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The Sino-Tibetan

Graham Thurgood, Randy . LaPolla

Word Order in Sino-Tibetan Languages from a Typological And Geographical Perspective

Publication details https://www.routledgehandbooks.com/doi/10.4324/9780203221051.ch3 Matthew . Dryer Published online on: 26 Dec 2002

How to cite :- Matthew S. Dryer. 26 Dec 2002, Order in Sino-Tibetan Languages from a Typological And Geographical Perspective from: The Sino-Tibetan Languages Routledge Accessed on: 28 Sep 2021 https://www.routledgehandbooks.com/doi/10.4324/9780203221051.ch3

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The publisher does not give any warranty express or implied or make any representation that the contents will be complete or accurate or up to date. The publisher shall not be liable for an loss, actions, claims, proceedings, demand or costs or damages whatsoever or howsoever caused arising directly or indirectly in connection with or arising out of the use of this material. Downloaded By: 10.3.98.104 At: 04:27 28 Sep 2021; For: 9780203221051, chapter3, 10.4324/9780203221051.ch3 CHAPTER THREE share avarietyofotherwordordercharacteristicstypical 1 are The distributionofthetwoordersobjectandverbinTBisstraightforward: allTBlanguages ofobjectandverbwordorderfeaturesthatcorrelatewithit Order 2.1 Dryer (forthcoming).Itisbasedonexaminationofdescriptions ninety-threeTBlanguages. The discussioninthissectionsummarizesbrieflywhatIdiscussmuchgreaterdepth WORD ORDERINTIBETO-BURMAN 2 sections isthatwordorderinSino-Tibetanbestunderstoodanarealcontext. features anddiscussingpossibleexplanationsforthem.Anoverallthemesharedbythetwo atypical. InSection2,IdiscusswordorderinChinese,identifyingsometypologicalunusual (TB) languages,anddiscusswhatfeaturesofwordorderintheselanguagesaretypical Section 1,IbrieflysummarizesomeofthevariationinwordorderwithinTibeto-Burman the lightofwordordertendenciesfoundamonglanguagesworldasawhole.In Sino-Tibetan languages.InthisChapter,Idescribesomeofvariationandexamineitin ,bothattheclauselevelandevenmorephraselevel,variesamong INTRODUCTION 1 Matthew S.Dryer PERSPECTIVE AND GEOGRAPHICAL FROM ATYPOLOGICAL SINO-TIBETAN LANGUAGES WORD ORDERIN postpositional phrasesbeforetheverb,inemployingclause-final markersforsubordinate noun, inplacingrelativeclauses(iftheyareexternallyheaded)before theheadnoun,inplacing postpositions ratherthanprepositions,inplacinggenitivemodifiers beforethepossessed Although availabledatavariesinthedescriptions, Part oftheresearchforthispaperwasmadepossible by SocialSciencesandHumanities for assistancewiththesourceswritten inChinese. National ScienceFoundationResearch GrantBNS-9011190.IamindebtedtoMeihanLow Research CouncilofCanadaGrants 410-810949,410-830354,and410-850540by OV , exceptforBaiandtheKarenlanguages,whichare 1 43 OV languageswithinTBgenerally VO (andmorespecifically OV languages,inemploying SVO ). Downloaded By: 10.3.98.104 At: 04:27 28 Sep 2021; For: 9780203221051, chapter3, 10.4324/9780203221051.ch3 Wilson 1980:47 languages inotherfamiliessoutheastAsia,includingTai-Kadai (e..Nung:Sauland In somecases,the Angami (Giridhar1980)andisillustratedforTiddimChinin(1). . ThisisdescribedasthepreferredpositioninTiddimChin(Henderson1965)and Kuki-Chin-,commonlyifnotpreferentially,placemanneradverbsafterthe more commonlyplacemanneradverbsbeforetheverb,afewTBlanguages,allofthem found inafewTBlanguagesistheplacementofmanneradverbs.Whilemost and inplacingauxiliaryverbsafterthemainverb.Anexampleofanexceptionalfeature clauses, inplacingmarkersofpolarquestions(iftheyemploythem)attheendsentences, THESINO-TIBETANLANGUAGES 44 sin(5). as (Hmong Njua;Harriehausen1990:179 meaning While thisisratherunusualamong above for genitive andnounareaboutequallycommonamong Karen languagesareactuallynotatypical:asdiscussedinDryer(1991),thetwoordersof that isapparentlysharedbyallSino-Tibetanlanguages.Inemployingthisorder,Baiandthe Karen languagesemploygenitive-nounorder.Infactthisorderistheonewordfeature among As discussedingreaterdetailSection2belowonChinese, this orderisextremelyrare placement ofrelativeclausesbeforethemodifiednoun,asin(4). by markers ofsubordinateclauses,therearealsosomeclause-finalsubordinators,illustrated initial thiswithfeaturesfromBweKaren.WhileKarendoesemploysomeclause- illustrate I Another featureofBweKarenthatisatypicalfora kha l Bai alsoexhibitsfeaturesatypicalof 4 [ (4) (1) (5) easy read word LINK tidy write (2) The Karenlanguagesexhibitanumberoffeaturesthatareatypical (3) VO $ hello say PTCL answer loudly PTCL PTCL loudly answer PTCL say hello ‘ ‘ a ‘ n ‘ hr l oable go all ‘ where P-ul rnr ilg POSS village granary 1PL-build S-fsa f1GFTsa then 1SG-FUTstay if ‘ stay 2SG-if ‘

