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22 - A Grammatical Sketch of Cheyenne (Plains Algonquian, USA)

from Part Five - Grammatical Sketches

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 June 2023

By
Avelino Corral Esteban
Edited by
Delia Bentley ,
Ricardo Mairal Usón ,
Wataru Nakamura  and
Robert D. Van Valin, Jr
Delia Bentley
Affiliation:
University of Manchester
Ricardo Mairal Usón
Affiliation:
Universidad National de Educación a Distancia, Madrid
Wataru Nakamura
Affiliation:
Tohoku University, Japan
Robert D. Van Valin, Jr
Affiliation:
Heinrich-Heine-Universität Düsseldorf
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Summary

This grammatical sketch explores sentence structure in Cheyenne/Tsêhésenêstsestôtse (Plains Algonquian, USA). We first describe the principal morphosyntactic features of Cheyenne and offer a brief account of grammatical phenomena that benefit from a Role and Reference Grammar (RRG) analysis: basic clause types, verb valence and transitivity, the marking of core arguments, argument-adjuncts and adjuncts, and the linking algorithm. This analysis shows that there is no evidence for the postulation of grammatical relations, save for a pragmatically influenced privileged syntactic argument, and supports the hierarchical scope order of operators postulated by RRG. We then illustrate the fundamental role of pragmatics in argument coding, macrorole assignment, and word order by examining the relationship of information structure with the reference-tracking system of obviation and the direct/inverse system. These systems work jointly with the Person and Semantic Function Hierarchies. Despite word order variability, it is possible to integrate information structure into clause structure and explore the intricate mechanism that accommodates semantic information into syntactic structure.

Keywords

Cheyennesyntax–semantics–pragmatics interfacedirect/inverse systemproximate/obviation systeminformation structure
Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge Handbook of Role and Reference Grammar , pp. 823 - 860
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2023

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