THE CONJUNCT ORDER IN ALGONQUIAN

This article examines the conjunct order found in Algonquian languages and attempts to characterize the difference between the conjunct and the independent orders in formal terms. Most of the examples are drawn from Passamaquoddy-Maliseet and Montagnais. Specific morphological pr operties of the two orders are considered: the ability to take person prefixes, the richness of agreement features, and the phonological con ditioning of stem-initial vowels. A weak word order effect is observed in Montagnais, and the overall distribution of the two verb paradigms is examined. All of these facts are related to the hypothesis that ve rbs bearing conjunct morphology move to Comp, while independent verbs remain in Infl. This operation is motivated by the dependence of a con junct clause on a higher verb or noun, as in subordination or relativi zation. In some cases, the dependency may derive from the adjunct stat us of the conjunct clause itself. The overall picture is one of a conf igurational language type, with superficial differences reducible to p arametric variation.