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In:Language Contact and Change in Mesoamerica and Beyond
Edited by Karen Dakin, Claudia Parodi and Natalie Operstein
[Studies in Language Companion Series 185] 2017
► pp. 55–80

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Chapter 3
Spanish infinitives borrowed into Zapotec light verb constructions

 | Escuela Nacional de Antropología e Historia
Published online: 30 June 2017
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https://doi.org/10.1075/slcs.185.03dea
Abstract
Spanish infinitives are commonly borrowed into Zapotec languages. The borrowed infinitive construction is here analyzed as a special type of light verb construction. In Southern Zapotec languages the construction occurs in a transitive version using ‘do’ and an intransitive version using ‘become’. This chapter analyzes the syntax of these constructions in Southern Zapotec, including the lexical status of the borrowed infinitives and the argument structure of the different forms of the construction.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
    • 1.1Argument order
    • 1.2Zapotec languages have light verb constructions
    • 1.3Spanish infinitives appear to be borrowed into these LVC’s
  • 2.Syntactic analysis of borrowed infinitive constructions
    • 2.1Syntactic status of borrowed infinitives
      • 2.1.1Borrowed infinitives occur in the same position as nominal complements
      • 2.1.2Borrowed infinitives do not occur in the same position as native verbal complements
    • 2.2Argument structure of Borrowed Infinitive Constructions
  • 3.The level of integration of Spanish infinitives in Zapotec grammar
  • 4.Unresolved issues for future work
    • 4.1Can borrowed infinitives be incorporated?
    • 4.2Comparison of reduced loanwords and other forms vs. borrowed infinitives
    • 4.3Can other verbs function as light verbs with borrowed nouns?
  • 5.Conclusions
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
References (35)
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2023. The historical dialectology of stative morphology in Zapotecan. Journal of Historical Linguistics 13:1 ► pp. 115 ff. DOI logo
de Azcona, Rosemary G. Beam
2015. Chapter 8. Valency-changing devices in two Southern Zapotec languages. In Valence Changes in Zapotec [Typological Studies in Language, 110], ► pp. 139 ff. DOI logo
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2018. The future of code-switching research. In Code-switching – Experimental Answers to Theoretical Questions [Issues in Hispanic and Lusophone Linguistics, 19], ► pp. 257 ff. DOI logo

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