Abstract

HERNANDEZ-GREEN, Néstor. Exploration of grammatical roles in San Felipe Santiago Otomi from corpus data. Cuad. Lingüíst. Col. Méx. [online]. 2022, vol.9, e222.  Epub Aug 22, 2022. ISSN 2007-736X.  https://doi.org/10.24201/clecm.v9i0.222.

This paper explores the coding of arguments in San Felipe Santiago Otomi (Oto-Manguean > Oto-Pamean), or Ñätho, in data gathered from an oral corpus consisting of 1 hour of recordings, as well as from a written corpus consisting of a New Testament translation. By using nine different criteria (word order, person-marking in the verb, number marking in the verb, antipassive construction, middle construction, relativization, wh-interrogation, causative construction, and zero anaphora), it is shown that the coding of arguments seems to obey participant animacy rather than thematic roles by themselves. The data presented are also discussed under the government and binding approach, as well as a typological approach.

Keywords : Oto-Manguean; Oto-Pamean; morphosyntax; animacy; linguistic typology.