A Grammar of Gan Chinese: The Yichun Language

by Xuping Li

Overview

China is very rich in language resources, and Mandarin is undoubtedly its most prestigious and well-known representative. Unfortunately, most of these languages remain understudied or even unstudied. Such is the case of Yichun Gan.
Written in the style of a reference grammar, this book sets out to give a comprehensive and systematic description of Yichun grammar, with the aim of increasing readers' knowledge about Chinese languages other than Mandarin. In addition to common categories like nouns, verbs, adjectives and prepositions, the volume attempts to cover as many grammatical categories and constructions as possible, including the Sinitic-specific categories such as classifiers, the aspect system, postpositions and the object-marking BA constructions.
To highlight its uniqueness, the book adopts a comparative perspective to contrast many features of Yichun Gan with Mandarin and other Sinitic languages. Our study shows that Yichun Gan possesses both Northern and Southern Chinese traits in many constructions, which supports its status as a transitional language.
It will be of interest to linguists who wish to learn more about East Asian languages, and more specifically Sinitic languages.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781501507267
Publisher:	De Gruyter
Publication date:	02/19/2018
Series:	Sinitic Languages of China [SLCH] , #1
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	331
File size:	30 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

XuPing LI, Zhejiang University, China

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements v

Preface vii

List of abbreviations xi

1 Gan and the Gan People 1

1.1 Gan Chinese in China 1

1.2 Gan Chinese as a Sinitic language 3

1.3 The Yichun language as a representative of Gan Chinese 6

1.4 Linguistic type 7

1.5 Literature 8

1.6 Spoken and written Gan 9

2 The Yichun sound system 13

2.1 Consonants 13

2.2 Vowels 14

2.3 Syllabic structure 16

2.4 Tones 18

2.5 Tone sandhi 19

3 Morphology 23

3.1 Reduplication 23

3.2 Affixation 29

3.2.1 Prefixes 29

3.3 Suffixes 32

3.3.1 Pronominal and verbal suffixes 32

3.3.2 The nominalizing suffix: tsi 33

3.3.3 Nominal markers: li and tsi? 35

3.4 Gender markers: p^ho⁴⁴ and ku⁴² 37

3.5 Cliticization: the diminutive marker-tsi? 39

3.6 Concluding remarks 41

4 Personal pronouns 43

4.1 Paradigm of personal pronouns 43

4.2 Plurality of pronouns 45

4.3 Reflexives and others 48

4.4 Concluding remarks 49

5 Possessives 51

5.1 Three types of possessive phrases" 51

5.2 (In)alienability 54

5.3 Plurality constraint for possessors 57

5.4 Conclusions 59

6 Demonstratives 61

6.1 Locative demonstratives 62

6.2 Pronominal demonstratives 65

6.2.1 Syntactic forms of demonstratives phrases 65

6.2.2 Spatial and discourse deictic uses of demonstratives 69

6.3 Temporal demonstratives 69

6.4 Manner and degree adverbials 71

6.5 Conclusions 72

7 Numerals and classifiers 73

7.1 Numerals 73

7.1.1 Cardinal and ordinal numbers 73

7.1.2 Approximative expressions 75

7.2 Classifiers 76

7.2.1 Individuating classifiers 77

7.2.2 Mensural classifiers 79

7.2.3 Measure words 81

7.3 The 'CL+N' construction 82

7.4 Some special classifier constructions 84

7.5 Conclusions 85

8 Adjectives and adjective phrases 87

8.1 Types of adjectives 87

8.1.1 Compound adjectives 87

8.1.2 Reduplicated adjectives 90

8.2 Degree modifiers 93

8.2.1 Varieties of degree modifiers 93

8.2.2 Modification of compound adjectives 96

8.3 Comparatives and superlatives 97

8.4 Comparatives and negation 99

8.5 Concluding remarks 101

9 Prepositions 103

9.1 Τs^h œ²¹³ 'being located …' 103

9.2 Ταυ⁴⁴ 'to/at…' 105

9.3 Τs^hυη⁴⁴ 'from…' 106

9.4 Τ&itcgcbc;ια⁴⁴ along/across…' 107

9.5 lυη ²¹³ and lα?'with/in…' 108

