Zamucoan (also Samúkoan ) is a small language family of Paraguay (northeast Chaco ) and Bolivia ( Santa Cruz Department ).
5-566: The family has hardly been studied by linguists (as of Adelaar & Muysken 2004), although several studies have recently appeared (see: Bertinetto 2009, 2010, 2013; Ciucci 2007/08, 2009, 2010a, 2010b, 2013a, 2013b). Recent studies show that the Zamucoan languages are characterized by a rare syntactic configuration which is called para- hypotaxis , where coordination and subordination are used simultaneously to connect clauses (Bertinetto & Ciucci 2012). Zamucoan consists of two living languages: From
10-413: A sentence. A common example of syntactic expression of hypotaxis is the subordination of one syntactic unit to another in a complex sentence . Another example is observed in premodification . In the phrase "inexpensive composite materials", "composite" modifies "materials" while "inexpensive" modifies the complex head "composite materials", rather than "composite" or "materials". In this example
15-460: The deep-delved earth, / Tasting of Flora and the country green" (1. 11–13). The "draught of vintage" is modified by the clauses in the successive lines. In William Blake 's poem " The Clod and the Pebble ", the phrase "So sang a little Clod of Clay,/ Trodden with the cattle's feet" (l. 5–6) is an example of hypotaxis; line 6 modifies the "Clod of Clay" in line 5. This grammar -related article
20-593: The historical record of the Zamucoan peoples, the living Zamucoan languages appear to have had several relatives, now extinct. It is not clear if these were necessarily distinct languages, or even that they were Zamucoan, but Mason (1950) listed them as follows: Loukotka (1968) lists the following basic vocabulary items for Zamucoan language varieties. Hypotaxis Hypotaxis is the grammatical arrangement of functionally similar but "unequal" constructs (from Greek hypo- "beneath", and taxis "arrangement"); certain constructs have more importance than others inside
25-400: The phrase units are hierarchically structured, rather than being on the same level, as compared to the example "Cockroaches love warm, damp, dark places." Note the syntactic difference; hypotactic modifiers cannot be separated by a comma . John Keats 's " Ode to a Nightingale " has an example of hypotaxis in the second stanza: "O, for a draught of vintage! That hath been/ Cool'd a long age in
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