Relativization in Qiang∗
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“The Relative Pronoun” As Has Been the Case in the Last Several Chapters
CHAPTER 17 “Te Relatve Pronoun” As has been te case in te last several chaptrs, tis chaptr realy doesn’t confont te neophyt wit a lot of new grammatcal concepts; it builds on knowledge already mastred. Stl it’s going t take a litle patence, but we’l go slowly. Before we get t te relatve pronoun per se, we’re going t clean up a syntactcal point you’ve already been working wit, but may not have yet a firm conceptual understanding of. Let’s look at what we mean by a “clause”. THE CLAUSE You al remember te junior high school definiton of a sentnce: it’s a complet tought. And by tat we mean a tought which includes a noun, eiter expressed or implied, and a verb, eiter expressed or implied. Tat is, a complet tought must involve someting which is doing someting or which is being held up for descripton: “Te road is blocked”; “Te tee fel down”; and so on. Now, te human mind is a wonderfl ting. It reasons and perceives dozens of different kinds relatonships between events, tings, and ideas. It arranges events and facts logicaly and tmporaly, and in levels of priorit. Tat is t say, it takes two or more tings, tings which are separat ideas, separat visions, and weaves tem tgeter conceptualy and linguistcaly int what we “reasoning”. Te way tis reasoning is expressed in language is caled “syntax”, which litraly means “arranging tgeter”; puting tgeter events and tings and facts. For example, te two separat ideas or visions -- “te road is blocked” and “te tee fel down” -- might have a causal relatonship, which te mind instantly recognizes and expresses linguistcaly wit an appropriat conjuncton: “Te road is blocked because te tee fel down”. -
Aktionsart and Aspect in Qiang
The 2005 International Course and Conference on RRG, Academia Sinica, Taipei, June 26-30 AKTIONSART AND ASPECT IN QIANG Huang Chenglong Institute of Ethnology & Anthropology Chinese Academy of Social Sciences E-mail: [email protected] Abstract The Qiang language reflects a basic Aktionsart dichotomy in the classification of stative and active verbs, the form of verbs directly reflects the elements of the lexical decomposition. Generally, State or activity is the basic form of the verb, which becomes an achievement or accomplishment when it takes a directional prefix, and becomes a causative achievement or causative accomplishment when it takes the causative suffix. It shows that grammatical aspect and Aktionsart seem to play much of a systematic role. Semantically, on the one hand, there is a clear-cut boundary between states and activities, but morphologically, however, there is no distinction between them. Both of them take the same marking to encode lexical aspect (Aktionsart), and grammatical aspect does not entirely correspond with lexical aspect. 1.0. Introduction The Ronghong variety of Qiang is spoken in Yadu Township (雅都鄉), Mao County (茂縣), Aba Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture (阿壩藏族羌族自治州), Sichuan Province (四川省), China. It has more than 3,000 speakers. The Ronghong variety of Qiang belongs to the Yadu subdialect (雅都土語) of the Northern dialect of Qiang (羌語北部方言). It is mutually intelligible with other subdialects within the Northern dialect, but mutually unintelligible with other subdialects within the Southern dialect. In this paper we use Aktionsart and lexical decomposition, as developed by Van Valin and LaPolla (1997, Ch. 3 and Ch. 4), to discuss lexical aspect, grammatical aspect and the relationship between them in Qiang. -
"Brightening" and the Place of Xixia (Tangut)
1 "Briiighttteniiing" and ttthe plllace of Xiiixiiia (Tanguttt) iiin ttthe Qiiiangiiic branch of Tiiibettto-Burman* James A. Matisoff University of California, Berkeley 1.0 Introduction Xixia (Tangut) is an extinct Tibeto-Burman language, once spoken in the Qinghai/Gansu/Tibetan border region in far western China. Its complex logographic script, invented around A.D. 1036, was the vehicle for a considerable body of literature until it gradually fell out of use after the Mongol conquest in 1223 and the destruction of the Xixia kingdom.1 A very large percentage of the 6000+ characters have been semantically deciphered and phonologically reconstructed, thanks to a Xixia/Chinese glossary, Tibetan transcriptions, and monolingual Xixia