9.6 Polyfunctional υοη²¹³ and kien³⁴ 109

9.7 Multifunctional ρα⁴² 113

9.8 Τen⁴² and τε? 'to…' 114

9.9 Conclusions 115

10 Postpositions 117

10.1 Monosyllabic and disyllabic postpositions 117

10.2 Functional versus lexical postpositions 120

10.3 Co-occurrence of prepositions and postpositions 122

10.4 Incorporation of postpositions into place names 123

10.5 Conclusions 124

11 Aspectuality 127

11.1 Perfective li 128

11.2 Perfect li 130

11.3 Completive-k^hυæ? 135

11.4 Experiential and repetitive -κυο⁴⁴ 139

11.5 Progressive -τs^h œ²¹³ 142

11.6 Durative -ταυ⁴⁴ 144

11.7 Inchoative -τ&itcgcbc;^hi⁴²læ⁴⁴and -χα⁴²lœ⁴⁴ 145

11.8 Delimitative -χα⁴²tsi? and tentative -χα⁴²τsι?-κ⁴on⁴⁴τε? 147

11.9 Conclusions 148

12 Modality 151

12.1 Modal verbs 151

12.1.1 Auxiliary verb 1: υι²¹³'can/will' 152

12.1.2 Auxiliary verb 2: κ^hο^42-33 i⁴² 'may' 153

12.1.3 Auxiliary verb 3: ιευ⁴⁴ 'want' 154

12.1.4 Auxiliary verb 4: in⁴⁴-κœ³⁴ 'should' 155

12.2 Negation of modal verbs" 156

12.2.1 Negation of ability and possibility 156

12.2.2 Negation of necessity 157

12.3 Modal adverbs 159

12.4 The V-τε? construction 161

13 Negation 163

13.1 Negation of existence 164

13.2 Perfective negation 165

13.3 Perfect negation 168

13.4 Negation of identity 169

13.5 Imperfective negation 170

13.6 The prohibitive marker mo? 172

13.7 Concluding remarks 173

14 Resultative constructions 175

14.1 Literal resultatives 175

14.2 Directional resultatives 179

14.2.1 Three types of directional resultatives 179

14.2.2 Prepositional phrases and directional complements 182

14.3 Extent resultatives 183

14.4 Conclusions 184

15 Ditransitives 185

15.1 The general purpose verb of GIVE 185

15.2 TAKE/HOLD verbs as GIVE 191

15.3 Ditransitive verbs beyond GIVE 192

15.4 DEPRIVE verb classes 196

15.5 Conclusions 199

16 BA constructions 201

16.1 BA constructions with transitive verbs 201

16.2 BA constructions with unaccusative verbs 203

16.3 BA constructions with unergative verbs 206

16.4 Properties of the NP marked by pa⁴² 208

16.5 Conclusions 211

17 Passives and causatives 213

17.1 Passives with zero marking 213

17.2 Long and short passives 215

17.2.1 Passives with agent expressed or suppressed 215

17.2.2 Ambiguity between passives and disposal constructions 218

17.3 Adversity 219

17.4 Causatives 221

17.5 Conclusions 222

18 Topic and focus related constructions 225

18.1 Topic constructions and word order variations 225

18.2 Copular clauses 230

18.2.1 The copula &itcgcbc;i²¹³ 230

18.2.2 Omission of the copula &itcgcbc;i²¹³ 233

18.3 Focus constructions: cleft clauses 235

18.3.1 Cleft sentences: &itcgcbc;i²¹³…ko 236

18.3.2 The copula &itcgcbc;i²¹³ as a focus marker 237

18.4 Conclusions 240

19 Relative clauses 241

19.1 Restrictive and non-restrictive relative clauses 241

19.2 Heads of relative clauses 245

19.3 Zero-marked relative clauses 249

19.4 Headless relative clauses 251

19.5 Conclusions 253

20 Interrogatives 255

20.1 Polar questions 255

20.2 WH-questions 261

20.2.1 What 262

20.2.2 How 263

20.2.3 Why 265

20.2.4 Which+Classifier: Which, Who or Where 266

20.2.5 How+Adjective 267

20.2.6 When 268

20.3 Non-interrogative uses of WH-words 269

20.4 Rhetorical questions 271

20.5 Conclusions 272

21 Clause linking: coordination and subordination 275

21.1 Coordination 275

21.1.1 Coordination of words and phrases 275

21.1.2 Coordination of clauses 277

21.2 Subordinate clauses 281

21.2.1 Complement clauses 281

21.2.2 Conditional clauses 283

21.2.2.1 Zero marking 283

21.2.2.2 Marked by adverbs 284

21.2.2.3 Marked by conjunctives 286

21.2.3 Concessives 287

21.2.4 Causal clauses 288

21.2.4.1 Zero marking 288

21.2.4.2 Marked by conjunctives 289

21.2.5 Temporal clauses: 290

21.3 Conclusions 292

References 293

Index 299

Appendix 303