Centering and noun phrase realization in Kaqchikel Mayan

Centering Theory is applied to a narrated film retelling in Kaqchikel Mayan in order to better understand discourse constraints on the form of referring expression. It is shown that Backwards-Looking Centers are very often encoded by zero pronouns, and that center Shifts more often employ full pronouns and full noun phrases than do center Continues and Retains. Preverbal pronouns and full noun phrases as opposed to postverbal pronouns and full noun phrases correlate with center Shifts. Morphological ergativity is seen to have no effect on the proper ranking of Forward-Looking Centers in that in morphologically ergative languages, just as in morphologically accusative languages, subjects should be taken to outrank objects in transitive sentences. A comparison of the Kaqchikel text with Du Bois’ (1987) analysis of Sacapultec Mayan film-retelling narratives supports this ranking by showing that ergative subject arguments more often encode participants that are ‘given’ in the discourse than do absolutive object arguments.