Maddy Booth: Possessives in San Cristóbal Lachirioag Zapotec

In this talk, I will discuss construct state (CS) and free state (FS) possessives in San Cristóbal Lachirioag Zapotec (SCLZ). SCLZ is a previously undescribed VSO Zapotecan language spoken in Oaxaca, Mexico, in the Villa Alta district (Butler 1980). I will discuss Sichel’s (2002) analysis of Hebrew CS and FS, and then show how though there are similarities between SCLZ CS / FS and Hebrew CS / FS, particularly with respect to the placement of adjectives, the analysis of Hebrew cannot fully account for SCLZ construct state and free state possessives. This adds to the typological work on construct- and free-state constructions and possessives, both cross-linguistically and within Zapotecan languages.

In addition, we will discuss and vote on the SynSem nominations for next year’s colloq speakers.