We can Hawi thatarewrittentidilyeasytoread. He calledoutloudly,asifansweringsomeone. I cangoanywhere. If youstay,Iwillstay. ə ə 55 ‘ able languages.Thereisatleastone wordmeaning T OV if paph -pwa - na 42

’ in(2). TBlanguages;however,inmanyothercases,theydonot.BothBaiandthe é 44 ’ ’ afterthemainverb,asin(3). tse ’ – ɔ t buildourgranariesclosetothevillage. ii an e a a zel zal dawng in ci 8, 55),Mon-Khmer(e.g.Chrau:Thomas1971:97),andHmong-Mienic VO 21 55 tsa TBlanguagesexhibitthemirrorimageofcharacteristicsmentioned 42 á kha l & ε 21 no ’ ta $ (XuandZhao1984:22) ,y 33

VADV ’ ] (Henderson1997:78) ó 42 ə

-kh VO s

- – languages,itissomethingfoundinanumberof 55 ə 80). -kh á VO ã

’ ɔ 55 -erNEG-able-NEG D-near languages.Foremostamongtheseisthe 

o k VO SVO 42 - ’

(XuandZhao1984:73) languageistheplacementofaword ’ d (Henderson1965:4,sentence5) languages. ’ ə (Henderson1997:142) ‘ -ja-n able ’ ɔ thatfollowsthemainverb,

VO languages. VO Downloaded By: 10.3.98.104 At: 04:27 28 Sep 2021; For: 9780203221051, chapter3, 10.4324/9780203221051.ch3 And althoughBaihassomeprepositions,italsopostpositions,like expected of modified, andthishasledsomelinguiststothemistakenbeliefthatthesefeaturesarebe noun, itisactuallysomewhatmorecommonforthesetofollowthenounin features aretypicalof subgroups, allofthelanguagesareeither which TBlanguagesarespoken while TB (Bodic,North-EasternIndia,andCentral),therearesomelanguages inwhich languages proposedbyBradley(1997),inthreeof preferred. Furthermore,assumingforthepurposesofdiscussion theclassificationofTB teen languages,bothordersoccurwithoutanyindicationinmy sourcethatoneorderis Asia, butnormalfor to theeastofTBotherthanChinese, namely,Tai-KadaiandMon-Khmerlanguages,are and Digarish there arefourgroupscontaininglanguagesofeachthetwotypes (Bodish,Bodo-Garo,Tani, dominant. Evenwithinanumberofgroupsatthenextleveldown inBradley preferred orderis Among theeighty-fiveTBlanguagesforwhichIwasabletoobtaininformationonthis, Both ordersofadjectiveandnounarewell-attestedaspreferredamongTBlanguages. Orderofadjectiveandnoun 2.2.1 (forthcoming). to describethisvariationonlyverybrieflyhere;IdiscussitinmuchgreaterdetailDryer some languageswillemployoneorderwhileotherstheoppositeorder.Itispossible variation intheirdistributionanditisoftenthecasethatevenwithinagivensubgroupofTB, order characteristicsamongTBlanguagesisalsointerestinginthatthereconsiderable some ofthesemodifiersnormallyfollowthemodifiedword.Thedistributionword especially theIndiclanguageswithin Indo-European,areconsistently non-TB languagesinthesurrounding area.ThelanguagestothewestandsouthwestofTB, preferred orderandotherlanguagesinwhich outside ofAsia.The (Karapurkar1976)andafewothersare This mapmakescleartheextenttowhich of and theorderofdegreewordswithrespecttoamodifiedadjective.Amongvastmajority include theorderofadjective,,anddemonstrativewithrespecttoamodifiednoun which, contrarytowidespreadbelief,donotcorrelatewiththeorderofobjectandverb.These As discussedindetailDryer(1992),thereareanumberofwordordercharacteristics Noncorrelatingwordordercharacteristics 2.2 indirect objectin(6). OV (6) This distributioncanbeunderstood intermsofthedistributiontwoorders The geographicaldistributionofthetwoordersadjectiveandnoun isshowninMap3.1. languagesinAsiathatarenotTB,thesepairsofelementsoccurtheordermodifier- & 1PL give 2SG OBJ flower CLSFR CLSFR flower OBJ 2SG give ‘ 1PL We gaveyouaflower. a 55 OV ‘ Mishmi languages.However,asshowninDryer(1992),itisnotthecasethatthese si A 31 dj OV OV N ’ OV ). Forexample,withinBodo-Garo,Deuri(Brown1895)is intwenty-eightlanguagesand n languagesintheworldasawhole,thatmost TBlanguagesareinmanyrespectsatypicalamong & languages.Forexample,withrespecttotheorderofadjectiveand 55 no ’ (XuandZhao1984:51) 33 pe NA 21 dj orderisfoundmoretotheeast. A xo dj 55 N NA orderisfoundinthewesternpartofarea NA dj orallowbothorders,withneitherorder ku dj isthepreferredorder.Inotherthree 55 NA

