PARTICIPANT REFERENCE PATTERNS IN SENTHANG NARRATIVE JACOB DANIEL WATSON Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of MASTER OF ARTS IN LINGUISTICS Payap University June 2019 Title: Participant reference patterns in Senthang narrative Researcher: Jacob Daniel Watson Degree: Master of Arts in Linguistics Advisor: Tyler M. Heston, Ph.D. Approval Date: 4 June 2019 Institution: Payap University, Chiang Mai, Thailand The members of the thesis examination committee: 1. _________________________________ Committee Chair (Peter Freeouf, Ph.D.) 2. _________________________________ Committee Member (Tyler M. Heston, Ph.D.) 3. _________________________________ Committee Member (Stephen H. Doty, Ph.D.) Copyright © Jacob D. Watson Payap University 2019 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Many friends, colleagues, and family members have helped to bring me to the point of completion of this thesis. Here I would like to try to put my gratitude toward those individuals into words. First, I would like to thank Ajarn Tom Tehan for teaching me about discourse analysis and for helping me get started on this thesis. Although Ajarn Tom left this earth to be with the Lord before I could finish, I am very thankful for the time I had to learn from him. Thank you also to Ajarn Tyler Heston for his willingness to begin advising me in an area outside his normal expertise at such a late stage in the writing process, for his careful reading and critique of this thesis, and for his enduring patience and encouragement along the way. Secondly, I would like to thank my remaining two committee members, Dr. Steve Doty and Dr. Peter Freeouf, for reading this thesis and giving several gentle critiques that made it that much better in the end. Many, if not all, of the faculty members in the Linguistics Department at Payap University have helped me throughout my time studying at Payap. In particular, I would like to thank Ajarns Steve and Margie Doty for their patience and encouragement, especially over the last several months of writing. Thank you to Larin Adams, who gave me much advice along the way and whose sense of humor was normally a breath of fresh air amidst all the seriousness of academic talk. Thank you to Ajarn Linda Markowski and Ajarn Phinnarat Akharawatthanakun, who both helped me polish the translation of my abstract. Thank you also to Ajarn Audra Phillips, who shared her expertise in discourse and writing on several occasions, in particular at my roundtable presentation. Although I was unable to work with Dr. David A. Peterson on this thesis due to my health condition and logistics complications, I am nonetheless very grateful to him for the willingness to advise me and read my thesis work which he expressed when I was i just starting this project a few years ago. Even so, his many publications on Kuki- Chin languages (Hakha Lai, Khumi, Hyow, etc.) helped tremendously in providing me with a basis of understanding in those languages closely related to Senthang. I also want to thank Dr. Stephen H. Levinsohn for his many helpful and timely responses to my numerous inquiries via email concerning his method of participant reference analysis. More than once he very patiently pointed out how “you might be making this harder than it needs to be.” To my many friends and colleagues at Payap University and elsewhere, I extend my gratitude. To Jonathan and Rachel Craft, for sharing their knowledge about Senthang and reading my thesis. To Tyler Davis, for his faithful friendship and vast knowledge of all things Burma and Kuki-Chin which he was always happy to share. To Pastor Yeom (염신승 목사님), for his godly kindness and generosity. To Pastor Song (송충홍 목사님), for sharing his wisdom and for teaching me Korean. To Nathan Straub, Mark and Anna Scholl, Lin Kyaw Zaw, Eli Cork, Daniel Glassey, Vanlal Cross Eng Lian Hngak, Dan Loss, Syed Iftiqar Dewan, Misriani Balle, Rachel Powelson, Khumsin Nu San Lung (Nunu), Amber and Upai Jasa, Marcus Rice, and Bawi Tawng, for their continued friendship and support. I would like to thank my parents, for their unwavering support throughout my many years of schooling. Also, thank you to my Grandma Katy for always making sure I had more than enough to eat and always being there to visit with when I came over. To all my family back home, both in Christ and by blood, at Living Hope and North Fairfield, in Ohio, Kentucky, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Indiana, and all over that wonderful land of America—thank you for your prayers, encouragement, and steadfast love. I would also like to thank all of the members of the Senthang community without whom this thesis could not have been done. Tia Hliang, Lai Wh, Lian Tung, Thein Za Lian, Bawi Tia, Pu Sang Hmung, Pi Ngun