Adpositions in Media Lengua: Quichua or Spanish? – Evidence of a Lexical-Functional Split

Abstract

After decades of debate in linguistic theory, the lexical/functional status of adpositions is still controversial. Lexicon-Grammar mixed languages such as Media Lengua, spoken in Northern Ecuador, are excellent testing cases for such grammatical categories: This mixed language displays a conservative Quichua morphosyntactic frame while approximately 90% of its lexical roots are relexified from Spanish. Thus, due to the lexical-functional split Media Lengua displays, whether adpositions in this language are realized in Quichua or Spanish can speak to their status as a lexical/functional category. This study reports data from recent field research, conducted with speakers trilingual in Media Lengua, Quichua and Spanish who participated in two tasks (video description and translation). The results show a split between lexical and functional adpositions in Media Lengua, manifested in the dual-language realization of complex (multimorphemic) items: The lexical part of these complex items is relexified from Spanish while the functional part is retained in Quichua – even when participants are structurally primed. This suggests that Media Lengua across communities systematically follows Quichua morphosyntactic rules.