The particle ‘tá(~matá)’ in the clause structure of Guajá

Abstract This study examines the morphosyntactic properties of the particle ‘tá(~matá)’ in the clause structure of the Guajá language, considering its development in terms of a formal grammaticalization approach. I start from work by Magalhães (2007), which analyzes this category as an aspectual projective particle (PROJ) and subsequently examine its syntactic status, considering correlates in other Tupí-Guaraní languages (particularly Kamaiurá). I adopt the generative framework (Chomsky, 1995) and propose that the projective particle ‘tá(~matá)’ in Guajá lexicalizes the [T(ense)] functional head, which is defined within a cartographic model of clause structure. This analysis is evaluated with respect to the structural properties of negation as well as the distribution of subject agreement properties in these predicates.