Unifying V-C Movement in Algonquian and Germanic: A View from Morphology

This paper suggests that V-C movement can be detected in polysyntetic languages via its morphological correlates. The claim is based partly on the striking parallelism between the contexts where a particular agreement paradigm (Independent Order) can occur in Algonquian languages and the contexts where V-C movement/V2 can occur in Germanic languages, and partly on the morphological properties of the relevant agreement paradigm in Arapaho (Plains Algonquian). We argue that the existence of agreement allomorphy and the partial prosodic independence of agreement proclitics in this paradigm result from V-C movement feeding into C-triggered allomorphy and m-merger of the proclitic.