Back to results

The University of Arizona.

Complex Motion Predicates in Hiaki

Abstract

dc:description.abstract

This dissertation is an investigation into compound verbal structures in Hiaki in which a verb of motion is modified by an adjoined lexical verb or verb phrase. It provides the first in-depth documentation and analysis of this structure in Hiaki, an endangered language indigenous to North America, and it explores the extent to which complex predicates of motion may be said to form a discrete class crosslinguistically, either in structural or semantic terms, by comparing Hiaki with genetically and typologically distinct languages such as Korean and Warlpiri. The study asks the following questions: 1) What is the underlying structure of a Hiaki compound verb? In particular, what is the structure when the head verb is intransitive and thus cannot take the second verb or verb phrase as its complement? 2) To what extent can complex motion predicates in different languages be said to map to identical underlying syntactic structures? That is, if we compare these constructions in Hiaki with those in languages with different surface morphosyntactic realizations, how do the allowable surface forms constrain the possible underlying structures? 3) Is there evidence to suggest a cline or typology of complex motion predicate constructions? The overall goals of the dissertation project are the detailed documentation, description and theoretical analysis of complex motion constructions in Hiaki, the crosslinguistic comparison of these constructions, and the expansion of an existing database of transcribed and interlinearized Hiaki texts.

Degree

thesis:*
Name thesis:degree_name
Ph.D.
Level thesis:degree_level
doctoral
Discipline thesis:degree_discipline
Graduate College
Grantor dc:publisher
The University of Arizona.
Year dc:date.issued
2015

Author and committee

dc:creator, dc:contributor.*
Author dc:creator
  • Trueman, Alexandra Kathleen
Advisor dc:contributor.advisor
  • Harley, Heidi
Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember
  • Harley, Heidi
  • Carnie, Andrew
  • Fountain, Amy
  • Karimi, Simin

Subjects

dc:subject × 4

Rights

dc:rights
Statement dc:rights
  • Copyright © is held by the author. Digital access to this material is made possible by the University Libraries, University of Arizona. Further transmission, reproduction or presentation (such as public display or performance) of protected items is prohibited except with permission of the author.
Language dc:language.iso
en_US

Identifiers

dc:identifier.*
Handle dc:identifier.uri
http://hdl.handle.net/10150/556835
OAI identifier oai:identifier
oai:repository.arizona.edu:10150/556835

Chain of custody

source
Harvested from
University of Arizona
Base URL
repository.arizona.edu/oai/request
Last updated
2026-07-24
Source record
OAI-PMH GetRecord
citation

Trueman, Alexandra Kathleen. Complex Motion Predicates in Hiaki. doctoral thesis, The University of Arizona., 2015. http://hdl.handle.net/10150/556835