphology is -mi, the
plural inanimate marker. Interestingly, the information provided by the adjective’s
morphology is the only part of the entire phrase that signals to the listener that
there are multiple machetes. The only requirement seems to be that the plural
morphology cannot disagree in animacy. For example, if the noun is an
inanimate machete, the modifying adjective cannot take a plural animate marker:

3.19) *Iina saahuiri suhuap t.

Iina saahuiri suhua-p t.
DET machete pretty-CPA COP
‘Those machetes are good.’

Note that a noun without plural morphology is just simply not marked for
number. That is, as seen with the data in 4.1.1 on plural morphology, the
absence of a plural marker on a noun does not signal that the noun is singular,
because unmarked nouns can still be contextually interpreted as either singular or
plural. Rather, the absence of plural morphology simply signals that the number
of the noun is just not specified. Therefore, when the adjective occurs with a
plural inanimate ending and the noun is not marked for plurality, this is not

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semantically conflicting information because the number of the noun is, again,
not specified. Finally, even though the adjective does not obligatorily agree with
the noun, it commonly does. In fact, adjectival agreement seems to be much
more common than non-adjectival agreement.

Section 3.4 - Nouns and demonstrative determiners

Iquito has only one type of definite demonstrative determiner, iina.

Evidence that iina and its other morphological shapes are determiners come from
both semantic and distributional evidence. Distributionally, iina occurs before the
noun it modifies, and it is always ungrammatical for the determiner to occur to
the right of the noun it modifies. Iina is not in complementary distribution with
any other words such as adjectives. That is, iina forms its own word class.
Second, iina is always glossed by native speakers with the Spanish determiners
ese/esa, “this”, este/esta, “that”, and occasionally el/la, “the”. That speakers most
commonly gloss the word with a demonstrative determiner rather than an article
indicates that this word is probably a demonstrative determiner in Iquito. Like
demonstrative determiners in languages like English, iina also conveys definiteness
to the noun, and the absence of the determiner is semantically similar to the
function of the indefinite article in English. In addition, like many languages
(ancient Greek, Spanish), the demonstrative determiner can function
pronominally to mean “this one” or “that thing”. Sentence (3.20), given below,
shows the determiner in its most common role as a demonstrative modifying a
noun. Sentences (3.21) - (3.23) illustrate the pronominal use of the determiner.

3.20) Qui-jiquii iina simiini iquitojina.

Qui-jiqui-i iina simiini iquito-jina
1S -send-INC DET letter Iquitos-LES
‘I will send this letter to Iquitos.’

3.21) Iina nacusii cuhuasiini, najaaja pajni, najaa najuuni.

Iina nacusi-: cuhuasii-ni, najaaja paj-ni, najaa naajuu -ni.
DET know -INC speak -INF also read -INF also write -INF
‘He knows to speak, read, and write.’

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3.22) Iina nunacusii Lima, Iquitos, San Antunijina.
Iina nu-nacusi-: Lima, Iquitos, San Antuni -jina.
DET 3S-know -INC Lima Iquitos San Antonio-LES
‘He knows Lima, Iquitos, and San Antonio.’

3.23) (Iina) quiyaana t.

(iina) qui- -yaana t
this_one 1S -NOM COP
‘This one is mine.’

The determiner iina comes in three different morphemic shapes. The first
is a basic shape that simply signifies definiteness. The other two forms signify
plurality and animacy, in accordance with the following table:

24)
Iquito Morpheme Translation Special Significance
iina this/these, that/those
iip this/these, that/those +PL, +Animate
iimi this/these, that/those +PL, -Animate

While the iip and iimi varieties signal plurality and animacy, the iina form
only contributes a demonstrative and definite interpretation to a sentence. That
is, just like with the basic adjectival form, iina alone does not signify singularity or
plurality, nor does it specify anything about animacy or inanimacy. Evidence that
iina does not specify or agree with a noun in animacy comes from the fact that it
readily modifies any noun, whether animate or inanimate:

3.25) Iina cusi jaari t tataaja.

iina cusi jaari t tataaja
that pot already COP lowered
‘That pot is already lowered.’

3.26) Iina myaara nuruutiqui piiyni niinaqui

iina myaara nu-ruuti-qui piiyni niinaqui
DET dog 3S-bark-PSI all night
‘That dog barked all night.’

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 Similarly, evidence that iina does not specify plurality comes from evidence
that it can occur with plural nouns without changing to one of its alternative
forms.

3.27) Iina saahuirica suhuaami t

Iina sahuiti-ca suhuami t
DET machete-PL good COP
‘Those machetes are good.’ [i.e. - well-made]

3.28) Iina misica pyni yahunijina na-asaa qui-paapaaja

Iina misi-ca pyni yahuni-jina na-asa-a qui-paapaaja
Det cat -PL every day -LES 3P-eat-INC 1S-fish
‘Those cats, all the time they are eating my fish.’

With the iimi and iip variants, the plural form most often occurs when the
noun itself is plural. The following are some examples where the determiner and
noun both occur with plural morphology.

3.29) Qui-mityaa asasana iip cayaaca.

qui-mit-yaa asasana iip cayaa-ca
1S- give-INC food DET person-Pl
‘I am sharing food with all the people.’

3.30) Iimi samuucuaatica jaa nuu pcarcura.

iimi samuucuaati-ca jaa nuu pcar-cura
DET.PL.inanim plantain -PL already 3S finish-PSR
‘Those plantains, we have already finished them.’

However, iimi and iip can often occur when the noun’s plurality is not
marked morphologically. In other words, sometimes the plural form of the
determiner is the only item in a sentence that indicates that the number of the
noun is plural. Examples:

- 35 -
3.31) Iip myaara pyni naruutiqui niinaqui.
iip myaara pyni na-ruuti-qui niinaqui
DET.PL.anim dog all 3P-bark-PSI night
‘These dogs, they all were barking at night.’

3.32) Iip icuani nasiuuyaa sihuiicajata.

iip icuani na-siuu-yaa sihuiica-jata
DET.PL.anim man 3P-fish-INC fishhook-COM
‘These men are fishing with a fishhook.’

However, unlike iina, which can occur equally with animate or inanimate
nouns, iimi can only occur with an inanimate noun, and iip can only occur with
an animate noun:

3.33) *Iimi icuani nasiuuyaa sihuiicajata.

iimi icuani na-siuu-yaa sihuiica-jata
DET.PL.inanim man 3P-fish-INC fishhook-COM
‘These men are fishing with a fishhook.’

3.34) *Iip samuucuaatica jaa nuu pcarcura.

iip samuucuaati-ca jaa nuu pcar-cura
DET.PL.inanim plantain -PL already 3S finish-PSR
‘Those plantains, we have already finished them.’

This data further shows that a noun is not specifically marked for number,
whether singular or plural, but is marked for animate or inanimate.
In conclusion, this section shows that the morphology of determiners and
adjectives behave identically. Both word classes have alternate endings which
indicate plurality and animacy, and both word classes have unmarked forms as
well.

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 Chapter 4: Possession

Chapter Outline
4.1 Overview of common problems and issues in describing possession
4.2 Predicate nominative possession
4.3 Possessive phrases where the possessor is a pronoun
4.4 Possessive phrases where the possessor is a name or noun not modified
by a determiner
4.5 Possessive phrases where the possessor is a noun modified by a
determiner
4.6 Possessive phrases and adjectives
4.7 Complex possessive phrases
4.8 Compound possessive phrases
4.9 Possession and Nominal Compounding
4.10 Possessums and Adpositions

This chapter analyzes the possessive phrases in Iquito and their distribution
with respect to noun phrases. The goals of this analysis are the following:

4.1) To classify the different types of possessive phrases

4.2) To investigate the distribution of the words in the different types of
possessive phrases.

The chapter begins with a discussion of common problems and issues that
arise when one attempts to describe possession. Next, the different kinds of
possession are sytematically discussed, beginning with predicate nominative
possession, and proceeding to possessive pronouns, names and nouns not modified
by a determiner, nouns modified by a determiner, and the distribution of adjectives
in possessive phrases. Next complex and compound possession are defined and
discussed. The chapter ends with a theoretical discussion of the nature of
possession in Iquito and its correlation to the distribution of adpositions.

Section 4.1 - Overview of common problems and issues in describing possession

Defining a construction such as possession is inherently difficult. The

main problem comes from the fact that there is a disjunction between the
semantic concept of possession and the syntactic constructions employed to

- 37 -
express possession. However one defines possession, languages may employ more
than one type of construction or may use the same construction to express a
variety of concepts, of which possession is only one. For example, suppose one
defines possession as the following:

4.3) A relationship between two nouns such that one noun possesses (owns)
the other.

This definition would include at least three kinds of constructions in English, as

shown by the following examples:

4.4a) My book (with no apostrophe)

4.4b) Mary’s book (with an apostrophe ‘s)
4.5a) This book of mine
4.5b) This book of Mary’s
4.6) The son of John

In addition, if one narrowly wants to state that the function of one of these
constructions is to express possession, then one quickly finds instances where the
construction does not or cannot express possession or expresses concepts that are
slightly different from possession. For example, suppose the construction in
(4.4b) above is said to be a possessive construction. What then does one make of
these phrases:

4.7) John’s flight

4.8) The table’s leg

In (4.7), John does not literally possess an airline’s flight, one would have
to modify the definition of possession to include metaphorical extensions. In
(4.8), the table’s leg is a part-whole relationship, rather than one of possession.
Although English uses the same construction to express two or more different
relationships, one should not expect other languages to behave in the same
manner. Conversely, other languages may use their possessive constructions for
uses that English would not allow. One example of this phenomenon comes from
Spanish:

- 38 -
4.9) la casa de Maria
the house of Maria
‘Maria’s house’

4.10) la botella de agua

the bottle of water
‘the water bottle’

While example (4.9) is a clear example of possession in both Spanish and

English, the same construction used in example (4.10) is in fact a noun-noun
compound in English. So is the construction seen in (4.9) and (4.10) always a
possessive construction, or is it only a possessive construction when it conforms to
one’s particular definition of possession? In describing a language, of course, it’s
important to describe the language on its own terms, while at the same time
respecting the analytic possibilities that arise from pre-conceived theoretic notions.
Therefore, this paper will describe the following kinds of possession, either because
the relationships expressed are examples of canonical possession, or because, like
Spanish, the same construction can be used for multiple functions and these other
functions should not be ignored in a descriptive account of a particular
construction:

4.11) Predicate nominative possession: “This book is mine.”

4.12) Possessive pronouns: “My book”
4.13) Nominal possession: “the man’s book” ~ “John’s book”
4.14) Noun-noun compounds: “the water bottle”
4.15) Part-whole relations: “the table’s leg”

In these types of possession, one construction is used for type (4.11), and a
pair of similar constructions is used for (4.12) - (4.15), where one construction is
used for possessive pronouns and possessors without a determiner and the other
construction is used with possessors with determiners. A later analysis will show
that there really is one construction for (4.12) - (4.15) that results in slightly
different surface forms. This chapter first describes predicate nominative
possession, then discusses possessive pronouns, and then discusses nominal
possession with and without determiners modifying the possessor.

