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Abstract:
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Iquito , a highly endangered Zaparoan language of the Peruvian Amazon , exhibits a typologically unusual word order alternation that marks the grammatical category of reality status (i .e . the distinction between realized (realis ) and unrealized or hypothetical (irrealis ) events ) . This alternation is the only reliable marker of the category ; Iquito does not employ morphology to mark the realis /irrealis distinction . While the word order of Iquito realis constructions is reliably SVO , the word order of irrealis constructions does not fall into one of the canonical orders . It is characterized by an element (X ) intervening between the subject and the verb , resulting in the order SXV .
In this dissertation , I provide a detailed description and analysis of the realis /irrealis word order alternation . Using data from both elicitation and texts that I collected while in the field , I describe the types of elements that occur in the preverbal position of the irrealis construction , determine what unifies these elements , and establish which element of the sentence will occur in this position and what conditions this choice . Relying on the available data for the other languages in the family , I examine the expression of reality status in these languages and discuss how reality status comes to be associated with word order . I also provide a survey of other languages exhibiting similar word order alternations and discuss how they compare to the alternation we see in Iquito , concluding that Iquito is an example of an “ideal” word order alternation because word order is the sole indicator of the grammatical category with which it is associated . |