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THE NOMINALIZING PREFIX *Gv- in TIBETO-BURMAN LINDA ANNA

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THE NOMINALIZING PREFIX *gV- IN TIBETO-BURMAN by LINDA ANNA KONNERTH A THESIS Presented to the Department ofLinguistics and the Graduate School ofthe University ofOregon in partial fulfillment ofthe requirements for the degree of Master ofArts September 2009 11 "The Nominalizing Prefix *gV- in Tibeto-Burman," a thesis prepared by Linda Anna Konnerth in partial fulfillment ofthe requirements for the Master ofArts degree in the Department ofLinguistics. This thesis has been approved and accepted by: DI:. S~ott DeLancey, Chair ~f the Examining Committee/-.------ Committee in Charge: Dr. Scott DeLancey, Chair Dr. Spike Gildea Accepted by: Dean ofthe Graduate School 111 © 2009 Linda Konnerth IV An Abstract ofthe Thesis of Linda Anna Konnerth for the degree of Master ofArts in the Department ofLinguistics to be taken September 2009 Title: THE NOMINALIZING PREFIX *gV- IN TIBETO-BURMAN Approved: _L _-- Nominalization and its various functions is a topic ofconsiderable current interest in Tibeto-Burman (TB) studies and has both typological and historical implications. This thesis documents and discusses data ofnominalizing velar prefixes in the different branches ofthe TB language family. Based on the reconstruction ofa Proto-Tibeto­ Burman (PTB) 'adjectival prefix' *gV- suggested by TB wide-scale comparativists such as Wolfenden, Shafer, Benedict, and Matisoff, this study incorporates extensive data on velar prefixes covering other functions that are, just like deriving adjectival modifiers, typically associated with nominalization in TB. The various pieces of evidence thus suggest that the existence of a PTB *gV- nominalizer is the best explanation for the distribution offorms and functions ofthe respective prefixes in TB languages. v CURRICULUM VITAE NAME OF AUTHOR: Linda Konnerth PLACE OF BIRTH: Munich, Germany DATE OF BIRTH: 14 November 1985 GRADUATE AND UNDERGRADUATE SCHOOLS ATTENDED: University ofOregon Eugene, OR Ludwig-Maximi1ians-Universitat Munchen Munich, Germany DEGREES AWARDED: Master ofArts, Linguistics, 2009, University ofOregon Zwischenprlifung, Linguistics, 2006, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitat MUnchen AREAS OF SPECIAL INTEREST: Field linguistics; language documentation; Tibeto-Burman languages; morphosyntax; historical and comparative linguistics; language change PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE: Graduate Teaching Fellow, UO Department ofLinguistics, September 2007 ­ present GRANTS, AWARDS AND HONORS: Small Professional Grant, Center for Asian and Pacific Studies (CAPS), University of Oregon, 2008 Jahresstipendium rur Studierende aller Facher [Year-long scholarship for students ofall subjects], Deutscher Akademischer Austausch Dienst (DAAD)/German Academic Exchange Service, 2006 - 2007 VI PUBLICATIONS: Konnerth, L. (in press-a). Functions ofNominalization in Karbi. In G. Hyslop, S. Morey, M. Post, (Eds.), North East Indian Linguistics Volume 3. New Delhi, Foundation/Cambridge University Press India. Konnerth, L. (in press-b). The nominalizing velar prefix *gV- in Tibeto-Burman languages ofNortheast India. In G. Hyslop, S. Morey, M. Post (Eds.), Linguistics ofthe North East Indian Frontier. New Delhi, Foundation/Cambridge University Press India. Konnerth, L., & Wood, D. (2008). Report on NEILS 3. Linguistics ofthe Tibeto-Burman Area 30.2, 173-6. VB ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I wish to express sincere appreciation to Professor Scott DeLancey for enthusiastically sharing his expert knowledge and understanding ofTibeto-Burman languages, and for explaining to me what I did not understand in a way so I would understand. I am also indebted to Professor Spike Gildea, who has given me a new