dj. NA dj infortylanguages,andseven- ’ s sixhighest-levelsubgroupsof A dj N , whilethelanguages ODODR45 WORD ORDER OV no OV ’ s classification, TBlanguages, 33 OV languagesin markingthe A A languages dj dj N N , while isthe Downloaded By: 10.3.98.104 At: 04:27 28 Sep 2021; For: 9780203221051, chapter3, 10.4324/9780203221051.ch3 are closelyrelatedtoTibetan,however, andtheythusrepresenteitherlanguageswhichhave MAP 3.2 MAP 3.1 THESINO-TIBETANLANGUAGES 46 NA consistently is twoclearareasinSouthandSoutheast Asia,onetothewestwhichis larger areaofAsiathatsurroundsTBlanguages. TheoverallimpressiongivenbyMap3.2 a east whichis dj TBlanguagesintheextremewestern sideofTB.Theselanguagesareallthat Note thattheclearestexceptions to thetendencyfor ORDER OFADJECTIVEANDNOUNINASIA ORDER OFADJECTIVEANDNOUN NA NA dj. Map3.2showsthedistributionoftwoordersadjective andnounin dj. ButthesetwoareassplitTBdown themiddle. – AN –dj dj AN – A NA dj Burma dj –dj N orderinthewestareanumberof NA A dj N andonetothe Downloaded By: 10.3.98.104 At: 04:27 28 Sep 2021; For: 9780203221051, chapter3, 10.4324/9780203221051.ch3 ND D ND Dem languages issomewhatsimilartothedistributionoftwoordersadjectiveandnoun: The overallpatternofthedistributiontwoordersdemonstrativeandnounamongTB Orderofdemonstrativeandnoun 2.2.2 that theyhavebeenlesssubjecttoinfluencefromIndiclanguages. Indic languages,orlanguageswhoselessaccessiblelocationintheHimalayashasalsomeant moved intothatarearelativelyrecently,andthushavebeenlesssubjecttoinfluencefrom among theBurmishlanguages,Maru(Clerk1911)is noun. Againwefindlanguagesofeachtypeevenwithinlower-levelsubgroups.Forexample, inconsistent, eitherintheorderofadjectiveandnounordemonstrative and noun:Bodicistheonlysubgroupinbothsets.Inotherwordsallsixsubgroupsare Note thatthissetofsubgroupsisverydifferentfromtheanalogouswithorderadjective Bradley in Bodic.WithinBodic,thedistributionislargelypredictablefrom lowerlevelsubgroupsin guages inwhich There islessvariabilityintheorderofnumeralandnounamong TB languages.Theonlylan- Orderofnumeralandnoun 2.2.3 subgroup. InfourofBradley As withtheorderofadjectiveandnoun,wefindbothordersrepresentedwithinsame as intheexample(7)fromNishi. and fivenormallyhavedemonstrativewordssimultaneouslyprecedingfollowingnoun, (Tibetan), WesternBodish(Tamangic),andEastern(e.g. Monpa)are affixes expressingdegree.Again, thereisasplit,withtwenty-fivelanguagesinwhich I wasabletoobtaindataonthischaracteristicforfewerlanguages, andIdidnotinclude Orderofdegreewordandadjective 2.2.4 classification ofNewariisnotoriouslyproblematic. occur withnoevidencethatone is preferred.Thesubgroupwiththemost 1989) is within lowerlevelgroups.Among thewesternlanguagesofCentralBodish,Jad(Sharma actually geographicallycentral, namely,Kuki-Chin.Andagain,wefindinconsistencies is preferred,elevenlanguagesin which which are However, what BradleyclassifiesasCentralHimalayan,allare obtain informationontheorderofdemonstrativeandnoun,fifty-oneare em em. em, threeallowbothorderswithouttherebeingevidenceforoneorderdominant, (7) N N andotherswhichare orderismorecommontothewest,while ’ eewmnthis ‘ woman here s A s classification:WestHimalayishandKirantiareNumNwhile CentralBodish this woman ɑ dj D D em D em eg whileNyamkad(Sharma1992) is N nyem s N orderismorecommonthan N but um ’ N (Hamilton1900:20) NA isdominantareBodic,althoughbothtypesaboutequallycommon dj. Amongtheseventy-nine î

