Doctoral Dissertation Research: Ergativity and Constituent Order in Chol

Massachusetts Institute Of Technology, Cambridge MA

Investigators

Abstract

A central aim of linguistics is to discover which properties are shared by all human languages, and in which respects languages may vary. To further this goal, Ms. Jessica Coon, under the supervision of Dr. David Pesetsky and Dr. Norvin Richards, will conduct linguistic fieldwork on the word-structure and syntax of the language Chol. Chol is an under-documented Mayan language spoken by approximately 150,000 indigenous inhabitants of Chiapas, Mexico. This study addresses the question of linguistic variation in the grammatical marking of clausal participants through the study of Chol's split-agreement pattern. While most of the best-studied languages exhibit "nominative-accusative" systems of person marking, many of the world's languages show "ergative-absolutive" patterns. In an ergative-absolutive system, the object of a transitive verb is marked similarly to the subject of an intransitive verb. Most members of the Mayan language family exhibit an ergative-absoulutive pattern. Chol, however, shows a split system: perfective clauses are ergative-absolutive, but imperfective clauses are nominative-accusative. Initial findings suggest that this split may be connected to nominalization of non-perfective clauses. Despite its unique system of agreement, Chol has received relatively little description or analysis compared to many Mayan languages, and there is no comprehensive grammar. The significance of this study will be to both advance our understanding of the possible points of variation among word order and agreement systems in human language, as well as aid in efforts to further document and maintain the Chol language. Data for this investigation will come from elicitation sessions with native speakers, as well as from texts recorded and transcribed by Coon, collected during three trips to Chiapas. Coon will spend the fall of 2008 as a visiting student at the Centro de Investigaciones y Estudios Superiores en Antropología Social (CIESAS), an interdisciplinary social sciences research institution in San Cristóbal de las Casas. This study will have an important impact not only within theoretical linguistics, but also in areas of concern to the local community, and to indigenous communities more generally. While at CIESAS, Coon will be actively involved in working with students in the Masters in Indo-American Linguistics program, which trains speakers of indigenous languages in language documentation, revitalization, and linguistic theory.