Building and Interpreting Clausal Possession in Isbukun Bunun

Abstract

This paper shows that clausal possession in Isbukun Bunun, a Formosan language, involves two distinct structures with one single thematic interpretation. Although thematically identical, the two distinct structures are not derived via agreement/movement from a single underlying structure. To best capture the (morpho)syntactic patterns within and beyond the phenomenon, the too-many-structures problem is best analyzed as involving distinct underlying structures with syntactic heads that are semantically null, and delayed saturation of thematic relations at the (morpho)syntax-semantics interface.