UCLA

In this dissertation, I give an overview of the grammar of San Cristobal Lachirioag Zapotec (SCLZ), a Zapotec language spoken in Villa Alta, Oaxaca, Mexico, and then I discuss in depth three topics in the nominal domain that have not been previously documented; the derivation of nominals, relative clauses, and possessives.

I show that SCLZ is a VSO language that has what look like SVO sentences; when the subject is pre-verbal, the verb is followed by subject pronominal enclitics (S V=su O). I argue that some of the pre-verbal 'subjects' are topics, and that the post-verbal clitics are pronominal subjects.

I provide an analysis for the structure of the nominal domain in SCLZ based on Cinque (2005)'s Universal Hierarchy. SCLZ nominals have the linear order Numeral > N > Adjective > Demonstrative, which is represented in ~ 11% of the over 2000 languages in Cinque (2021)'s corpus. I discuss the elements found in SCLZ nominals, including nouns, adjectives, diminutives/pejoratives, numerals, quantifiers, demonstratives, and determiners. I give a derivation that produces the linear ordering of these elements that involves raising the NP above AP, pied-piping [Num [NP AP]] above Dem, and then pied-piping [[Num [NP AP]] Dem] above the determiner. This produces the linear order [[[Num [NP AP]] Dem] Det].

I review wh-movement in SCLZ, and discuss SCLZ headed and headless relative clauses including free relative clauses and light-headed relative clauses. I show that SCLZ is consistent with Keenan & Comrie (1977)'s Accessibility Hierarchy.

Lastly, I examine possessives in SCLZ. It has postnominal inalienable and alienable possessives, and a small class of nouns that take a retroflex possessive prefix. I give two potential analyses of the alienable possessive and an analysis for the inalienable possessive. One analysis of the alienable possessive involves pied-piping the possessum above the possessor to achieve the N > Gen order, and the other is a locative-based analysis where `of' and the possessor form a locative phrase.