Linguistik-Klassifikation: Syntax
2 search hits
-
Variable finals in proto-Sino-Tibetan
(1994)
-
Randy J. LaPolla
- This paper concentrates on variable finals, and argues that just as we find a certain amount of both rule-governed and non-rule governed variation in modern languages, in reconstructing Proto-Sino-Tibetan we should recognize the possibility of these types of variation.
-
On the change to verb-medial word order in proto-Chinese : evidence from Tibeto-Burman
(1994)
-
Randy J. LaPolla
- In attempting to reconstruct the morphosyntax of Proto-Sino-Tibetan, one of the most basic questions to be answered is what was the unmarked word order of the proto-language? Chinese, Bai, and Karen are verb-medial languages, while all of the Tibeto-Burman languages except for Bai and Karen have verb-final word order. lf these languages are all related, as we can assume from lexical correspondences, then either Chinese, Bai and Karen changed from verb-final to verb-medial word order, or the other Tibeto-Burman languages changed trom verb-medial to verb-final order. How we answer the question of which languages changed their word would then give us the answer to the question of word order in Proto-Sino-Tibetan.
