Headless Relative Clauses in Mesoamerican Languages
A volume edited by
Ivano Caponigro, Harold Torrence, and Roberto Zavala Maldonado
Oxford University Press
2021
Publisher's book webpage
Book Endorsements
"A ground-breaking volume -- the first exclusively on headless relatives, the first on semantic issues in Mesoamerican languages. An excellent introduction and detailed explorations of individual languages paint a rich and exciting picture of how wh structures without nominal heads can have referential import. Typologists, syntacticians, semanticists and anyone studying microvariation in relativization strategies will find a wealth of hidden gems in this outstanding contribution to the vibrant field of cross-linguistic semantics." -- Veneeta Dayal, Dorothy R. Diebold Professor of Linguistics, Yale University
"This book presents a thorough analysis of headless relative clauses in fourteen Mesoamerican language from four families, plus one Central American language. The cast of twenty-one authors is superlative and includes nine who are native speakers of one of the languages under consideration, as well as other linguists from around the world. The resulting book is a model of collaborative linguistics." -- The late Nora C. England, Professor of Linguistics, University of Texas at Austin
"This book is a crowning achievement of research on headless relatives, a model of the micro-typological approach to language, and an inspiring example of careful semantic work on lesser-known languages. By showing how much can be accomplished in describing such languages, the authors set an important precedent for future studies in cross-linguistic semantics. The introduction to the book stands out as a state-of-the art overview of headless relatives, from the questions that need to be asked to a painstaking analysis of their semantic properties. An absolute must for semanticists, syntacticians interested in relativization, typologists, and Mesoamerican scholars." -- Maria Polinsky, Professor of Linguistics, University of Maryland
Book Reviews
Book review by Ana Aguilar Guevara, Cuadernos De Lingüística De El Colegio De México 9: 1-17, 2022.
Book review by Irina Burukina, Journal of Linguistics 58: 459-464, 2022
Book-inspired Work
(in chronological and alphabetical order)
Enrique L. Palancar, Roberto Zavala Maldonado, and Claudine Chamoreau (2024). Headless relative clauses with a gap: a typological trait of Mesoamerican languages. Linguistic Typology. DOI
Philip T. Duncan, Harold Torrence, Pedro Mateo Pedro (2024). Indeterminate pronouns in Kaqchikel. Linguistic Variation 24(1): 116 -163. DOI
Hunter Johnson (2024). Relative clause formation in Guarani. Presentation at the annual meeting of the Society for the Study of the Indigenous Languages of the Americas (SSILA), NYC, NY, January 4-7.
Carol Rose Little, Scott AnderBois, Jessica Coon (2024). Type-shifting in headless relative clauses. Natural Language and Linguistic Theory. DOI
Ivano Caponigro (2023). Referring and quantifying without nominals: Headless Relative Clauses across languages. In Juhyae Kim, Burak Öney, Yao Zhang, and Fengyue (Lisa) Zhao (eds), Proceedings of the 33rd Semantics and Linguistic Theory Conference (SALT 33), 744-774.
Madeleine Letitia Booth (2023). Topics in the Nominal Domain in San Cristobal Lachirioag Zapotec. Ph.D. dissertation, UCLA.
Noah Elkins and Colin Brown (2023). Free relative clauses in Mam, Proceedings of the 26th Workshop on Structure and Constituency in Languages of the Americas (WSCLA 26), University of British Columbia Working Papers in Linguistics .
Yurika Aonuki (2022). Free relatives in Gitksan. In Seung Suk Lee & Yixiao Song (eds), SULA 11: Proceedings of the 11th Semantics of Under-represented Languages in the Americas, 1-16, GLSA, Linguistics Department, University of Massachusetts at Amherst.
Ivano Caponigro (2022). Headless relative clauses and the syntax-semantics mapping: evidence from Mesoamerica. In Seung Suk Lee & Yixiao Song (eds), Proceedings of the 11th Semantics of Under-represented Languages in the Americas (SULA 11), 27-42, GLSA, Linguistics Department, University of Massachusetts at Amherst.
Philip T. Duncan (2022). Documenting What’s In Almost Every Narrative: Free Relative Clauses in Kiksht. International Journal of American Linguistics, 88(3):271-323.
Eladio López Espinoza (2022). Las construcciones relativas en el triqui de Copala. MA thesis, CIESAS.
Iara Mantenuto and Ivano Caponigro (2021). Free relative clauses in Teramano. Quaderni di lavoro ASIt/ASIt Working Papers, 23: 31-62.
Iara Mantenuto and Ivano Caponigro (2021). Light-headed relative clauses in Teramano. Studies in Language 45(4): 921–937. DOI
Enrique L. Palancar , Roberto Zavala Maldonado, Claudine Chamoreau (eds) (2021). Relative Clause Structure in Mesoamerica Languages. Studies in the Indigenous Languages of the Americas, BRILL.
Scott AnderBois, Miguel Oscar Chan Dzul, Jessica Coon, and Juan Jesús Vázquez Álvarez (2019). Relativas libres en ch’ol y maya yucateco y la tipología de cláusulas relativas sin núcleo. In Ryan Bennett, Robert Henderson, Pedro Mateo Pedro, and Meg Harvey (eds), Proceedings of Form and Analysis in Mayan Linguistics (FAMLi V).
