Call: Polysynthesis in South America

Abralin / RALSAS / CIPL · 28–29 May 2027 · online

Indigenous languages of (especially western) South America are often described as polysynthetic. While polysynthetic languages have very rich verbal morphology, it does not entail, however, that such languages are necessarily similar to each other. The term polysynthesis allows for considerable variation in the structures of different polysynthetic languages. Nevertheless, the distribution of high synthesis suggests that it may reveal historical signals, with low synthesis found in e.g. southeast Asia, and generally high degrees of synthesis found in e.g. the Americas (see e.g. Bickel and Nichols 2013; Fortescue et al. 2017). Within South America, polysynthetic structures are more common in western Amazonia than in the eastern languages (Payne 1990).

This workshop zooms in on polysynthetic structures in South America. Previous research has suggested that while structures may be predominantly complex, they can certainly be very different (Rowicka and Carlin 2006). Polysynthetic structures may pose problems for the notion of wordhood and the distinction between morphology and syntax (e.g. van Gijn and Zúñiga 2014; Bickel and Zúñiga 2017; Tallman and Epps 2020), as well as between lexical and grammatical material (Zúñiga 2017; Zariquiey et al. 2023). We call for abstracts, either focusing on individual languages, or of a more comparative nature that can contribute to our understanding of polysynthesis in South American Indigenous languages. We particularly invite abstracts that focus on the following questions and issues, but the workshop is by no means confined to these:

• Determining and measuring polysynthesis

  The concept of polysynthesis leaves room for interpretation, and as a consequence, authors may understand this concept differentially. Can South American languages give insights into the concept of polysynthesis, its parameters and ways to measure synthesis?

• Wordhood, affixhood and the morphology-syntax interface

  What consequences does the presence of a highly synthetic, possibly incorporating structures in a language or group of languages have for the definition of wordhood (and, as a consequence, the distinction between morphology and syntax)? How can we distinguish between affixes and clitics (and to what extent should we do this?

• Internal morphological structure of polysynthetic words

  Polysynthesis only says something about the amount of morphosemantic categories that can be associated with a word (usually the verb) but it does not tell us anything about how this information is organized at the word level. To what extent do language differ in the semantic categories that have grammaticalized? How is this semantic information distributed over the word (prefixes, suffixes, non-concatenative etc.)? To what extent are lexical morphemes allowed within a word? Is complexity mainly found in the syntagmatic structure, or in the paradigmatic structure, or both? What are the differences between nominal and verbal synthesis?

• Diachronic development of polysynthesis

  How do polysynthetic structures arise, and how do they erode and disappear? How genealogically stable is polysynthesis, or how sensitive is it to language contact, e.g. though contact-induced grammaticalization (Heine and Kuteva 2008), do we find non-accidental areal distributions?

• South America in a wider perspective

  Is there a South-American-style polysynthesis that is different from polysynthetic structures in other parts of the world? This may relate to one or more of the questions above.

Abstracts of up to 500 words, including references, should be sent to miguel@fale.ufal.br by 15 January 2027 (inclusive). Abstracts in English, Spanish, and Portuguese are welcome. Notifications of acceptance will be sent by 28 February 2027. Participation is free of charge.

• 15 January 2027: Abstract submission deadline (inclusive)
• 28 February 2027: Notification of acceptance
• 28–29 May 2027: Online workshop

Bickel, Balthasar, and Johanna Nichols. 2013. ‘Inflectional Synthesis of the Verb.’ In World Atlas of Language Structures Online, edited by Matthew S. Dryer and Martin Haspelmath. Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology.

Bickel, Balthasar, and Fernando Zúñiga. 2017. ‘The “Word” in Polysynthetic Languages: Phonological and Syntactic Challenges’. In The Oxford Handbook of Polysynthesis, 1st edn, edited by Michael Fortescue, Marianne Mithun, and Nicholas Evans. Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199683208.013.52.

Fortescue, Michael, Marianne Mithun, and Nicholas Evans. 2017. ‘Introduction’. In The Oxford Handbook of Polysynthesis, 1st edn, edited by Michael Fortescue, Marianne Mithun, and Nicholas Evans. Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199683208.013.1.

Gijn, Rik van, and Fernando Zúñiga. 2014. ‘Word and the Americanist Perspective’. Morphology 24 (3): 135–60.

Heine, Bernd, and Tania Kuteva. 2008. ‘Constraints on Contact-Induced Linguistic Change’. Journal of Language Contact 2 (1): 57–90.

Payne, Doris L. 1990. ‘Morphological Characteristics of Lowland South American Languages’. In Amazonian Linguistics: Studies in Lowland South American Languages, edited by Doris L. Payne. University of Texas Press.

Rowicka, G. J., and E. B. Carlin. 2006. What’s in a Verb?: Studies in the Verbal Morphology of the Languages of the Americas. Occasional Series. LOT. http://books.google.de/books?id=PSwqAQAAIAAJ.

Tallman, Adam J. R., and Patience Epps. 2020. ‘Morphological Complexity, Autonomy, and Areality in Western Amazonia’. In The Complexities of Morphology, by Adam J. R. Tallman and Patience Epps. Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198861287.003.0009.

Zariquiey, Roberto, Javier Vera, Simon J. Greenhill, Pilar Valenzuela, Russell D. Gray, and Johann-Mattis List. 2023. ‘Untangling the Evolution of Body-Part Terminology in Pano: Conservative versus Innovative Traits in Body-Part Lexicalization’. Interface Focus 13 (1): 20220053. https://doi.org/10.1098/rsfs.2022.0053.

Zúñiga, Fernando. 2017. ‘On the Morphosyntax of Indigenous Languages of the Americas’. International Journal of American Linguistics 83 (1): 111–39. https://doi.org/10.1086/689548.