The syntatic-semantic nature of the anticausative voice head in the Guajajára language

Abstract

This article aims to investigate the syntactic-semantic behaviour of the anticausative sentences in Guajajára, a language that is affiliated to the Tupí-Guaraní linguistic family, Tupi stock. We assume that this language allows the occurrence of the morphologically marked and non-marked anticausative verbs. In order to proceed with the analysis, we adopted the Distributed Morphology theory, according to which it is possible to conduct an approach based on the morphology and syntax interface. As such, we follow Alexiadou, Anagnostopolou e Schäfer’s (2015) theories, according to which the anticausative alternations are regulated by the typology of the voice heads. Assuming this theory, we propose that the anticausative structures in Guajájara exhibit a syntactic structure that comprise the VoiceP and vP layers, above VP. The Voice head has two grammatical realizations: a marked one, in which the head Voiceo is morphologically manifested by the prefix {-ze}, and an unmarked one in which this head is null. The data were collected by means of interviews and direct elicitation with the Guajajára consultants. The results of the analysis show that Guajajára allow two types of anticausatives: one that exhibits the prefix {ze-} on the verb stem and another that does not carry any anticausative morphology. Based on this, we achieved the following conclusions: (i) the vP layer is present in marked and unmarked ainticausatives and in active causatives; (ii) the voice morpheme {ze-} realizes the voice head and is not part of the vP layer. As this voice morpheme does not introduce an external argument, we assume that the anticaustiave voice head has an expletive nature. We conclude that the heads Voice and vo are not bundled, since they project separately the VoiceP and vP layers.
Keywords: Anticausative verbs. Voice head. Causative head. Semantics; Guajajára.