Reviewed by Elly van Gelderen, Arizona State University
This book studies complementation in Yaqui, a Uto-Aztecan language spoken in Arizona and Sonora. Yaqui has recently become a little less understudied after the publication of a grammar, Sonora Yaqui language structures (John Dedrick & Eugene Casad, Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1999), and a dictionary, Diccionario yaqui–español y textos: Obra de preservación linguistic (Zarina Estrada Fernández, Mexico City: Plaza y Valdés, 2004), in addition to a number of articles. Lilián Guerrero’s book is a welcome addition.
Ch. 1 provides a brief overview of the Yaqui language. Ch. 2 sketches its morphosyntactic structure with clear examples and glosses: Yaqui is agglutinative, verb-final, and dependent-marking. G uses role and reference grammar as her theoretical framework, a synopsis of which is provided in Ch. 3. Chs. 4, 5, and 6 discuss three different kinds of complements, and Chs. 7 and 8 evaluate the linking of syntax and semantics in predicates and complements.
To classify main verbs, G uses Michael Noonan’s (Complementation. Language typology and syntactic description, ed. by Timothy Shopen, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 42–140, 1985) classification, which includes, manipulatives, phasals, desideratives, perception, propositional attitude, knowledge, and utterance predicates. The complements of Yaqui predicates are marked to show different degrees of syntactic and semantic closeness. G explores the three types of sentential complements, which include those that have (i) a subject different from that of the matrix and an independent tense-aspect-mood (TAM) marker, (ii) a subject that is the same as the one in the matrix clause and no TAM information, and (iii) the matrix and embedded verbs linked (26–27).
Ch. 4 discusses the closest semantic relationship a matrix verb can have with its complement—that is, causative constructions. G distinguishes direct causation from result state causation in terms of syntactic linkage. In Ch. 5, phase, psych-action, and purpose verbs are discussed—for example main verbs that correspond to English begin, try, promise, and want. These are constructions in which the subject of the main clause and the subject of the subordinate clause are the same and the verb in question is quite grammaticalized, such as in ne kariu wetaitek I house walk-begin-PERFECT ‘I started walking towards the house’ (106).
In Ch. 6, perception verbs as well as mental and saying verbs are examined. Perception verbs are complex in that, crosslinguistically, they take many types of complements, which depend on direct or indirect perception.
In short, this is a clear and insightful book about Yaqui complementation. General linguists of all theoretical persuasions will enjoy the Yaqui examples.