1887
Volume 40, Issue 2
  • ISSN 0731-3500
  • E-ISSN: 2214-5907
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Abstract

It is widely recognized that Khamti Shan is unique among Tai languages in evidencing a basic (A)OV word order, quite likely due to extensive language contact with Tibeto-Burman languages. Much less recognized in Khamti Shan is that some functional objects take a postposition marker, revealing a striking, but not necessarily unexpected, resemblance to a Tibeto-Burman-like anti-ergative construction. The deictic ‘here’ grammaticalizes an anti-ergative function in which it acts as a marker for certain monotransitive ‘objects’ which are analyzed as pragmatically foregrounded referents in the information structure of the sentence.

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2018-04-05
2024-09-16
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  • Article Type: Research Article
Keyword(s): anti-ergative; grammaticalization; language contact; Tai Khamti; Tibeto-Burman
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