Gabriel Martínez

This paper discusses tense markers that convey an indirectness implication by comparatively analyzing sentences with the past tense suffixes -sqa in Cuzco Quechua and -tayna in Southern Aymara. The main contribution is to provide support for a (non-modal) evidence acquisition time analysis of these markers, which, I claim, is to be preferred over an analysis that relies on spatio-temporal distance and speaker perception. I provide novel data that highlight that acquiring evidence for a proposition is the key factor in the cases under examination (instead of relying on perceptual distance). I further show that ‘late realization’ scenarios are not possible in these languages, and discuss how the evidence acquisition time analysis captures this. The discussion provides the first systematic comparison between Cuzco Quechua and Southern Aymara from the perspective of formal semantics, which supports the well-known descriptive statement in the Andean literature that the grammars of these languages are parallel.

This paper analyzes the enclitic _=mi_ in Saraguro Kichwa (a severely endangered language spoken in Saraguro, Ecuador) in matrix declarative clauses in an approach that integrates the broader Quechuan language family. Based on original fieldwork that documents an otherwise undocumented variety of Kichwa, I make three novel empirical observations: (i) I provide evidence suggesting that _=mi_ signals verum, (ii) I show that using _=mi_ is possible to confirm the truth of the scope proposition when following up a sentence with a reportative (but not a direct) evidential, and (iii) I show that _=mi_ surfaces in contrastive (corrective) uses. I make a proposal where _=mi_ is analyzed as a focus marker, which is likened to focus-sensitive items such as _only_. I further broaden the discussion of _=mi_ to the Quechuan family, showing that integration with prior discourse is the common feature across the family. The discussion bears on general debates of how to best analyze verum and contrast strategies cross-linguistically by introducing a novel strategy instantiated by _=mi_ in that analyzing this element requires the integration of elements of both focus (alternative semantics) and discourse management (sensitivity to the question under discussion).