Mayan Semantics∗

This article has two interlocked goals. The first is to highlight the strands of research that have played an important role in shaping our understanding of Mayan language semantics. The second is to acquaint non-Mayanists, and especially semanticists, with empirical phenomena that might prove especially interesting on typological or theoretical grounds. Given its particular dual man-date, this article cannot be an exhaustive survey of Mayan semantics, but it should instead be seen as introduction to those aspects of Mayan languages that have had an impact on the wider field of semantics, and that are current research hotspots. That said, I do want to acquaint the reader with a broad range of phenomena, and so the paper is organized like a grammar would be, first consider-ing lexical categories, then phrase- and clause-level phenomena, and finally issues of discourse and information structure. In particular, section 2 considers the semantics of major lexical categories. Section 3 looks at three aspects of verbal semantics that have been subject to sustained research, namely space, time, and modality. Section 4 reviews work on clause typing, including polarity and questions. Section 5 discusses topic, focus, and those aspects of obviation in Mayan that concern information structure and reference-tracking. Finally, section 6 provides a brief conclusion