Exceptive constructions in Huasteca Nahuatl

Abstract The paper explores exceptive constructions (e.g., all my family went to the wedding except Mark ) in Huasteca Nahuatl (Uto-Aztecan). It is shown that connected and free exceptives have developed intriguing discourse-pragmatic functions that have not been identified by previous studies. While connected exceptives (e.g., everyone except Pedro went to the meeting ) indicate a surprising situation, free exceptives (e.g., everyone went to the meeting except Peter ) signal a non-surprising situation. It is argued that exceptive markers play an important role in the expression of these functions and it is demonstrated that the order of the exceptive phrase with respect to its associate and its relation to surprising and non-surprising situations can be explained by a syntactic iconic mechanism: the principle of adjacency. It is shown that Huasteca Nahuatl borrowed exceptive markers from Mexican Spanish. However, the discourse-pragmatic functions of exceptive constructions are an internally motivated development in Huasteca Nahuatl that cannot be attributed to Mexican Spanish.