Matthias Gerner

Deictic Features of Demonstratives: A Typological Survey with Special Reference to the Miao Group

This article is centred on the concept of the deictic feature embedded in demonstratives. A principled taxonomy of deictic features attested cross-linguistically is proposed, with the aim of being as comprehensive as possible. The list of deictic features previously identified is greatly expanded to include 15 features, with which 52 deictic values are associated. The morphological strategies for encoding deictic features in demonstratives are also examined. Three techniques are identified: (i) isolating; (ii) agglutinative or serial; and (iii) inflectional encoding. A number of the deictic features discussed in this article, along with their morphological realization strategies, are illustrated with data from the Miao Group of languages, spoken in the Peoples Republic of China.

Instruments as verb classifiers in Kam (Dong)

Abstract This article is a contribution to an emerging crosslinguistic typology of verb classifier systems. It presents an in-depth study of one particular type predominant in East Asian and Southeast Asian languages and epitomized through Kam (Dong), a Kam-Tai language spoken in Southwest China. In Kam and related languages there are basically two types of verb classifiers: sortal and mensural. Both kinds are involved with event-phase counting and temporal measuring and hence mirror the function of their twins in the nominal realm. Sortal verb classifiers can be characterized as deriving lexically from nouns that occupy an instrumental participation role. Kam exhibits ca. 40–50 of them. Although the term of noun and verb classifier has been around for many years, it is noteworthy that almost no scholar has ever come forward with an authoritative definition of what exactly constitutes a linguistic classificatory phenomenon. McGregor (Verb classification in Australian languages, Mouton de Gruyter, 2002) is an exception and his definition is based on distributional-probabilistic properties. I adopt, augment and partially rewrite his criteria and demonstrate that the system of sortal verb classifiers in Kam constitutes indeed a phenomenon by which verbs are categorized. The basic semantic requirement for classifiable verbs (or events) in Kam is to incorporate one minimal part. A minimal part of an event is defined as a touch-type event by which two objects meet in various ways. The prototypical verb referring to a touch-event is ‘hit’. Further subdivisions can be made for classifiable verbs. Verbs are categorized in terms of the instruments by which objects are caused to collide: by a physical instrument-object or by a trigger medium.

Inflectional classifiers in Weining Ahmao: Mirror of the history of a people

In most East and Southeast Asian isolating languages, the classifier is realized as a unique undeclinable morpheme. Weining Ahmao, a Miao-Yao language spoken in Western Guizhou (P. R. of China), happens to decline its 48 classifiers in 12 basic forms, each displaying a complex cluster of meanings which can be broken down into three to four parameters: Size/Importance [Augmentative, Medial, Diminutive], Definiteness [Definite, Indefinite] and Number [Singular, Plural]. Moreover, gender registers are attached to the parameter of Size/Importance. In addition to their function as noun categorization devices, the Ahmao classifiers exhibit a rare instance of social deixis whereby they disclose the gender and age of the speaker. A classifier in the Augmentative form is typically employed by men (in addition to conveying an idea of greatness); the Medial form is typically used by women (and communicating a notion of medium size); the Diminutive version of a classifier correlates with speakers of lower social status, typically children (as well as attaching a sense of reduced size). This idiosyncratic system can be reconstructed diachronically. The size distinctions in the classifiers came into existence through morphological reanalysis of two size affixes. The feature of definiteness was established through the influence of the Ahmao numeral for ‘one’. The Ahmao gender roles appear to be linked to a long and proven history of harsh oppression by local landlords in Southwest China in the 18th–20th centuries. The Ahmao classifier system is adequately accounted for by Chens notion of self-politeness within Brown and Levinsons theory of strategic politeness.

Binding and blocking in Nuosu

Abstract I argue for a binding theory that posits binding and blocking conditions as underived primitives as opposed to a binding theory that derives blocking conditions from binding conditions via an independent scale of dependency (Safir 2004a, 2004b). The latter work is based on English and other Germanic languages, whereas the proposed binding theory bears on Nuosu (Tibeto-Burman: China), which exhibits a speech logophor and a long-distance reflexive, on Mupun (Afro-Asiatic: Nigeria) and on Chinese.

Differential subject marking in Azhee

Abstract Azhee (of the Tibeto-Burman family, spoken in China) uses differential subject marking (DSM) conditioned by animacy and the potential ambiguity of subject and object. It is shown that the Azhee differential subject marker is a highly syncretic case marker, which derived from a source case, and developed into a contrastive focus marker. DSM is presented as the diachronic source of focus, rather than the other way around. In a range of publications, topic and focus have been identified to be associate functions of case markers. Furthermore, the position of Azhee is described in a typology of differential case marking motivated by the principles of markedness, faithfulness and economy.

Predicate-Induced Permutation Groups

Natural languages abound in combinatorial phenomena that are related to the predicate of the sentence and its ability to permute noun phrase arguments. After compiling several illustrative phenomena of natural languages, I propose a novel analysis in terms of permutation groups, a concept borrowed from mathematical combinatorics that is ubiquitous in applied sciences. I show that each natural language predicate of degree n (n natural number) can be associated with two permutation groups of degree n. The first group measures the predicate’s flexibility to permute arguments in two independent events, whereas the second group captures permutations in two dependent events. These groups serve as linguistic tools to help predict the predicate’s grammaticality pattern in a range of natural language constructions.

Compositional and constructional reduplication in Kam-Tai languages

Direct compositionality is a property of empirical data (and of grammatical frameworks) where the meaning of an expression can be reliably computed from the meanings of its parts (Jacobson, Linguistics and Philosophy 25: 601–626, 2002). Using empirical data from Kam and Northern Zhuang, two Kam-Tai languages spoken in the P. R. of China, I define the notions of compositional and constructional reduplication rules. A rule is compositional if the host construction does not manifest selectional restrictions on the embedded output of the rule. By contrast, a reduplication rule is constructional if there are selectional restrictions. Based on the descriptive insights of this study and on Jacobsons two types of (direct) compositionality, I define four different degrees of compositionality that a morphosyntactic operation may exhibit: strong compositionality, weak compositionality, weak constructionality (non-compositionality) and strong constructionality.