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This paper analyzes some poems by Leonardo Tello Imaina: poet, communicator, journalist, and director of Radio Ucamara (Nauta, Loreto Region, Peru). Tello identifies himself as a member of the Kukama people, and my analysis here departs from a fundamental premise: the importance of the river for the Kukama people. It then bifurcates into two connected axes: on the one hand, the relationships between humans and non-humans and, on the other--borrowing Mario Blaser's definition--the "ontological conflicts". I emphasize how Tello's poetry contributes to the visibilization of Kukama political ontology and, at the same time, to the inclusion of Amazonian indigenous literature in the national literary scenario. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cross-linguistically, implicit purposive subjects are controlled to an overwhelmingly degree by the matrix subjects (Schmidtke-Bode 2009:56). In fact, little evidence has been found of constructions in which main and dependent events are not performed by the same entity, and no evidence about constructions in which the performer of the main event does not control the realization of the dependent one (Cristofaro 2003:157). Kokama (Amazon) provides a challenge to these generalizations and so constitutes a typological novelty. The language has three positive purpose constructions formed by attaching tara, mira, or tsen to the subordinated verb. In mira constructions, the matrix absolutive controls coreference with the omitted accusative in the purpose clause. In tara constructions, the matrix absolutive controls coreference with the omitted nominative in the purpose clause. In tsen constructions, coreference is free. Overall, tara/mira constructions are syntactically more integrated than tsen constructions. Discourse data shows that syntactic integration correlates with semanticpragmatic parameters: (i) temporal integration between events, (ii) successful outcome of the purposive event, and (iii) whether the omitted argument belongs to the discourse context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Focus subtypes can be characterized according to scope and pragmatic (e.g., [non]-contrastive) information. While the existence of strategies dedicated to code scope seems clear, the existence of grammar dedicated to pragmatic contrast is in dispute (Lambrecht 1994 and Myhill and Xing 1996). Some models propose that contrast is expressed in sentence grammar (Diket al. 1981 and Wauers 1979); others argue that contrast belongs to conversational implicature (Lambrecht 1994). Kokama-Kokamilla. an Amazonian language, has constructions that cleady distinguish focus subtypes according to both parameters. More specifically, this study examines the distribution of the clitic =pura. While this morpheme is an important cue to identifying pragmatically marked sentences, by itself it cannot be associated with specific subtypes of focus. It is the interaction of =pura with constituent order and prosody that produces formal distinctions for coding narrow vs. broad and contrastive vs. noncontrastive focus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]