Mam Agreement Fragment @cite{scott-2023} #

@cite{deal-2024} @cite{woolford-1997} @cite{blake-1994}

Agreement morphology and pronoun realization data for San Juan Atitán Mam (SJA Mam), the dialect analyzed in @cite{scott-2023}. Per Scott's Chapter 3 (titled "Object licensing and agreement: SJA Mam is a tripartite high-abs language"), SJA Mam exhibits morphologically tripartite agreement alignment: S, A, and O each trigger distinct marking patterns on the verb.

Dialect-specificity and the analytical contrast #

This fragment encodes Scott's analysis of SJA Mam specifically. Other Mam dialects (notably Ixtahuacán Mam, the variety described in England 1983b and used by @cite{zavala-maldonado-2017} §4-5) have been characterized as ergative with a neutral pattern in aspectless dependent clauses — NOT tripartite. Per Zavala 2017 §4 (p. 237), "Ch'orti' is the only Mayan language that exhibits three sets of pronominal markers" — making Ch'orti' the canonical tripartite Mayan language under that framing.

Scott's tripartite analysis of SJA Mam is an analytical contribution that uses a high-abs / Voice Licensing / Ergative Extraction Constraint framework (her ch. 3 §3.4) to argue for tripartite case (ERG, ACC, ABS) even though Mam lacks independent DP case morphology. Per Scott §1.2.4 (Mam dialect variation, p. 11) and Table 1.2 (Mam dialect groups, citing Simon 2019), Mam dialects vary substantially; the SJA Mam analysis may not extend directly to Ixtahuacán Mam.

The System #

Mam has two agreement paradigms on the verb:

Set A (ERG): prefixes on Voice cross-referencing the transitive agent
Set B (ABS): preverbal markers on Infl cross-referencing the absolutive argument (intransitive S). In transitives, Infl's φ-probe is blocked by transitive VoiceP and default Set B (∅/tz'=) appears instead.

In the default construction, transitive objects are not cross-referenced by either set — they co-occur with default Set B (tz'=) and require full overt pronouns. However, some speakers accept agreeing Set B for objects as a more formal variant (@cite{scott-2023}, ch. 3, ex. 156).

Case Licensing (per Scott's analysis) #

Case is NOT assigned via dependent case. Instead:

ERG: inherent case from Voice
ACC: structural case from Voice (object licensing; low-abs syntax)
ABS: structural case from Infl (high-abs morphology; for intransitive S)

This gives a tripartite underlying Case system (ERG, ACC, ABS) despite Mam having no independent case morphology on DPs — case is visible only through agreement patterns. This tripartite analysis is dialect-specific to SJA Mam per Scott; alternative analyses (for other Mam dialects or under different theoretical frameworks) characterize Mam as ergative with neutral patterns in dependent clauses (England 1983b; @cite{zavala-maldonado-2017} §4-5).

Argument Positions #

Position	Case	Agreement	Pronoun
A (transitive agent)	ERG (from Voice)	Set A	reduced/null
S (intransitive subj)	ABS (from Infl)	Set B	reduced/null
P (transitive patient)	ACC (from Voice)	default Set B	overt