Conjunction in Colonial Valley Zapotec
Plumb, May Helena
Colonial Valley Zapotec (CVZ) was spoken in Oaxaca, Mexico, during
the colonial period; the language is attested a set of printed texts
and handwritten documents. In this paper I discuss the four primary
conjunctions strategies in CVZ: chela, huanee, =la, and asyndetic conjunction.
These conjunction strategies are used interchangeably in CVZ
(§2) and throughout a wide time frame and geographic area (§3). In some
passages, a scribe alternates between different conjunction strategies to
emphasize semantic and syntactic groupings within the construction.
To explain these constructions I introduce a theory of localized semantic/
syntactic sensitivity, an expansion of the current typology of conjunction
(§4).
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