Lexically driven patterns of contact in alignment systems of languages of the northern Upper Amazon

Abstract Despite ample attention in the literature for alignment patterns and case frames more generally, we know very little about how these elements of grammar spread from one language to another a contact situation. Achieving better understanding this will help explain areal grammatical relation marking. In contribution, zoom on situation foothills North-West Amazon, where languages Quechuan Tukanoan families are contact, previous authors have suggested that marking shows many potential effects. We find that, despite absence loanwords, abstract lexico-grammatical information associated with individual lexical items may another, especially within class sensation predicates. These can be characterized as lexically driven diffusion patterns, without formal borrowing, consistent an overall characterization area’s sociolinguistics loanword-avoiding.