Estimates suggest that approximately 10% of the world’s languages exhibit the verb-first pattern (the V1 pattern), where the verb obligatorily occupies the initial position (with respect to its arguments) in declarative sentences with neutral information structure (Dryer 2005). In this paper, I argue that verb-initial (VSO) word order in Kawahíva (Tupí-Guaraní; Brazil) is a result of (long) syntactic head movement, akin to phrasal movement. This analysis is supported by the hallmarks of syntactic movement present in the head movement responsible for creating V1 order, including interpretive effects, nonlocality, and a specifier landing site. I also show that two alternative analyses to V1 order – Remnant-VP movement and Morphological Amalgamation – fail to show their predicted outcomes, i.e., the creation of a Remnant VP and a strictly local head movement.
