Discontinuous Noun Phrases and Irrealis Movement in Iquito
Brianna Wilson, Andrew Murphy
January 2022 

This paper discusses two related puzzles about word order in Iquito. The first involves the various patterns of discontinuity exhibited by noun phrases containing determiners both within NPs and PPs as well as at the clause level. We show the attested variation in the nature of split constructions can be straightforwardly accounted for under a distributed deletion analysis of in which copy deletion applying cyclically interacts with an independently-motivated second position requirement within NPs and PPs. The second puzzle pertains to the observation that irrealis marking in Iquito is expressed solely through word order, that is, by placing any phrase in a position between the subject and the finite verb. We provide an analysis of this irrealis position as involving movement to an inner specifier of T. We show that this accounts for several facts about this position, unlike competing verb movement analyses, and furthermore makes correct predictions about the kind of discontinuous constituents that can appear there. Finally, we also discuss restrictions on split subjects in Iquito, showing that they instantiate a transitivity restriction that is reminiscent of the ‘Subject In-Situ Generalization’.

Format:	[ pdf ]
Reference:	lingbuzz/006386 (please use that when you cite this article)
Published in:	Ms. The University of Chicago
keywords:	word order, split constructions, distributed deletion, cyclic linearization, second position, syntax
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