Noun phrase conjunction in Amis

This paper investigates noun phrase conjunction (NP conjunction) in Amis, and in particular the composition of the two conjunctors atu and aci, and two types of NP construction that differ in terms of the case marking of the second conjunct. The following findings are proposed. First, the conjunctor atu, instead of being treated as a composite of two units (i.e. a general linker a and a case marker tu as reported in earlier studies such as Tsai & Zeng 1997 and E. Liu 2003) is argued to contain only one unit that functions as a single conjunctor. The same analysis is also proposed for aci, though the-ci still carries the function of a personal proper noun marker. Second, whether the second conjunct is case-marked or not indicates different degrees of tightness between the two conjuncts. This syntax-semantics interface in the NP conjunction of Amis is analyzed within the framework of Role and Reference Grammar (RRG). It is shown that these two types of NP conjunction exemplify two nexus types at the NP-juncture: NP cosubordination and NP coordination. I conclude this paper by further discussing how the case marking of the second conjunct interacts with the semantics (e.g. noun types and semantic roles) of this conjunct.