Variable index placement in Gutob from a typological perspective

Abstract

In Gutob (Munda, India) S/A indexes can attach to other hosts apart from the verb, unconstrained by syntax. Previous studies have described non-verbal index placement in Gutob as exceptional, establishing verbal indexes as the default. This paper presents the first case study on the placement of Gutob indexes based on corpus data. Our analysis shows that although index placement in Gutob is in fact conditioned by discourse effects, non-verbal clitics cannot be considered particularly exceptional. They are employed to allocate attention to constituents and express engagement with a particular piece of information. In other languages where index placement is similarly flexible, it has been ascribed to the host being in focus. However, we argue although the effects of index placement in Gutob might pertain to what is usually subsumed under this category, other effects like newness, quantification, requested information or negation are not necessarily associated with index placement in Gutob.