TOPOLOGICAL SPATIAL RELATIONS AND FRAMES OF REFERENCE IN SANTO DOMINGO DE GUZMÁN PIPIL: TYPOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL IMPLICATIONS

TOPOLOGICAL SPATIAL RELATIONS AND FRAMES OF REFERENCE IN SANTO DOMINGO DE GUZMÁN PIPIL: TYPOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL IMPLICATIONS Public Deposited

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Creator

Salgado, Alvaro
- Affiliation: College of Arts and Sciences, Department of Linguistics

Abstract

Pipil is an under-documented and severely endangered Uto-Aztecan language spoken in El Salvador. In this thesis, using data from four native speakers of Pipil, I describe topological relations and frames of reference in the Santo Domingo de Guzmán (SD) dialect of Pipil with a typological and historical approach. I find that SD Pipil is a Type Ib language in the Ameka & Levinson (2007) typology of locative predicates (one locative verb used in locative predicates), whereas other Nahua varieties belong to Type II (small set of contrasting locative posture verbs in locative predicates). I argue that Spanish influence on SD Pipil determined this innovation. SD Pipil features a unique system of absolute locatives that only convey information about the vertical and horizontal relationship between Figure and Ground, disregarding contact between them, and features exclusively an object-centered frame of reference, as described in the MesoSpace typology (O'Meara & Pérez 2011).

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