UC Berkeley Dissertations, Department of Linguistics Title A Historical Study of the rGyarong Verb System Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/86n8765m Author Nagano, Yasuhiko Publication Date 1983 eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California A Historical Study of the rGyarong Verb System By Yasuhiko Nagano A.B. (Tokyo University of Foreign Studies) 1969 •M.A. (University of Tokyo) 1971 M.A. (University of California) 1978 C.Phil. (University of California) 1979 DISSERTATION Submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in Linguistics in the GRADUATE DIVISION OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY Approved: /it Chain Date ji'pTnp p Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Acknowledgment My deep appreciation goes out to my dissertation commit­ tee members. Professors James A. Matisoff, Wallace L. Chafe and Chang Kun, for their general academic guidance and for the painful task of reading drafts of this work, sometimes inconsistent in organization, often lacking in depth and frequently unreadable as English. If this final product is a contribution to Tibeto-Burman linguistics, it is entirely through their efforts. Needless to say, I am indebted to all the professors in the Linguistics Department in various ways, but it is Jim Matisoff who stands in the highest rank. It was in the summer of 1976 that I first met him. Professor Mantarfi Hashimoto (Tokyo University of Foreign Studies) organized a U.S.-Japan joint conference on Sino-Tibetan linguistics;the participants stayed in the same quarters at the foot of Mt. Fuji for a week, during which serious and detailed discussions were held. Professor Hashimoto kindly allowed several young students to join the conference as assistants, among whom I was included. Jim's broad perspective on Tibeto-Burman linguistics and his bold but careful way of building up hypotheses through the sessions fascinated me. What he was talking about was a kind of 'new world' for me, since I had started with Tibetan philology and had been working in the Oriental Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Library as a Tibetologist. My first impression of him was proven correct in my graduate studies at Berkeley; he opened my eyes. His warm attitude towards both academic and per­ sonal matters not only enabled me to carry out my coursework and research smoothly but also made my family's life in the U.S. very comfortable. Mr. Chang Kun was also a participant in the conference. His name is well known in Japan, where we have a long tradi­ tion of Tibetan studies, and his prudent discussion of Tibetan morphology at the session made a deep impression on the Japanese audiences. He seems to have different ideas on Tibeto-Burman linguistics from those of Dr. P.K. Benedict and Jim Matisoff, but he strongly suggested that I study under Jim. This advice finally led me to make up my mind to study at U.C. Berkeley. I feel grateful for his guidance and for his having kindly joined my committee. His careful scrutiny of my work on Tibetan and rGyarong was very helpful. Mr. W.L. Chafe, known in my country as a scholar of semantics, generously became a member of my committee. His deep concern about the methodology of historical linguis­ tics and his theoretical views on the meanings of verbs were so significant as to expand my grasp of general linguistics, which naturally influenced my dissertation research. My thanks are also due to Professors Karl Zimmer, Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Charles Fillmore and John J. Ohala; through their courses and seminars, I received a lot of suggestions. It must also be noted that their intercession and encouragement as chairman and/or graduate advisors were extremely helpful to me in solving the problems peculiar to a foreign student. I must express my warm thanks to Dr. P.K. Benedict and Dr. Graham W. Thurgood(CSU Fresno)lalthough they art. outside U.C. Berkeley, they have provided me with comments on my papers and drafts. I am pleased to record my acknowledgment to them, as well as to Mr. Mark W. GirnpeKlecturer of Manchu in the Department of Oriental Languages, U.C. Berkeley) who kindly took his time to edit my English. Invaluable practical help has been supplied by Mrs. Larue Seegmiller(graduate