Abstract
This study examines the morphosyntactic properties of the particle ‘tá(~matá)’ in the clause structure of the Guajá language, considering its development in terms of a formal grammaticalization approach. I start from work by Magalhães (2007), which analyzes this category as an aspectual projective particle (PROJ) and subsequently examine its syntactic status, considering correlates in other Tupí-Guaraní languages (particularly Kamaiurá). I adopt the generative framework (Chomsky, 1995) and propose that the projective particle ‘tá(~matá)’ in Guajá lexicalizes the [T(ense)] functional head, which is defined within a cartographic model of clause structure. This analysis is evaluated with respect to the structural properties of negation as well as the distribution of subject agreement properties in these predicates.
Keywords
Grammaticalization; Functional category; Transitivity; Argument structure