The clausal organization of Tuparí, an indigenous Brazilian language (Article)
Title: The clausal organization of Tuparí, an indigenous Brazilian language
Author: Adam Roth Singerman
Abstract: This paper provides a detailed description and analysis of the clausal organization of Tuparí, a Tupían language that is spoken by approximately 350 people in the Brazilian state of Rondônia. The paper focuses on several interrelated issues that have broader comparative and typological importance, including (a) the distribution of head-initial and head-final phrase structure, (b) the diverse surface realizations of the Tense Phrase, and (c) the distinction between true pronouns and pronoun-like agreement enclitics. Data are drawn from an in-progress corpus of native language texts, everyday conversations and elicited utterances. Differences between Tuparí and the other languages belonging to the Tupían family's Tuparían branch are highlighted at various points for comparative purposes.
Year: 2020
Primary URL: https://doi.org/10.1556/2062.2020.00025
Primary URL Description: DOI link to the article
Access Model: subscription journal
Format: Journal
Periodical Title: Acta Linguistica Academica
Publisher: Akadémia Kiadó

On finite embedded clauses in Tuparí: their synchrony, diachrony, and typology (Article)
Title: On finite embedded clauses in Tuparí: their synchrony, diachrony, and typology
Author: Adam Roth Singerman
Abstract: Tuparí, an indigenous Brazilian language of the Tupían family, has innovated a highly productive finite embedded clause construction that retains the morphosyntactic hallmarks of matrix clauses – without any neutralization in tense or evidentiality. I offer a synchronic analysis of these finite embedded clauses and propose a specific grammaticalization pathway that can account for their diachronic emergence: the clausal nominalizer hè developed out of a homophonous third person pronoun, allowing for paratactic constructions to be reanalyzed as involving true subordination. Both functions of hè (as a pronoun and as a clausal nominalizer) remain in use today, giving rise to occasional ambiguity. An additional aim of this paper is to evaluate the Tuparí facts in light of the literature on the Final-over-Final Condition (FOFC), a proposed syntactic universal. I will show that the language’s embedded clauses are unexpected on the most restrictive formulation of FOFC (Holmberg 2000) but can be accommodated without issue once FOFC is restricted to apply within Extended Projections. Situating Tuparí in the broader FOFC typology allows for a more fine-grained understanding of the distribution of the categorial features [+nominal] and [+verbal] in the language’s syntax.
Year: 2021
Primary URL: https://www.glossa-journal.org/article/id/5457/
Primary URL Description: link to the article on the Glossa webpage
Access Model: Open access
Format: Journal
Periodical Title: Glossa: a journal of general linguistics
Publisher: Glossa

A morphophonological account of the Tupari 'relational prefix' (Conference Paper/Presentation)
Title: A morphophonological account of the Tupari 'relational prefix'
Author: Adam Roth Singerman
Abstract: Since the early work by Aryon Rodrigues (based on the fieldnotes of Franz Caspar), Tuparí has been analyzed as exhibiting a particular morphosyntactic phenomenon known as "relational prefixes." The existence of these prefixes in Tuparí has been used to argue for specific historical reconstructions for the Proto-Tupí language (spoken some four to five millennia ago) and for more distant genealogical relationships between disparate South American language families. In this talk I demonstrate that the Tuparí facts have been misdescribed: this language does not, in fact, exhibit "relational prefixes" as these are commonly understood. With this revised synchronic picture in place, Tuparí no longer provides any evidence for the reconstruction of "relational prefixes" in Proto-Tupí. Furthermore, the speculative connections between Proto-Tupí and Proto-Macro-Jê are found to lack sufficient empirical foundation.
Date: 06/01/2021
Conference Name: Amazonicas VIII

There are no “relational prefixes” in Tupari: enriched synchronic description forces a diachronic reassessment (Conference Paper/Presentation)
Title: There are no “relational prefixes” in Tupari: enriched synchronic description forces a diachronic reassessment
Author: Adam Roth Singerman
Abstract: Since the early work by Aryon Rodrigues (based on the fieldnotes of Franz Caspar), Tuparí has been analyzed as exhibiting a particular morphosyntactic phenomenon known as "relational prefixes." The existence of these prefixes in Tuparí has been used to argue for specific historical reconstructions for the Proto-Tupí language (spoken some four to five millennia ago) and for more distant genealogical relationships between disparate South American language families. In this talk I demonstrate that the Tuparí facts have been misdescribed: this language does not, in fact, exhibit "relational prefixes" as these are commonly understood. With this revised synchronic picture in place, Tuparí no longer provides any evidence for the reconstruction of "relational prefixes" in Proto-Tupí. Furthermore, the speculative connections between Proto-Tupí and Proto-Macro-Jê are found to lack sufficient empirical foundation.
Date: 05/30/2021
Conference Name: WSCLA2021

Evidence against a 'relational prefix' analysis for Tuparí (Conference Paper/Presentation)
Title: Evidence against a 'relational prefix' analysis for Tuparí
Author: Adam Roth Singerman
Abstract: Since the early work by Aryon Rodrigues (based on the fieldnotes of Franz Caspar), Tuparí has been analyzed as exhibiting a particular morphosyntactic phenomenon known as "relational prefixes." The existence of these prefixes in Tuparí has been used to argue for specific historical reconstructions for the Proto-Tupí language (spoken some four to five millennia ago) and for more distant genealogical relationships between disparate South American language families. In this talk I demonstrate that the Tuparí facts have been misdescribed: this language does not, in fact, exhibit "relational prefixes" as these are commonly understood. With this revised synchronic picture in place, Tuparí no longer provides any evidence for the reconstruction of "relational prefixes" in Proto-Tupí. Furthermore, the speculative connections between Proto-Tupí and Proto-Macro-Jê are found to lack sufficient empirical foundation.
Date: 01/08/2021
Conference Name: SSILA (Society for the Study of the Indigenous Languages of the Americas) 2021

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