The categories Proximate and Obviative are familiar from Algonkian linguistics, where they serve to distinguish the 3rd person of greatest discourse salience from all other 3rd persons in a given span. In Algonkian, these categories are morphologically visible and though anchored in discourse, they play a major role in the syntax of the clause. While much previous work has explored the relevance of discourse salience to natural language morphosyntax, the categories Proximate and Obviative have generally been viewed as simply one language-particular way to relate the two. The present project explores the idea that relations of obviation are much more widely relevant, functioning cross-linguistically as an important structuring device which mediates between discourse and clausal syntax. The key claim to be investigated is that these relations are relevant not only to languages with overt obviative morphology like the Algonkian languages, but also to languages lacking such morphology. The project focuses on languages of the Mayan family as a case-study, especially Tzotzil and Tz'utujil, languages from distinct sub-families.
