Agreement in K’iche’ (Mayan): Reflections on Microvariation and Acquisi- tion

We explore plausible acquisition trajectories that give rise to microvariation in 3PL agreement realization in K’iche’ (Mayan). We report elicitation data with two speakers of the language. For one speaker, all inanimate 3PL arguments control agreement optionally. For another speaker, inanimate 3PL arguments base-generated in a specifier position control agreement obligatorily, while those base-generated in complement position control agreement optionally. Taking England (2011)’s corpus study of the language as a starting point, we show how the interplay of universal and non-universal factors during acquisition might give rise to these different grammars.