Islands in an ocean of (poly)synthesis and concatenative morphology. What linguistic theory and typology can learn from selected Amerindian languages

The project aims at elucidating why the languages of the New World are less homogeneous in terms of their word typology and marking locus than the assumed recent arrival of inhabitants to the continent might lead to expect. Based on both published material and data gathered from fieldwork, selected case studies and theoretical work on issues raised by polysynthesis and the word/clitic/affix distinctions will contribute to our understanding of the development of morphology in some languages of a vast continent.