Language Typology and Syntactic Description, Volume I: Clause Structure, Second edition
Examples of summaries of word order properties
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Lgg Typology, Synt Description v. I - Clause structure
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Examples of summaries of word order properties In this section, we will briefly summarize the word order properties of two languages, illustrating how these languages conform or do not conform to the word order tendencies discussed in this chapter. 116 Matthew S. Dryer 13.1 Siyin Chin Consider first Siyin Chin, a Tibeto-Burman language spoken in Myanmar (Burma) (Naylor (1925)). The basic order at the clause level is SOV, as in (132). (132) tuazawkch¯ıangina [M¯et¯e m¯ıhing-te] [Kawlp¯ı hkua¯] a shim kik h¯ı after.that Manipuri person-pl Kawlpi village 3 attack indic S O V ‘after that, the Manipuri people attacked Kawlpi village’ The word a ‘3’ (‘third person’) immediately preceding the verb in (132) is a subject clitic pronoun inflecting for the person of the subject, like an agreement affix, but a separate word. It always immediately precedes the verb and is obligatory in all clauses, except in certain well-defined cases, like imperative clauses. In fact, it is not entirely clear that these pronominal morphemes are not prefixes rather than separate words; they are written as separate words by Naylor (1925), but the date and nature of the description make this questionable. Clauses in which the subject is represented entirely by this clitic pronoun have the appearance of being OSV, as in (133). (133) suang atam ke d¯e h¯ı stone many 1 want indic O ‘S’ V ‘I want many stones’ However, the subject clitic ke ‘1’ (‘first person’) does not occur in subject posi- tion, but forms a tight constituent with the verb. When independent pronouns occur, they occur in subject position, before the object, and co-occur with a subject clitic immediately preceding the verb, as in (134). (134) am¯a ching hkat a hp¯uk y¯o h¯ı 3sg tree one 3 fell past indic S O V ‘he felled a tree’ Siyin exhibits a large number of characteristics expected of it as an OV language. It employs postpositions, as in (135). This example also illustrates how adpositional phrases precede the verb in Siyin. (135) diml¯o a ke t¯am tu h¯ı Dimlo loc 1 halt fut indic np Po ‘I shall halt at Dimlo’ The genitive precedes the possessed noun, as in (136). Word order 117 (136) [h¯ısh¯ıa ching] haw a vum h¯ı this tree bark 3 black indic Gen N ‘the bark of this tree is black’ The same is true for pronominal genitives (possessives), as in (137). (137) k¯ema laik¯ung t¯ung in 1sg pencil pick.up imper Poss N ‘pick up my pencil’ Relative clauses also precede the noun, as in (138). (138) [z¯am ng¯a] p¯a ke m¯u h¯ı gong steal man 1 see indic Rel N ‘I saw the man who stole the gong’ The order in the comparative construction is Standard-Marker-Adjective, as in (139). (139) [h¯ıash¯ıa in] s¯ang h¯ısh¯ıa a l¯ıen zaw h¯ı that house than this 3 large more indic St M Adj ‘this [house] is larger than that house’ Manner adverbs precede the verb, as in (140). (140) ama amunlangina hong pai bale 3sg quickly to.here go if.not Adv V ‘if he does not come quickly, . . .’ The example in (140) also illustrates how adverbial subordinators come at the end of the subordinate clause, as does the example in (141). (141) ka anasep ke man h¯angina, ke k¯ı kom h¯ı 1sg work 1 finish because 1 free indic Clause Subord ‘because I have finished my work, I am free’ This example also illustrates how adverbial clauses normally precede the main clause. In addition, nonverbal predicates precede the copula, as in (142), the first example with a nominal predicate, the second with a locative predicate. |
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