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Section 4.2 - Predicate nominative possession

With this type of possession, the possessor occurs as a predicate

nominative, and expresses a ‘possessive’ relationship over the subject. Some
examples in English of this type of construction are: “This is mine”, and “That is
yours”. In general, to construct this type of possession in Iquito, the suffix -yaana
is appended to the end of a pronoun. Some examples are:

4.16) (Iina) quiyaana t.

(iina) qui -yaana t
ese 1S -NOM COP
“It is mine.”

4.17) Quiayaana t.

quia- -yaana t
2S -NOM COP
“It is yours.”

4.18a) Quiyaami t.

qui- -yaami t
1S -NOM COP
“They are mine (=cups).”

4.18b) Quiyaap t.

qui- -yaamii t
1S -NOM COP
“They are mine (=cats).”

Note that in example (4.18) the suffix -yaana can change its final
segments to agree in number and animacy with the thing possessed, which in
(4.18a) is a contextually supplied group of cups.
The negative variants of the examples in (4.16) - (4.18) above are formed
in a different manner. These use the word cat in place of the verb t. For
example:

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4.19) Cat quiyaana.
caa t qui -yaana
no es 1S -NOM

4.20) Cat quiayaana.

caa t quia- -yaana
no es 2s -NOM
“It is not yours.”

What follows is the complete paradigm for this type of construction (both
positive and negative):

4.21)
English Positive Negative
1S It is (not) mine. Quiyaana t Cat quiyaana
2S It is (not) yours. Quiayaana t Cat quiayaana
3S It is (not) his. Nuyaana t Cat nuyaana
1P,incl. It is (not) ours. Pyaana t Cat pyaana
1P,excl. It is (not) ours. Canayaana t Cat canayaana
2P It is (not) y’all’s. Quinayaana t Cat quinayaana
Nayaana t Cat nayaana
3P It is (not) theirs.
Nahuaacayaana t Cat nahuaacayaana

Section 4.3 - Possessive phrases where the possessor is a pronoun

When a possessive pronoun is the possessor, the pronoun affixes to the

beginning of a noun to mark the noun as possessed by the pronoun. For example,
the possession expressed in ‘my book’ and ‘your book’ is accomplished with
prefixation:

4.22) qui-simitani
1S-book
‘my book’

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4.23) quia-simitani
2S- book
‘your book’

The prefixation has been analyzed before as a phonologically-driven

phenomenon resulting from the need for morphemes to have at a minimum a
single bi-syllabic foot. Prosodic fusion is one strategy for satisfying the language’s
minimum foot requirement6, and all of the monosyllabic possessive pronouns are
bound morphemes. There are also two disyllabic pronouns which never fuse except
in rare circumstances.
It should also be noted that these prefixes are the same prefixes that can
also attach to verbs to serve as subject pronouns:

4.24) qui-maqui-i
1S-sleep -INC
‘I am sleeping.’

4.25) quia-maqui-i
2S- sleep -INC
‘You are sleeping.’

The examples above show that the subjects are the bound pronouns ‘qui’
and ‘quia’. The paradigm for the possessive pronouns follows below. The pronoun
is followed by a hyphen if it affixes to a noun.

4.26)
Person/Number Iquito Person/Number Iquito
morpheme morpheme
1S Qui- 1P,inclusive P-
1P,exclusive Quina
2S Quia- 2P Cana
3S Nu- 3P Na-

6
These conclusions are more thoroughly defended in, “An Optimality-Theoretic
Analysis of Iquito Stress” (Brown 2003) and “Módulo 32: Fusión Prosódica”
(Michael 2003b), and also “La fusión fonológica en iquito” (Michael 2003c).

- 42 -
Note that these pronouns have alternate forms that occur as independent words,
where the alternate words have slightly different vowel lengths and often the suffix
-ja. However, one cannot use these independent words in place of using the bound
forms:

4.27) *Qui-miiyaa quiaaja saahuiri.

qui-mii -yaa quiaaja saahuiri
1S- give-INC 2S machete
‘I have your machete.’

Instead, one must use the bound forms of the pronoun, as shown by these
final examples:

4.28) Qui-sinaqu t suucuarana.

qui-sinaqu t suucuarana
1S- clothing COP dirty
‘My clothing is dirty.’

4.29) Jaa qui-tiquii quiaiitajinacuma.

jaa qui-tiqui -i quia- iita -jina -cuma
already 1S- enter-INC 2S- house-LES -LUA
‘I am already entering your house.’

4.30) Qui-mityaa nuu nucusi.

qui-mit-yaa nuu nu-cusi
1S- give -INC 3S 3S-pot
‘I will give his pot to her.’

Section 4.4 - Possessive phrases where the possessor is a name or noun not
modified by a determiner

In possessive phrases where the possessor is a proper noun or a noun not

modified by a determiner, the construction follows the same pattern outlined
above: the possessor occurs first, and the thing possessed occurs second. Some
examples:

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4.31) Qui-ricatahuuyaa Pedro iimina.
qui- ricatahuu-yaa pedro iimina
1S- repair -INC pedro canoa
‘I am fixing Pedro’s canoe.’

4.32) Qui-iicuaa hilter iiyaquiira atiiji iicuaa juana iiyaquiiira.

qui- iicua-a hilter iiyaquiira atiiji iicua-a juana iiyaquiira
1S- go -INC hilter place after go -INC juana place
‘I am going to Hilter’s house after going to Juana’s house.’

4.33) Qui-siiritaa asuraaja ijaaca.

qui- siiritaa asuraaja_ija -ca
1S- pull_manioc manioc.root-plural
‘I am pulling manioc roots.’

4.34) Qui-miiyaa icuani saahuiri.

qui-mii -yaa icuani saahuiri
1S- have-INC man machete
‘I have the man’s machete.’

4.35) Nunani aaca suucuarana t.

nunani aaca suucuarana t
river water dirty COP
‘The river water is very dirty.’

4.36) Mjana namaacuca nuniihuyaa iyaracata.

mja -na namaacu-ca nu-niihu-yaa iyaracata
hummingbird -?? wing -PL 3S-move -INC rapidly
‘The hummingbird’s wings move quickly.’

Section 4.5 - Possessive phrases where the possessor is a noun modified by a

determiner

With a possessive phrase in which the possessor is a phrase composed of a

determiner and a noun, the determiner occurs first, the thing possessed occurs
second, and the possessor occurs last, as shown by the following examples:

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4.37) Iina najuhuaaca sahuija nynaa t.
iina najuhuaaca sahuija nynaa t
DET color rock grey COP
‘This rock’s color is grey.’

4.38) Iina cájinani msaji nu-maquii.

iina cájinani msaji nu-maqui-i
DET cría7 woman 3S-sleep -INC
‘This woman’s dog is sleeping.’

4.39a) Qui-niquicurajina iip saahuirica icuanihuya.

qui-niqui-cura -jina iip saahuiri-ca icuanihuya
1S- see -PSR -LES DET.Anim.PL machete-PL man.PL
‘I have seen those men’s machetes.’

4.39b) *Qui-niquicurajina iimi saahuirica icuanihuya.

qui-niqui-cura -jina iimi saahuiri-ca icuanihuya
1S- see -PSR -LES DET.Inanim.PL machete-PL man.PL
‘I have seen those machetes of the men.’

Note that in examples (4.37) and (4.38), the determiners iina and iip are
modifying the possessor and not the possessum. That is, the possessor noun
phrase is discontinuous. The phrase begins with the determiner, then the phrase is
interrupted by the possessum, and then the phrase continues once again on the
other side of the possessum. The evidence for this comes from the following: first,
speakers always translate the Iquito determiner so that it is modifying the
possessor, not the possessum, as seen in the translations for (4.37) and (4.38).
That is, in the speaker’s translation, we have “su perro de esa mujer” rather than
“ese perro de la mujer”. Second, the determiner can agree in number and animacy
only with the possessor and not with the possessum. In example (4.39a), the
determiner iip agrees with the number and animacy of icuanihuya, “men”, and
cannot agree with saahuirica, “machetes”, as shown by (4.39b).

7
The term cría can refer to any household or farm animal, but not wild animals.

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 It is not possible to move the possessor noun before the possessum. For
example, the next sentence is ungrammatical because the possessor noun and the
possessum occur in the wrong order:

4.40) *Qui-niquicurajina iip icuanihuya saahuirica.

qui-niqui-cura-jina iip icuanihuya saahuiri -ca
1S -see -PSR -LES DET men.PL machete-PL
‘I have seen those men’s machetes.’

Similarly, it is not possible to modify the possessum with its own

determiner:

4.41) *Iina cájinani iina msaji maquii.

iina cájinani iina msaji maqui-:
DET cría DET woman sleep-INC
‘This dog of that woman is sleeping.’

Section 4.6 - Possessive phrases and adjectives

While it is possible to modify the possessor with an adjective, it is not

possible to modify the possessum directly with an adjective. Instead, informants
generally use a periphrastic construction to modify the possessum:

4.42) Qui-niquiqui iina myaara umaana iina cájinani amyaquiyaana.

Qui-niqui-qui iina myaara umaana iina cájinani amyaquiyaana
1S- see -PSI DET dog big DET cría hunter
‘I have seen a big dog, this hunter’s dog.’
‘Yo le he visto un perro gordo, su perro de este cazador.’8

4.43) Qui-niquiqui Juana suhuaani t nyini.

Qui-niqui-qui Juana suhuaani t nyini
1S- see -PSI Juana pretty COP baby
‘I have see Juana’s baby; it is beautiful.’
‘He visto su hijo de la Juana, lindo es [el bebe].’

8
The Spanish glosses are the informant’s back translations.

- 46 -
4.44a) Qui-niquiqui Juana nyni suhuaani t.
Qui-niqui-qui Juana nyni suhuaani t
1S- see -PSI Juana baby pretty COP
‘I have seen Juana’s baby; it is beautiful.’
’He visto su hijo de la Juana, lindo es [el bebe].’

All of these examples above illustrate various strategies of periphrasis in

order to modify the possessum indirectly with an adjective. The fact that a
periphrastic construction is used is evidence that directly modifying the possessum
with an adjective is grammatically unacceptable in Iquito:

4.44b) *Qui-niquiqui Juana nyni suhuaani.

Qui-niqui-qui Juana nyni suhuaani
1S- see -PSI Juana baby pretty
‘I have seen Juana’s beautiful baby.’

Section 4.7 - Complex possessive phrases

Complex possessive phrases are defined as follows:

4.45) Complex Possession: a type of possession consisting of two or more

recursively nested possessive phrases, as in: “Hilter’s mother’s house”,
and “My brother’s canoe”.

Complex possessive phrases in Iquito are constructed in the same manner as

simple possessive phrases. That is, an additional possessor occurs in the front of
the noun phrase:

4.46) Qui-iicuaa Pedro atamajaani nasicura.

qui- iicua-a pedro atamajaani nasi -cura
1S- go -INC Pedro brother garden-LDS
‘I am going to Peter’s brother’s garden.’

