A reference grammar of Caijia : an unclassified language of Guizhou / Shanshan Lü.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Lu, Shanshan, author.

Series:

Sinitic Languages of China [SLCH]

Sinitic Languages of China [SLCH] ; v.8

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Sino-Tibetan languages--Conversation and phrase books.

Sino-Tibetan languages.

Sino-Tibetan languages--Conversation and phrase books--English.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (628 pages)

Place of Publication:

Berlin, Germany ; Boston, Massachusetts : De Gruyter, [2022]

Summary:

Caijia, [meŋ²¹ni³³ŋoŋ³³] ‘Caijia speech’, is an endangered language in the Sino-Tibetan family with less than 1000 speakers in Hezhang and Weining counties in northwest in Guizhou Province in Southwest China. Its sub-classification remains unclear. It was almost four decades ago when the Caijia language was officially reported for the first time in 1982 by the Language Team of Bureau of Ethnic Identification in Bijie, yet this language has nevertheless remained neither well-described nor studied. This book, a linguistic description of the Xingfa variety of Caijia based on the fieldwork data in Xingfa township of Hezhang county, is the first reference grammar of the Caijia language, covering its sound system, word formation, parts of speech and syntactic structures in fifteen chapters. Being analytic, Caijia presents many common grammatical features attested in East and Southeast Asian languages, for example, compounds, quadrisyllabic idiomatic expressions or elaborate expressions, lack of inflection, a classifier system, a strong relationship between nominalization and relativization, pro-drop and grammaticalization of verbs. Moreover, Caijia shares more similarities with Sinitic languages. Apart from these common areal features, this book will also reveal some special features of Caijia.

Contents:

Frontmatter

The preface by the series editor

Acknowledgements

Preface

Contents

List of figures

List of tables

Abbreviations

Chapter 1 Introduction

Chapter 2 Sound system

Chapter 3 Noun phrases

Chapter 4 Verb phrases

Chapter 5 Ditransitive constructions

Chapter 6 Analytic causative constructions

Chapter 7 Passive constructions

Chapter 8 Differential object marking constructions

Chapter 9 Constructions of comparison

Chapter 10 Aspect system

Chapter 11 Modal system

Chapter 12 Negation

Chapter 13 Interrogatives

Chapter 14 Relative clauses

Chapter 15 Clause linking: Complementation, coordination and adverbial subordination

Chapter 16 Conclusion

Text 1 The man and the tiger

Text 2 The zombie wife

Bibliography

Index

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

3-11-072480-4