Expanding the Typology of Absolutive Syntax in Mayan: Evidence From Northern Mam

Abstract

Past work on Mayan languages has divided the family into two groups based on syntactic ergativity: ‘high-absolutive’ languages in which objects raise to a position above the ergative subject and enter into Agree with a high probe and ‘low-absolutive’ languages in which objects remain low and enter into Agree with a low probe. This object raising approach has been proposed to correlate with a constellation of syntactic properties, related to Ā-extraction constraints, morpheme order, nonfinite embedding, and binding effects. This paper adds a third option to the typology based on data from a Northern Mam variety in which objects systematically fail to agree. Though it appears to fall outside of the established paradigm, I argue that this ‘no-absolutive’ syntax is also directly predicted by an object raising analysis which locates variation in the presence or absence of [EPP] and $\phi$-probe features on $v/{\text{Voice}}^0$. To support this, I show how no-absolutive Northern Mam patterns as we would expect across all previously proposed correlates of object raising. This paper functions as Part II to Royer and Coon 2025, also in this volume.