The Syntax of Indonesian Imposters

Abstract

Abstract The languages of West Indonesia shed a unique and valuable light on imposter phenomena in comprising the only attested case of imposters being treated differently from homophonous non-imposters in the overt syntax. This chapter looks at the best studied of these languages, Indonesian. Indonesian takes part in the widely attested East Asian sprachbund phenomenon of employing titles and terms of kin as polite pronouns. Unlike the vast majority of other East Asian languages, however, Indonesian shows incipient person agreement on verbs. Entire referring expressions are employed as agreement markers, procliticizing to the verb on analogy with regular person prefixes. Because agreement only takes place with local ([+1], [+2]) persons, a positional difference arises between referring expressions that have a third person reference, and those that have a first or second person reference, with only the latter procliticizing. The chapter examines the syntax of this proclisis and its consequences for the theory of imposters.

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