Aspects of Chintang Syntax Dissertation Abhandlung zur Erlangung der Doktorwürde der Philosophischen Fakultät der Universität Zürich Im Fach Allgemeine Sprachwissenschaft vorgelegt von Netra Prasad Paudyal Angenommen im Herbstsemester 2013 aut Antrag der Promotionskommission: Prof. Dr. Balthasar Bickel (hauptverantwortliche Betreuungsperson) Prof. Dr. John M. Peterson Zürich 2015 Table of Contents Acknowledgements vii Notational conventions and abbreviations ix List of figures xii List of tables xiii 1 Introduction 1 1.0 The linguistic situation in Nepal 1 1.1 The Chintang people and their language 3 1.2 The Chintang village profile 6 1.3 The ethnic and religious situation 7 1.4 Genetic affiliation 8 1.5 Sources of data and the fieldwork 9 1.6 Goals and overview of the dissertation 10 2 Phonology 13 2.0 Introduction 13 2.1 Consonants 13 2.1.1 Stop consonants 16 2.1.2 Fricatives 17 2.1.3 Nasals 17 2.1.4 Glides 17 2.1.5 Aspiration 18 2.1.6 Distribution of consonant phonemes 18 2.1.7 Consonant clusters and geminate consonants 20 2.2 Vowel phonemes 23 2.2.1 Monophthongs 23 2.2.2 Diphthongs 24 2.2.3 Vowel sequences 27 2.3 Syllable structure 28 2.4 Basic morphophonemic rules 29 2.4.1 Voicing 29 2.4.2 Velar nasal drop 30 2.4.3 Vowel deletion 31 ii TABLE OF CONTENTS 2.4.4 Consonant deletion 32 2.4.5 Assimilation of velar nasal to labial 32 2.5 Suprasegmental features 32 2.6 Summary 33 3 Nominal Morphology 34 3.0 Introduction 34 3.1 Nominal categories 34 3.1.1 Number 35 3.1.2 -pa/-ma sex markers 37 3.1.3 Case 40 3.1.3.1 Nominative 42 3.1.3.2 Ergative 43 3.1.3.3 Instrumental 44 3.1.3.4 Genitive 44 3.1.3.5 Comitative 45 3.1.3.6 Mediative 46 3.1.3.7 Terminative 47 3.1.3.8 Directive 48 3.1.3.9 Ablative 48 3.1.3.10 Locative 50 3.1.3.11 Borrowed cases 53 3.2 Pronouns 53 3.2.1 Personal pronouns 53 3.2.1.1 First person pronouns 54 3.2.1.2 Second person pronouns 55 3.2.1.3 Third person pronouns 56 3.2.2 Interrogative pronouns 56 3.3 Possessive agreement 61 3.3.1 Obligatorily possessive inflection 62 3.4 Derivation and compounding 63 3.4.1 Modifier-head compounding 63 3.4.2 Fossilized compounds 64 3.4.3 Tri-nominal compounds 65 3.4.4 Metaphorical compounds 66 3.4.5 Nouns derived from verbs 66 3.4.6 Nouns with -si, -wa -mi, -bi/-bu 67 3.5 Classifiers 69 3.5.1 Human classifier -pa!, -ba!, -bha! 69 3.5.2 Default classifier -ta 71 3.6 Adjectives 72 3.6.1 Descriptive adjectives 73 3.6.2 Quantity adjectives 74 3.6.3 Borrowed adjectives 74 3.7 Diminutive 75 3.8 Summary 76 iii TABLE OF CONTENTS 4 Verb Morphology 78 4.0 Introduction 78 4.1 Verb stems 78 4.2 Intransitive paradigm 84 4.3 Transitive paradigm 86 4.4 Reflexive 89 4.5 Verbal affixes 90 4.6 Mood, aspect, and tense 92 4.6.1 Mood 92 4.6.1.1 Indicative 92 4.6.1.2 Subjunctive 94 4.6.1.3 Imperative -a 94 4.6.1.4 Optative =ne 96 4.6.2 Aspect 97 4.6.2.1 Perfect -!s 97 4.6.2.2 Imperfective past -(y)akt 99 4.6.2.3 Imperfective nonpast =ta 101 4.6.3 Tense 102 4.6.3.1 Nonpast tense 102 4.6.3.2 Past tense 103 4.7 Negation marking on verbs 104 4.7.1 Nonpast negation 104 4.7.2 Past negation 105 4.8 Nonfinite verb forms 106 4.8.1 Infinitive -ma 107 4.8.2 Converb -sa!a 108 4.8.3 Purposive -si 109 4.8.4 Negation converb mai- -ma 110 4.8.5 Active participle ka- (-pa) 110 4.8.6 Reciprocal participle -ka 111 4.8.7 Passive participle -maya!/-may"! 