A. Research Papers (Peer-Reviewed)
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ItemSpatial Relations along the In-On Continuum in Thai Sign Language( 2019-05-02)Spatial relations along the IN-ON continuum are primarily expressed in Thai Sign Language (ThSL) through classifier constructions. In these constructions, the signer articulates the lexical sign for the ground and then its classifier using his non-dominant (left) hand. The classifier is held in place while the signer uses his dominant (right) hand to articulate the lexical sign and classifier for the figure. The classifier for the figure is then placed in proximity to the classifier for the ground in a way that mirrors the spatial relation between real-world objects. Parameters of this expression can be used to identify where the relation falls along the IN-ON continuum. These parameters arise from the iconic nature of how the relation is articulated in ThSL. In addition, this iconicity allows the relation to be encoded with greater precision than similar expressions in spoken languages. Additional semantic features of the figure and ground – plurality and inherent movement – are also encoded in these constructions.
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ItemVietnamese Initial Consonant Clusters in Quốc Ngữ Documents from the 17th to Early 19th Centuries( 2019-05-02)This paper presents a few claims based on documents written in the Vietnamese Quốc Ngữ Roman orthography. The fact that Vietnamese once had initial consonant clusters bl, ml, mnh (/mɲ/) and tl is well known. Early Vietnamese Quốc Ngữ spellings indicate that the change of mnh (/mɲ/) to nh (/ɲ/) was complete by the end of the 17th century and that the change from tl to tr (/ʈ/) was complete by the end of the 18th. However, some words show variant spellings with m or b (e.g. mồ hôi ~ bồ hôi ‘sweat’) and with ml or bl (e.g. mlớn ~ blớn ‘big’). These alternate spellings m ~ b and ml ~ bl suggest that the correspondences upon which proto-Vietic */ɓ/ is based need to be modified: rather than Vietnamese /m/ from Vietic *b and *p, the correspondence should be Vietnamese /m/ and /b/ and Vietic *b and *p. Early documents show the following: first, alternations between m and b and ml and bl recorded in early Quốc Ngữ writing provide additional evidence for the reconstruction of a proto-Vietic voiced implosive bilabial oral stop */ɓ/ rather than a prenasalized stop */mb/ or glottalized stop */ʔb/; second, spellings from 18th and 19th century documents show ml in seven words and bl in fifteen, indicating an incomplete change of ml to either nh or l, depending on dialect, and either bl to gi (/ʐ/) in Northern dialects or bl to tr (/ʈ/) elsewhere. The implication is that some features of early Austroasiatic initials persisted in Vietnamese up to 250 to 300 years ago.
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ItemTypes and Functions of Reduplication in Palembang( 2019-05-02)In this paper, we study the morphosemantic aspects of reduplication in Palembang (also known as Musi). In Palembang, both content and function words undergo reduplication, generating a wide variety of semantic functions, such as pluralization, iteration, distribution, and nominalization. Productive reduplication includes full reduplication and reduplication plus affixation, while fossilized reduplication includes partial reduplication and rhyming reduplication. We employed the Distributed Morphology theory (DM) (Halle and Marantz 1993, 1994) to account for these different patterns of reduplication. Moreover, we compared the functions of Palembang reduplication to those of Malay and Indonesian reduplication. Some instances of function word reduplication in Palembang were not found in these languages, such as reduplication of question words and reduplication of negators. In addition, Palembang partial reduplication is fossilized, with only a few examples collected. In contrast, Malay partial reduplication is productive and utilized to create new words, especially words borrowed from English (Ahmad 2005).