secretary in the Linguistics De­ partment) and Mrs. Eileen Odegaard(administrative assistant) whose experience and knowledge enabled me to pass painlessly through every transition of the graduate program. My stay in Berkeley from 1977 through 1980 was supported by teaching opportunities in the Department of Oriental Languages. Without the kind consideration of Professors W. McCullough, L. Lancaster and H. Aoki, who gave me a chance to teach Tibetan and Japanese continuously, I could not have survived. On the Japanese side, I have been stimulated by the works and advice of Professors H. Kitamura, T. Nishida and Y. iii Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Nishi, whose encouragement of my studies on Tibeto-Burman linguistics generated great enthusiasm in me ten years ago. They have been so considerate to me that various opportuni­ ties I had for publication and field research were due to their arrangements. The National Museum of Ethnology(Osaka), my present working place, kindly allowed me to take a 1-year leave, which enabled me to concentrate and finish this work. I would like to express special gratitude to them. Last but not least, I feel deeply grateful to my parents, my parents-in-law and my family, who awaited this accomplishment with patience, understanding and love. Y.N. November 25, 1983 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Table of Contents Acknowledgment Table of Contents 0. INTRODUCTION 0.1 Purpose 0.2 Sketch of the rGyarong Geography and History 0.3 Informants 14 0.4 Review of Previous Works on rGyarong 18 0.5 Outline of Phonology 32 0.6 Abbreviations and Primary Sources 36 Notes to Introduction 41 1. DESCRIPTION 43 1.1 General Observation 43 1.1.1 Verb Phrase 43 1.1.2 Voice and Node 46 1.1.3 Transitivity 46 1.1.4 Aspect 47 1.1.5 VPnon-final 48 1.2 Prefixes 49 1.2.1 Aspect Markers 49 1.2.11 0- and nA- 49 1.2.12 ke 51 1.2.2 Direction Markers 53 1.2.21 Uphill/Downhill Contrast 56 1.2.22 Upstream/Downstream Contrast 62 1.2.23 Front/Behind Contrast 63 1.2.24 Seat of Honor/Lower Seat Contrast 67 1.2.25 Others 69 1.2.3 Adverbial Affixes 74 1.2.31 Causative Markers 74 1.2.32 Mutual Act Marker 81 1.2.33 Repetitive Act Markers 83 1.2.34 Automatic Act Marker 84 1.2.35 Objectivizer 86 1.2.36 Progressive Marker 86 1.2.37 Reflexive Marker 89 1.2.4 Morphosyntax of Prefixes 90 1.2.41 Semantic Function 90 1.2.42 Layers of Prefixation 92 1.2.43 Morphemic Status 93 1.2.44 Lexicalization of Prefixes 95 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 1.3 Suffix -3 100 1.4 Pronominal Affixes 102 1.4.1 Independent Personal Pronouns 102 1.4.2 Intransitive Verb Affixes 103 1.4.3 Transitive Verb Affixes 107 1.5 Ergativity: a morphosyntax 119 Notes to Description 128 2. COMPARISON 130 2.1 Comparison of Verb Roots 131 2.1.1 List of Correspondences 131 2.1.2 rGyarong and Written Tibetan 187 2.1.3 Proto-rGyarong and Proto-Tibeto-Burman 195 2.1.4 rGyarong and Abor-Miri-Dafla 205 2.1.5 Summary 217 2.2 Comparison of Morphological Processes 221 2.2.1 Inner Prefixes 222 2.2.11 GC s- 222 2.2.12 GC r- 224 2.2.13 GC p- 225 2.2.14 GC k- 226 2.2.15 GC a- 226 2.2.16 GC 1- 227 2.2.17 GC N- 228 2.2.2 Outer Prefixes 230 2.2.21 Direction Markers 230 2.2.211 rGyarong Systems 231 2.2.212 Ch'iang 233 2.2.213 Trung 234 2.2.214 Bodo-Naga & Chin 236 2.2.215 Written Tibetan 238 2.2.216 Aspect Markers & Directives 242 2.2.22 Adverbial Affixes 244 2.2.221 Causative Marker 244 2.2.222 Automatic Act Marker 247 2.2.223 Mutual Act Marker 248 2.2.224 Repetitive Act Marker 248 2.2.225 Objectivizer 249 2.2.226 Progressive/Reflexive Marker 250 2.2.3 Pronominal Affixes 253 2.2.31 Review of the rGyarong System 253 2.2.32 Intransitive Verb Affixes 257 2.2.321 1st Person Singular Forms 257 2.2.322 Dual Marker 258 vi Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 2.2.323 Plural Marker 258 2.2.324 2nd Person Forms 259 2.2.325 3rd Person Forms 264 2.2.33 Transitive Verb Affixes(l) 266 2.2.34 Transitive Verb Affixes<2> 270 2.2.4 Suffix -s 274 2.2.5 Ergativity: a morphosyntax 275 2.2.51 Nominal Case-Marking 275 2.2.511 Split in Tibetan 276 2.2.512 Split in rGyarong 282 2.2.52 Pronominal Affixes and Ergativity 283 2.2.53 Topicalization 284 2.2.531 Topicalizer gA- 284 2.2.532 Ergativity, Topicalization and Pronominalization 286 Notes to Comparison 288 3.