Noun Categorization and Complex Predication in Secoya, an Amazonian Language

FAIN: FN-260675-18

Rosa Vallejos
Regents of the University of New Mexico (Albuquerque, NM 87131-0001)

Fieldwork and research to document and analyze Secoya, an endangered language of Amazonian Peru.

This fellowship will support key components of the PI`s ongoing work to document Secoya, an endangered Tukanoan language of Peruvian Amazonia. The PI will produce a corpus of fully transcribed, glossed, and translated video recordings, and a comprehensive account of central features of the language: its noun categorization system and complex predicate constructions. The Secoya people live mainly in Loreto, Peru, inhabiting nine villages in the area. The total Secoya population is estimated at 600, about half having migrated to Ecuador during the Peru-Ecuador conflict in 1941. In contrast to what is reported for Ecuador, the Secoyas in Peru are mostly dominant in their heritage language, and, given their geographic isolation, this variety has not been influenced by any other neighboring language. However, this sociolinguistic context is changing rapidly. In the last decade alone, a growing Spanish/Secoya bilingualism among children and a change in attitudes towards Secoya identity among youngsters has been observed. This situation has become a concern for the community, and they are now putting forward initiatives to maintain their language. Thus, this is a crucial time to document Secoya and support ongoing community efforts. This project, the first to be focused entirely in Peruvian Secoya, will take advantage of current favorable conditions: a well-established collaborative relationship with the community, trained native speakers, and an efficient workflow. (Edited by staff)

Media Coverage

Rosa Vallejos Yopán of Linguistics/Spanish & Portuguese Receives Prestigious Fellowship for Documenting Endangered Languages (Media Coverage)
Author(s): Latin American & Iberian Institute
Publication: Latin American & Iberian Institute
Date: 5/8/2018
Abstract: Dr. Rosa Vallejos Yopán, an Associate Professor jointly appointed to the UNM departments of Linguistics and Spanish & Portuguese, and faculty affiliate of the LAII, has received the prestigious Documenting Endangered Languages (DEL) Fellowship. This award supports fieldwork and other activities relevant to recording, documenting, and archiving the endangered languages, including the preparation of lexicons, grammars, text samples, and databases.
URL: https://laii.unm.edu/news/2018/05/2018-05-08-rosa-vallejos-yopan-of-linguistics-spanish-portuguese-receives-prestigious-fellowship-for-documenting-endangered-languages.html

Associated Products

The functions of nominal classification in Secoya discourse (Conference Paper/Presentation)
Title: The functions of nominal classification in Secoya discourse
Author: Rosa Vallejos
Abstract: This talks focusses on the discourse use of the nominal classification system of Secoya (Western Tukanoan, ISO: sey), as spoken in Peruvian Amazonia. The hypothesis at play is that Secoya has a single but complex classification system. The data examined here suggests that the language has concurring subsystems that complement each other, in the sense of Gomez-Imbert (2007), Seifart and Payne (2007), and Fedden and Corbett (2017). Secoya, as many other languages in the world, has formal mechanisms to organize nominal referents following three semantic parameters: animacy, biological sex, and shape. Animacy, refers to the degree to which entities are capable of human-like volition behavior (Silverstein 1976). Gender is a complex socio-culturally constructed classification on the basis of biological differences between males and females (McConnell-Ginet 1988). Shape includes dimensionality, axial geometry, curved/straight edges, negative spaces, and orientated axis, properties that play a crucial role in object recognition, visual processing, and language acquisition (Seifart 2005). In Secoya, these three semantic parameters have ramifications in grammatical subsystems. They have their own markers, their own loci, but share the functional load.
Date: 04/18/2019
Primary URL: http://www.ddl.cnrs.fr/colloques/NCW2019/
Primary URL Description: The international workshop was organized by the Dynamique Du Langage research center (DDL) and hosted by the MSH Lyon Saint-Étienne (MSH-LSE) in Lyon (France)
Conference Name: NOUN CATEGORIZATION: FROM GRAMMAR TO COMMUNICATIVE INTERACTION

Nominal classification in Secoya: semantic distinctions and discourse functions (Conference Paper/Presentation)
Title: Nominal classification in Secoya: semantic distinctions and discourse functions
Author: Rosa Vallejos
Abstract: This usage-based study deals with the nominal classification system of Secoya (Western Tukanoan, ISO: sey), as spoken in Peruvian Amazonia. It looks at the distributional properties of the classification devices with a focus on the semantic distinctions they encode, as wells as their functions in discourse. The data examined here suggests that the language has concurrent subsystems that complement each other (Gomez-Imbert 2007; Seifart & Payne 2007; Fedden & Corbett 2017). Secoya has formal mechanisms to organize nominal referents following three semantic parameters: animacy, biological sex, and shape. Animacy, refers to the degree to which entities are capable of human-like volition behavior (Silverstein 1976). Gender is a complex socio-culturally constructed classification on the basis of biological differences between males and females (McConnell-Ginet 1988). Shape includes dimensionality, axial geometry, curved/straight edges, negative spaces, and orientated axis, properties that play a crucial role in object recognition, visual processing, and language acquisition (Seifart 2005). In Secoya, these three semantic parameters have ramifications in grammatical subsystems. The distribution of subsets of markers can be predicted by looking at specific grammatical constructions.
Date: 10/12/2019
Primary URL: https://ailla.utexas.org/node/185
Primary URL Description: Archive of Indigenous Languages of Latin America
Conference Name: IX Conference on Indigenous Languages of Latin America (CILLA), Austin, TX