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4.47) Qui-iicuaa iiminacura quicaquja amicu.
qui- iicua-a iimina-cura qui- caquja amicu
1S- go -INC canoe -PSR 1S - father friend
‘I am going to my father’s friend’s canoe.’

4.48) Qui-iicuaa Juana nyatija iiyaquiira.

qui- iicua-a juana nyatija iiyaquira
1S- go -INC juana mother place
‘I am going into Juana’s mother’s house.’

Section 4.8 - Compound possessive phrases

Compound possessive phrases are defined as follows:

4.49) Compound Possession: a type of possession where there are two or more
coordinated possessors, as in: “John and Mary’s house”, and “Mark and Lynda’s
research”.

In Iquito, it is possible to have compound possessive phrases where the

additional possessors serially occur beside the other possessor, but often one would
use some sort of coordinator to make the construction more clear. For example,
an informant may use huaca, “the two”, or najaaja, “also”. However, the use of a
coordinator is not obligatory, as shown below in (4.51). Examples:

4.50) Juan Pedro huaca saahuiri tjaqur.

juan pedro huaca saahuiri tjaqu -r
Juan Pedro two.or.more machete break -MPA
‘About Juan and Pedro, they will break [their] machetes.’

4.51) Qui-iicuaa Pedro (najaaja) numajaana iitacura.

qui- iicua-: pedro najaaja nu- majaana iita -cura
1S -go -INC Pedro also 3S -wife house-PSI
‘I am going to the house of Pedro and of his wife.’

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Section 4.9 - Possession and Nominal Compounding

One hypothesis of this paper is that possessive constructions where the

possessor is modified by a determiner are always discontinuous. That is, the
determiner occurs first, the possessum second, and the possessor which the
determiner modifies occurs third. Nevertheless, there are a group of non-
discontinuous possessive phrases which seem to be counter-examples to this
generalization:

4.52) Iina t iina msaji cajasi.

iina t iina msaji cajasi
DET COP DET woman hair
‘That is that woman’s hair.’

4.53) Iina t iina icuani cajasi.

iina t iina icuani cajasi
DET COP DET man hair
‘That is that man’s hair.’

4.54) Iina t iina cajasi icuani.

iina t iina cajasi icuani
DET COP DET hair man
‘That is that man’s hair.’

It should be noted that the first two sentences (4.52 and 4.53) have
different degrees of acceptability among speakers, where one speaker considered the
sentences almost completely ungrammatical. In these examples, the determiner
seems to modify the possessor, as indicated by the speaker’s translation.
Moreover, both the determiner and the possessor occur before the possessum. The
example below, however, is almost identical in form to the two previous examples,
but it is ungrammatical in a possessive reading. The only difference is that the
word for hair, cajasi, has been replaced with the word for machete.

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4.55) *Iina t iina icuani saahuiri .
iina t iina icuani saahuiri
DET COP DET man machete
‘*That is this man’s machete.’
‘?That is the male machete.’

The sentence above cannot mean “this man’s machete”, but can only mean
the pragmatically-strange “this male machete”, as if the machete had a biological
gender. Instead, the correct possessive reading is only obtained by placing the
possessor noun after the possessum. That is, one must create the discontinuous
phrase:

4.56) Iina t iina saahuiri icuani.9

iina t iina saahuiri icuani
DET COP DET machete man
‘That is the machete of this man.’

4.57) Iina saahuiri icuani t.

iina saahuiri icuani t
DET machete man COP
‘That is the machete of this man.’

Upon further examination, it turns out that the same semantic distinction
applies for the possessives seen in (4.52) - (4.54) above. That is, the sentences
(4.52) - (4.54) probably mean something more like: “This is woman hair,” or
“This is man hair”. Switching the order of the two nouns creates a possessive
phrase in the more traditional sense of, “This is this man’s hair,” as in (4.54).
The real problem with this interpretation seems to lie with the Spanish back-
translations and differing notions of possessive constructions. That is, in

9
Alternatively, one could omit the determiner altogether, in which case one arrives
at a non-discontinuous possessor:

a) Iina t icuani saahuiri.

iina t icuani saahuiri
DET COP man machete
‘That is the machete of this man.’

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Spanish, the possessive construction is also used to create what would be
compounds in English. Hence, the compound noun “water bottle” in English
would be translated using a possessive construction in Spanish: “la botella de
agua”. English, of course, uses two different constructions to express compounds
and possession, but Spanish does not. Whether Iquito uses only one construction
or not is debatable. Analyzing possession in Iquito as compounding suffers from
two problems. First, when a language allows a noun-noun compound, one can
typically make a generalization for the language about which of the two nouns is
the head. For example, one could say English forms right-headed noun-noun
compounds, and then that generalization would be true for every noun-noun
compound in English. However, one can’t make that kind of generalization for
Iquito, because the relative order of the two nouns, that is, the relative order of the
possessum and possessor, is reversed whenever a determiner is present, which
would mean the generalization would be wrong in half of all possible cases.
Second, the two nouns involved in a compound are bound to each other, but there
are examples where the two nouns are separated by an intervening verb. These
examples occur in ‘irrealis’ constructions where the word order is typically SOV.
When the object of a verb in ‘irrealis’ constructions is a possessive noun phrase
where the noun is modified by the determiner iina, then the word order becomes:
[Subj] [Det] [Possessum] [Verb] [Possessor]. That is, the verb intervenes between
the possessum and the possessor, which should not be able to occur if the two
nouns had formed a compound. For more details on possession in SOV word
order, see section 5.3 below. One possibility might be to analyze possession in
Iquito as fundamentally two different types of constructions, one involving
compounding when there is no determiner present, and one involving some
fundamentally different construction in the case where a determiner is present. In
this analysis, possession is a compound where the possessor is the head of the
compound phrase. Since the only acceptable reading in (4.55) is one where the
possessum is translated as an adjective, the head of the compound phrase would be
the possessor, rather than the possessum. One can switch the order of the two
nouns only if the two nouns are semantically compatible, meaning either noun is
capable of serving as the dependent. This is the case in (4.52) - (4.54). However,
since machetes don’t have gender and it is people who usually own things, then in
the majority of cases the order of the two nouns is relatively fixed. In the contrast
seen in the minimal pair between (4.53) and (4.56), the native speakers identify
the problem with the possessum, not the possessor, which is a further argument
that the possessor is the head. Although analyses of Germanic languages like
English often propose the possessum as a phrasal head in a genitive construction,

- 51 -
this headedness feature has actually been argued to be a parametric variation
across languages. Szabolcsi (1994) argues that in Hungarian the possessor should
be regarded as the head, not the possessum, and cites evidence where the possessor
can occur without a possessum, meaning the possessum is an optional argument of
the possessor:

4.58a) (a) Mari-é

DET Mari-Poss.3SG
‘Mari’s one’

4.58b) (a) Mari-é -i

DET Mari-Poss-PL(-3SG)
‘Mari’s ones’

Section 4.10 - Possessums and Adpositions10

Data from Iquito adpositions may shed additional light on the nature of
possession in Iquito. Iquito has a set of at least seven adpositions which variously
occur either after a noun or after a determiner. The seven adpositions are:

4.59) Adposition Definition

acuji by motive of; in front of
iicu owing to (involuntary causation)
iicura owing to (voluntary causation)
iira for
jata by means of; accompaniment
jina on top of
siricumaji to the side of

When the object of the adposition is not modified by a determiner, then the
adposition occurs after the noun:

[Noun] [Adposition]

10
This data about the nature and distribution of adpositions comes from work by
Lev Michael in Seminario 20: Posposiciones; its correlation with the genitive data
is my analysis.

- 52 -
What follows next are seven sentences, with each sentence using a different
adposition from the list above, to illustrate that all of the adpositions in the group
are behaving identically:

4.60a) Cu-asaqui icuani acuji.

cu-asa-qui icuani acuji
1S-eat-CMP man MOT
‘I ate in front of the man.’

4.60b) *Cu-asaqui acuji icuani.

4.61a) Myaara ruutii icuani iicu.

myaara ruuti-: icuani iicu
dog bark-INC man RES
‘The dog is barking at the man.’

4.61b) *Myaara ruutii iicu icuani.

4.62) Qui-maquiar icuani iicura.

qui-maqui-a-r icuani iicura.
1S-sleep-INC-MPA man CUL
‘I have slept because of the man.’

4.63) Qui-muutaa icuani iira.

qui-muuta-: icuani iira
1S-dig -INC man PRP
‘I am digging for the man.’

4.64a) Qui-icuaa icuani jata.

qui-iicua-: icuani jata.
1S-go -INC man INT
‘I am going with the man.’

4.64b) *Qui-icuaa jata icuani.

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4.65) Msaji simajuuyaa myaara jina.
msaji simajuu -yaa myaara jina
woman throw_rocks_at-INC dog LOC
‘The woman is throwing rocks at the dog.’

4.66) Cuajiitii icuani siricumaji.

cu-ajiiti-: icuani siricumaji
1S-sit -INC man LAL
‘I am sitting next to the man.’

All of the (b) examples above show that it is ungrammatical to have the
adposition occur before a bare noun. However, in the next group of sentences, the
nouns are now modified by the demonstrative determiner iina. In these sentences,
the adposition now occurs immediately after the determiner, as in the following
order:

4.67) [Determiner] [Adposition] [Noun]

The next group of seven sentences again illustrate that each of the seven
adpositions has exactly the same distribution.

4.68a) Cu-asaqui iina acuji icuani.

cu- asa-qui iina acuji icuani
1S-eat-CMP DEM MOT man
‘I ate before this man.’

4.68b) *Cu-asaqui iina icuani acuji.

4.68c) *Cu-asaqui acuji iina icuani.

4.69a) Myaara ruutii iina iicu icuani.

myaara ruuti -: iina iicu icuani
dog bark-INC DEM RES man
‘The dog is barking because of this man.’

4.69b) *Myaara ruutii iicu iina icuani.

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4.69c) *Myaara ruutii iina icuani iicu.

4.70) Qui-maquiar iina iicura icuani.

qui-maqui-yaa -r iina iicura icuani
1S-sleep -INC-ICP DEM CUL man
‘I slept because of this man.’

4.71) Qui-muutaa iina iira icuani.

qui-muuta-: iina iira icuani
1S-dig -INC DEM PRP man
‘I am digging for this man.’

4.72a) Qui-iicuaa iina jata icuani.

qui-iicua-: iina jata icuani
1S-go -INC DEM INT man
‘I am leaving with this man.’

4.72b) *Qui-iicuaa jata iina icuani.

4.72c) *Qui-iicuaa iina icuani jata.

4.73) Msaji simajuuyaa iina jina myaara.

msaji simajuu-yaa iina jina myaara
woman throw_rocks_at DEM LOC dog
‘The woman is throwing rocks at this dog.’

4.74a) Cuajiitii iina siricumaji icuani.

cu-ajiiti-: iina siricumaji icuani
1S-sit-INC DEM LAL man
‘I am sitting next to this man.’

4.74b) *Cuajiitii siricumaji iina icuani.