’ ND s highest-levelsubgroupstherearesomelanguageswhich em (Bodic,Kuki-Chin,North-Eastern,andSouth-Eastern). A dj D A eg ispreferred,andfourinwhich bothorders dj N orderandthereareanumberoflanguages ND D eg em orderismorecommontotheeast. N TB A um dj. D languagesforwhichIwasableto em N exceptforNewari;however,the N whileAchang(Dai1985)is A dj ODODR47 WORD ORDER D em D eg languagesis NN N , twentyare um. Within D eg A dj Downloaded By: 10.3.98.104 At: 04:27 28 Sep 2021; For: 9780203221051, chapter3, 10.4324/9780203221051.ch3 Since thedominantorderinMandarinis and oraltext). though thiswordorderislesscommon(seeSunandGiv SOV I usetheexpression 3CHINESE THESINO-TIBETANLANGUAGES 48 The dominantorderattheclauselevelintransitiveclausesMandarinis Unusualwordorder characteristicsofMandarin 3.1 characteristics. whichitisunusual,andinSection3.2,Idiscusspossiblearealaccountsoftheseunusual in Asia. InSection3.1,IdescribethewordordercharacteristicsofMandarin,discussingways position ofMandarinbetweenthelanguagesSoutheastAsiaandNortheast unusual characteristicsarebestunderstoodareallyandreflectthegeographicallyintermediate isunusualinitswordorderanumberofways.Thesecondtoarguethatthese languages, butIwillgenerallyignorethesehere. discussion toMandarin.TherearesomedifferencesinwordorderamongthedifferentChinese Chinese, followingtheuseofthesetermswithinlinguistics.Iwill,however,largelyrestrict words as adpositions.Thereisasetofwordsthatcanbedescribedprepositions,illustratedbythe than postpositions.Thereareinfactacoupleofdifferentsortswordsthatcanbeclassified far enoughforsomeofthemtojustifycallingthemselvesprepositions. as morepreposition-likeelements.Iwillassumeherethatthisgrammaticization hasproceeded in differentstagesofgrammaticizationfromtheiroriginalstatusas verbstotheircurrentstatus These wordsarecalledcoverbsbyLiandThompson(1974), differentcoverbsseemtobe ‘ like This sectionhastwoprimarypurposes.Thefirstistodocumenttheextentwhich Mandarin alsohaspostpositions, asillustratedby 1)a. (10) 1)a. (11) wordorderisalsopossible,withtheobjectmarkedbymarker ’ 8 a. (8) (9) in(11b)(theseexampleskindly providedbyLiuDanqing). ba

S okbyCURR.REL buy book ‘ OBJ 1SG b. ‘ I boughtthebook. marker ¦ S ieSsnSsnlk 1SG like Susan Susan ‘ like 1SG w S rmCiacm CURR.REL come China ‘ from 3SG t w P l oSaga CURR.REL Shanghai to fly ‘ 1PL S fo)tmro rmgo.to.work from tomorrow ‘ (from) 3SG t % % I likeSusan. He/she hascomefromChina. We flewtoShanghai. He willgotoworkfromtomorrow on. ¦ ¦ mnf -men b W (c x ‘ ó § Chinese languages ó unSusan huan gZh ng g m ng) sh < ’ i d U in(9), ’‘ ’ 8 (LiandThompson1981:21) à í m nggu ngti oSh W c ile ó % ng ’ ó n q (LiandThompson1981:410) à

‘ ngh from l á ’ toapplywhataretraditionallycalled i le VO W § b. ’ ile ’ (LiandThompson1981:24) in(10a),and , wemightexpectittohaveprepositionsrather ua x Susan Susan likesme. sh à ngb ’ q % § § unw huan n

ó ‘ from n 1985forevidencefromnarrative d à o ’