perspective on nominalization and the historical pathways associated with it, and, this way, opened my eyes for directions offuture research. I also thank the Karbi community ofKarbi Anglong, Assam, Northeast India. Karbi has a kV- nominalizer, and were it not for this language, the velar nominalizing prefix in Tibeto-Burman would still be waiting for its thesis to be written. The prospect ofstarting fieldwork on Karbi has strongly contributed to my enthusiasm for this research project. My studies ofTibeto-Burman languages have greatly benefited from discussions and shared enthusiasm with friends and fellow UO graduate students Gwen Hyslop and Dan Wood. I also received invaluable input from participants ofthe North East Indian Linguistics Society (NEILS) conference 2009. Finally, my gratitude goes to my friends and my family in Germany, as well as to my friends and my family here. Thank you for always being there for me, thank you for helping me and supporting me, and thank you for making me laugh and giving me the energy to do what I want to do. V11l For Roswitha, Arthur, Arne, and Sascha IX TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter Page 1. INTRODUCTION 1 1.1. Literature on Velar Prefixes in Tibeto-Bunnan 3 1.2. Aim and Scope 4 II. APPROACH 6 2.1. On Tibeto-Burman Classification 6 2.2. Data Sources 8 2.3. *gV- Fonn Variation 9 2.4. Functions of *gV- 10 2.5. Constructions involving *gV- 12 III. CENTRAL TIBETO-BURMAN 14 3.1. Karbi 16 3.2. Tenyidie (Angami Naga) 21 3.3. Tangkhul 25 3.4. Mizo-Kuki-Chin 31 3.5. Sal 40 3.6. Serna J\faga 50 3.7. Miju 51 3.8. Rawang/Nungish 54 3.9. Summary 55 IV. WESTERN TIBETO-BURMAN 60 4.1. Eastern Kiranti 61 4.1.1. Limbu 61 4.1.2. Athpare 65 4.1.3. Camling 68 4.1.4. Belhare 69 4.2. Western Kiranti 70 4.3. Summary 72 x Chapter Page V. NORTHEASTERN OR QIANG TIBETO-BURMAN 75 5.1. rGyalrong Languages 76 5.1.1. Cogtse rGyalrong 76 5.1.2. Caodeng rGyalrong 82 5.2. Summary 86 VI. SOUTHEASTERN TIBETO-BURMAN 89 6.1. Lolo-Burmese 90 6.1.1. Lisu (Central Loloish) and Akha (Southern Loloish) 90 6.1.2. NosuiLolo (Northern Loloish) 93 6.2. Summary 99 VII. CHARACTERISTICS AND DISTRIBUTION OF *gV- REFLEXES: FORMS, FUNCTIONS, CONSTRUCTIONS 101 7.1. Summary and Discussion ofthe Evidence 101 7.1.1. Characteristics and Distribution ofForm Variation....................... 101 7.1.2. Characteristics and Distributions ofFunctions 103 7.1.2.1. Derivational Functions 104 7.1.2.1.1. Participant Nominalization 104 7.1.2.1.2. Derivation ofAdjectival Modifiers 105 7.1.2.1.3. Action/Event Nominalization 106 7.1.2.1.4. Derivation ofAdverbs 107 7.1.2.2. Clausal Nominalization 107 7.1.2.2.1. Relative Clause Nominalization 107 7.1.2.1.2. Complement and Adverbial Clause Nominalization 108 7.1.2.1.3. Main Verb Constructions 108 7.1.2.3. Verb Citation Form 109 7.1.3. Distribution and Characteristics ofthe a-gV- and gV- -pa Constructions 109 7.2. The Case ofthe Postverbal Velar Nominalizers 110 7.3. The Case ofNominaIizing Prefixes with Palatal Onsets 112 Xl Chapter Page VIII. CONCLUSION 115 APPENDICES 117 A. DATA OF VELAR PREFIXES WITH PUTATIVELY U1\TRELATED FUNCTIONS 117 B. ABBREVIATIONS 132 REFERENCES . 136 xii LIST OF FIGURES Figure Page 1. Geographic distribution ofwestern, central, and eastern TB languages... 2 2. Cogtse rGyalrong Sentence Structure 77 Xlll LIST OF TABLES Table Page 1. Definite and Indefinite ACs in Karbi 17 2. Derivation ofAdjectival Modifiers in Angami-Pochuri Languages 21 3. Derivation ofAdjectival Modifiers in Zeme Languages 50 4. Summary: *gV- in 7 ofthe 15 Central TB Subgroups 56 5. Language-by-Language Summary for Mizo-Kuki-Chin and Sal................. 57 6. Summary: *gV- in the Kiranti Branch of Westem TB 74 7. Summary: *gV- in rGyalrong (Core Qiangic ofNortheasternlQiang TB)... 