4.74c) *Cuajiitii iina icuani siricumaji.

- 55 -
 Furthermore, in some preliminary phonological analysis, Michael (2003b)
argues that adpositions of less than two syllables are phonologically bound to the
word on their left. Adpositions larger than three syllables are stressed and
separably pronounceable. Analyzing just the distribution of the adpositions, one
would seem to have a classic example of a clitic, because the adposition are often
phonologically reduced forms bound to the first word on their left, which is either
a noun or a determiner. In fact, one could make a generalization that an
adposition always follows immediately after the head of the noun phrase. That is,
if the noun phrase is a noun not modified by a determiner, the adposition follows
the noun, or if the noun is modified by a determiner, then the clitic follows the
determiner. If one follows Abney (1986)’s thesis that determiners are the head of
noun phrases, then the adposition is following after the head of the phrase. That
is, where a determiner is present, then the determiner is the head of the phrase;
when the determiner is not present, the noun itself heads the phrase. Either way,
the adposition follows after the head.
With respect to possession, it turns out that possessums and adpositions
have exactly the same distribution. Namely, the possessum follows immediately
after a noun if the noun is not modified by a determiner, or immediately after the
determiner if the noun has one. An explicit comparison would make this point
more clear:

4.75a) Qui-miiyaa icuani saahuiri.

qui-mii -yaa icuani saahuiri
1S- have-INC man machete
‘I have the man’s machete.’

4.75b) Cu-asaqui icuani acuji.

cu-asa-qui icuani acuji
1S-eat-CMP man MOT
‘I ate before the man.’

4.76a) Qui-niquicurajina iip saahuirica icuanihuya.

qui-niqui-cura -jina iip saahuiri-ca icuanihuya
1S- see -PSR -LES DET.Anim.PL machete-PL man.PL
‘I have seen those men’s machetes.’

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4.76b) Cu-asaqui iina acuji icuani.
cu- asa-qui iina acuji icuani
1S-eat-CMP DEM MOT man
‘I ate before this man.’

In the examples above, (4.75) shows the distribution without a determiner

present, while (4.76) shows the distribution with a determiner. The (a) examples
have the possessum underlined, while the (b) examples have the adposition
underlined. In both cases, the distribution of the possessum and the adposition
are identical and both create a situation where the determiner is separated from its
argument by the introduction of another morpheme. This similarity in the
distributions of the adposition and the possessum may be evidence that adpositions
and possessums should be given a common analysis.

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Chapter 5: A Discussion of Discontinuous Nominal Phrases in Iquito

Chapter Outline
5.1 Subjects of Intransitive Verbs
5.2 Object of Transitive Verbs in SOV constructions
5.3 Possession and discontinuous objects

This chapter describes a set of discontinuous nominal phrases in Iquito,

including where they can and cannot occur and the distributional idiosyncrasies
associated with each type of discontinuity. The description begins with
discontinuities involving the subject of intransitive verbs, then moves on to
describe discontinuities involving the objects of transitive verbs in SOV
constructions. The chapter then reviews discontinuities seen in the definite
possessors in genitive constructions, and explores the combination of this type of
discontinuity with one of the verbal discontinuities explored above.

Section 5.1 - Subjects of Intransitive Verbs

The first kind of discontinuity occurs with subjects of intransitive verbs.

Normally, the subject occurs first, and the verb second, as in the following:

5.1) Leo maquii.

Leo maqui-i
Leo sleep-INC
‘Leo is sleeping.’

5.2) Mja yaa iiyacumaata.

mja ya-: iiyacumaata.
hummingbird fly-INC quickly
‘The hummingbird is flying quickly.’

In these sentences, Leo and mja are the subjects and occur before the
verbs. When the subject is modified by a determiner, a phrasal discontinuity
occurs where the subject noun phrase begins with the determiner, is interrupted by
the verb phrase, and then concludes after the verb phrase. For example:

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5.3) Iina maquii icuani.
Iina maqui-i icuani
Det sleep-INC man
‘That man is sleeping.’

In this example, the subject is the entire nominal phrase iina icuani, but as
shown by the example, this phrase is interrupted by the occurrence of the verb.
The noun itself seems to occur on the right edge of the clause, as all manner of
adverbs and nominal adjuncts can occur between the verb and noun:

5.4) Iina maquii táriica icuani

iina maqui-i táriica icuani
Det sleep-INC morning man
‘That man is sleeping in the morning.’

5.5) Iina maquii ninni acuji icuani.

Iina maqui-i ninni_acuji icuani
Det sleep -INC night man.
‘That man is sleeping at night.’

5.6) Iina maquii amacajina icuani

Iina maqui-i amaca-jina icuani
Det sleep -INC road -DLS man
‘That man is sleeping on the road.’

The example in (5.4) shows that a time adverb can occur between the noun
and verb, and in (5.6) there is a nominal adjunct.
One condition for this discontinuity appears to be the presence of the
demonstrative determiner, because as seen in the contrast with (5.2), the
discontinuity only occurs when the subject is modified by the demonstrative
determiner iina. Since Iquito frequently uses topicalization, and topicalization of
a subject occurs when the subject is a pronoun whose antecedent is a noun phrase
residing in the topic position, it should be noted that one cannot get this kind of
discontinuity when the subject is topicalized:

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5.7) Leo nu-maquii
Leo nu-maqui-i
Leo 3S-sleep -INC
‘Leo, he is sleeping.’

5.8) Iina icuani nu-maquii amacajina.

Iina icuani nu-maqui-i amaca-jina
DET man 3S-sleep -INC road -LES
‘That man, he is sleeping on the road.’

Another condition for this continuity is a verb used intransitively. For

example, some verbs like eat and drink have what one may call optional arguments,
so that the verbs have both transitive and intransitive alternations. As a result,
one can get a discontinuous subject when the verb is used intransitively, but this
feature vanishes as soon as one adds an object:

5.9a) Iina asa-a icuani

Det eat-INC man
‘That man is eating.’

5.9b) Iina asa-a (*minati) icuani (*minati)

Det eat-INC pineapple man pineapple
‘That man is eating (pineapple).’

5.9c) Iina icuani asa-a minati

Det man eat-INC pineapple
‘That man is eating pineapple.’

In summary, then, the following two conditions must be met in order to

have a discontinuous subject: 1) the subject noun is modified by the demonstrative
determiner, 2) the verb is intransitive.

Section 5.2 - Object of Transitive Verbs in SOV constructions

Normally, the object of a transitive verb cannot be discontinuous. The

following are some typical SVO sentences:

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5.10) Qui-mit-yaa iina saahuiri iina icuani.
1S -give -INC DET machete DET man
‘I am giving this machete to this man.’

5.11) Pedro nu-pisasii iina msaji

Pedro nu-pisasi-i iina msaji.
Pedro 3S-kiss -INC DET woman
‘Pedro kissed that woman.’

However, in a sub-set of constructions, the basic word order is SOV.

These constructions are 1) future constructions, 2) infinitival clauses, and 3)
counter-factual constructions. Discontinuous nominal phrases can occur in the
object position in all of these constructions. One variant of the copula
construction had the form: N1 N2 Copula. One may argue that this construction
has some sort of analogy to SOV constructions, in which the second noun resides
in the same syntactic position that the object does in an SOV sentence. This idea
was argued against in Chapter 2, where an alternative hypothesis was advanced
that the first noun in these kinds of copula constructions may be in the topic
position, and the second in the ‘subject’ position. Therefore, any analogy between
copula N N V and SOV constructions will not be further considered. Instead,
this section will analyze the discontinuous phrases that occur in future
constructions, as well as the discontinuous phrases seen in counter-factual and
infinitival constructions, and finally will show that copula constructions necessarily
cannot be true SOV construction like those seen in constructions of type (1) and
(2). The examples below demonstrate the basic pattern seen in SOV future and
infinitival constructions:

5.12) Amicaaca Pedro Maria quihuacur.

Amicaaca Pedro Maria quihuacu-r
Tomorrow hug -MPA
‘Tomorrow Pedro will hug Maria.’

5.13) Amicaaca qui-nu niquir.

Amicaaca qui-nu niqui-r
Tomorrow 1S-3S see-MPA
‘Tomorrow I will see it.’

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5.14) *Amicaaca qui niquir nuu.
Amicaaca qui niqui-r nuu
Tomorrow 1S see -MPA 3S
‘Tomorrow I will see it.’

In example (5.12), two proper names occur before the verb: the first name
is the subject, and the second the direct object. Similarly, in (5.13), two pronouns
occur before the verb. Again, the first word is the subject, and the second is the
object. As indicated by the time adverb, amicaaca, and the verb suffix -r, these
sentences indicate an activity that will occur in the future. Since future
constructions are SOV, a sentence is ungrammatical if the object occurs to the
right of the verb11, as happens with (5.14) above.
Similarly, the object of an infinitival verb must also occur to the left of the
verb, although one occasionally elicits exceptions to this generalization:

5.15) Qui-nacaryaa nu-siquitani.

Qui-nacar-yaa nu-siquita-ni
1S- want -INC 3S-wash -INF
‘I want to wash it.’

5.16) Qui-nacaryaa aaca rariini.

qui-nacar-yaa aaca rarii -ni
1S-want -INC water drink-INF
‘I want to drink water.’

5.17) Qui-nacaryaa siquitani paraatuca.

Qui-nacar-yaa siquita-ni paraatu-ca
1S- want -INC wash -INF plate-PL
‘I want to wash the plates.’

In (5.15) and (5.16), the object occurs to the left of the infinitive. The
sentence in (5.17) shows one of the exceptions to this generalization. The
semantic nuance, if any, between having the object of an infinitive on the right of
the infinitive versus having the object on the left is unknown, but it is far more
common to have the object before the infinitive.

11
Although an exception to this rule is discussed further below.

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 In future constructions, when the object is not modified by the
demonstrative determiner, then nominal phrases of any size must occur to the left
of the verb:

5.18) Amicaaca qui-Jua sahuri masr.

Amicaaca qui Jua sahuri mas -r
Tomorrow 1S Jua machete borrow-MPA
‘Tomorrow I will ask for John’s machete.’

5.19) Amicaaca qui-cumi iimina miir.

Amicaaca qui-cumi iimina mii -r
Tomorrow 1S-two canoe make-MPA
‘Tomorrow I will make two canoes.’

5.20) Amicaaca qui-iimina mnani miir.

Amicaaca qui-iimina mnani mii-r
Tomorrow 1S-canoe black make-MPA
‘Tomorrow I will make a black canoe.’

5.21) *Amicaaca qui-iimina miir mnani.

Amicaaca qui-iimina mii -r mnani
Tomorrow 1S-canoe make-MPA black
‘Tomorrow I will make a black canoe.’

The last sentence, (5.21), is ungrammatical because the adjective mnani,

which modifies the direct object, occurs to the right of the verb. In other words,
discontinuous phrases not comprised of the determiner are illicit, but with a
determiner, the noun and its modifiers occur to the right of the verb, and only the
determiner occurs to the left:

5.22) Amicaaca qui-iina tijacar naana nacajinaca.

