Inversion in Sayula Popoluca

Abstract

Sayula Popoluca, a Mixe-Zoquean language spoken in southeastern Mexico, exhibits an inverse system. Inversion is a grammatical phenomenon in which the topicality ranking of participants and their corresponding argument types determine the choice between direct and inverse constructions. The principal motivation for this contrast is deictic, which is represented by an SAP (speech act participant) > 3 hierarchy. Inversion is so pervasive in this language that all polyvalent verbs are involved. Morphosyntactically, there are three subsystems corresponding to three different participant-configurations: SAP/non-SAP, intra-SAP, and extra-SAP. Extra-SAP configuration involves another mechanism called obviation to rank participants. This paper aims to provide a descriptive sketch of the morphosyntax of Sayula Popoluca’s inverse system and locate it within the typology of inversion.