This chapter examines polysynthetic word formation in Inuit (Eskimo-Aleut), using the presence and variable ordering of a closed class of adverbs within verbal complexes as a diagnostic device to evaluate the adequacy of different accounts of word formation. It is argued that a head movement account of Mirror Principle orders within Inuit words undergenerates with respect to the observed variation in adverb ordering, particularly if a fixed hierarchy of adverbial functional projections is assumed, as in Cinque (1999). Instead, it is shown that an analysis that employs a right-headed structure, XP-sized phasal words, and Ernst’s (2002) semantically based framework of adverb licensing better captures the observed variation.
