1887
image of Non-past and past verb stems in Tangut

Abstract

Abstract

Over the past decade, the documentation of Gyalrongic languages has shed light on grammatical phenomena which were poorly understood in Tangut, a language of critical importance in the field of Sino-Tibetan comparative linguistics. This paper provides an explanation for the last remaining unelucidated verbal alternation in Tangut (/-), which, as I will demonstrate, encodes a non-past/past distinction. By doing so, it also gives fresh arguments for placing Tangut and the Horpa languages together within one clade. Finally, methodologically speaking, it offers an example of grammatical reconstruction from above, i.e. employing sister languages to better understand the grammar of an extinct language through their common ancestor, revealing a rare example of complex retention uncorrelated with regular phonetic correspondences.

Available under the CC BY 4.0 license.
Loading

Article metrics loading...

/content/journals/10.1075/lali.00177.bea
2024-09-13
2024-10-06
Loading full text...

Full text loading...

/deliver/fulltext/10.1075/lali.00177.bea/lali.00177.bea.html?itemId=/content/journals/10.1075/lali.00177.bea&mimeType=html&fmt=ahah

References

  1. Beaudouin, Mathieu
    2022 Tangut verb agreement: Optional or not?Linguistics of the Tibeto-Burman Area(). –. 10.1075/ltba.21008.bea
    https://doi.org/10.1075/ltba.21008.bea [Google Scholar]
  2. 2023 Tangut and Horpa languages: Some shared morphosyntactic features. Language and Linguistics(). –. 10.1075/lali.00142.bea
    https://doi.org/10.1075/lali.00142.bea [Google Scholar]
  3. . Forthcoming a. The Tangut verbal template from a cross-West Gyalrongic perspective. Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies.
    [Google Scholar]
  4. . Forthcoming b. Tangut directional preverbs: A new system. (Manuscript to be include inLefebvre, Romain & Beaudouin, Mathieu & Dmitriev, Sergey eds. Tangut Language and Culture.)
    [Google Scholar]
  5. Chirkova, Katia
    2012 The Qiangic subgroup from an areal perspective: A case study of languages of Muli. Language and Linguistics(). –.
    [Google Scholar]
  6. Gates, Jesse
    2021A grammar of Mazur Stau. Paris: École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales. (Doctoral dissertation.)
    [Google Scholar]
  7. Gong, Hwang-cherng
    2001 Personal agreements and phonological alternations in the Tangut verb. Language and Linguistics(). –.
    [Google Scholar]
  8. Honkasalo, Sami
    2019A grammar of Eastern Geshiza: A culturally anchored description. Helsinki: University of Helsinki. (Doctoral dissertation.)
    [Google Scholar]
  9. Jacques, Guillaume
    2007Textes tangoutes I: Nouveau recueil sur l’amour parental et la piété filiale. München: LINCOM Europa.
    [Google Scholar]
  10. 2009 The origin of vowel alternation in the Tangut verb. Language and Linguistics(). –.
    [Google Scholar]
  11. 2011 The structure of the Tangut verb. Journal of Chinese Linguistics(). –.
    [Google Scholar]
  12. 2014Esquisse de phonologie et de morphologie historique du tangoute. Leiden: Brill. 10.1163/9789004264854
    https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004264854 [Google Scholar]
  13. Lai, Yunfan
    2017Grammaire du khroskyabs de Wobzi. Paris: Université de Paris Sorbonne Cité. (Doctoral dissertation.)
    [Google Scholar]
  14. Li, Fanwen
    2008A Xixia-Chinese dictionary. Revised edn.Beijing: China Social Sciences Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  15. Shi, Jinbo & Huang, Zhenhua & Nie, Hongyin
    1993Lèilín yánjiù. Yinchuan: Ningxia People’s Publishing House.
    [Google Scholar]
  16. Solonin, Kirill
    (trans) 1995Dvendtsat’ Tsarstv [𗰗𗍫𗂧/Двенадцать царств]. Saint Petersburg: Peterburskoe Vostokovedenie.
    [Google Scholar]
  17. Sun, Hongkai
    2001 On language of the Qiangic branch in Tibeto-Burman. Language and Linguistics(). –.
    [Google Scholar]
  18. Sun, Jackson T.-S.
    2019 The ancestry of Horpa: Further morphological evidence. InKong, Jiangping (ed.), The ancestry of the languages and peoples of China (Journal of Chinese Linguistics Monograph Series 29), –. Hong Kong: The Chinese University of Hong Kong Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  19. Tunzhi, Sonam Lhundrop
    2017 Language vitality and glottonyms in the Ethnic Corridor: The rTa’u language. International Journal of the Sociology of Language(). –.
    [Google Scholar]
/content/journals/10.1075/lali.00177.bea
Loading
/content/journals/10.1075/lali.00177.bea
Loading

Data & Media loading...

  • Article Type: Research Article
Keywords: Verbal alternation ; Tangut ; West Gyalrongic ; Tense ; TAME ; Non-past/past ; Distributional retention
This is a required field
Please enter a valid email address
Approval was successful
Invalid data
An Error Occurred
Approval was partially successful, following selected items could not be processed due to error