’ ‘ (< to ¦ ’ in(10b). ‘ start ’ ) in(11a)and SVO , asin(8). ba ‘ , asin(9), shide ’ of Downloaded By: 10.3.98.104 At: 04:27 28 Sep 2021; For: 9780203221051, chapter3, 10.4324/9780203221051.ch3 are positions issomewhatunexpectedofa is primarilyprepositionalorpostpositional.Nevertheless,thefrequencyofpost- prepositions andpostpositionsinMandarinsuggeststhatitisbestnottosaythelanguage intheseconstructionsisobligatory.Thenumberandfrequencyofboth postposition the Note howbothofthesepostpositionsoptionallyco-occurwithapreposition;however, This isalsonottheusualorderfor position ispreverbal,asin(14). dominant construction. Both ordersarepossibleinbothMandarinandCantonese,thedifference beingwhichisthe Mary. to followtheverb,thoughthere areanumberofother typical orderin quite rarecrosslinguistically;onlyMandarinandHakkainmydatabasehavethisorder,the more commonlyplacemanneradverbs beforetheverb(suchasLatvian). The constructionin(13)isMarker-Standard-( Chinese. instances oflanguagesthissort.Itisnotcleartome,however,howoldthe Mandarin, ,andHakka.TheChineselanguagesarethustheonlyknown This makesMandarinhighlyunusualfromacross-linguisticperspective:among199 the objectnormallyfollowsverbbutadpositionalphrasesmoreoftenprecedeverb. sometimes followtheverb,asin(10b).Mandarinisthusaninstanceofalanguagewhich adpositional phrasesmoreoftenprecedetheverb,asin(9),(10a),and(11),thoughthey Chinese waspredominantly are somewhatcontradictory.Ontheonehand,LiandThompson(1974)claimthatclassical Chinese is.Theclaimsintheliteratureregardingpositionof On theotherhand,Sun(1987)arguesthatbothordersof languages inmydatabasethatIcodefororderofadpositionalphraseandverb,onlythree Although manneradverbscaneitherprecedeorfollowtheverbin Mandarin,theirnormal The comparativeconstructioninMandarinalsousesacoverbconstruction,as(12). These adpositionscombinewithnounphrasestoformadpositionalphrases.Butthese (12) (13) (14) PP Infact,thisisthenormalorderinCantonese,as(13). - V , whiletheother196are b. Zhangsan than 3SG fat fat 3SG ‘ than Zhangsan Zh g oa o hnyesterday than hot ‘ today t S ucl walk ‘ quickly 3SG % Zhangsan isfatterthanhim/her. Today ishotterthanyesterday. She/he walkedquickly. % yh itgo yihtgwo k myaht % S iefxlk sly like fox ‘ like 3SG t % ngs He isslylikeafox. ku VO % nb à (xi languagesbeingAdjective-Marker-Standard,asinEnglish i-ku à g h ng) § à -ez i-de V t % - ú PP ish li ¦ andthat ’ u ’ (LiandThompson1981:323) V VO p à - à ì hmyaht PP eji de ng languages,itbeingmorecommon formanneradverbs VO . Thethreethatare ’ . PP (MatthewsandYip1994:166) ’ (LiandThompson:142) W - V oh isadevelopmentsincethetwelfthcentury ú a VO PP b languagesoutsideChinesewhich § and + PP t % - V + V areallChineselanguages: p werecommoninClassical à PP ng s inClassicalChinese ). Again,thisorderis ODODR49 WORD ORDER PP - taller than V orderin AD VO . Downloaded By: 10.3.98.104 At: 04:27 28 Sep 2021; For: 9780203221051, chapter3, 10.4324/9780203221051.ch3 and Bai,asillustratedaboveinSection2.1. G THESINO-TIBETANLANGUAGES 50 noun, allare The lasttwoofthesecharacteristicsarealsoonessharedbyother interrogative phraseswouldoccurin,asin(18). beginning oftheclause,typicallyoccurring A thirdisthefactthatinterrogativephrasesincontentquestionsdonotneedtooccurat A secondistheuseofsentence-finalquestionparticles,asin(17). and verb-final(Dryer1991),wheresome Mandarin exhibitstheorderassociatedwithverb-finallanguages.Oneoftheseisuse verb-initial andothersexhibittheorderassociatedwithverb-final.Forallthreeofthese, Among 254 noun, asin(15). Asia, inHmong-Mienic,Tai-Kadai,andMon-Khmer.The Words meaning predicate followsthecopula,asin(19). with the traditions havebeencalledcomplements orargumentsontheonehandvsadjuncts the distinction betweentwotypesofdependents,whatindifferentgrammatical of terms To alargeextent,theinconsistencies inMandarinwordordercanbecharacterized the verbdenotingwhatiswanted,asin(20). en (18) (20) (19) (17) There arethreecharacteristicswhere There areotherrespectsinwhichMandarinbehavesmorelikea typical Mandarin isalsounusualinbeinga (16) 1)[ (15) N orderingenitiveconstructions,as(16). NG S a rt hns hrce Q character Chinese write ‘ can 2SG n w Susan ‘ be 1SG what do ‘ 2PL w n 1SG want go China China go ‘ want 1SG abtLN ear ‘ LINK rabbit S ie2GLN book LINK 2SG ‘ give 1SG t ù Can youwriteChinesecharacters? I amSusan. What areyoudoing? I wanttogoChina. the rabbit the book[thatIgaveyou] w § § ¦ ¦ orderofTai-KadaiandMon-Khmer. ide zi e zu men ¦ VO NR languagesinmydatabaseforwhichIcodetheorderofrelativeclauseand el, exceptforthethreeChineselanguages(Mandarin,Hakka,andCantonese) ‘ n y sh g able à é ¨ ì gxi ng oq in ’ ò s ear ’ precedetheotherverb,asin(17)above.Verbsmeaning Susan ’ § ù sh ’ ¨ ¨ (LiandThompson:113) rdu é Zh nme de 8 8 ’ Zh ] nggu (LiandThompson1981:522) ’ 8 nggu ’ ó (LiandThompson1981:117) sh