Book Endorsements
"A ground-breaking volume -- the first exclusively on headless relatives, the first on semantic issues in Mesoamerican languages. An excellent introduction and detailed explorations of individual languages paint a rich and exciting picture of how wh structures without nominal heads can have referential import. Typologists, syntacticians, semanticists and anyone studying microvariation in relativization strategies will find a wealth of hidden gems in this outstanding contribution to the vibrant field of cross-linguistic semantics." -- Veneeta Dayal, Dorothy R. Diebold Professor of Linguistics, Yale University
"This book presents a thorough analysis of headless relative clauses in fourteen Mesoamerican language from four families, plus one Central American language. The cast of twenty-one authors is superlative and includes nine who are native speakers of one of the languages under consideration, as well as other linguists from around the world. The resulting book is a model of collaborative linguistics." -- The late Nora C. England, Professor of Linguistics, University of Texas at Austin
"This book is a crowning achievement of research on headless relatives, a model of the micro-typological approach to language, and an inspiring example of careful semantic work on lesser-known languages. By showing how much can be accomplished in describing such languages, the authors set an important precedent for future studies in cross-linguistic semantics. The introduction to the book stands out as a state-of-the art overview of headless relatives, from the questions that need to be asked to a painstaking analysis of their semantic properties. An absolute must for semanticists, syntacticians interested in relativization, typologists, and Mesoamerican scholars." -- Maria Polinsky, Professor of Linguistics, University of Maryland
Book Reviews
Book review by Ana Aguilar Guevara, Cuadernos De Lingüística De El Colegio De México 9: 1-17, 2022.
Book review by Irina Burukina, Journal of Linguistics 58: 459-464, 2022
Book-inspired Work
(in chronological and alphabetical order)
Carol Rose Little, Scott AnderBois, Jessica Coon (2024). Type-shifting in headless relative clauses. Natural Language and Linguistic Theory.
Madeleine Letitia Booth (2023). Topics in the Nominal Domain in San Cristobal Lachirioag Zapotec. Ph.D. dissertation, UCLA.
Ivano Caponigro (2023). Referring and quantifying without nominals: Headless Relative Clauses across languages. In Juhyae Kim, Burak Öney, Yao Zhang, and Fengyue (Lisa) Zhao (eds), Proceedings of the 33rd Semantics and Linguistic Theory Conference (SALT 33), 744-774.
Noah Elkins and Colin Brown (2023). Free relative clauses in Mam, Proceedings of the 26th Workshop on Structure and Constituency in Languages of the Americas (WSCLA 26), University of British Columbia Working Papers in Linguistics .
Yurika Aonuki (2022). Free relatives in Gitksan. In Seung Suk Lee & Yixiao Song (eds), Proceedings of the 11th Semantics of Under-represented Languages in the Americas (SULA 11), 1-16, GLSA, Linguistics Department, University of Massachusetts at Amherst.
Ivano Caponigro (2022). Headless relative clauses and the syntax-semantics mapping: evidence from Mesoamerica. In Seung Suk Lee & Yixiao Song (eds), SULA 11: Proceedings of the 11th Semantics of Under-represented Languages in the Americas, 27-42, GLSA, Linguistics Department, University of Massachusetts at Amherst.
Philip T. Duncan (2022). Documenting What’s In Almost Every Narrative: Free Relative Clauses in Kiksht. International Journal of American Linguistics, 88(3):271-323.
Eladio López Espinoza (2022). Las construcciones relativas en el triqui de Copala. MA thesis, CIESAS.
Iara Mantenuto and Ivano Caponigro (2021). Free relative clauses in Teramano. Quaderni di lavoro ASIt/ASIt Working Papers, 23:31-62.
Iara Mantenuto and Ivano Caponigro (2021). Light-headed relative clauses in Teramano. Studies in Language 45(4): 921–937. DOI
Enrique L. Palancar , Roberto Zavala Maldonado, Claudine Chamoreau (eds) (2021). Relative Clause Structure in Mesoamerica Languages. Studies in the Indigenous Languages of the Americas, BRILL.
Scott AnderBois, Miguel Oscar Chan Dzul, Jessica Coon, and Juan Jesús Vázquez Álvarez (2019). Relativas libres en ch’ol y maya yucateco y la tipología de cláusulas relativas sin núcleo. In Ryan Bennett, Robert Henderson, Pedro Mateo Pedro, and Meg Harvey (eds), Proceedings of Form and Analysis in Mayan Linguistics (FAMLi V).
Table of Contents
[the links below are to final or semi-final drafts of chapters in the book]
Front Matter
Chapter 1
1. Introducing Headless Relative Clauses and the findings from Mesoamerican languages, by Ivano Caponigro
Chapters 2-3: Uto-Aztecan
2. Headless Relative Clauses in Southeastern Tepehuan (Oꞌdam), by Gabriela García Salido
3. Headless Relative Clauses in Tlaxcala Náhuatl, by Lucero Flores-Nájera
Chapters 4-7: Oto-Manguean
4. Headless Relative Clauses in Acazulco Otomi, by Néstor Hernández-Green
5. Headless Relative Clauses in Matlatzinca, by Enrique L. Palancar and Leonardo Carrana Martínez
6. Headless Relative Clauses in Iliatenco Meꞌphaa, by Philip T. Duncan and Harold Torrence
7. Headless Relative Clauses in San Pedro Mixtepec Zapotec, by Pafnuncio Antonio-Ramos
Chapters 8-13: Mayan
8. Headless Relative Clauses in K'iche', by Telma Angelina Can Pixabaj
9. Headless Relative Clauses in Q'anjob'al, by Eladio Mateo Toledo
10. Headless Relative Clauses in Chuj, by Justin Royer
11. Headless Relative Clauses in Ch'ol, by Juan Jesús Vázquez Álvarez and Jessica Coon
12. Headless Relative Clauses in Tseltalan, by Gilles Polian and Judith Aissen
13. Headless Relative Clauses in Yucatec Maya, by Scott AnderBois and Miguel Oscar Chan Dzul
Chapter 14: Mixe-Zoquean
14. Headless Relative Clauses in Sierra Popoluca, by Wendy López Márquez
Chapter 15: Chibchan
15. Headless Relative Clauses in Pesh, by Claudine Chamoreau