A Grammar of Maonan

A Grammar of Maonan PDF Author: Tian Qiao Lu
Publisher: Universal-Publishers
ISBN: 1599429713
Category : Foreign Language Study
Languages : en
Pages : 427

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Book Description
Maonan is a Kam-Tai (Tai-Kadai) language spoken by 75,000 people in the border area of Guangxi and Guizhou provinces of China. This grammar book is the first volume to account for the phonology, word-formation, syntax, grammaticalization and lexicalization patterns of Maonan from a typological and ethno-linguistic perspective. It renders a comprehensive description of Maonan with analysis of the neutralization of semantic macroroles and the dialectic interrelations between subject and topic. Particular attention is paid to the interplay between syntactic and semantic valencies.The detailed analysis of the Maonan aspects is also unprecedented. It examines Maonan tone sandhi from a totally new approach. The book also gives a full description of the clause final particles of Maonan.

A Grammar of Maonan

A Grammar of Maonan PDF Author: Tian Qiao Lu
Publisher: Universal-Publishers
ISBN: 1599429713
Category : Foreign Language Study
Languages : en
Pages : 427

Get Book Here

Book Description
Maonan is a Kam-Tai (Tai-Kadai) language spoken by 75,000 people in the border area of Guangxi and Guizhou provinces of China. This grammar book is the first volume to account for the phonology, word-formation, syntax, grammaticalization and lexicalization patterns of Maonan from a typological and ethno-linguistic perspective. It renders a comprehensive description of Maonan with analysis of the neutralization of semantic macroroles and the dialectic interrelations between subject and topic. Particular attention is paid to the interplay between syntactic and semantic valencies.The detailed analysis of the Maonan aspects is also unprecedented. It examines Maonan tone sandhi from a totally new approach. The book also gives a full description of the clause final particles of Maonan.

The Syntax of Yes and No

The Syntax of Yes and No PDF Author: Anders Holmberg
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0198701853
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 263

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Book Description
This book is a cross-linguistic study of the syntax of yes-no questions and their answers, drawing on data from a wide range of languages with particular focus on English, Finnish, Swedish, Thai, and Chinese. There are broadly two types of answer to yes-no questions: those that employ particles such as 'yes' and 'no' (as found in English) and those that echo a part of the question, usually the finite verb, with or without negation (as found in Finnish). The latter are uncontroversially derived by ellipsis, while the former have been claimed to be clause substitutes. Anders Holmberg argues instead that even answers that employ particles are complete sentences, derived by ellipsis from full sentential expressions, and that the two types share essential syntactic properties. The book also examines the related cross-linguistic and intralinguistic variation observed in answers to negative questions such as 'does he not drink coffee?', whereby 'yes' in one language appears to correspond to 'no' in another. The book illustrates how a seemingly trivial phenomenon can have the most wide-ranging consequences for theories of language, and will be of interest not only to theoretical linguists but also to students and scholars of typological and descriptive linguistics.

A Typological Study of the Existential Clause

A Typological Study of the Existential Clause PDF Author: Wang Yong
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 1040051359
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 209

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Book Description
This book investigates the existential clause (EC) from a cross-linguistic perspective and within the framework of Systemic Functional Linguistics. The prototypical EC in the less familiar languages is identified through its functional equivalents in the more familiar ones, which share the common semantic basis of ‘there exists something in some location’. Topics addressed include the morpho-syntactic features of the EC, the subject of the EC, the definiteness effect and its manifestations in the EC, the EC as impersonals, the distinction between entity- vs. event-existentials, and the EC and its related constructions. Drawing on both cross-linguistic observations based on the language sample and in-depth investigations in particular languages (e.g., in Chinese and English), the study aims to unravel how the lexico-grammar of EC is related to its meanings and functions, that is, how meaning is realised in form. The title will appeal to scholars and students in the field of linguistics, especially functional linguistics, and syntax.