Amicaaca qui-iina tijaca-r naana nacajinaca
Tomorrow 1S-3S cut -MPA wood in_half
‘Tomorrow I will cut that wood in half.’

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5.23) *Amicaaca qui-iina simim jiquiar.
Amicaaca qui-iina simim jiquia -r.
Tomorrow 1S-DET letter send.off-MPA
‘Tomorrow I will send off that letter.’

In the first example, only the determiner occurs to the left of the verb, and
the second example is ungrammatical because both the noun and the determiner
occur to the left of the verb. This same contrast between continuous and
discontinuous object phrases also occurs with infinitival constructions:

5.24a) Qui-nacaryaa Pedro iimina ricataajuuni.

Qui-nacar-yaa Pedro iimina ricataahuu-ni
1S- want -INC Pedro canoe fix -INF
‘I want to fix Pedro’s canoe.’
‘I want Pedro to fix the canoe.’

5.24b) Qui-paajuuyaa Pedro ricataajuuni iimina.

Qui-paajuu-yaa Pedro ricataajuu-ni iimina
1S -teach-INC Pedro fix -INF canoe
‘I am teach Pedro to fix a canoe.’

5.25a) Qui-nacaryaa iimi siquitaani paraatuca.

Qui-nacar-yaa iimi siquitaa-ni paratu-ca
1S- want -INC DET wash -INF plate-PL
‘I want to wash those plates.’

5.25b) *Qui-nacaryaa iimi paraatuca siquitaani.

Qui-nacar-yaa iimi paratu-ca siquitaa-ni
1S- want -INC DET plate -PL wash -INF
‘I want to wash those plates.’

The sentence in (5.24a) is ambiguous between whether Pedro is the

possessor of the canoe or whether Pedro is the subject of the infinitive. Either
way, the object of the infinitive comes to the left of the infinitival verb.
Nevertheless, there are some examples in which the object occurs to the right of
the verb, as seen in (5.24b). In (5.25a), the object noun phrase is discontinuous.
The determiner occurs to the left of the infinitive, while the noun itself occurs on

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the right. This discontinuity in the object phrase is obligatory when the
determiner occurs, as shown in (5.25b).
Interestingly, one can increase the discontinuous distance by placing the
matrix verb in the future or by adding an additional infinitive. Each of these
strategies allows the speaker to ‘optionally’ increase the distance between the
determiner and the object, though what discourse effect this has is unknown:

5.26a) Amicaaca qui-nacarr atiitiini iina capiini paapaaja.

Amicaaca qui-nacar-r atiitii -ni capii -ni paapaaja
Tomorrow 1S-want -MPA begin-INF cook-INF fish
‘Tomorrow I will want to begin to cook that fish.’

5.26b) 9 Amicaaca qui nacarr atiitiini iina capiini paapaaja.

5.26c) 9 Amicaaca qui nacarr iina atiitiini capiini paapaaja.
5.26d) 9 Amicaaca qui-iina nacarr atiitiini capiini paapaaja.

The data above suggests that a crucial difference between SVO and SOV
word orders is that in the SOV order, the object has been moved to the left of the
verb. That there really is object movement can be shown from two sources of data:
double object constructions and adjuncts. In double object constructions, the
speaker can optionally move either the recipient or the theme, but (I believe) not
both:

Bitransitive Verbs:
5.27) Amicaaca qui-Pedro miitr paapaaja.
Amicaaca qui-Pedro miit-r paapaaja
Tomorrow 1S-Pedro give -MPA fish
‘Tomorrow I will give fish to Pedro.’

5.28) Amicaaca qui-paapaaja miitr Pedro.

Amicaaca qui-paapaaja miit-r Pedro
Tomorrow 1S-fish give -MPA Pedro
‘Tomorrow I will give fish to Pedro.’

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5.29) *Amicaaca qui-paapaaja Pedro miitr.
Amicaaca qui-paapaaja Pedro miit-r
Tomorrow 1S-fish Pedro give -MPA
‘Tomorrow I will give fish to Pedro.’

In addition, instead of moving a verbal object, one can move an adjunct,

adverb, or infinitive. In this case, the direct object must remain to the right of the
verb.

Adverbs:
5.30) Amicaaca qui-iina tijacar naana nacajinaca.
Amicaaca qui-iina tijaca-r naana nacajinaca
Tomorrow 1S-DET cut -MPA wood in_half
‘Tomorrow I will cut that wood in half.’

5.31) Amicaaca qui-nacajinaca tijacar (iina) naana.

Amicaaca qui-nacajinaca tijaca-r (iina) naana
Tomorrow 1S-in_half cut -MPA DET wood
‘Tomorrow I will cut that wood in half.’

5.32) Amicaaca qui-paapaaja asar iyaracata.

Amicaaca qui-paapaaja asa-r iyaracata
Tomorrow 1S-fish eat-MPA quickly
‘Tomorrow I will eat fish quickly.’

5.33) Amicaaca qui-yaracata asar paapaaja.

Amicaaca qui-yaracata asa-r paapaaja
Tomorrow 1S-quickly eat-MPA fish
‘Tomorrow I will eat fish quickly.’

Benefactive adjunct:
5.34) Amicaaca qui-iina tijacar naana Leoiira.
Amicaaca qui-iina tijaca-r naana Leo-iira
Tomorrow 1S-DET cut -MPA wood Leo-BEN
‘Tomorrow I will cut that wood for Leo.’

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5.35) Amicaaca qui-Leoiira tijacar iina naana.
Amicaaca qui-Leo-iira tijaca-r iina naana
Tomorrow 1S-Leo-BEN cut -MPA DET wood
Tomorrow I will cut that wood for Leo.’

Infinitival verb:
5.36) Amicaaca qui-nacaryaa maquni.
Amicaaca qui-nacar-yaa maqu-ni
Tomorrow 1S-want -INC sleep -INF
‘Tomorrow I will want to sleep.’

5.37) Amicaaca qui-maquni nacarr.

Amicaaca qui-maqu-ni nacar-r
Tomorrow 1S-sleep -INF want -MPA
‘Tomorrow I will want to sleep.’

In the first two groups above, the first sentence is an example with the
direct object moved to the left of the verb, and the second example shows that one
of the other words can move to the left of the verb in its place. The examples
below confirm that the adjunct is actually moving to the same location that the
direct object would have moved, because both the adjunct and the direct object
cannot be moved to the left of the verb at the same time. Instead, only one or the
other can be moved.

5.38) *Amicaaca qui-yaracata paapaaja asar.

Amicaaca qui-yaracata paapaaja asa-r
Tomorrow 1S-quickly fish eat-MPA
‘Tomorrow I will quickly eat that fish.’

5.39) *Amicaaca qui-paapaaja iyaracata asar.

Amicaaca qui-paapaaja iyaracata asa-r
Tomorrow 1S-fish quickly eat-MPA
‘Tomorrow I will quickly eat that fish.’

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5.40) *Amicaaca qui-SanAntunijina Iquitujina icuar.
Amicaaca qui-SanAntuni -jina Iquitu-jina icua-r
Tomorrow 1S-San_Antonio-LES Iquito -LES go -MPA
‘Tomorrow I will go from San Antonio to Iquitos.’

Taken together, all of this data suggests that there is some sort of
functional syntactic position to the left of the verbs in SOV constructions.
Because of the variety of elements that can occur in this position (verbal
arguments, nominal adjuncts, adverbs, infinitives without objects), one cannot
argue that elements are moving into this position in order to satisfy some need of
the word that has moved. For example, one could not argue that direct objects are
moving to this position in order to get case because 1) other elements can move in
its place and 2) some of these other elements are things like adverbs which do not
need case. Instead, it is more logical to argue that elements are moving into this
position to satisfy some need of the position. However, the function of this
position is somewhat mysterious. My suspicion is that it may by a grammatical
focus position, where the object is the default focus, and stands in contrast to the
topic position.
All of this discussion about different elements moving before the verb, of
course, raises the question of just what exactly must move into this position, what
can optionally move, and what can never move. Supposing there is only one (1)
constituent that occurs underlyingly (base-generated) to the right of the verb. In
this situation, the element must move if it is a verbal argument, might be optional
if it’s a time adverb, is completely optional if it’s a nominal adjunct or infinitive
without its own direct object, and is prohibited from moving if it is a subordinate
clause or an infinitive with an object:

Direct Object:
5.41) Amicaaca qui-nu niquir.
Amicaaca qui-nu niqui-r
Tomorrow 1S-3S see -MPA
‘Tomorrow I will see it.’

5.42) *Amicaaca qui niquir nuu.

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Time Adverb:
5.43) Amicaaca cu-ariicuar.
Amicaaca cu-ariicua-r
Tomorrow 1S-sing -MPA
‘Tomorrow I will sing.’

5.44) Cu-amicaaca ariicuar.

Cu-amicaaca ariicua-r
1S-tomorrow sing -MPA
‘Tomorrow I will sing.’ “más natural”

5.45) ?Cu-ariicuar amicaaca.

Cu-ariicua-r amicaaca
1S-sing -MPA tomorrow
‘Tomorrow I will sing.’ “un poquito correcto”

Nominal Adjunct:
5.46) Amicaaca qui-jitr qui-insijina.
Amicaaca qui-jit-r qui-insi -jina
Tomorrow 1S-sit-MPA 1S-hamock-LES
‘Tomorrow I will sit in my hamock.’

5.47) Amicaaca qui-qui-insijina jitr.

Amicaaca qui-qui-insi -jina jit-r
Tomorrow 1S-1S-hamock-LES sit-MPA
‘Tomorrow I will sit in my hamock.’

Intransitive Infinitive:
5.48) Amicaaca qui-nacaryaa maquni.
Amicaaca qui-nacar-yaa maqu-ni
Tomorrow 1S-want -INC sleep -INF
‘Tomorrow I will want to sleep.’

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5.49) Amicaaca qui-maquni nacarr.
Amicaaca qui-maqu-ni nacar-r
Tomorrow 1S-sleep -INF want -MPA
‘Tomorrow I will want to sleep.’

Embedded Clause:
5.50) Amicaaca qui-tuujr nihutiqui icuani.
Amicaaca qui-tuuj -r nihuti-qui icuani
Tomorrow 1S-know-MPA die -PSI man
‘Tomorrow I will know that a man is dead.’

5.51) *Amicaaca qui-nihutiqui tuujr icuani.

Amicaaca qui-nihuti-qui tuuj-r icuani
Tomorrow 1S-die -CMP know-MPA man
‘Tomorrow I will know that a man is dead.’

5.52) *Amicaaca qui-icuani tuujr nihutiqui.

Amicaaca qui-icuani tuuj -r nihuti-qui
Tomorrow 1S-man know-MPA die -CMP
‘Tomorrow I will know that a man is dead.’

