Pazar Laz as a weak verb-framed language

Abstract

Abstract Pazar Laz (pl) has a rich set of spatial prefixes, which encode path information as separate morphemes. However, unlike satellite-framed languages, pl spatial prefixes are incompatible with manner of motion verbs, which do not inherently encode path information, but they can only be used with directed motion verbs where the path information is available in the lexical semantics of the verb. Given this pattern, complementing Acedo-Matellán (2016)’s classification of weak vs. strong satellite-framed languages, we argue that verb-framed languages are also of two types. While languages like Romance are strong verb-framed languages encoding Path directly in the verb root, pl constitutes an example of a weak verb-framed language, where Path is affixal and forms a single word with the verb. We argue that spatial prefixes spell out the underassociated Path projection of the verb à la Ramchand (2008b).