88 8. Constituent Order within Adjectival Attribution vs. RCs 105 9. Distribution ofFunctions Associated with the a-gV- and gV- -pa Constructions 11 0 1 CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION The Tibeto-Burman (TB) language family is a branch of Sino-Tibetan spoken in South and Southeast Asia in an area illustrated in Figure 1, stretching in the northwest from the Himalayan regions ofnorthern India, Tibet, Nepal, and Bhutan to Burma, Thailand, and Vietnam in the South, and to the southern China provinces ofYunnan and Sichuan in the east. The number ofTB languages is estimated at 389 by the Ethnologue (Gordon, 2005). The typological profile ofthe TB family is quite diverse, including languages with highly complex morphological structure especially in the verb in the western Himalayan languages, as well as prototypical isolating languages in the southeastern Lolo-Burmese branch. Tibeto-Burman is typically verb-final, although there are languages spoken in the south (i.e., Karen languages) that feature SVO order. This thesis represents a comparative study ofa nominalizing velar prefix in the Tibeto-Burman language family. Starting from a reconstructed Proto-Tibeto-Burman (PTB) 'adjectival prefix' *gV- suggested by TB wide-scale comparativists such as Wolfenden (1925), Shafer (1966), Benedict (1972) and Matisoff (2003 inter alia), further data suggest that the derivation ofadjectival modifiers is only one function that can be more generally ascribed to a *gV- nominalizer in PTB. This chapter introduces the literature on velar prefixes reconstructed for PTB in §1.1, as well as defines aim and scope ofthis thesis outlining the approach in §1.2. Figure 1 - Geographic distribution ofwestern, central, and eastern TB languages1 'La~guagesofCh .-;::,~,~:' ina -- _Au:.llOnelien _AuS!roAao>Ibc ,.,m j]'lndoEuroPlll'O _J8p&nese-KOl'eOO I~,~:,<\: Miao-Yoo ~.'.'.''-.~'.''-j T8~K&d8i _Urc~6i11lldOClilOlatt 1 Maps are reproduced with permission from "Languages ofChina" and "The Eurasiatic Language Phylum" maps by Dr. Steve Huffman, retrieved from http://www.gmi.orglwlms/users/huffman/ on June 19th 2009, selection frames added. tv 3 1.1. Literature on Velar Prefixes in Tibeto-Burman Reconstructions ofvelar
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  • The Extent and Nature of the Cprs in the Northeast I. the Concept Of

    The Extent and Nature of the Cprs in the Northeast I. the Concept Of

    The Extent and Nature of the CPRs in the Northeast The Common Property Resources (CPRs) are important sources of livelihood to rural households in general and to the rural poor in particular. They are the livelihood both tangible and intangible of thousands of people. Far from being an exception to this, since most North Eastern States are on a hilly terrain inhabited by tribals, the CPRs play a more important role in people’s livelihood in this region than in the rest of India. The North Eastern economy is agrarian . Agriculture is the principal means of livelihood of most of its people 47.4 percent of whom are cultivators and 11.41 percent earn their livelihood as agricultural labourers. Table 2 shows the significance of land as a source of livelihood of the people of the Northeast. Thus, agriculture occupies an important place in the economy of the region but other sectors are neglected. 70 to 75 percent of the workforce of the region depends on the primary sector against 66 percent in India as a whole. More than 20 percent depend on the tertiary sector. These figures show the importance of CPRs as a source of livelihood of people of the region. I. The Concept of CPRs in General and in North East India The CPRs are community assets that provide both tangible and intangible livelihood (Shyhendra 2002: 3291) to their dependants. They include land used for cultivation and grazing, forests from which non-timber forest produce (NTFP) are collected, waste and panchayat land, watersheds, rivulets, rivers, ponds and other community assets.