Defectivity and lexicalization in morphological paradigms: the case of the morpheme –sun from Ayacucho Quechua

Abstract

This study provides a discussion on the morpheme -sun of Ayacucho Quechua dialect, which is used for the exhortative and inclusive first-person future, and, at the same time, for marking second-person objects. Our proposal is that this morpheme has filled a gap in the verb inflection paradigm, as a result of the need for the system to mark the syntactic function of Object and the salience of the Addressee feature. Thus, Quechua uses this morpheme for two different domains in the syntax: domain of the Speech Act, in the case of the exhortative; and domain of the event, the case of the second-person object marking. Furthermore, I will open a discussion on the diachrony of this morpheme, which due to the degree of complexity of the Speech Acts morpheme system, may have been the origin of the defective morpheme in the person transition paradigm; however, I will not reach conclusive answers in this regard.