Existential, Possessive and Locative Constructions in Yami Language: A comparative study to Formosan languages

Abstract

This study reports on Yami existential, possessive and locative constructions, regarding the issues on (i) two ‘HAVE’ structures, (ii) Definiteness Effect (DE) and (iii) an analysis of small clause, in terms of a formal syntactic approach. Compared with Formosan languages, Yami syntactically shows the differences based on two ‘HAVE’ structures. Besides, it is also proved that Definiteness Effect in Yami differs from that in other Formosan languages, such as Bunun language. Finally, this study also argues that the existential verb amian/abo ‘exist/not exist’ in Yami selects a small clause as its complement, representing a relative clause.

Keywords

• existential
• possessive
• locative
• yami (language)
• definiteness effect
• small clause