Language and Linguistics - Volume 27, Issue 2, 2026

This article proposes a new historical subgrouping of Old Tibetan dialects. It demonstrates that Tibetan dialects started to differentiate in late pre-historical times, shortly before the script introduction. The emergence of the first dialects is shown to have resulted from the military expansion of the Tibetan Empire. The reconstruction of the dialect formation supplements earlier insights by studying modern equivalents of Old Literary Tibetan ɣbras, the Proto-Tibetic form of which has been reconstructed as *mbras. In addition, comparing its cognates in other presumably closely related languages permitted the reconstruction of *mras to Proto-Bodic and, tentatively, *mrats to Proto-Trans-Himalayan.

Here we shall be exploring the associative plural (apl) in Cantonese. The apl construction typically consists of a focal referent and an apl marker, 佢哋 keoi⁵dei⁶, denoting ‘X and X’s associate(s)’, as in 小明佢哋 siu²ming⁴keoi⁵dei⁶ ‘Ming and his associate(s)’. The data are derived from corpora and internet sources. A grammaticality judgment test targeting native Cantonese speakers is conducted. There are five major facets to this project. (1) We shall explore the linguistic properties of the apl construction, which is semantically and structurally quite different from conjunctive coordination or inclusory constructions. (2) The apl marker has two forms, to wit 哋 =dei⁶ and 佢哋 keoi⁵dei⁶. The former, however, seems odd and is rarely attested in modern Cantonese. Given that the apl marker can be either a bound form 哋 =dei⁶ or a free pronoun 佢哋 keoi⁵dei⁶, it is analyzed as a clitic. (3) We argue that a focal referent can be a complex noun phrase, which can involve conjunctive coordination, implying that two focal referents are possible. (4) The apl construction is often used to introduce new referents to the discourse. It is also used after a topic shift, or to reintroduce referents when they have been mentioned before in a distant turn. (5) We argue that using the apl construction is associated with communicative efficiency. Even if a group of associates are covert, addressees can identify the relationship between the focal referent and the associates and potentially each referent without exhaustively listing them. High communicative efficiency is attained by reducing articulatory cost.

Thewo Tibetan’s egophoric markers are restricted to volitional acts the speaker has done, is doing, and will do. This is unique amongst the reported Tibetan speech varieties given that usually first, second, and third person speech act participants (SAPs) can all use egophoric markers assuming they appear in the right communicative situation. As such, Thewo Tibetan provides a unique dataset to explore the relationship between egophoricity and evidentiality. To explore this relationship, I chose six influential scholars who have been active in discussing the question of whether egophoricity constitutes an independent grammatical category. Aikhenvald (2004; 2015; 2018; 2021) and DeLancey (2018) argue that because of different semantic functions and distribution, egophoric markers and evidential markers each belong to their own independent grammatical category. Tournadre & LaPolla (2014) and Gawne & Hill (2017) argue that given shared semantic motivations and a simpler analysis, egophorics and evidentials should belong to the same category. Next, I describe Thewo Tibetan’s evidential and egophoric markers. Thewo Tibetan is also unique in having a large inventory of egophoric markers which includes three types of past markers, two present markers, and two future markers. I apply the arguments for and against an independent egophoric category to Thewo Tibetan. Given (1) common semantic motivations underlying both the evidential and egophoric systems, and (2), the simplicity of an evidential analysis of the egophoric markers, I find it best to analyze Thewo Tibetan’s egophoric markers as part of the evidential system.

Features and structures of mental lexicon representation are fundamental in psycholinguistics. However, previous investigations into third language acquisition have varied widely in their results and have seldom involved Mandarin as the L3 of participants. In addition, explorations into how mental lexicon representation develops are far from sufficient. In light of the above, this study investigates 72 Dutch-English-Mandarin trilinguals with beginner and advanced Mandarin levels and combines questionnaires, interviews, and priming experiments to explore the dynamic and static features of L3 lexical representations. Results suggest that lexical representations of their three languages are separate to some extent. Links among the three lexical stores seem to exist, with differing strengths. The link between L2 (the instructional language) and L3 may possibly be slightly stronger than that between L1 and L3 for participants of both Mandarin levels. As trilinguals improve their L3 level, the L1-L3 link strengthens, and the asymmetry may gradually diminish.

A Mandarin conditional sentence with the form [p, jiu q], where jiu is a preverbal particle, can (but not always) convey the minimal sufficiency interpretation that nothing more — other than p — needs to be true in order for q to be true. Moreover, the exclusive focus expression zhiyao can be inserted in p without changing the minimal sufficiency interpretation. This paper proposes an exhaustification-based semantic account, according to which: (i) jiu is a special exhaustivity operator over a conditional structure, giving rise to what I call the at least component; (ii) the at least component is subject to another layer of exhaustification by a covert exhaustivity operator O, giving rise to the minimal sufficiency reading; and (iii) zhiyao is an agreement marker inside the antecedent clause which signals the existence of O at the root level. Previous accounts of conditional jiu are also reviewed and discussed.