The role of shape and animacy in categorization: evidence from the Amazon (Conference Paper/Presentation)
Title: The role of shape and animacy in categorization: evidence from the Amazon
Author: Rosa Vallejos
Abstract: Languages throughout the world have dedicated mechanisms to specify information about the shape, animacy, consistency, size, location, or utility of the entities around us. An important question in linguistics is to what extent the nominal classification system of a language mirrors the way speakers see the world they live in, and to what extent the documented similarities reflect underlying, general cognitive processes in the human mind. Thus, an adequate theory of human language requires a broad sampling of diverse languages. Amazonian languages have been identified as a priority in this respect, since they are both poorly documented and highly endangered. This project investigates Secoya, an endangered Tukanoan language spoken in Peruvian Amazonia, and provides new bodies of data from unique settings. The concrete outcome will be a morphosyntactic and semantic account of Secoya’s nominal classification system, situating the analysis in the broader Amazonian context. From a theoretical perspective, Secoya provides an excellent case scenario to test current typologies of nominal classification. There has been a traditional belief that the classification of entities can be achieved by either gender systems or classifier systems. Secoya has both gender and classifiers. This project will contribute to the development of a framework in which both systems can be analyzed together. Also, a better understanding of Secoya can shed light on language contact in Amazonia. Secoya is one of the few languages of the Tukanoan family that is outside of the well-known Vaupes linguistic area where several contact-induced processes are taking place. Secoya is particularly important to inform debates regarding the direction of influence among systems. More broadly, this project contributes to the documentation of imperiled cultural heritage, while also enriching our understanding of the diversity of the world’s languages.
Date: 3/18/2019
Primary URL: https://collegium.universite-lyon.fr/rosa-vallejos-the-role-of-shape-and-animacy-in-nominal-classification-evidence-from-the-amazon-84314.kjsp?RH=1522927788210
Primary URL Description: Collegium de Lyon
Secondary URL Description: Collegium de Lyon Seminar
Conference Name: Collegium de Lyon Seminar

Locative construals: topology, posture, disposition, and perspective in Secoya and beyond (Article)
Title: Locative construals: topology, posture, disposition, and perspective in Secoya and beyond
Author: Hunter Brown
Author: Rosa Vallejos
Abstract: This study has two aims. First, it lays out the synchronic patterning of four constructions that express static location in Secoya (Tukanoan). Each construction licenses different semantic verb types: topological verbs, postural verbs, an existential verb, and a copula. Second, this study explores the different construals encoded by these constructions and highlights the ways speakers use them creatively to elaborate on stage-level properties adjacent to location in locative utterances. Data collected from six speakers using visual stimuli reveal that each of the constructions elaborates on specific aspects of locative scenes. Responses for typical/atypical scenes, negative polarity statements, and frequency patterns show that speakers can choose conceptualizations that favor Ground geometry, Figure posture, more complex Figure dispositions, or marked perspectivizations. Similar phenomena are observed in other Amazonian languages. These results raise difficulties in identifying a basic locative construction, suggesting that Secoya may not fit squarely into any type in existing typologies of spatial expression (e.g., Ameka and Levinson 2007). Additionally, the Secoya system raises questions about the relationship between conceptual alternativity and the notion of “basicness” with respect to construal types.
Year: 2021
Primary URL: https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/cog-2020-0099/html
Primary URL Description: Cognitive Linguistics Volume 32 Issue 2
Access Model: Open access
Format: Journal
Periodical Title: Cognitive Linguistics
Publisher: De Gruyter Mouton

Nominal Classification without Grammatical Agreement: Evidence from Secoya (Article)
Title: Nominal Classification without Grammatical Agreement: Evidence from Secoya
Author: Rosa Vallejos
Abstract: This paper aims to demonstrate two things. First, Secoya (Tukanoan) has gender markers and shape classifiers. However, unlike other Tukanoan languages, Secoya does not display grammatical agreement, either between the head noun and its modifiers within a noun phrase or between the predicate and its arguments within a clause. Gender markers and shape classifiers are used in antecedent-anaphor relations. They appear in pronominal forms, demonstratives, and numerals to differentiate referents, playing a role in the way discourse is constructed and maintained. Second, a corpus study reveals that some traces of agreement might be emerging; however, it is currently restricted to one specific context, and there is significant speaker variation. Thus, Secoya is in a privileged position to inform debates regarding the mechanisms that may have given rise to complex classification systems in Northwest Amazonia, providing the missing link to understanding the interesting ways in which these different systems are related.
Year: 2021
Primary URL: https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/714248?journalCode=ijal
Primary URL Description: International Journal of American Linguistics Volume 87, Number 3 July 2021
Access Model: Subscription
Format: Journal
Publisher: International Journal of American Linguistics

Secoya Field Materials (Database/Archive/Digital Edition)
Title: Secoya Field Materials
Author: Rosa Vallejos
Abstract: Sound recordings of texts and elicitation, with transcription and translation into Spanish and English. Texts include personal narratives, traditional stories, and stories created with cards; elicitation also includes structured elicitation using different types of stimuli. This collection is based on fieldwork conducted by Rosa Vallejos in Secoya villages in Peru beginning in 2007.
Year: 2021
Primary URL: https://doi.org/10.7297/X2QR4VPG
Primary URL Description: Rosa Vallejos. Secoya Field Materials, 2021-07, California Language Archive, Survey of California and Other Indian Languages, University of California, Berkeley, http://dx.doi.org/doi:10.7297/X2QR4VPG.
Access Model: Open access

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