So if the position to the left of a verb in SOV constructions is filled by

elements moving into it, and direct objects modified by determiners become
discontinuous in this situation, then the conclusion is that the determiner is able
to stand for the entire nominal phrase and just move by itself, leaving the
remainder of the phrase in its base-generated position. That is, a phrasal
discontinuity occurs when: 1) a noun phrase, for whatever motivation one wants
to posit, must move to a different position and 2) this noun is modified by a
demonstrative determiner, then 3) the determiner alone moves to the new location
rather than the entire NP. Thus, one can predict that every instance of a
discontinuous phrase forms a syntactic minimal pair with a non-discontinuous
counterpart in which the determiner is absent and the entire nominal phrase has
moved to the left instead.

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Section 5.3 - Possession and discontinuous objects

So far, the typology of discontinuous phrases developed in this chapter

includes subjects of intransitive verbs and objects of transitive verbs in SOV
constructions. In addition, another important nominal discontinuity was seen in
chapter 4 involving possessors. In this last case, a possessor modified by the
demonstrative determiner iina would be a discontinuous phrase with the possessum
interrupting the determiner and the possessor that it modifies, as in the following
word order: [Determiner] [Possessum] [Possessor]. What follows in this section
is a presentation of what happens when one fills the object position of transitive
verbs in SOV constructions with a genitive phrase. This position is normally
discontinuous anyway if the determiner is present, but now there are two types of
discontinuity in the same “position”: a discontinuous genitive phrase and a
discontinuous object phrase. The combination of different types of discontinuous
phrases is important to include in a typology of discontinuous phrases.
In an SOV construction, if a possessive phrase without a determiner
modifying the possessor occurs as the object of a transitive verb, then both the
possessor and possessum occur on the left-side of the verb:

5.53) Amicaaca qui-Jua sahuri masr.

Amicaaca qui-Jua sahuri mas -r
Tomorrow 1S-Jua machete borrow-MPA
‘Tomorrow I will borrow John’s machete.’

5.54) Amicaaca qui-Pedro iimina ricataajuur.

Amicaaca qui-Pedro iimina ricataajuu-r
Tomorrow 1S-Pedro canoe repair -MPA
‘Tomorrow I will fix Pedro’s canoe.’

5.55) Amicaaca qui-qui-nasi miir.

Amicaaca qui-qui-nasi mii -r
Tomorrow 1S-1S -garden make-MPA
‘Tomorrow I will make my garden.’

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5.56) Amicaaca qui-msaji cansi masr.
Amicaaca qui-msaji cansi mas-r
Tomorrow 1S-woman bag buy -MPA
‘Tomorrow I will by the woman’s bag.’

5.57) Amicaaca qui-Leo majana simim jiquiar Iquitujina.

Amicaaca qui-Leo majana simi-m jiquia-r Iquitu -jina
Tomorrow 1S-Leo woman book-CPN sent -MPA Iquitos-LES
‘Tomorrow I will sent Leo’s woman’s books to Iquitos.’

5.58) Amicaaca qui-qui-cuajimana iimina ricataajuur.

Amicaaca qui-qui-cuajimana iimina ricataajuu-r
Tomrrow 1S-1S -friend canoe repair -MPA
‘Tomorrow I will fix my friend’s canoe.’

In examples (5.53) and (5.54), the possessor is a name. In (5.55) the

possessor is the possessive pronoun. In (5.56), the possessor is a bare noun, while
(5.57) and (5.58) show complex possessor. In each case, the possessor or
possessors occur to the left of the possessum.
When the possessor is modified by the determiner, one can have two
possible constructions. The first is more relevant for a discussion on
discontinuous phrases, but the second will be discussed for its relevance in teasing
out the semantic nuances of the determiner. In the first construction, both the
determiner and the possessum are moved to the left of the verb, but the possessor
noun itself remains to the right of the verb. Examples:

5.59) Amicaaca qui-iina iimina ricatajuur icuani.

Amicaaca qui-iina iimina ricatajuu-r icuani
Tomorrow 1S-DET canoe fix -MPA man
‘Tomorrow I will fix this man’s canoe.’

5.60) Amicaaca qui-iina caqu sihuiirar maaya.

Amicaaca qui-iina caqu sihuiira-r maaya
Tomorrow 1S-DET father visit -MPA child
‘Tomorrow I will visit this child’s father.’

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5.61) Amicaaca qui-iina nasi aniiruur icuani.
Amicaaca qui-iina nasi aniiruu-r icuani
Tomorrow 1S-DET garden clear -MPA man
‘Tomorrow I will clear this man’s garden.’

5.62) *Amicaaca qui-iina icuani aniiruur nasi.

Mañana voy a derribar la chacra de ese hombre.

The last example shows that it is ungrammatical to move the possessor instead of
the possessum.
What’s particularly interesting about these examples is the evidence they
provide for the compounding hypothesis. Recall in chapter 4 it was proposed that
some kind of compounding was taking place in genitive constructions. The
tentative hypothesis was that the two nouns formed a compound together. The
data above shows that a compound cannot possibly be formed between the two
nouns when a determiner is present, because the main verb in these examples
intervenes between the two nouns. On the other hand, the data above does raise
the possibility of a different kind of syntactic dependency being formed between
the determiner and the possessum. The determiner, as has already been shown
above, is able to move to a new location in place of the whole NP moving, and
simply behaves in a manner that has been seen before, but this time with a twist -
since the possessum is bound - or perhaps compounded - to the determiner, the
possessum must follow the determiner wherever it goes.
In section 4.9, it was shown that adpositions seem to be clitics, because
adpositions of two syllables or less are phonologically bound to the right of the
phrasal head, which may be a determiner if there is one, or a bare noun if there is
no determiner. The section concluded by noting that possessums and adpositions
have exactly the same peculiar distribution, and that one should probably seek the
same analysis for both adpositions and possessums. One such analysis would be to
treat possessums in Iquito as a sort of clitic, in parallel to adpositions as discussed
in section 4.9. The data in (5.59) - (5.62) is consistent with a clitic-like analysis
in which the possessum binds to the phrasal head, which in this case is the
determiner, and then follows the determiner wherever it goes.
The examples of possession where there are no determiners are also
consistent with the clitic-like hypotheses. Absent a determiner, a dependency is
formed between the possessum and the possessor, and the whole phrase must
moves together because there is no determiner which can move in its place.

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 The problem with analyzing possessums as some kind of clitic-like element
is that clitics are often phonologically reduced forms that do not receive their own
stress. However, as seen with the data from adpositions, the phonological
reduction has more to do with the size of the morpheme. Only adpositions of two
syllables or less become bound. Adpositions larger than two syllables are free
forms. The fact that possessums are stressable and independently pronounceable
may have more to do with the fact that most nouns in Iquito consist of at least
three syllables. The prediction would be that a monosyllabic or disyllabic
possessum would behave like the two-syllable adpositions. Part of the problem
with calling something like possessums a clitic may have more to do with the fact
that false dichotomies are created whereby something is either a clitic or a free
form, or either a clitic or an affix, as if intermediate stages were not permitted12.
Instead, I assume that what we actually see in language is a continuum or cline
from free form to clitic to affix. I argue Iquito possessums are probably
intermediate between a free form and a clitic (Brown 2004a):

5.63)
Free Form Clitic Affix
<-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------->
Iquito
Possessums

A clitic-like analysis would provide an explanation for why the possessum

cannot have its own determiner or be modified by an adjective. As a clitic-like
element, the possessum is no longer functioning as a typical NP. In the process
of cliticization, its functional capabilities have been reduced, and as such it cannot
take complements nor can it serve as a complement to a determiner. For a more
in-depth analysis of possession in Iquito see Brown (2004b).
The second construction that can occur when the possessor is modified by
iina is for the determiner to occur alone to the right of the verb, and then for the
entire NP (both the possessor and possessum) to be repeated again to the right of
the verb. In this construction, it is believed that the determiner is anaphorically

12
For example, if Iquito adpositions or possessums were subject to the tests for
clitichood outlined in Zwicky and Pullum (1983), they would fail about half the
tests, leading to contradictory test results if one presupposes a dichotic choice
between clitics and freeforms.

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linked to the NP on the right of the verb. The NP on the right is complete: no
material has been moved out of it and the NP would serve as a grammatical NP in
non-SOV constructions or as the subject of a sentence. The first set of examples
shows a complete NP on the right of the verb with a determiner modifying the
possessor.

5.64) Amicaaca qui-iina sihuiirar iina caqu maaya.

Amicaaca qui-iina sihuiira-r iina caqu maaya
Tomorrow 1S-DET visit -MPA DET father child
‘Tomorrow I will visit this child’s father.’

5.65) Amicaaca qui-iina masr iina cansi msaji.

Amicaaca qui-iina mas-r iina cansi msaji
Tomorrow 1S-DET buy -MPA DET bag woman
‘Tomorrow I will buy this woman’s bag.’

5.66) Amicaaca qui-iina aniiruur iina nasi icuani.

Amicaaca qui-iina aniiruu-r iina nasi icuani
Tomorrow 1S-DET clear -MPA DET garden man
‘Tomorrow I will clear this man’s garden.’

5.67) *Amicaaca qui-iina Pedro iimina ricataajuur.

Amicaaca qui-iina Pedro iimina ricataajuu-r
Tomorrow 1S-DET Pedro canoe fix -MPA
‘Tomorrow I will fix Pedro’s canoe.’

5.68) *Amicaaca qui-iina capir iina paapaaja.

Amicaaca qui-iina capi -r iina paapaaja
Tomorrow 1S-DET cook-MPA DET fish
‘Tomorrow I will cook that fish.’

In the two ungrammatical examples, the first shows that it is

ungrammatical to move the entire genitive phrase to the left of the verb. The
second example shows that it is ungrammatical to repeat the determiner when the
NP on the right does not have a possessor or is not a genitive construction.
The next examples show a complete NP on the right of the verb where the
possessor is not modified by the determiner. The determiner is not repeated in the

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NP nor does it directly modify the possessor. Instead, it represents the NP
anaphorically:

5.69) Amicaaca qui-iina ricataajuur Pedro iimina.

Amicaaca qui-iina ricataajuu-r Pedro iimina
Tomorrow 1S-DET fix -MPA Pedro canoe
‘Tomorrow I will fix Pedro’s canoe.’

5.70) Amicaaca qui-iina aniiruur icuani nasi.

Amicaaca qui-iina aniiruu-r icuani nasi
Tomorrow 1S-DET clear -MPA man garden
‘Tomorrow I will clear this man’s garden.’

5.71) Amicaaca qui-iina masr msaji cansi.

Amicaaca qui-iina mas-r msaji cansi
Tomorrow 1S-DET buy -MPA woman bag
‘Tomorrow I will buy this woman’s bag.’

5.72) *Amicaaca qui-iina cansi msaji masr.

Amicaaca qui-iina cansi msaji mas-r
Tomorrow 1S-DET bag woman buy -MPA
‘Tomorrow I will buy this woman’s bag.’

