Avaliação: Predicados de movimiento en lenguas indígenas de América – COMPLEX MOTION PREDICATES IN HUASTEC (MAYA, MEXICO). Module: Path and Trajectory in Motion

Huastec Maya (HSF) possesses a system in which location as well as source and goal of a motion event are underspecified. In terms of Pantcheva (2010), HSF follows the logical permutation Location=Goal=Source, and has a unique marker ti that encodes both location and motion, the goal as well as the source. In addition, the absence of adpositions, directionals and gerunds, as well as one locative role per verb of motion (a verb of motion can handle only one ground), lead this language to segment complex motion events into multiple clauses, illustrated in the following example:

[1] Paablo kalej ti Tantoyuca, wat’ey ti Bitxow, ulich Mejiko.
Paablo kal-ej ti Tantoyuca, wat’-ey ti Bitxow,
Pablo exit-COM PREP Tantoyuca pass-COM PREP Chontla
ul-ich Mejiko
arrive-COM Mexico.City
Lit: Pablo left Tantoyuca, he passed Chontla, he arrived (in) Mexico City.
‘Pablo went from Tantoyuca to Mexico City past Chontla.’

I will present in detail this interesting and under-described way of segmenting complex motion events in HSF and the means this language employs in encoding the space and movement. My data come from the field work with HSF I have undertaken over the period 2007-2017 in San Francisco Chontla, Veracruz, Mexico.

• Maya, motion events, segmentation