ó U SVO VO SVO languagethatplacesrelativeclausesbeforethe languagesareintermediatebetweenverb-initial ’ in situ ì (LiandThompson:547) languagesexhibittheorderassociatedwith , inthepositionthatcorrespondingnon- ma? G en N ordercontrasts,however, VO languagesofSoutheast VO language.The ‘ want ’ precede Downloaded By: 10.3.98.104 At: 04:27 28 Sep 2021; For: 9780203221051, chapter3, 10.4324/9780203221051.ch3 a number ofcharacteristicsthatarehighlyatypical number a We haveseenintheprecedingsectionthatMandarin(andotherChineselanguages)has Chinesewordorderfromageographicalperspective 3.2 or diachronically,isnotclear. adpositional phrases.Whetherthispatternismorethanacoincidence,eithersynchronically afterintensifiersorstandardsofcomparison,andverbsmanneradverbs reflected inplacingnounsafteradjectives,relativeclausesandothermodifiersofnouns, or semanticallybutwhichoptionallyelaborateonthemeaningoftheirphrases;thisis places headsafteradjuncts(i.e.modifiers),dependentswhicharenotrequiredgrammatically OV OV R like verb beforeobject,adpositioncopulapredicate,verbswithmeanings which isrequiredgrammaticallyandsemanticallytocompletethemeaningofphrase: modifiers ontheother.Mandarintypicallyplacesheadbeforeacomplement,dependent Proto-Sino-Tibetan, orChinesehasmovedfrom the twoordersofrelativeclauseandnounareaboutequallycommon in Sinitic orclosetothat,thismeansthatChinesehasbeen of Chinese.Map3.3showsthecross-linguistic distributionofthetwoordersrelativeclause respects isnodifferentfromsayingthatitresembles if they doarise.Languageselsewhereintheworldwhichwere if thefirstplaceandpossiblyalsoencouragingsuchlanguagestochangesomeothertype in types impliesthattherearesomecausalfactorsdiscouragingsuchlanguagesfromarising of thetwoordersrelativeclause andnounamong adpositional phrasesbeforetheverb.Ofcourse,sincethesearecharacteristics associatedwith golian, Tungus,andTurkic.Theselanguagesalsoplacerelative clausesbeforethenounand which Chineselanguagesresembletothenorth,including Japanese,Korean,Mon- becoming situation with Sino-Tibetan. Since tions fromProto-Sino-Tibetan,sinceotherinstancesof became in theworld.Hence tion thatProto-Sino-Tibetanwas explain whyChinesemighthavetheseunusualcharacteristics?Iwillstartwiththeassump- and apparently invariablyceasedtobe pattern: rather itisacharacteristicassociated with Let mefocusontwoofthesecharacteristics, least partlyaretentionofthesefeaturesfromProto-Sino-Tibetan(LaPolla1994;Liu1999). far morethanitresembles order isinfactascommon el el . Theoppositeisnotthecase:itcasethat languagesingeneral,thefactthatChineseresembles tothenorthinthese N N But thereareotherways,however,inwhichChineseresembles We cannotanswerthepuzzlebysimplysayingthat ‘ VO orderinChineseisan orderisalsothedominantacrossTB,suggestingthat want & VO R PP el ’ VO or haveapparentlyalsobecome N - V order is more common in Eurasia, while . Chinese,however,hasapparentlyretainedthesecharacteristicsforalongtime. ( ‘ PP able VO - V withpreverbaladpositionalphrases).Thecross-linguisticrarityofthese orderislessclear,asnotedabove:eitherittoodatesallthewaybackto ’ beforetheirverbalcomplements.Ontheotherhand,Mandarintypically VO R orderisalsoapparentlyfairlyoldinChinese,datingbacktoProto- el N OV OV orderinChinesecannotbesimply viewedasan R languageselsewhereintheworld.AsshownDryer(1992), characteristiconlyinthesensethat el N OV orderamong R , el R N el and N NR , and OV el and PP VO languagesinAsia,bothTBand thosenorth - OV PP V & PP . Whatisstriking,howevertheextentto - R languages.Thecross-linguisticdistribution V V - el V - , andthatthe OV PP towards N VO NR ( OV , eithersimultaneouslyorshortlyafter OV R languageselsewhereintheworld. VO languages.Canweofferanythingto el OV el orderismorecommonelsewhere languagesaregenerally languagespartlyfollowsanareal N VO withprenominalrelativeclauses) languageschangingto and OV and V - & PP PP R R R andbacktowards R el - el OV el V el R N N orderaresimplyreten- N el N or languagestothenorth and languagesareusually foralongtime.The N goesbacktoProto- OV OV ODODR51 WORD ORDER PP OV & languages.The - PP V characteristic; ordersareat - V andwhich R el VO PP N . have - V NR . el Downloaded