dictionaries and rhyme-books. The f«anqi\e method of indicating the pronunciation of Xixia characters was used both via other Xixia characters (in the monolingual dictionaries) and via Chinese characters (in the bilingual glossary Pearl in the Palm, where Chinese characters are also glossed by one or more Xixia ones). Various reconstruction systems have been proposed by scholars, including M.V. Sofronov/K.B. Keping, T. Nishida, Li Fanwen, and Gong Hwang-cherng. This paper relies entirely on the reconstructions of Gong.2 After some initial speculations that Xixia might have belonged to the Loloish group of Tibeto-Burman languages, scholarly opinion has now coalesced behind the geographically plausible opinion that it was a member of the "Qiangic" subgroup of TB. The dozen or so Qiangic languages, spoken in Sichuan Province and adjacent parts of Yunnan, were once among the most obscure in the TB family, loosely lumped together as the languages of the Western Barbarians (Xifan = Hsifan). -
On Restrictions on the Use of Non-Restrictive Infinitival Relative Clauses in English
On restrictions on the use of non-restrictive infinitival relative clauses in English Takanobu%Akiyama% Nihon%University% [email protected]% This paper deals with non-restrictive infinitival relative clauses (NIRCs) in English (e.g. An independent review, to be funded by the health authority, has been commissioned). The purpose of this paper is twofold: (i) to give an accurate description of the semantic properties of the NIRC on the basis of the British National Corpus, and (ii) to elucidate restrictions on the use of this construction. My corpus-based approach will clarify four types of shades of meaning expressed by this construction are equal to those expressed by IS TO construction (i.e. plan, necessity or appropriateness, future in the past, and possibility). I will stress that NIRCs are used only when they have one notional category (i.e. notional subject/object), which is highly likely to be a notional subject of the infinitive, and denote one of the shades of meaning rather than causality. Keywords: non-restrictive clauses, infinitival relative clauses, meaning of to-infinitives, the British National Corpus 1. Introduction This paper deals with the non-restrictive infinitival relative clause (henceforth, NIRC) in English (e.g. An independent review, to be funded by Ealing council and Selected Papers from the 44th Conference of the Australian Linguistic Society, 2013 edited by Lauren Gawne and Jill Vaughan! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Selected papers from the 44th ALS conference – 2013 AKIYAMA Ealing health authority, has been commissioned. (BNC: A96 443))1. The discussion of NIRCs has been neglected by linguists, although there have been many publications on restrictive infinitival relative clauses (e.g. -
The Case of English Relative Clause
Pan-Pacific Association of Applied Linguistics 17(1), 79-93. The Application of Corpora in Teaching Grammar: The Case of English Relative Clause Rahman Sahragard, Ali Kushki and Ehsan Ansaripour* Shiraz University Sahragard, R., Kushki, A. & Ansaripour, E. (2013). The Application of Corpora in Teaching Grammar: The Case of English Relative Clause. Journal of Pan-Pacific Association of Applied Linguistics, 17(1), 79-93. The study was conducted to see if the provision of implementing corpora on English relative clauses would prove useful for Iranian EFL learners or not. Two writing classes were held for the participants of intermediate level. A record of 15 writing samples produced by each participant was kept in the form of a portfolio. Participants’ portfolios in both the experimental and the control groups were analyzed to spot patterned errors. Having diagnosed the errors, both groups were instructed on the use of English relative clauses. The participants in the experimental group were instructed using the corpora as printed materials. The control group, however, were instructed using explicit definition, discussion and exemplification. Then, both group participants’ portfolios were returned and they were asked to self correct their misapplied relative clauses. Interestingly, both groups had improved significantly. Two Chi-square tests on the use of that and which were run before and after classroom procedures on both groups. The first one suggested similar performance for the two groups but the second one favored the experimental group. The study suggests that applying corpora is an effective way to make students aware of their errors which ultimately leads them to self correction. -
