Two Movement Paradoxes in Zapotec

Bresnan (2001) has drawn attention to movement paradoxes in syntactic theory. These are cases where the category of a constituent in a derived position differs from the category of the same constituent when it is in situ. San Dionisio Ocotepec Zapotec (SDZ), an Otomanguean language of Mexico, also shows a movement paradox. For a number of verbs with semantics like 'cover/fill/be spread' which subcategorize for a Theme and a Location, the usual argument realization has two NPs after the V. However, when the Theme occurs in an "extraposed" position, it may optionally appear as a PP. This phenomenon finds a natural explanation in LFG, which allows the same grammatical function to have a different categorial realization in different parts of the c-structure.