Argument structure and aspect: The case of two imperfectives in Malayalam

We look at the two imperfective constructions in Malayalam and show how a rich v tier can account for differences between them. The -ukayaa^6 imperfective is actually a reduced (pseudo)cleft construction (following Mohanan and Mohanan’s 1999 analysis of aa^6 in non-equative constructions). The auxiliaryaa^6 is the focus marker. The reduced material is a tier of v , phonetically manifested as the cey ‘do’ in transitive/causative constructions and an eventivev ‘occur’ in unaccusatives (cf. Marantz 1997). The -unnu^z6 construction (the other imperfective) has neither eventive nor agentive v . The auxiliary u^z6 is an existential operator and it asserts the existence of an event. u^z6 heads the EventP (Harley 1995). Facts from adverb syntax also support the analysis of the-ukayaa^6 construction as focus.