Licensing Animacy in Relative Clause Comprehension
Structuring Expectation: Licensing Animacy in Relative Clause Comprehension Matthew W. Wagers and Emily Pendleton 1. Introduction* 1.1. Animacy and the predictive encoding of relative clauses Broadly speaking, subject relative clauses are easier to understand than object relative clauses (Wanner & Maratsos, 1978, Ford, 1983, Holmes & O'Regan, 1981, among many others). This can be demonstrated by a variety of methods that measure the speed and accuracy with which sentences containing relative clauses are processed. As an example, compare (1a), which contains a subject relative clause (SRC), to (1b), which contains an object relative clause (ORC). (1) a. Subject relative clause, The lobbyist [ that ___ quoted the journalist on the radio ] lost her job. b. Object relative clause The lobbyist [ that the journalist quoted ___ on the radio ] lost her job. The SRC advantage is very robust cross-linguistically. Even in cases where non-subject relatives may ultimately be easier to process, the 'fingerprints' of a subject advantage can be detected (Clemens et al., 2015, Borja, Chung & Wagers, 2015). However, the SRC advantage can be neutralized under a variety of conditions. For example, if the subject of an ORC is a quantified expression or a pronoun, then the asymmetry is substantially reduced (Gordon, Hendrick & Johnson, 2001, 2004). Another way to neutralize the SRC advantage is to change the animacy of the relativized argument (Mak, Vonk & Schriefers, 2002, Traxler, Morris & Seely, 2005, Gennari & MacDonald, 2008, among others). (2) illustrates a contrast that should be less severe than (1), because the relativized argument in (2), 'report', is inanimate. (2) a. Subject relative clause, inanimate filler The report [ that ___ quoted the journalist in the introduction ] was not well-known. -
Language Ecology in Tibetan Areas of Western Sichuan: Problems, Causes and Strategies Xiao-Qiong WANG1,A
2021 International Conference on Education, Humanity and Language, Art (EHLA 2021) ISBN: 978-1-60595-137-9 Language Ecology in Tibetan Areas of Western Sichuan: Problems, Causes and Strategies Xiao-qiong WANG1,a 1Chongqing University of Technology, Chongqing, China [email protected] Keywords: Language ecology, Tibetan areas, Western Sichuan. Abstract. The language ecology in western Sichuan is diverse and complex, and there are nearly 20 ethnic groups and 20 languages intermingled with each other. However, their unique linguistic individuality is often covered by the universal language and become "disadvantaged languages" in their own habitat. Many reasons, of which are mixed ethnic distribution, deficient education resource and economic transformation etc., have led to the loss of linguistic vitality of the ancient languages. Ethnic, bilingual and vocational education are necessary strategies to improve the ethnic language ecology. 1. Introduction Sichuan Tibetan area located at the South-eastern fringe of Qinghai-Tibet plateau, stands at the transitional and intersection zone between Qinghai-Tibet plateau and Sichuan Basin from which Yun’nan-Guizhou Plateau is accessible. It consists of Garze Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Ngapa Tibetan and Qiang Prefecture and Muli Tibetan Autonomous County, which covers a vast area of 249,700 square kilometres and is approximately 51.49% of the total Sichuan territory. Diversity and complexity is the feature of Qinghai-Tibet plateau in terms of landform. Hengduan Mountains are characterized by deep alpine valleys from south to north which are steep and dangerous. And yet it bears the characteristics of both Qinghai-Tibet plateau and Hengduan Mountains. Its remote geographical location and closed geographical environment make the ancient national language and culture preserved sporadically. -
The Development of the Finish Morphemes in the Yue-Chinese and the Zhuang Languages in the Guangxi Region
