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Article published In:
Language and Linguistics
Vol. 21:1 (2020) ► pp.145–173

The structure of Num+CL in the Zhōutún dialect

Issues induced by language contact

| Chinese Academy of Social Sciences

The structure of Num+CL in the Zhōutún dialect can be divided into two kinds: VCP and NCP. The VCP in VCP+V is the adverbial, while the NCP can either precede or follow the N it modifies. In NCP+N, the NCP is the attribute; however, in N+NCP, the NCP can be the post-attribute and the adverbial, according to the syntactic property of N. The language contact of the Zhōutún dialect with Amdo Tibetan (AT) plays a role in leading to the peculiarities of Num+CL in the Zhōutún dialect.

Keywords: Zhōutún dialect, Num+CL, language contact, Amdo Tibetan
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Some relevant prerequisite knowledge of the Zhōutún dialect
    • 2.1The Zhōutún dialect: An overview
    • 2.2The syntax of Num+CL
      • 2.2.1Types
      • 2.2.2Positions
    • 2.3Postpositional marker xa 哈
      • 2.3.1Accusative marker
      • 2.3.2Dative marker
      • 2.3.3Topic marker?
  • 3.The nature of num+CL
    • 3.1Attribute
      • 3.1.1In NCP+N
      • 3.1.2In N+NCP
    • 3.2Adverbial
      • 3.2.1Attribute?
      • 3.2.2Object?
      • 3.2.3Topic?
      • 3.2.4Adverbial
  • 4.Language contact and Num+CL in the Zhōutún dialect
    • 4.1Possible shifting routes of Num+CL in the Zhōutún dialect
      • 4.1.1From Pattern I to Pattern II
      • 4.1.2Which one (VCP or NCP) shifted faster?
    • 4.2How to explain the behavior of NCP in the Zhōutún dialect
      • 4.2.1To avoid NCP from being the only post-attribute
      • 4.2.2Preverbal adverbial as a language universal in SOV languages
  • 5.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • Abbreviations
  • References
Available under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) 4.0 license.

For any use beyond this license, please contact the publisher at [email protected].

Published online: 2 January 2020
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/lali.00059.zho
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Zhou, Chenlei
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