Optional agreement as successful/failed Agree

We investigate optional predicate agreement in Santiago Tz’utujil (Mayan). Several generalizations emerge: (i) inanimate arguments base-generated as complements control agreement optionally; (ii) some animate arguments base-generated as complements control agreement optionally; (iii) all arguments base-generated as specifiers control full agreement obligatorily. We propose that two conditions must be met for the operation Agree to succeed, resulting in the exponence of all the features of the agreement controller. First, a goal must be visible (bear the right feature). Second, a goal must be accessible (be in the right structural position). If one or both conditions are not met, Agree fails, but the derivation converges and 3sg agreement is exponed. While Agree is deterministic, surface optionality arises when the operation fails. We use optional agreement to diagnose the syntactic structure of understudied constructions in Mayan (nominalizations, Agent Focus). We discuss microvariation, highlighting methodological considerations that arise when assuming an I-language approach.

Differentiated Instruction further Realized through Teacher-Agent Teaming

Teacher-agent teams have the potential to increase instructional effectiveness in diverse classrooms. The agent can be trained on previous student assessment data to create a model for assessing student performance and provide instructional recommendations. We propose a conceptual model that outlines how assessment agents can be trained for and used in classrooms to create effective teacher-agent teams. Furthermore, we show how teacher-agent teams can assist in the implementation of differentiated instruction, a strategy which allows teachers to effectively instruct students of diverse backgrounds and understandings. Differentiated instruction is further realized by having an assessment agent focus on grading student work, providing feedback to students, categorizing students, and giving recommendations for instruction so that teachers can focus on providing individualized or small group instruction to diverse learners. This model maximizes the strengths of teachers, while minimizing the tedious tasks that teachers routinely perform.

Yucatecan control and lexical categories in SBCG

This paper explores the conundrum posed by two different control constructions in Yucatec Maya, a Mayan language spoken by around 800,000 speakers in the Yucatán Peninsula and northern Belize. Basic syntactic structure of the language is introduced, and a general SBCG treatment of control in YM is presented, alongside with an example of motion verbs as control matrices. The unruly case of intransitive subjunctive control, where the controllee appears with an unexpected status (incompletive) and without set-A morphology, is discussed and a proposal to treat it as nominalization is evaluated. The nominalization proposal is rejected based on the following grounds: (1) nominalization tends to attract definitive morphology, which is absent from intransitive subjunctive control constructions, (2) nominalization does not truly explain the lack of set-A morphology if one desires to provide a unified account of set-A morphemes, (3) verbs bereft of otherwise expected set-A morphemes have an independent motivation in the form of agent focus constructions. The grammar signature is not part of the proceedings but can be downloaded here: grammar signature.

Correlates of Ergativity in Mayan

Since all Mayan languages are morphologically ergative, a central question concerns the role that ergativity plays in shaping the syntax. One widely accepted view is that at least those languages which exhibit constraints on the extraction of ergatives are “syntactically ergative”. Here we review the basic facts around ergative extraction in Mayan, surveying both those languages which permit it and those which do not, and identify areas of exceptionality and variation. Central to the discussion are ‘agent focus’ constructions, constructions which permit extraction of the external argument when it is blocked from a canonical transitive clause. We discuss two approaches this constellation of facts––one which holds that constraints on ergative extraction reflect syntactic ergativity and one which holds that they do not.

Mayan Languages

Mayan languages are spoken by over 5 million people in Guatemala, Mexico, Belize, and Honduras. There are around 30 different languages today, ranging in size from fairly large (about a million speakers) to very small (fewer than 30 speakers). All Mayan languages are endangered given that at least some children in some communities are not learning the language, and two languages have disappeared since European contact. Mayas developed the most elaborated and most widely attested writing system in the Americas (starting about 300 BC). The sounds of Mayan languages consist of a voiceless stop and affricate series with corresponding glottalized stops (either implosive and ejective) and affricates, glottal stop, voiceless fricatives (including h in some of them inherited from Proto-Maya), two to three nasals, three to four approximants, and a five vowel system with contrasting vowel length (or tense/lax distinctions) in most languages. Several languages have developed contrastive tone. The major word classes in Mayan languages include nouns, verbs, adjectives, positionals, and affect words. The difference between transitive verbs and intransitive verbs is rigidly maintained in most languages. They usually use the same aspect markers (but not always). Intransitive verbs only indicate their subjects while transitive verbs indicate both subjects and objects. Some languages have a set of status suffixes which is different for the two classes. Positionals are a root class whose most characteristic word form is a non-verbal predicate. Affect words indicate impressions of sounds, movements, and activities. Nouns have a number of different subclasses defined on the basis of characteristics when possessed, or the structure of compounds. Adjectives are formed from a small class of roots (under 50) and many derived forms from verbs and positionals. Predicate types are transitive, intransitive, and non-verbal. Non-verbal predicates are based on nouns, adjectives, positionals, numbers, demonstratives, and existential and locative particles. They are distinct from verbs in that they do not take the usual verbal aspect markers. Mayan languages are head marking and verb initial; most have VOA flexible order but some have VAO rigid order. They are morphologically ergative and also have at least some rules that show syntactic ergativity. The most common of these is a constraint on the extraction of subjects of transitive verbs (ergative) for focus and/or interrogation, negation, or relativization. In addition, some languages make a distinction between agentive and non-agentive intransitive verbs. Some also can be shown to use obviation and inverse as important organizing principles. Voice categories include passive, antipassive and agent focus, and an applicative with several different functions.