Hlei, and Pu Lian Hrang each gave generously of their time and energy during the data collection phase of this project. ii The most instrumental—and moreover, the most beautiful—of the members of the Senthang community in completing this thesis was and is my wife-to-be, Miss Ngun Tin Par. She suffered through many long hours of glossing and translating with me following the initial data collection and, subsequently, patiently answered all my questions about her language over countless phonecalls and emails. But all the gratitude I have expressed here is only derivative of my thankfulness to the triune God, who Himself is the source of all who have helped me reach this point. He has shown me his hesed, his steadfast love, shining through the clouds of life’s struggles and reflected in the face of each person mentioned here. “And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another.” (2 Corinthians 3:18) Soli Deo Gloria. Jacob D. Watson iii Title: Participant Reference Patterns in Senthang Narrative Researcher: Jacob Daniel Watson Degree: Masters of Arts in Linguistics Advisor: Tyler M. Heston, Ph.D. Approval Date: 4 June 2019 Institution: Payap University, Chiang Mai, Thailand Number of Pages: 97 Keywords: Participant reference, Referring expression, Identifiability ABSTRACT Senthang (Kuki-Chin, Tibeto-Burman) is spoken in Central Chin State, Burma/Myanmar. This study aims to describe the participant reference patterns in Senthang narrative discourse. The text corpus used for analysis consists of four oral folktales containing a total of 546 clauses. Each text was recorded digitally, transcribed, glossed, translated, and then analyzed using Dooley & Levinsohn's (2001) sequential default model, which takes as its foundation Givón's (1983) concept of topic continuity. Senthang's inventory of referring expressions is found to include overt NPs, pronouns, and zero anaphora. These referring expressions have several functions on the discourse level, consisting largely in signaling the identifiability, activation status, and thematic salience of participants. Participant rank reflects a participant's global thematic salience. It is determined by adapting Givón's (1983) measurements of topic continuity. The analysis of one of the four texts demonstrates that the more linguistic material used to introduce a participant, the higher that participant’s rank. Default codings of referring expressions are determined for eight subject and non- subject contexts according to the sequential default model. However, the defaults for the two contexts immediately following reported speech are only tentative due to the paucity of their occurrence. More coding tends to occur at episode boundaries and iv other discontinuities, while less coding tends to occur when there is little to no semantic ambiguity in the identification of a participant. Pronouns occur only rarely in Senthang narrative discourse outside of reported speech. Within reported speech, however, they occur more frequently. Further investigation into the functions of independent pronouns both inside and outside reported speech is recommended. The findings of this study contribute to the description of Senthang, which has remained largely undescribed until recently. They are of special interest to those studying the discourse structures in other pro-drop languages--particularly to those studying other Kuki-Chin languages--as well as to those creating and/or translating materials in Senthang for the purpose of community development. v ชื่อเรื่อง: รูปแบบการอ้างถึงผู้แสดงบทบาทในเรื่องเล่าภาษาเซ็นทัง ผู้วิจัย: เจคอป แดเนียล วัสสัน ชื่อปริญญา: ศิลปศาสตรมหาบัณฑิต (ภาษาศาสตร์) อาจารย์ที่ปรึกษาวิทยานิพนธ์: ดร. ไทเลอร์ เอ็ม. เฮสตัน วันที่อนุมัติผลงาน: 4 มิถุนายน 2562 สถาบันการศึกษา: มหาวิทยาลัยพายัพ จังหวัดเชียงใหม่ ประเทศไทย จ านวนหน้า: 97 ค าส าคัญ: การอ้างถึงผู้แสดงบทบาท ค าหรือข้อความที่แสดงการอ้าง ถึง ความสามารถในการบ่งชี้ บทคัดย่อ ภาษาเซ็นทัง (กลุ่มภาษากูกี-ชิน, ตระกูลภาษาย่อยทิเบต-พม่า) พูดในบริเวณรัฐชินกลาง ประเทศ เมียนมาร์ การศึกษาครั้งนี้มีวัตถุประสงค์เพื่ออธิบายรูปแบบการอ้างถึงผู้แสดงบทบาทในสัมพันธสาร เรื่องเล่าภาษาเซ็นทัง คลังข้อความที่ใช้ในการวิเคราะห์ประกอบด้วยนิทานพื้นบ้านประเภทมุขปาฐะ 4 เรื่อง รวมทั้งสิ้น 546 ประโยคย่อย แต่ละเรื่องมีการบันทึกด้วยเครื่องบันทึกเสียงดิจิทัล ถ่ายถอดเสียง ให้ความหมายหรือแสดงหน้าที่ทางไวยากรณ์ของค า แปลความหมาย และวิเคราะห์ โดยใช้รูปแบบตั้ง ต้นในการจัดเรียงประโยคของ Dooley & Levinsohn (2001) ซึ่งใช้แนวคิดพื้นฐานของ Givón (1983) เกี่ยวกับความต่อเนื่องของหัวข้อ ผลการวิจัยพบว่า ค าหรือข้อความที่แสดงการอ้างถึงในภาษาเซ็นทังประกอบด้วย นามวลี สรรพนาม และการละรูปแทน ค าหรือข้อความที่แสดงการอ้างถึงเหล่านี้มีหน้าที่หลายอย่างในระดับสัมพันธสาร ส่วนใหญ่มักใช้เพื่อบ่งบอกความสามารถในการบ่งชี้ สถานภาพที่ผู้อ่านนึกถึงผู้แสดงบทบาท รวมทั้ง