Syntactic Change in the Verbal System of Bumthang, a Tibeto-Burman Language of Bhutan Thomas Wyatt Thesis submitted for a Bachelor of Arts with Honours in Language Studies School of Literature, Languages, and Linguistics, College of Arts and Social Sciences, Australian National University October 2017 Unless otherwise acknowledged in the text, this thesis represents the original research of the author. All sources have been acknowledged. Thomas Wyatt TABLE OF CONTENTS Index of Tables....................................................................................................v Index of Figures..................................................................................................vi Abstract.............................................................................................................vii Acknowledgements..........................................................................................viii Glossing Conventions..........................................................................................x Orthography........................................................................................................xi Abbreviations....................................................................................................xii I. Preliminaries....................................................................................................1 1.Introduction.................................................................................................1 1.1.Background.........................................................................................2 1.2.Data Sources.......................................................................................3 1.3.Related Projects...................................................................................4 1.4.Thesis Focus........................................................................................5 1.5.Thesis Structure...................................................................................7 2.General Background...................................................................................9 2.1.Syntactic Change and Grammaticalisation.........................................9 2.1.1.Form Change.............................................................................10 2.1.2.Meaning Change.......................................................................10 2.1.3.Mechanisms of Change.............................................................12 2.1.4.Summary...................................................................................12 2.2.Three Mechanisms of Change...........................................................13 2.2.1.Reanalysis..................................................................................13 2.2.2.Extension...................................................................................14 2.2.3.Borrowing..................................................................................15 2.2.4.Summary...................................................................................15 2.3.Greater Bumthang.............................................................................16 2.3.1.Bumthang..................................................................................17 2.3.2.Kurtöp........................................................................................19 i 2.3.3.Khengkha..................................................................................21 2.3.4.Summary...................................................................................22 2.4.Concluding Remarks.........................................................................23 3.The Bumthang Language..........................................................................25 3.1.Bumthang in Use...............................................................................25 3.1.1.Factors Determining Ergative Marking.....................................26 3.1.2.Embedded and Non-Embedded Structures...............................28 3.1.3.Verbal and Non-Verbal Predication...........................................29 3.1.4.Summary...................................................................................30 3.2.Verbal Paradigm................................................................................30 3.2.1.Polarity and Tense.....................................................................31 3.2.2.Aspect and Mode.......................................................................33 3.2.3.Personal Marking......................................................................35 3.2.4.Integration of -sang...................................................................36 3.2.5.Summary...................................................................................38 3.3.Auxiliary Verbs.................................................................................38 3.4.Concluding Remarks.........................................................................40 II. Syntactic Change in the Verbal System........................................................41 4.The Contemporary Verbal Paradigm........................................................41 4.1.Perfective and Imperfective Aspect..................................................41 4.1.1.Interactions across Tiers............................................................44 4.1.2.Perfective -na............................................................................47 4.1.3.Summary...................................................................................48 4.2.Personal Marking..............................................................................48 4.2.1.Morphosyntactic Expression.....................................................49 4.2.2.Core Meaning............................................................................51 4.2.3.Person Sensitivity......................................................................53 4.2.3.1.S, A, and P Argument Sensitivity......................................54 4.2.3.2.Default Distribution...........................................................56 4.2.3.3.Flexibility and Extended Meanings...................................57 4.2.4.Shiftability.................................................................................60 ii 4.2.5.Summary...................................................................................61 4.3.Integration and Reconstruction.........................................................62 4.3.1.Comparison with Khengkha......................................................62 4.3.2.Earlier Stage Paradigm..............................................................63 4.4.Concluding Remarks.........................................................................64 5.The Copular System.................................................................................65 5.1.Copulas in Cross-Linguistic Perspective..........................................66 5.1.1.Irregularities and Defects..........................................................67 5.1.2.Copulas and Auxiliary Verbs.....................................................69 5.1.3.Copulas and Stative Verbs.........................................................70 5.1.4.Summary...................................................................................71 5.2.Non-Verbal Predicates.......................................................................72 5.2.1.Equation and Proper Inclusion..................................................72 5.2.2.Location, Existence, and Possession.........................................73 5.2.3.Attribution.................................................................................75 5.2.4.Summary...................................................................................79 5.3.Evidentiality......................................................................................79 5.3.1.Firsthand versus Non-Firsthand Evidentiality...........................80 5.3.2.Evidentiality and Personal Marking..........................................82 5.3.3.Summary...................................................................................85 5.4.Concluding Remarks.........................................................................85 6.Syntactic Change in the Verbal System....................................................87 6.1.More on Reanalysis...........................................................................87 6.1.1.Ambiguity..................................................................................88 6.1.2.Actualisation..............................................................................89 6.2.Two Possible Routes for Reanalysis.................................................90 6.2.1.Stative Verbs and Adjectives (Route One)................................90 6.2.2.Auxiliary Structures (Route Two).............................................94 6.2.3.Summary...................................................................................98 6.3.Meaning Change...............................................................................98 6.3.1.Aspectual Change......................................................................99 iii 6.3.2.Evidentiality into Personal Marking.......................................100 6.3.3.Summary.................................................................................101 6.4.Conclusion......................................................................................101 Bibliography....................................................................................................103