The role of information packaging in shaping linguistic structure

It is generally agreed that intonation units tend to correspond to processing units ( Chafe 1979 , 1987 , 1994 , 2018 ; Inbar et al . 2023 ; and many others). As noted by other authors in this collection, the one new idea at a time pattern shows up robustly across typologically quite different languages. It is seen, for example, in languages with complex nominal expressions ( Louagie & Reinöhl 2022 ) and those with serial verb constructions ( Pawley 1987 , 2009 ; Givón 1991 ; Reinöhl et al . this volume). Similar prosodic packaging can also be seen in languages with very elaborate morphologies. It can, furthermore, account for the formation of some of their typological structure. Such effects are illustrated here with conversational data from Mohawk, a polysynthetic language indigenous to northeastern North America.