Classifiers in Kam-Tai Languages

Classifiers in Kam-Tai Languages PDF Author: Tian Qiao Lu
Publisher: Universal-Publishers
ISBN: 1612331440
Category : Foreign Language Study
Languages : en
Pages : 263

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Book Description
This monograph describes and analyzes the syntax of classifiers and cultural taxonomy in more than 20 major languages in southern China and Southeast Asia. It provides comprehensive and in-depth data for professional linguists and rudimental knowledge for postgraduate or undergraduate majors or minors engaged in linguistics. Readers will learn how nouns are categorized in syntax and what cultural factors are involved in such a classification process. This is the first book on Kam-Tai classifiers from both syntactic and sociocultural aspects.

Historical Linguistics 2015

Historical Linguistics 2015 PDF Author: Michela Cennamo
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing Company
ISBN: 9027262454
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 649

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Book Description
The collection of articles presented in this volume addresses a number of general theoretical, methodological and empirical issues in the field of Historical Linguistics, in different levels of analysis and on different themes: (i) phonology, (ii) morphology, (iii) morphosyntax, (iv) syntax, (v) diachronic typology, (vi) semantics and pragmatics, and (vii) language contact, variation and diffusion. The topics discussed, often in a comparative perspective, feature a variety of languages and language families and cover a wide range of research areas. Novel analyses and often new diachronic data — also from less known and under-investigated languages — are provided to the debate on the principles, mechanisms, paths and models of language change, as well as the relationship between synchronic variation and diachrony. The volume is of interest to scholars of different persuasions working on all aspects of language change.

The Languages of Mainland Southeast Asia

The Languages of Mainland Southeast Asia PDF Author: N. J. Enfield
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1108758401
Category : Foreign Language Study
Languages : en
Pages : 571

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Book Description
Mainland Southeast Asia is one of the most fascinating and complex cultural and linguistic areas in the world. This book provides a rich and comprehensive survey of the history and core systems and subsystems of the languages of this fascinating region. Drawing on his depth of expertise in mainland Southeast Asia, Enfield includes more than a thousand data examples from over a hundred languages from Cambodia, China, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Thailand, and Vietnam, bringing together a wealth of data and analysis that has not previously been available in one place. Chapters cover the many ways in which these languages both resemble each other, and differ from each other, and the diversity of the area's languages is highlighted, with a special emphasis on minority languages, which outnumber the national languages by nearly a hundred to one. The result is an authoritative treatment of a fascinating and important linguistic area.

Mainland Southeast Asian Languages

Mainland Southeast Asian Languages PDF Author: N. J. Enfield
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 0521765447
Category : Foreign Language Study
Languages : en
Pages : 281

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Book Description
A concise introduction to the languages of mainland Southeast Asia that provides a new look at this unique area.

The Changing Languages of Guangxi, Southern China

The Changing Languages of Guangxi, Southern China PDF Author: Yang Huang
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1793630100
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 301

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Book Description
Based on a case study of the evolution of “finish” morphemes in Yue and Zhuang Tai-Kadai, this book examines how an internal factor (grammaticalization) and an external factor (language contact) interacted to produce the polyfunctionality of the specific “finish” morphemes in the languages of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, Southern China. Arguing that the Central Southern Guangxi Region is a micro-linguistic area, Huang also introduces five unique areal features shared by many of its languages.

A Genetic Perspective on Asian Populations

A Genetic Perspective on Asian Populations PDF Author: Wibhu Kutanan
Publisher: Frontiers Media SA
ISBN: 2889764702
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 201

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Book Description


A Grammar of Kam Revealed in Its Narrative Discourse

A Grammar of Kam Revealed in Its Narrative Discourse PDF Author: Tongyin Yang
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 9811022631
Category : Foreign Language Study
Languages : en
Pages : 317

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Book Description
The Kam language of China possesses fifteen tones – more than any other language. Yet it has long been neglected as an area of research, especially from the perspective of discourse analysis. This study initiates the exploration of the interface between grammar and discourse by examining various aspects of Kam narrative discourse, and using a functional approach to reveal its structural properties. It also introduces the mechanism for phonological and syntactic variations, as well as classifier variants and sentence-final particles (SFPs) in discourse and word order variations. Finally, it discusses the influence of social setting on narrative structure and offers the most up-to-date ethnological and social information about the community.