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ItemRequest Modifications Used by Chinese Learners and Native Speakers of Thai( 2019-02-20)Most interlanguage pragmatic studies in Thailand focus on learning/teaching English as a second/foreign language, while interlanguage characteristics of learners of Thai as a second language are still under-investigated. With a view to bridge this gap, this study aims to investigate the interlanguage characteristics of 51 Chinese learners of Thai (CLT) in comparison with 66 native speakers of Thai (NST) through the use of request modifications. The Discourse Completion Test (DCT) comprising 12 scenarios with the three assigned social variables relative power (P), social distance (D), and rank of imposition (R) was used to elicit the request utterances. The results reveal 20 external and 14 internal modification types used to modify the requests. Overall, it seems that CLT and NST share several request modification types; however, each group of speakers rely on some specific modification types. The mutual modification types suggest that CLT acquire pragmatic competence until they can master most modification types of request. However, the modification types which only occur in the CLT’s data point out the interlanguage use of request modifications.
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ItemTwo-part Negation in Yang Zhuang( 2019-02-20)The negation system of Yang Zhuang includes two standard negators and an aspectual negator, all of which occur before the verb; the negator meiz nearly always co-occurs with a clause-final particle nauq, which can also stand as a single-word negative response to a question. Although it is tempting to analyze nauq with a meaning beyond simply negation, this is difficult to do synchronically. Comparison with neighboring Tai languages suggests that this construction represents one stage in Jespersen's Cycle, whereby a negator is augmented with a second element, after which the second element becomes associated with negation; this element subsequently replaces the historical negator. A Jespersen's Cycle analysis also explains the occurrence of nauq as a preverbal negator in some neighboring Zhuang languages.
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ItemTonal Variation in Pyen( 2019-02-20)Several studies on the Tibeto-Burman Ngwi (Lolo) language family describe tone behavior in the framework of tonogenesis/historical reconstruction among the different languages, but synchronic tonal analyses are rare or are lacking in specifics. After laying out the phoneme inventory, this paper presents a look at the tone of Pyen, belonging to the Bisoid subgroup of Southern Ngwi, spoken in Myanmar. We focus especially on tone sandhi and phrase-final intonation. Its three contrastive tones, high, mid, and low, occur on every word type. Verbal suffixes differ from this pattern; they carry only the high or low tone, depending on the tone of either the preceding verb stem or any preceding tone-bearing suffix. A non-lexical intonational-phrase-final boundary tone is frequently used to express exclamation or emphasis, and is often found in conjunction with phrasal affixes indicating grammatical mood. This falling boundary tone is associated with a greater excursion of pitch than the low boundary tone found in neutral expressions.
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ItemThe Labial Causative In Trans-Himalayan( 2019-02-20)This paper proposes that the labial causative prefixes found in various Trans-Himalayan languages of North-Eastern India are not innovations as is generally assumed. Instead, it is argued that they are related to labial causative prefixes found in Rgyalrongic languages, whose traces are perhaps attested in other branches of the family, and a bilabial prefix that derived stative verbs into transitive verbs is potentially reconstructible to proto-Trans-Himalayan.
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ItemNon-finite Clauses in Thai( 2019-02-20)This study investigated certain properties of non-finite clauses in Thai, that is, matrix clause predicates, clause markers, and modal auxiliaries in the clausal complements. Two types of resources were employed. The first one was constructed based on the obligatoriness and optionality of thîi càʔ, a marker for irrealis complements (Singhapreecha 2010). The second database was obtained from a translation into Thai from De Jonge’s (1998) Spanish subjunctives. Three hypotheses were formulated. Firstly, thîi càʔ is obligatory with matrix predicates neutral to irrealis mood, optional with those implicitly irrealis, and absent with experiential clauses. Secondly, predicates taking (purposive and imperative) subjunctives occur in the absence of tense and modal auxiliaries, and definitive elements are not accommodated in hypothetical clauses. Thirdly, with predicates taking indicatives, tense/aspect markers are likely, but not modals of possibility. Data from a series of questionnaires conducted with Thai informants confirmed the first and second hypotheses. The third hypothesis was partially confirmed. While tense markers were favored as predicted, modals of moderate to weak obligation/possibility were acceptable. This study suggests, in respect to modality and indicatives, a sense weaker than certainty be allowed in evaluating a past or hypothetical event.