Copyright Warning Use of this thesis/dissertation/project is for the purpose of private study or scholarly research only. Users must comply with the Copyright Ordinance. Anyone who consults this thesis/dissertation/project is understood to recognise that its copyright rests with its author and that no part of it may be reproduced without the author’s prior written consent. SYNCHRONIC VARIATION, GRAMMATICALIZATION AND LANGUAGE CONTACT: THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE FINISH MORPHEMES IN THE YUE-CHINESE AND THE ZHUANG LANGUAGES IN THE GUANGXI REGION HUANG YANG DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY CITY UNIVERSITY OF HONG KONG AUGUST 2014 CITY UNIVERSITY OF HONG KONG 香港城市大學 Synchronic Variation, Grammaticalization and Language Contact: the Development of the FINISH Morphemes in the Yue-Chinese and the Zhuang Languages in the Guangxi Region 共時變異、語法化和語言接觸： 論南寧粵語及壯語中「完畢」語素的演變 Submitted to Department of Chinese and History 中文及歷史學系 in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy 哲學博士學位 by Huang Yang 黃陽 August 2014 二零一四年八月 Abstract Language change is simply a fact of life; it cannot be prevented or avoided (Campbell 2013: 3). When asked to identify the causes of language change, historical linguists usually give us internal explanations (Lass 1997: 209), while contact linguists specifically focus on external factors such as borrowing, interference, metatypy and others (Weinreich 1963, Ross 1999, Thomason 2001). Among these external factors, the contact-induced grammaticalization theory pioneered by Heine & Kuteva (2003, 2005) is particularly well-suited to explain the grammatical changes undergone by the languages in South China (F. Wu 2009a, Kwok 2010, D. Qin 2012, Y. Huang & Kwok 2013, Kwok et al. -
Preposition Stranding Vs. Pied-Piping—The Role of Cognitive Complexity in Grammatical Variation
languages Article Preposition Stranding vs. Pied-Piping—The Role of Cognitive Complexity in Grammatical Variation Christine Günther Faculty of Arts and Humanities, Universität Siegen, 57076 Siegen, Germany; [email protected] Abstract: Grammatical variation has often been said to be determined by cognitive complexity. Whenever they have the choice between two variants, speakers will use that form that is associated with less processing effort on the hearer’s side. The majority of studies putting forth this or similar analyses of grammatical variation are based on corpus data. Analyzing preposition stranding vs. pied-piping in English, this paper sets out to put the processing-based hypotheses to the test. It focuses on discontinuous prepositional phrases as opposed to their continuous counterparts in an online and an offline experiment. While pied-piping, the variant with a continuous PP, facilitates reading at the wh-element in restrictive relative clauses, a stranded preposition facilitates reading at the right boundary of the relative clause. Stranding is the preferred option in the same contexts. The heterogenous results underline the need for research on grammatical variation from various perspectives. Keywords: grammatical variation; complexity; preposition stranding; discontinuous constituents Citation: Günther, Christine. 2021. Preposition Stranding vs. Pied- 1. Introduction Piping—The Role of Cognitive Grammatical variation refers to phenomena where speakers have the choice between Complexity in Grammatical Variation. two (or more) semantically equivalent structural options. Even in English, a language with Languages 6: 89. https://doi.org/ rather rigid word order, some constructions allow for variation, such as the position of a 10.3390/languages6020089 particle, the ordering of post-verbal constituents or the position of a preposition. -
Instruct Practice Prepare
Grammar ® Lexia Lessons PARTS OF SPEECH Pronouns 2 PREPARE CONCEPT Words are categorized as pronouns pronoun can act as the subject of a sentence. The if they take the place of a noun (a person, place, ability to think and talk about pronouns helps thing, or idea) in a sentence. Possessive pronouns students understand and explain texts accurately show ownership. Relative pronouns that, which, and write effectively. who, whom, and whose begin a relative clause. VOCABULARY absolute possessive pronoun, Relative clauses act as adjectival clauses and indefinite pronoun, possessive pronoun, relative answer the question which one. Indefinite clause, relative pronoun pronouns include all, anything, anyone, someone, everyone, many, several, and some. An indefinite MATERIALS Lesson reproducibles, index cards INSTRUCT Tell students they will be learning about other pronouns that replace nouns in