Remnant Raising and VSO Clausal Architecture: A Case Study of San Lucas Quiavini Zapotec (Studies in Natural Language and Linguistic Theory)

San Lucas Quiaviní Zapotec, an endangered and little-examined indigenous language of Mexico, shows a range of syntactic and morphological phenomena incompatible with standard Minimalist accounts of verb movement. This work proposes a VP-remnant raising account for these phenomena, motivated by Kayne’s (1992) antisymmetry program. The book also examines the consequences of phrasal remnant movement for negation constructions, and the interpretation of tense, aspect, and mood.