By: 10.3.98.104 At: 04:27 28 Sep 2021; For: 9780203221051, chapter3, 10.4324/9780203221051.ch3 Eurasia, particularlyeasternAsia,intheareasurroundingChinese(excepttosouth,where adjective, relativeclausebefore noun)areonesgenerallyfoundonlyin (prepositional phraseandmanner adverbbeforeverb,standardofcomparison earlier time,perhapsgoingback toProto-Sino-Tibetan.Sincesomeofthesecharacteristics two approaches.Onemighttryto arguethatthesecharacteristicsreflectwordorderfroman from languagesofnortheastAsia. languages, suggestingthatthesecharacteristicsarebestunderstood intermsofarealinfluence A noun among and NOUN AMONGOVLANGUAGES MAP 3.3 THESINO-TIBETANLANGUAGES 52 see thatChineseissituatedbetweenalargesetof resembles languagesofnorthernAsiafarmorethanit TBlanguagesorother above, itisnotapropertyofmost the languagesarenot larly intheeast,towardsChinese.Onotherhand,languagestonorthareconsistently Mon-Khmer) andsouthwest(easternTBlanguages)alargesetof adjective andnounarefoundinTB,though example, theorderofadjectiveandnoun.WesawaboveinSection2.2.1howbothorders order inlanguagestothenorthmorecloselythanwordTBlanguages.Consider,for in TB.Butthereareotherrespects,however,whichChinesewordorderresembles before themodifiedelementisapropertyof distant geographicallyfromChinese.Thetendencytoconsistently placemodifyingelements Bodic languagesinNepalandnorthwestIndiathesearethe TBlanguagesthataremost Asia andunlikethemajorityofTBlanguages.Theonlylanguages likethisareasubsetof ently placethemodifiersbeforemodifiedelement,likealmost alllanguagesinnortheast and thepositionofintensifiersrelativetoadjectiveissimilar: Chineselanguagesconsist- closely toChinese. languages tothenorththanmanyTBlanguages,especiallythosethataresituatedmore north.TheorderofadjectiveandnouninMandarinthusmorecloselyresemblesthe the dj Someone wishingtodenytheclaim ofarealinfluencefromthenorthcouldtakeone The The situationregardingthepositionofdemonstrativesandnumerals relativetothenoun N . Whenwelookatthedistributionof R el WORLDWIDE DISTRIBUTIONOFTWOORDERSRELATIVECLAUSEAND N orderofChineseresemblesthecommon OV languages.Map3.3showsclearlyhow OV ). –el VadRN OV andR OV languagesoutsideAsia.Inthisway,therefore,Chinese A dj NA N OV and dj orderissomewhatmorecommon,particu- languagesofnorthernAsia.Asdiscussed NA NA dj languagestothesouth(Tai-Kadaiand R dj orderinAsiaMap3.2above,we el N ordertothenorthandwest, –el OV andNR R el N orderismorecommonin OV A dj languages,this N languagesto OV Downloaded By: 10.3.98.104 At: 04:27 28 Sep 2021; For: 9780203221051, chapter3, 10.4324/9780203221051.ch3 in theworldchangingfrom languages otherthanChinese,whyhasChinesemaintainedthem,whenelsewhere hypothesis wouldhavetoclaimthatProto-Sino-Tibetanwas languages tothenorthinwaysthatarenotassociatedwith istics toChinesebeing provides furthersupportforHashimoto these characteristics,despitechangingto that aregenerallyassociatedwith teristics? Second,whilethisexplanationmaymakesenseforthecharacteristicsofChinese a north influence, thefactthatsyntacticandphonologicaldifferencesamong Chineselanguagesfollow others, especiallybyHashimoto1986.providesafurthertypeofargumentforthis languages. languages whichhavelostthesecharacteristicsareonesthatnotadjacenttosuch the adjacent tonon-Sino-Tibetanlanguagesthathaveexactlythosecharacteristics,and these characteristicsarepreciselythose(Chinese,southernandwesternTibetic)that like ModernChinese,itisunlikelytobeacoincidencethatthelanguageshaveretained causing changes.Inotherwords,evenifProto-Sino-Tibetanwasconsistentlypremodifying, influence moreoftenhasaneffectinencouraginglanguagestoretaincharacteristicsthan theChineseretaining thesecharacteristics.Ingeneral,itisprobablythecasethatareal to Tibetan, itislikelythattherehasstillbeenarealinfluencefromthenorthincontributing Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan,andKazakhstan. that connectswiththeareainnorthernAsiawherethisisfoundviaPakistan,Afghanistan, languages (andalsoDravidian)belongtoalargearmofconsistentlypremodifying modifiers beforethemodifiedelement,namely,IndiclanguagesinIndo-European.The before themodifiedelement:theyarealsoadjacenttolanguageswhichconsistentlyplace