A. Research Papers (Peer-Reviewed)
Permanent URI for this collection
Browse
Recent Submissions
1 - 5 of 5
-
ItemLexicalization Patterns of Path Motion in Vietnamese( 2020-12-07)This paper investigates how Vietnamese people express motion by using path verbs. This paper is based on the theory of lexicalization patterns, which is related to the conflation of semantic components into linguistic units. The data consists of expressions of motion verbs and spatial prepositions that were taken from twelve Vietnamese stories and three novels in the 20th century onward. The results of this paper present several lexicalization patterns of semantic components that become path verbs and spatial prepositions. Moreover, this paper clarifies construction grammar of lexical expressions of path motion in Vietnamese, which refers to speakers’ knowledge of motion utilized to express motion.
-
ItemMing Shilu as Evidence of Devoicing of Voiced Obstruents in Siamese( 2020-12-07)Devoicing of Voiced Obstruents (DVO) was part of a transformative series of sound changes that characterised all the Tai languages: the original voiced stops became either aspirated or unaspirated when devoiced. Although previous studies show that they occurred before the 17th century (Harris, 1992; Pittayawat 2016), their precise dating is still unclear. While Brown (1965) and Chamberlain (1991) hold that DVO occurred prior to 13th Century, Shintani (1974) and Gedney (1989 [1978]) place it around 14th-17th Century. To arrive at the chronology of the sound change, I examine transcriptions of Siamese personal names in The Veritable Records of the Ming Dynasty (Míng Shí Lù – MSL), using Quasi-Early Nanjing Mandarin pronunciation of the Chinese characters as the basis for sorting the correspondence. A careful analysis reveals that the Siamese original voiced stops started to be transcribed by the Chinese original voiceless aspirated stops in 1440s. This became prominent after 1480s, suggesting a completion of DVO by that time. The transcription patterns of the Siamese original voiced stops though imply a gradual transition from original voiced to breathy stops, and eventually to voiceless aspirated stops.
-
ItemSurface Processes, Word Minimality and Stress Assignment in Blanga( 2020-09-08)Considering word minimality and assuming prosodic structure maximalisation, Hayes’ (1995) metrical stress theory predicts that if a syllabic trochee language that does not necessarily distinguish segmental length phonologically shows some evidence of heavy syllables, then a heavy syllable at one edge of the parse constitutes a proper syllabic trochee. At the same time, the author points out that the prediction is difficult to check due to lack of available data. This paper provides supporting evidence from Blanga, a recently documented Austronesian language of the Solomon Islands with no contrastive segmental length and no underlying heavy syllables, in which underlying stress is always penultimate and thus uses the syllabic trochee, a non-quantity-sensitive type of foot, as the minimal metric constituent. However, surface processes generate heavy syllables in all positions and stress on the last syllable if heavy, suggesting that the language counts moras, rather than syllables, for purposes of stress assignment. Applying the principles and constraints postulated by Hayes, and thus confirming their validity, I will reject the moraic trochee hypothesis and show that the underlying stress pattern is preserved at the surface by allowing a heavy syllable to form a trochee by its own as long as it occurs either in parse-final or parse-initial position and it is the only heavy syllable available at the word level.
-
ItemThe Tai Ahom Sound System as Reflected by the Texts Recorded in the Bark Manuscripts( 2020-09-08)Tai Ahom (Southwestern Tai) mostly survives in manuscripts. (Terwiel 1988; Morey 2015). It has long been held that Ahom retained many archaic features lost in most modern Tai languages. For example, Li (1977: pp87-89) reconstructs the cluster *phr- as evidence from Ahom in words like phra ‘rock’ and phrai ‘walk’. However, Diller (1992), argues that Ahom exhibited the “pan-Tai consonant mergers of the sort in which the sounds of the “low series consonants presumably fell together with certain of the others” and hence is not archaic. In order to uncover the true nature of Ahom, this paper investigates how each of Ahom graph relates to the reconstructed proto phonemes in the Proto-Southwestern branch (Li 1977; Pittayaporn 2009). Our analysis was based on eight carefully analyzed manuscripts, identified allographic variations, suggesting mergers and retentions of Tai phonemic contrasts are common among the modern Shan varieties and the lack of archaic features claimed by earlier authors.
-
ItemVoiced Obstruents in Mien and Old Chinese Reconstructions( 2020-09-08)This paper presents additional data from Chinese loanwords into Hmong-Mien documenting the existence of prenasalization in Old Chinese, focusing on one variety: Jiangdi Mien. It additionally discusses methodological issues regarding the use of these loanwords in Old Chinese reconstruction, as well as Hmong-Mien reconstruction.