A formal characterization of person-based alignment

Abstract

We put forth a formal analysis within the Minimalist framework of argument alignment in languages with one type of direct/inverse system. Our proposal involves the cyclical application of a phase-edge Person constraint, which ensures that a [+Participant] argument (when present) is promoted from the verbal (vP) to the inflectional (IP) domain. We illustrate the proposed analysis with Paraguayan Guarani, a language with direct/inverse alignment whose morpho-syntax has received little attention from a formal perspective. Paraguayan Guarani does not mark tense morphologically in Infl(ection); instead, the overt realization of Infl varies depending on the person specification of the arguments. We refer to languages of this type as Generalized P(erson)-languages, in contrast to Restricted P-languages, whose direct/inverse system is limited to the vP domain and whose Infl encodes tense (e.g., Hungarian and Kashmiri). Building on insights in Ritter and Wiltschko (2014) on the anchoring function of Infl, we link the distinction between the two types of language to the presence vs. absence of an interpretable tense feature and its complementary interpretable person feature in the Infl node of the clausal structure.