is amoreobviousexplanationforthefactthattheseTibeticlanguagesplacemodifiers except inthesubsetofTibeticlanguagesthatarelikeChinesetheseways.However,there teristics, wewouldhavetosaythatalltheseTBlanguageslostcharacteristics, to languagesthenorth.AndsincemajorityofTBdonothavethesecharac- would havetosaythatProto-Sino-Tibetanalsohadthesecharacteristics,coincidentallysimilar adjectives, demonstratives,andnumeralsbeforenounsintensifiersadjectives.We demonstratives, andnumeralsdonottendtoprecedethenoun in they arenotfoundelsewhereinthe world. resemblances, sincethereisaneed toexplainwhyChinesehasthesecharacteristicswhen Chinese issounusualinsomeof thesecharacteristicslowersthelikelihoodofcoincidental many instancesofadjacentlanguages beingsimilarbyaccident.However,thefactthat examines thegeographicaldistribution oftypologicalcharacteristics,thereareboundtobe do notthinkthatthispossibilityshouldberuledout,oreven viewedasunlikely.Whenone I that coincidentallyledtocharacteristicsresemblelanguages tothenorth.Inmostcases, is an views showntobeincorrectbyDryer1992)thatthepremodifying orderwithinnounphrases But thisleavestwothingsunexplained.Firstsincethesecharacteristicsaresorarein and sharethesecharacteristics,thisisnotanimplausiblescenarioforcharacteristics. Mongolian) tothenorthofChinese.However,Hashimoto languages tothenorthtendbemoresimilarnon-Sino-Tibetan languages(Tungus, The ideathatChinesewordorderhasbeeninfluencedfromthenorthsuggestedby In fact,evenifthepremodifyingcharacteristicsofChineseareretainedfromProto-Sino- An alternativehypothesisisthatthesecharacteristicsofChinese reflectinternalchanges OV – characteristic.Butthefactthatthisisnotan south patterninthatwhereonefindsdifferencesamongChinese languages,the OV inthepast(ormovingtowards OV to VO OV orderapparentlyseldomifeverretainthese ’ order,itdoesnotexplainwhyChineseresembles s position,sinceonecannotattributethesecharacter- VO order.SinceTBlanguagesarealsolargely OV characteristic,thefactthatadjectives, OV ’ s discussionassumes(following OV ). OV andthatChinesehasretained order,namely,inplacing OV languagesactually ODODR53 WORD ORDER OV charac- OV VO , Downloaded By: 10.3.98.104 At: 04:27 28 Sep 2021; For: 9780203221051, chapter3, 10.4324/9780203221051.ch3 Brown, WilliamBarclay(1895) Clerk, F.V.(1911) Bradley, David(1997) Bradley, David(1994) which are Mon-Khmer languagestotheeast.WeseethisinitsstrongestformwithKarenlanguages, Section 2,thefactthatmoreeasternTBlanguagescloselyresembleTai-Kadaiand western andsouthernTibeticlanguagestoIndiclanguages,butIhavealsopointedout,in resemblances ofChinesetolanguagesthenorth,andhavepointedout word ordertoadjacentnon-Sino-Tibetanlanguages.Inthelastsection,Ihavedwelton one findsdifferencesamonglanguages,thedifferentlanguagestendtobemoresimilarin The mostsalientoverallgeneralizationaboutwordorderwithinSino-Tibetanisthatwhere CONCLUSION 4 THESINO-TIBETANLANGUAGES 54 REFERENCES Tibetan, butwherethatmightbethecaseisnotclear. cases, itmaybethatthedirectionofinfluencehavegonefromSino-Tibetantonon-Sino- terms oflanguageswithinSino-Tibetanresemblingadjacentgroupslanguages.Insome families, thatitispossibletoseehowthevariationwithinSino-Tibetancanbeunderstoodin precisely becausewefindsuchvariationwithinSino-Tibetan,comparedtomostadjacent Tibetan languagesinfluencingSino-Tibetanratherthantheotherwayround.Itis since theyaretowardsthewest,yettendtoplacemodifiersafternoun. 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Co- inMandarinChinese:verbsorprepositions? ü Cantonese: AComprehensiveGrammar , LondonOrientalSeries,Vol.15.London:Oxford bingen: MaxNiemeyerVerlag. , (AbriefdescriptionoftheBailanguage),Beijing: , CentralInstituteofIndianLanguages,Grammar , NewYork:AcademicPress. :AFunctionalReference Universals ofLanguage , Chicago:UniversityofChicagoPress. Nung Grammar , Leiden:E.J.Brill76 98 – 104. , Shillong:TheAssam ’ , SummerInstituteof , inJohnMcCoyand ’ ’ , , StudiesinTibeto- , NewDelhi:Mittal ODODR55 WORD ORDER , Cambridge,MA: Journal ofChinese – Karen WordList – 97. ’ , unpublished , NewYork: ’ ’ , , Downloaded By: 10.3.98.104 At: 04:27 28 Sep 2021; For: 9780203221051, chapter3, 10.4324/9780203221051.ch3