The last example is ungrammatical because both the possessor and

possessum have been moved to the left of the verb. In comparing these examples
with those of the first set further above, note that the order of the two nouns is
switched in these last examples. This is expected. A possessive phrase with a
determiner normally occurs with the determiner first, the possessum second, and
the possessor noun last, so that the possessum precedes the possessor. In a
possessive phrase without a determiner, the possessor occurs first and the
possessum last, and this is the order seen above in this last set of data. In other
words, not only are these NP’s on the right of the verb not missing any material
that has moved to a different location, but the NP’s themselves are behaving
consistently in the manner one would expect. The normality of the NP on the
right, therefore, is evidence that the determiner located before the verb must be
representing anaphorically the NP on the right.

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 Chapter 6: Reconciling SVO and SOV Word Orders

Chapter Outline
6.1 Evidence for an XP position in SVO: Predicate Elements
6.2 Evidence for an XP position in SVO: Double Object Constructions
and Time Adverbs
6.3 Evidence for Verb Movement
6.4 The Iquito Inflectional Head

This chapter examines the two basic word orders in Iquito and argues that
the two basic orders can be reconciled into one underlying SVO word order. The
argument proceeds in two steps. First, recall that chapter 5 demonstrated that a
grammatical position of uncertain function13 (let us call it the XP position)
necessarily exists between the subject position and the verb in SOV constructions,
and that the real object position actually exists to the right of the verb. The
conclusion in chapter 5 was that the object or some other element must either
move or be base-generated in the XP position. So the first step in reconciling the
two basic word orders is to show that the XP position necessarily exists in SVO
word order as well. The second step is to show that the difference between the two
word orders can be entirely accounted for by verb movement. However,
postulating a verb movement results in postulating an inflectional position to
which the verb is moving. The last section of this chapter details evidence for this
inflectional position.

Section 6.1 - Evidence for an XP position in SVO: Predicate Elements

The order of the grammatical positions developed in section 2.4 should be

amended to include the XP position demonstrated to exist in SOV word orders.
This revision then gives us the following order of grammatical elements:

6.1) SVO word order: [Topic] [Wh-Word] [Subject] [Verb] [Object]

SOV word order: [Topic] [Wh-Word] [Subject] [XP] [Verb] [Object]

This typology of grammatical positions is now unsatisfactory for several

reasons. First, the SOV word order now has a grammatical position which does

13
Though I suspect it may be a grammatical focus position.

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not exist in the SVO word order. Although movement of different words within a
sentence is unsurprising, one would still expect the grammar of a language to
consistently hold the same number of syntactic positions whenever possible.
Second, in describing the fundamental difference between the two word orders,
one is simply left with stating that in SOV the object moves to the left of the
verb, while in SVO the object remains in situ. From a theoretical standpoint, the
situation was much cleaner before the discovery of the XP position, when the
order of the positions was simply the following:

6.2) SVO word order: [Topic] [Wh-Word] [Subject] [Verb] [Object]

SOV word order: [Topic] [Wh-Word] [Subject] [Object] [Verb]

In this situation, the basic difference between the two orders could be
accounted for by stating that the verb moves to the left in the SVO orders, while
it remains in situ in the SOV order. Given that the semantic difference between
the two word orders is an aspectual difference, and that verb movement is a
common strategy among languages for signaling aspectual differences, this
observation could have led to a much cleaner account.
However, there is good evidence that the XP position may actually exist in
the SVO word order as well. The first evidence is indirect. Namely, if the SOV
word order has an additional position that all sorts of elements within the verbal
predicate can move into, while the SVO order does not have this position, then
there is a prediction that one ought to be able to find some order of predicate
elements (where predicate elements include nominal arguments, adjuncts, and VP
adverbs) that can occur in SOV but cannot occur in SVO, simply because these
elements are able to take advantage of an additional position to re-arrange their
order. In fact, one encounters great difficulty in trying to find any order of
predicate elements that can only occur in SOV but not in SVO. Instead, one
can make the generalization that any order of predicates which occur in SOV can
also occur in SVO word order. The following are some examples illustrating this
generalization:

Objects modified with a determiner:

6.3a) Amicaaca qui-iina tijacar naana Leoiira.
Amicaaca qui-iina tijaca-r naana Leo-iira
Tomorrow 1S-DET cut-MPA wood Leo-BEN
‘Tomorrow I will cut that wood for Leo.’

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6.3b) Qui-sajii iina naana Leoiira.
Qui-saji-i iina naana Leo-iira.
1S-cut-INC DET wood Leo-BEN
‘I am cutting that wood for Leo.’

Manner adverbs:
6.4a) Amicaaca qui-yaracata asar paapaaja.
Amicaaca qui-yaracata asa-r paapaaja
Tomorrow 1S-quickly eat-MPA fish
‘Tomorrow I will quickly eat that fish.’

6.4b) Cu-asaa iyaracata iina paapaaja.

Cu-asa-a iyaracata iina paapaaja
1S-eat-INC quickly DET fish
‘I am eating that fish quickly.’

6.5a) Amicaaca qui-nacajinaca tijacar (iina) naana.

Amicaaca qui-nacajinaca tijaca-r (iina) naana
Tomorrow 1S-in_half cut-MPA DET wood
‘Tomorrow I will cut that wood in half.’

6.5b) Qui-tijaca nacajinaca iina naana Leoiira.

Qui-tijaca nacajinaca iina naana Leo-iira
1S-cut in_half DET wood Leo-BEN
‘I will burn this wood in the middle part for Leo.’

Benefactives:
6.6a) Amicaaca qui-Leoiira tijacar iina naana.
Amicaaca qui-Leo-iira tijaca-r iina naana
Tomorrow 1S-Leo-BEN cut-MPA DET wood
‘Tomorrow I will cut that wood for Leo.’

6.6b) Qui-tijacaa Leoiira iina naana.

Qui-tijaca-a Leo-iira iina naana
1S-cut -INC Leo-BEN DET wood
‘I am cutting that wood for Leo.’

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Ditransitive verbs with two overt objects:
6.7a) Amicaaca qui-miisi mitr myaara.
Amicaaca qui-miisi mit-r myaara
Tomorrow 1S-cat give-MPA dog
‘Tomorrow I will give a cat to a dog.’

6.7b) Qui-mityaa miisi myaara.

Qui-mit-yaa miisi myaara
1S-give -INC cat dog
‘I am giving a cat to a dog.’

6.8a) Amicaaca qui-myaara mitr miisi.

Amicaaca qui-myaara mit-r miisi.
Tomorrow 1S-dog give -INC cat
‘Tomorrow I will give a dog to a cat.’

6.8b) Qui-mityaa myaara miisi.

Qui-mit-yaa myaara miisi
1S-give -INC dog cat
‘I am giving a dog to a cat.’

In each of the pairs of examples above, the example in (a) shows an SOV
sentences with the predicate elements italicized. The (b) example provides the
same sentence in SVO word order, again with the elements in the predicate
italicized. In each pair of sentences, if an order of predicate elements is able to
occur in SOV, then this same order is able to occur in SVO. There is one known
exception to this generalization involving existential or S-level adverbs. Rather
than being counter-evidence, this exception is discussed later as evidence for verb
movement.

Section 6.2 - Evidence for an XP position in SVO: Double Object Constructions

and Time Adverbs

The group of sentences in (6.7) - (6.8) involving ditransitive verbs shows

that the order of the two objects is: [Theme] [Recipient]. Reversing the order of
the arguments reverses what gets given to whom. However, this particular order of

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the theme and recipient is only fixed in one of two situations. The first and most
common is when the two objects are identical in their definiteness and animacy.
Normally, however, the element that is the most animate, the most definite, or
some combination of the two becomes interpreted as the recipient, regardless of
the order of the two objects:

SVO word order:

6.9a) Qui-mityaa paapaaja Maria. [theme] [recipient]
Qui-mit-yaa paapaaja Maria
1S-give -INC fish Maria
‘I am giving fish to Maria.’

6.9b) Qui-mityaa Maria paapaaja. [recipient] [theme]

Qui-mit-yaa Maria paapaaja
1S-give -INC Maria fish
‘I am giving fish to Maria.’

SOV word order:

6.10a) Amicaaca qui-paapaaja miitr Pedro. [theme] [recipient]
Amicaaca qui-paapaaja miit-r Pedro
Tomorrow 1S-fish give -MPA Pedro
‘Tomorrow I will give fish to Pedro.’

6.10b) Amicaaca qui-Pedro miitr paapaaja. [recipient] [theme]

Amicaaca qui-Pedro miit-r paapaaja
Tomorrow 1S-Pedro give -MPA fish
‘Tomorrow I will give fish to Pedro.’

The sentences in (6.9) illustrate the interchangeability of the two objects

that is possible without affecting the interpretation of the sentence. Interestingly,
in the SOV14 constructions, this interchangeability of the objects is realized by

14
The term SOV is somewhat of a misnomer for these constructions. While it is
true that the object most frequently occurs before the verb in these constructions,
recall from Chapter 5 that it is also possible to have other elements besides the
object occurring before the verb, including the time adverb:

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one or the other object promoting into the XP position. The hypothesis, then, is
that the interchangeability of the two objects in SVO is able to occur because one
or the other object is occurring in this XP position. The hypothesis is testable.
Since one can place some sort of nominal adjunct or VP adverb in the XP
position in lieu of moving an object, then there is a prediction that filling the XP
position with one of these adjuncts should prevent the two objects from switching
their order:

‘SOV’ Order
6.11a) Cu-amicaaca miitr paapaaja Maria.
Cu-amicaaca miit-r paapaaja Maria
1S-tomorrow give-MPA fish Maria
‘Tomorrow I will give fish to Maria.’

6.11b) *Cu-amicaaca miitr Maria paapaaja.

‘Tomorrow I will give fish to Maria.’

6.12a) Cu-amicaaca miitr myaara iina icuani.

Cu-amicaaca miit-r myaara iina icuani
1S tomorrow give-MPA dog DET man
‘Tomorrow I will give dog to that man.’

a) Amicaaca cu-ariicuar.
Amicaaca cu-ariicua-r
Tomorrow 1S-sing -MPA
‘Tomorrow I will sing.’

b) Cu-amicaaca ariicuar.
Cu-amicaaca ariicua-r
1S-tomorrow sing -MPA
‘Tomorrow I will sing.’

So even though the object still occurs after the verb in examples (6.11) and
(6.12), these constructions are categorically the same as the other ‘SOV’ examples
seen in this chapter, since like the other examples they carry the verbal suffix, -r,
and occur in the future.

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6.12b) *Qui amicaaca miitr iina icuani myaara.
Mañana voy a dar perro a este hombre.

The future sentences above all have a time adverb in the XP position.
With the XP position occupied by the time adverb, amicaaca, not only must both
objects remain to the right of the verb, but also the order of these two objects is
invariable: the recipient must come last. Similarly, in ‘SVO’ sentences, placing a
time or other adverb immediately after the verb likewise results in the order of the
two objects becoming inflexible:

‘SVO Order’
6.13a) Qui-mityaa juura paapaaja iina msaji.
Qui-mit-yaa juura paapaaja iina msaji
1S- give-INC surely fish DET woman
‘I am surely giving fish to that woman.’

6.13b) *Qui-mityaa juura iina msaji paapaaja.

‘I am surely giving fish to that woman.’

