Revisiting the clause periphery in Polynesian languages

Middleton, John (2021) Revisiting the clause periphery in Polynesian languages. Glossa: a journal of general linguistics, 6 (1). pp. 1-11. ISSN 2397-1835

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Abstract

Verb-initial languages often contain a pre-verbal particle, which, in Polynesian languages, is a tense/aspect/modal (TAM) marker. For Tongan and Samoan, it is standardly assumed that TAM markers are generated in T˚, which are then moved to C˚ in current frameworks (T-to-C movement), meaning TAM and complementisers are in complementary distribution (Custis 2004; Otsuka 2005; Collins 2017). This squib presents novel data from Tokelauan, another verb-initial Polynesian language, showing that TAM particles and complementisers can co-occur, indicating that T-to-C movement is more complex than originally imagined. I propose that an expanded left periphery is needed, with two complementiser positions, and TAM raising to the lower
one of these.

Item Type:	Journal Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	T-to-C movement Polynesian Tokelauan Samoan Tongan Verb-initial languages
Subjects:	P Language and Literature > PL Languages and literatures of Eastern Asia, Africa, Oceania
Divisions:	School of Pacific Arts, Communication and Education (SPACE)
Depositing User:	John Middleton
Date Deposited:	03 Jun 2025 03:15
Last Modified:	03 Jun 2025 03:15
URI:	https://repository.usp.ac.fj/id/eprint/14956

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