112 4.9 Summary 113 5 Complex Predicates 115 5.0 Introduction 115 5.1 Complex predicates 116 5.1.1 Compound verbs 116 5.1.1.1 bima, -bid ‘Benefactive1’ 122 5.1.1.2 dhei#ma, -dhett ‘Benefactive2’ 122 5.1.1.3 hai#ma, -hatt ‘Completive1’ 123 5.1.1.4 dhe$ma, -dhend ‘Completive2’ 124 5.1.1.5 cama, -ci ‘Completive3’ 125 5.1.1.6 go$ma, -gond ‘Ambulative’ 126 5.1.1.7 lama, -li ‘Return’ 127 5.1.1.8 lo$ma, -lo$s, ‘Take out’, Bring out’, -lond ‘Come out’ 128 5.1.1.9 yu!ma, -yu! ‘Durative’ 129 5.1.1.10 kha!ma, -kha! ‘Conative’ 130 iv TABLE OF CONTENTS 5.1.1.11 mei!ma, -mett, ‘Cause’ 131 5.1.1.12 sima/sei!ma, -si/-set ‘Die’, ‘Kill’ 132 5.1.2 Verb with a preverb 134 5.1.3 Borrowed verbal compounds 138 5.2 Summary 139 6 Adverbs 141 6.0 Introduction 141 6.1 Time adverbs 142 6.2 Manner adverbs 144 6.3 Place adverbs 145 6.4 Adverbs through duplication 146 6.5 Summary 147 7 Noun Phrase Structure 148 7.0 Introduction 148 7.1 The Structure of noun phrases 148 7.2 Heads of noun phrases 150 7.3 The modification of noun phrases 152 7.3.1 Adjective 152 7.3.2 Possessive 153 7.3.3 Numeral and classifiers 156 7.3.4 Quantifier 157 7.3.5 Attributive clause 158 7.4 Noun phrase coordination 160 7.4.1 Comitative 160 7.4.2 Juxtaposition 161 7.4.3 Coordination with elo 161 7.5 Modifier-noun agreement 162 7.6 Summary 163 8 Basic Clause Structure 163 8.0 Introduction 163 8.1 Word order 163 8.2 Interrogative clauses 165 8.2.1 Content questions 165 8.2.2 Polar questions 168 8.2.3 Alternative type questions 169 8.3 Coordination 171 8.4 Experiencer constructions 171 8.5 Summary 174 9 Nominalization 175 9.0 Introduction 175 9.1 Functions of nominalization in Chintang 176 9.1.1 Relativization 177 v TABLE OF CONTENTS 9.1.1.1 Finite relativization with =go 178 9.1.1.2 Relativization with =kha 182 9.1.1.3 Active participle ka- 183 9.1.1.4 Nominalized infinitival relative clauses 188 9.1.1.5 Interim summary 189 9.1.2 Clause nominalization 190 9.1.3 Sentence nominalization 191 9.2 Summary 196 10 Complementation 198 10.0 Introduction 198 10.1 Embedded infinitives 200 10.1.1 Phasal predicates 201 10.1.2 Desiderative predicates 206 10.1.3 Propositional attitude 210 10.1.4 Modal predicate 212 10.1.5 Other predicates 215 10.2 Nominalized complement clauses 217 10.3 Samma complement clauses 221 10.4 Summary 222 11 Adverbial Clauses 223 11.0 Introduction 223 11.1 Nonfinite clause 224 11.1.1 Simultaneous converb –sa!a 224 11.1.2 The purposive converb -si 232 11.1.3 The negation converb mai- -ma 237 11.2 Finite subordination 238 11.2.1 The adverbial clause -lok/lo 239 11.2.2 Concessive clause -nusaya! 241 11.2.3 Causal clause -!a 243 11.2.4 Temporal clauses 244 11.2.4.1 The conjunctions garda, jaba, and bela 244 11.2.4.2 The conjunction bhane 246 11.2.4.3 The conjunction pacche 246 11.2.4.4 Scope of imperatives in temporal clauses 247 11.3 Variable subordination 248 11.3.1 The conditional clause -ha! 248 11.3.2 The conditional clause para/panta 251 11.3.3 Sequential clauses =ki, =kina, =kinana 253 11.4 Summary 256 12 Particles and Discourse Markers 258 12.0 Introduction 258 12.1 Enclitics and endoclitics 259 12.1.1 The additive particle =ya! 259 vi TABLE OF CONTENTS 12.1.2 The restrictive particle =le 261 12.1.3 The topic marker =na/na 262 12.1.4 The specific topic marker =te 266 12.1.5 The focus particle =ta 268 12.1.6 The surprise particle =lo 269 12.2 Independent particles 270 12.2.1 The emphatic particle ni 270 12.2.2 The insistive particle na 272 12.2.3 The contrast particle na!/naha! 274 12.2.4 The agreement seeker particle o 275 12.2.5 The attentive particle gonei" 276 12.2.6 The direct speech marker mo 277 12.2.7 Reportative marker pho 278 12.3 Borrowed particles 280 12.3.1 The specific topic ca#/cah# 280 12.3.2 The probability hola 281 12.3.3 The mirative particle raicha 282 12.3.4 The initiator lo 283 12.3.5 Attentive particle hei 283 12.4 Particle cluster ordering 284 12.5 Summary 288 13 Concluding Remarks 287 13.0 Introduction 287 13.1 Summary of the thesis 287 Appendix 291 A. Verb paradigms 291 Bibliography 295–305 Acknowledgements First and foremost, I would like to thank the Chintang speaking people, Chintang Bh!s! ta! th! s!hitya Pari!ad and Kir!"t R!i Yayokkh!. It would have been impossible to conduct research without their generous support. My special thanks goes to many Chintang consultants, in particular, Lokendra Tele R!i, Surya W!lung R!i, Rikhi M!ya R!i, Janak Kum!ri R!i, Dik Dal R!i and Rabi Kum!r R!i.