6.14a) Qui-mityaa táriica paapaaja Pedro.

Qui-mit-yaa táriica paapaaja Pedro
1S-give -INC morning fish Pedro
‘I am giving fish to Pedro in the morning.’

6.14b) *Qui-mityaa táriica Pedro paapaaja.

‘I am giving fish to Pedro in the morning.’

6.15a) Qui-mityaa táriica psca Maria.

Qui-mit-yaa táriica psca Maria
1S-give -INC morning sachavaca Maria.
‘I am giving sachavaca to Maria in the morning.’

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6.15b) *Qui-mityaa táriica Maria psca.
‘I am giving sachavaca to Maria in the morning.’

The pairs of sentences above show that when an adverb occurs immediately
after the verb in an ‘SVO’ construction, one can no longer switch the order of the
two objects. Since the behavior of the two objects is exactly the same in either of
the two constructions, ‘SVO’ or ‘SOV’, the conclusion is that there really is an
XP position in the ‘SVO’ word order. Moreover, since the adverb is argued to be
filling the XP position in the ‘SVO’ sentences above, this then implies that the
location of the XP position in ‘SVO’ word order is after the verb, but before the
object, which yields the following order of grammatical positions:

6.16) SVO word order: [Topic] [Wh-Word] [Subject] [Verb] [XP] [Object]
SOV word order: [Topic] [Wh-Word] [Subject] [XP] [Verb] [Object]

Since the XP and Object positions are adjacent in SVO word order, most
movement of the object is normally completely vacuously, but the evidence from
double object construction and the parallel possible order of predicate elements
suggests that the XP position exists in the SVO word order as well.

Section 6.3 - Evidence for Verb Movement

As the order of the grammatical positions is now the same except for the
verb, one is left again in the happy situation of postulating that the fundamental
difference between the two word orders is simply the verb moving in one word
order and remaining in situ in the other. Evidence that the verb really is moving
comes from the one exception mentioned above in the parallel between the
possible order of predicate elements between SVO and SOV. In this exception,
an existential adverb can occur immediately after a verb in SVO word order, but
cannot occur between two objects or at the end of the sentence:

6.17) (Juura) qui-jiquii (juura) iina simiini (*juura) iquitojina (*juura).

Juura qui-jiqui-i juura iina simiini *juura
Surely 1S- send-INC surely DET letter surely

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 iquitojina *juura
iquito -jina *juura
Iquitos-LES surely
‘Surely I will send that letter to Iquitos.’

6.18) (Juura) qui-mityaa (juura) paapaaja (*juura) iina msaji.

(Juura) qui-mit-yaa (juura) paapaaja (*juura) iina msaji
surely 1S-give-INC surely fish surely DET woman
‘I am surely giving fish to that woman.’

However, if the same sentence is placed in a future-time SOV construction, the

existential adverb can no longer occur immediately after the verb:

6.19) (Juura) amicaaca qui-simiini jiquiar (*juura) iquitujina (*juura).

(Juura) amicaaca qui-simiini jiquia-r (*juura) iquitu-jina (*juura)
surely tomorrow 1S-letter send-MPA surely Iquito-LES surely
‘Tomorrow I will surely send that letter to Iquitos.’

6.20) (Juura) amicaaca qui-paapaaja mitr (*juura) iina msaji.

(Juura) amicaaca qui-paapaaja mit-r (*juura) iina msaji
surely tomorrow 1S-fish send-MPA surely DET woman
‘Tomorrow I will surely send fish to that woman.’

Existential adverbs are commonly argued to require a wide scope over the
constituents of a sentence and for this reason cannot occur in a position so
embedded within a sentence that they cannot have proper scope. If this
generalization is true, then the evidence above substantiates the claim that the
verb is moving. The conclusion is that in SOV word order, the verb has not
moved anywhere, and therefore an existential adverb cannot occur to the right of
the verb because the verb is embedded too deeply within the clause for the adverb
to have proper scope. In the SVO word order, the verb has now moved to a new
location, and in this new location the existential adverb can occur to the right of
the verb because the verb is now in a position where the adverb would have proper
scope.

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Section 6.4 - The Iquito Inflectional Head

That a verb moves or does not move in order to create various

tense/aspectual distinction is not at all unusual in the world’s languages. English
verbs, for example, are argued to move slightly to the left to acquire their
inflection, and remain in situ when the inflection occurs as its own free
morpheme, as with auxiliary, modal, and do-support constructions. A similar
situation occurs in Iquito, where verb movement is used to signal aspectual
differences. However, there is an important different. In English the inflection is
almost always obligatory - either on the verb or as a free morpheme. So suppose
for argument’s sake that the order of some of the grammatical positions in
English is something like the following:

6.21) [Subject] [Inflection] [Verb] [Object]

Now, the analysis for English would be that either the inflection occurs as a free
morpheme (like with DO-support), or instead the verb may move to the inflection
position. With Iquito, the analysis is slightly different. Suppose Iquito has an
inflection position as well, and this position, after all, is where the Iquito verb
moves to in SVO word orders:

6.22) [Topic] [Subject] [Inflection] [XP] [Verb] [Object]

In contrast to English, when the Iquito verb does not move anywhere in SOV
word orders, there is nothing like a modal, auxiliary, or do support that occurs in
place of the verb moving. Moreover, the Iquito verb itself always has some sort of
tense/aspect morpheme, regardless of whether it moves or not. However, if the
hypothesis that the verb does not move in SOV constructions is correct, then
there is a possibility that, in principle, there could be some sort of inflectional
particle that could occur in the “inflection” position when the verb remains in its
original location. After some careful investigation, it turns out that work by I-wen
Lai (2003) on Iquito counter-factual and hypothetical constructions contained
just such an inflectional particle occurring in exactly the location one would
expect. In these constructions, the object occurs before the verb, indicating that
the verb has not moved, but between the subject and the object there is some
variant of the copular verb t:

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6.23) Caa quia-t nu-mit cacaraaja naaqui, nu-t sapqui.
caa quia-t nu-mit-ø cacaraaja naaqui nu-t sap-qui-ø
NEG 2S-COP 3S-give -NPS chicken eggs 3S-COP cry-CMP-NPS
‘If you had not given him chicken eggs, he would have cried.’
‘Si no le dieras huevos de gallina, habría llorado.’

6.24) Iina msaji caa nu-t iina mit maaya cacaraaja naaqui,
iina msaji caa nu- t iina mit-ø maaya cacaraaja naaqui
DET woman NEG 3S-COP DET give -NPS child chicken eggs

nu-t sapqui.
nu-t sap-qui -ø
3S-COP cry -CMP-NPS
‘That woman, if she had not given chicken eggs to that child, he would
have cried.’
‘Si esa mujer no le diera huevos de gallina a ese niño, habría llora.’

In the first sentence, the subject is the second person pronoun quia-, the
direct object is the third person pronoun nu-, the first main verb is mit, “give”.
The particle t, which in other sentences functions as a copulative, occurs between
the subject and the object. In sentence (6.24), the first clause begins with a
topicalized noun phrase, iina msaji. The grammatical subject is the third person
pronoun nu-. The next word is again the inflectional particle t. The main verb
of the first clause is again the verb for give, mit. The recipient of the chicken
eggs is the discontinous phrase iina maaya, “that child”. The main verb occurs
between the determiner and the noun, which is consistent with verbs in SOV
future constructions, and is further evidence that the verb in this construction
follows the same pattern as verbs in other SOV constructions and, therefore, has
not moved. The existence of the particle t in these sentences is conclusive
evidence for showing that verbs in SOV constructions are just not moving to a
new position, whereas verbs in SVO constructions are moving.
This data raises some natural questions about the nature of the copula.
While the semantics of this particle are beyond the scope of this paper, it should at
least be pointed out that in Chapter 2 the nature of the copula was examined to
determine if it actually behaved like a verb in an SVO construction or like a verb
in an SOV construction. There it was determined that the copula behaved more
like a verb in an SVO construction, in the sense that the copula’s surface position

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was immediately after the subject, rather than immediately after an object.
Happily, the previous analysis is consistent with the data above: the “copula”
occurs immediately after a subject, rather than after the object. The final
hypothesis at this point, which will remain untested, is that the copula in Iquito is
actually an overt manifestation of aspect, and never actually occurs base-generated
in the position of “normal” verbs. The end.

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 Appendix 1 - Common Morpheme Abbreviations

A number of abbreviations are used throughout this thesis for the glosses of
the different morphemes. What follows is a partial list of common morphemes
together with the abbreviations used here.

acuji by motive of; in front of MOT

-ca plural marker PL1
caa negation NEG
-cura recent past PSR
-cura destination LDS
-huya plural marker PL6
-hua plural marker PL2
-huaca plural marker PL4
iicu owing to (involuntary RES
causation)
iicura owing to (voluntary causation) ATR
iiquii existential EXS
iira benefactive BEN
jata comitative COM
jina varies, (?) LES
-mi inanimate plural marker CPN
-ni infinitive INF
-p animate plural markere CPA
-qui completive aspect PSI / CMP
-quiaqu distant past PSD2
-r point of action marker, (?) MPA
-riqu distant past PSD1
-saacari hipothetical HIP
siricuma to the side of LSL
t copula COP
-ya plural marker PL3
-yaa / V: incompletive aspect INC / PRG

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 Appendix 2 - Bibliography

Abney, Steve. 1987. “The English Noun Phrase in its Sentential Aspect.”
Unpublished dissert. MIT.
Brown, Mark C. 2003. “An Optimality-Theoretic Account of Stress-
induced Consonant Gemination in Iquito.” Sounds Group Presentation.
Brown, Mark C. 2004a. “Cliticization in Iquito.” Presentation at the 9th
Workshop on Structure and Constituency in the Languages of the
Americas.
Brown, Mark C. 2004b. (To Appear) “Possession and Cliticization in
Iquito.” Morphology of Native American Languages. Proceedings of the 30th
Annual Meeting of the Berkeley Linguistics Society.
Eastman, Robert and Elizabeth Eastman. “Iquito Syntax.” Studies in
Peruvian Indian Languages 1. Viola G. Waterhouse, ed. 1963.
Elson, Benjamin F., editor. 1962. Studies in Ecuadorian Indian languages
1. Linguistic series, 7. Norman: Summer Institute of Linguistics of the
University of Oklahoma.
Furne, Riche. 1963. “Arabela Phonemes and High-level Phonology.” Studies in
Peruvian Indian Languages. Vol. 1: 193-206.
Güimack, Hilter Panduro. “Seminario 19: La forma plural en el idioma
iquito.” Estudios del Idioma Iquito. Documento de trabajo del
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 VITA

Mark C. Brown was born in Houston, Texas on January 19, 1977, to

Georgia Brown and Edgar William Brown IV. After completing his work at St.
Thomas’ Episcopal, Mark entered Baylor University in Waco, Texas. In August
of 1999 he graduated magna cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts in Classics and
minors in Linguistics and Business Administration. After teaching Latin for one
year at a private school in Austin, he enrolled in the graduate program in
linguistics at the University of Texas at Austin.

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