biology

Pied-piping with inversion

Pied-piping with inversion is a biology topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Pied-piping with inversion rather than just read about it. In short: Pied-piping with inversion is a special word order phenomenon found in some languages, such as those in the Mesoamerican linguistic area. Introduction The phenomenon was first named and identified as an areal characteristic of the Mesoamerican linguistic area in Smith Stark (1988).

Key takeaways

Pied-piping with inversion belongs to biology; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Pied-piping with inversion to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Pied-piping with inversion from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Pied-piping with inversion is a special word order phenomenon found in some languages, such as those in the Mesoamerican linguistic area.

Introduction The phenomenon was first named and identified as an areal characteristic of the Mesoamerican linguistic area in Smith Stark (1988). Some sources also refer to pied-piping with inversion as "secondary wh-movement". The phenomenon can be described as follows:

the language has wh-movement. the language has pied-piping; that is, when certain words undergo wh-movement, the interrogative word and also the rest of the phrase moves. the word order within the pied-piped phrase is different from the order of ordinary phrases. The following examples from San Dionisio Ocotepec Zapotec illustrate the phenomenon. As the following example shows, a possessor normally follows the noun that is possessed in the language (Broadwell 2001):

If the possessor is questioned, the whole noun phrase must pied-pipe to the beginning of the sentence. However, the order of the initial phrase must have the possessor before the possessed:

The difference in order between the noun phrases in (1) and (2) illustrates pied-piping with inversion. (1) shows the ordinary order in which the noun is the first element of the noun phrase, and (2) shows the inverted order found in the pied-piped noun phrase. The following examples from Tzotzil (Aissen 1996) show the same process:

Types of phrases that show pied-piping with inversion Pied-piping with inversion is most often found in noun phrases (NP), prepositional phrases (PP), and quantifier phrases (QP). The following example, also from San Dionisio Ocotepec Zapotec, shows pied-piping with inversion in a quantifier phrase (Broadwell 2001):

As the example shows, languages may differ in the degree to which pied-piping with inversion is obligatory in different types of phrases. Therefore, (2) above shows that the interrogative must be initial in a pied-piped noun phrase, but (5) shows that the interrogative is only optionally initial in a pied-piped quantifier phrase. The following example, from Quiegolani Zapotec (Black 2000), shows pied-piping with inversion in a prepositional phrase:

Environments for pied-piping with inversion The most frequently-cited type of sentence with pied-piping with inversion is a wh-question. However, a number of Mesoamerican languages also show fronting of negative or indefinite phrases to a position before the verb. Fronted negative and indefinite phrases may also show pied-piping with inversion in some languages, as in this example from San Dionisio Ocotepec Zapotec:

The noun phrase "anyone's dog" has been fronted to a position before the verb and shows the same pied-piping with inversion that is seen in other syntactic environments.

Languages that show pied-piping with inversion Pied-piping with inversion seems to be found in all Mesoamerican languages. It is documented in many of them, including several Zapotec languages (San Dionisio Ocotepec Zapotec, Tlacolula de Matamoros Zapotec, and Quiegolani Zapotec), several Mayan languages (Kʼicheʼ, Kaqchikel, Chuj, Tzotzil), and several Mixtecan languages (Ocotepec Mixtec, and Copala Triqui). Garifuna, an Arawakan language of Central America that shares many features with canonical Mesoamerican languages, also has pied-pipiing with inversion in wh-questions, focus sentences, and relative clauses. Pied-piping with inversion is unusual outside Mesoamerica but is documented in Sasak, an Austronesian language of Indonesia (Austin 2001). A somewhat similar phenomenon is found in a number of Germanic languages in which certain pronominal objects of prepositions appear before the preposition. The following Dutch examples show that ordinary objects follow the preposition op "on," but the pronouns er "it," daar "there," and hier "here" precede the preposition:

Ik reken [op je steun]. ("I count on your support.") Ik reken erop/daarop/hierop ("I count on it/on that/on this.") Those examples show inversion of a prepositional phrase, but the inversion does not necessarily occur in contexts of pied-piping. Possibly related is the phenomenon known as swiping in which a wh-phrase is inverted with a governing preposition in the context of sluicing:

Ralph was arguing, but I don't know who with. Such inversion requires pied-piping but also ellipsis, unlike Mesoamerican languages.

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Pied-piping with inversion

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Pied-piping with inversion claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In biology, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Pied-piping with inversion before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Pied-piping with inversion ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Pied-piping with inversion

In research: Pied-piping with inversion appears in biology research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Pied-piping with inversion in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Pied-piping with inversion is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Generative syntax, Indigenous languages of Central America, Indigenous languages of North America, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Pied-piping with inversion outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Pied-piping with inversion in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Pied-piping with inversion means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Pied-piping with inversion out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Pied-piping with inversion in simple terms?

Pied-piping with inversion is a special word order phenomenon found in some languages, such as those in the Mesoamerican linguistic area. Introduction The phenomenon was first named and identified as an areal characteristic of the Mesoamerican linguistic area in Smith Stark (1988).

Why does Pied-piping with inversion matter?

Because it connects several biology ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Pied-piping with inversion?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Pied-piping with inversion.