Polysynthesis and Head Marking
Polysynthetic languages are mostly head-marking. But the great majority of polysynthetic languages come from what I will call the Greater Pacific Rim (GPR) population, where the head-marking type is extremely common compared to the rest of the world. Is head marking a genuine distinctive property of polysynthetic languages, or a conspicuous accident of geography that is equally common in non-polysynthetic languages of the GPR? A typological survey shows that polysynthesis entails open head marking: either verbal slots and/or their fillers are not a closed set. Polysynthesis is conditioned by grammar (head marking), not geography. It is an inevitable development in a population of mostly head-marking languages, but the geographical distribution of head marking is the result of historical contingency.