Aspect Splits and Parasitic Marking

This paper proposes both a formal and a functional theory of aspect splits, analyzing the ergative Case split in Hindi-Urdu, an agreement split in Yucatec Maya, and a split involving preposition insertion in Palauan. Aspect splits have a function: they mark aspect indirectly, by manipulating the distribution of an independent element to reflect aspect. The formal grammar produces aspect splits with contextually restricted faithfulness constraints within Optimality Theory. The combined effect of two such constraints produces a cross-cutting split, where the faithful environments are added together, as shown here in Nepali and Chontal.

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