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Morphological Causative Formation in Shangzhai Horpa

Morphological Causative Formation in Shangzhai Horpa In the Shangzhai dialect of Horpa, an under-studied Tibeto-Burman language of northwestern Sichuan, pervasive phonological alternations occur in the morphological causative formation. This paper applies the study of this phenomenon to the analysis of the historical development of alternative modes of encoding causativity in Horpa and two related rGyalrongic languages: rGyalrong (proper) and Lavrung. Despite bewildering surface variations, Shangzhai Horpa can be analyzed as having a single consistently non-syllabic causative prefix s- which exerts pressure on the already elaborate onset system and triggers multiple phonological adjustments. The excessive allomorphy and constraints exhaust the morphological means of causation coding, leading to the rise of the periphrastic causative construction as the primary causativizing strategy in the language. By contrast, the dominant mode of expressing causativity still rests in the realm of derivational morphology in the other rGyalrongic languages where the old causative prefix *s˙- remains syllabic. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Bulletin of Chinese Linguistics Brill

Morphological Causative Formation in Shangzhai Horpa

Bulletin of Chinese Linguistics , Volume 2 (1): 22 – Jan 24, 2007

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Publisher
Brill
Copyright
Copyright © Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands
ISSN
1933-6985
eISSN
2405-478X
DOI
10.1163/2405478X-90000031
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

In the Shangzhai dialect of Horpa, an under-studied Tibeto-Burman language of northwestern Sichuan, pervasive phonological alternations occur in the morphological causative formation. This paper applies the study of this phenomenon to the analysis of the historical development of alternative modes of encoding causativity in Horpa and two related rGyalrongic languages: rGyalrong (proper) and Lavrung. Despite bewildering surface variations, Shangzhai Horpa can be analyzed as having a single consistently non-syllabic causative prefix s- which exerts pressure on the already elaborate onset system and triggers multiple phonological adjustments. The excessive allomorphy and constraints exhaust the morphological means of causation coding, leading to the rise of the periphrastic causative construction as the primary causativizing strategy in the language. By contrast, the dominant mode of expressing causativity still rests in the realm of derivational morphology in the other rGyalrongic languages where the old causative prefix *s˙- remains syllabic.

Journal

Bulletin of Chinese LinguisticsBrill

Published: Jan 24, 2007

Keywords: Shangzhai; Horpa; rGyalrong; Lavrung; rGyalrongic; Tibeto-Burman; morphosyntax; causative constructions

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