a sentence. Provide an overview of the types of pronouns listed on the Anchor Chart, clarifying and discussing previously learned concepts as needed. Instruct students that pronouns can act as the subject or as adjectives in a sentence and answer the question which one. Display the sentence Somebody can drive my car that I just repaired. Underline the pronoun somebody and state that somebody is an indefinite pronoun because it does not refer to a specific person or thing. It acts as the subject of the sentence. Underline my and state that it shows ownership of the car. Finally, underline that and state that it begins a new clause. State the information: All pronouns, including indefinite, possessive, and relative pronouns, replace a noun. A possessive pronoun acts as an adjective and answers which one or whose. -
The Emergence of Relative Clauses in Early Child Language
The emergence of relative clauses in early child language Holger Diessel University of Jena Introduction This paper examines the development of relative clauses in early child language. It is argued that relative clauses constitute a network of related constructions that children acquire in a piecemeal bottom-up way, starting with relative clauses that are only little different from simple sentences which are gradually extended into more complex grammatical patterns. The acquisition process is driven by pragmatic and cognitive factors that are involved in the process of language use. The analysis draws on previous research with Michael Tomasello supplemented by a new corpus investigation of ’ spontaneous relative clauses in English (cf. Diessel and Tomasello 2000, 2005; Diessel 2004, 2008; Brandt, Diessel, and Tomasello 2007). The paper reports the results of three studies. The first study is a corpus investigation of the external properties of ’ early relative clauses; the second study is an experimental study investigating the way children process the internal structure of English and German relative clauses; and the third study is another corpus study examining the meaning of ’ subject and object relative clauses. Study 1 Relative clauses are subordinate clauses that are embedded in complex sentences. The first study investigates the structure and meaning of the sentence in which ’early relative clauses are embedded. In the experimental literature on the acquisition of relative clauses, children are commonly confronted with complex sentences in which the relative clause modifies the subject or object of a transitive main clause including a prototypical agent and an activity verb as in examples (1) and (2) (adopted from Tavakolian 1977). -
Sino-Tibetan Numeral Systems: Prefixes, Protoforms and Problems
Sino-Tibetan numeral systems: prefixes, protoforms and problems Matisoff, J.A. Sino-Tibetan Numeral Systems: Prefixes, Protoforms and Problems. B-114, xii + 147 pages. Pacific Linguistics, The Australian National University, 1997. DOI:10.15144/PL-B114.cover ©1997 Pacific Linguistics and/or the author(s). Online edition licensed 2015 CC BY-SA 4.0, with permission of PL. A sealang.net/CRCL initiative. PACIFIC LINGUISTICS FOUNDING EDITOR: Stephen A. Wunn EDITORIAL BOARD: Malcolm D. Ross and Darrell T. Tryon (Managing Editors), Thomas E. Dutton, Nikolaus P. Himmelmann, Andrew K. Pawley Pacific Linguistics is a publisher specialising in linguistic descriptions, dictionaries, atlases and other material on languages of the Pacific, the Philippines, Indonesia and southeast Asia. The authors and editors of Pacific Linguistics publications are drawn from a wide range of institutions around the world. Pacific Linguistics is associated with the Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies at the Australian National University. Pacific Linguistics was established in 1963 through an initial grant from the Hunter Douglas Fund. It is a non-profit-making body financed largely from the sales of its books to libraries and individuals throughout the world, with some assistance from the School. The Editorial Board of Pacific Linguistics is made up of the academic staff of the School's Department of Linguistics. The Board also appoints a body of editorial advisors drawn from the international community of linguists. Publications in Series A, B and C and textbooks in Series D are refereed by scholars with re levant expertise who are normally not members of the editorial board.