Cover not available
Article published In:
Studies in Language
Vol. 46:1 (2022) ► pp.258–284

Grammaticalization and phonological reidentification in White Hmong

ORCID logo | James Cook University
The “dynamic coevolution of meaning and form” of Bybee et al. (1994: 20) has been the subject of significant discussion as regards the languages of Mainland Southeast Asia. However, little work has focused on the mechanisms through which this coevolution occurs when it does surface in these languages. The current work considers phonological reidentification resulting from phonetic reduction in White Hmong (Hmong-Mien, Laos) involving four morphemes, ntshai/ntshe ‘maybe’, saib/seb ‘see if/whether; comp.cfact’, puag/pug ‘locl;ints’, and niaj/nej ‘each, every’. These morphemes exhibit an alternation where a rime is phonologically reidentified in a manner consistent with typical phonetic underarticulation patterns, such that an exemplar-model approach (Pierrehumbert 2001, inter alia) provides a straightforward explanation. Furthermore, the data show that the phonological reidentification patterns found in White Hmong exhibit parallels in other languages in the region, confirming that an areal approach to grammaticalization provides greater descriptive adequacy cross-linguistically as regards this phenomenon.
Keywords: grammaticalization, phonological reanalysis, coevolution of meaning and form, verbal modification, linguistic area, Hmong, Southeast Asia
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Background
    • 2.1Working definitions and scope
    • 2.2Language
    • 2.3Data sources
    • 2.4Organization
  • 3.The data
    • 3.1 Ntshai/ntshe ‘maybe’
    • 3.2 Saib/seb ‘see if/whether; comp.cfact’
    • 3.3 Puag/pug ‘locl;ints’
    • 3.4 Niaj/nej ‘each, every’
  • 4.Discussion
    • 4.1Areal and typological perspective
  • 5.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • Abbreviations
  • References
Published online: 25 May 2021
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/sl.19052.whi
References (70)
References
Ansaldo, Umberto & Lisa Lim. 2004. Phonetic absence as syntactic prominence: Grammaticalization in isolating tonal languages. In Olga Fischer, Muriel Norde & Harry Perridon (eds.), Up and down the cline – The nature of grammaticalization, 345–362. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Ansaldo, Umberto, Walter Bisang & Pui Yiu Szeto. 2018. Grammaticalization in isolating languages and the notion of complexity. In Heiko Narrog & Bernd Heine (eds.), Grammaticalization from a typological perspective, 219–234. Oxford: Oxford University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Arcodia, Giorgio Francesco. 2013. Grammaticalisation with coevolution of form and meaning in East Asia? Evidence from Sinitic. Language Sciences 401. 148–167. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Baxter, William H. & Laurent Sagart. 1997. Word formation in Old Chinese. In Jerome L. Packard (ed.), New approaches to Chinese word formation, 35–76. Berlin: de Gruyter Mouton.Google Scholar
. 2008. Grammaticalization and the areal factor – the perspective of East and mainland Southeast Asian languages. In Maria José López-Couso & Elena Seoane (eds.), Rethinking grammaticalization: New perspectives, 1–13. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. 2011. Grammaticalization and linguistic typology. In Heiko Narrog & Bernd Heine (eds.), The Oxford handbook of grammaticalization, 105–117. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
. 2015. Problems with primary vs. secondary grammaticalization: The case of East and mainland Southeast Asian languages. Language Sciences 471. 132–147. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bybee, Joan. 2001. Phonology and language use. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. 2011. Usage-based theory and grammaticalization. In Heiko Narrog & Bernd Heine (eds.), The Oxford handbook of grammaticalization, 69–78. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Bybee, Joan, Revere Perkins & William Pagliuca. 1994. The evolution of grammar: Tense, aspect, and modality in the languages of the world. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Bybee, Joan & Rena Torres Cacoullos. 2008. Phonological and grammatical variation in exemplar models. Studies in Hispanic and Lusophone Linguistics 1(20). 399–414. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Cha, Tua. 1994. Kawm ntawv Hmoob. Fresno, USA: Fresno City College.Google Scholar
Chen, Qiguang. 2013. Miao-yao yuwen. [Miao and Yao language]. Beijing: Central University for Nationalities Press.Google Scholar
Diller, Anthony V. N. 2001. Grammaticalization and Tai syntactic change. In M. R. Kalaya Tingsabadh & Arthur S. Abramson (eds.), Essays in Tai linguistics, 205–228. Bangkok: Chulalongkorn University Press.Google Scholar
Enfield, Nick J. 2007. A grammar of Lao. Berlin: de Gruyter Mouton. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2017. Language in the mainland southeast Asia area. In Alexandra Aikhenvald & Robert M. W. Dixon (eds.), The Cambridge handbook of linguistic typology, 601–623. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Ernestus, Mirjam & R. Harald Baayen. 2011. Corpora and exemplars in phonology. In John A. Goldsmith, J. Riggle, & Alan Yu (eds.), The handbook of phonological theory. 2nd ed., 374–400. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Gahl, Susanne & Alan C. L. Yu (eds.) 2006. Special theme issue: Exemplar-based models in linguistics. The Linguistic Review 231. 213–379. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Gerner, Matthias. 2009. Deictic features of demonstratives: A typological survey with special reference to the Miao group. Canadian Journal of Linguistics 54(1). 43–89. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Givón, Talmy. 1991. The evolution of dependent clause morpho-syntax in Biblical Hebrew. In Elizabeth C. Traugott & Bernd Heine (eds.), Approaches to grammaticalization, types of grammatical markers, Vol. 21, 257–310. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
GMYZWY = Guizhousheng Minzu Yuwen Zhidao Weiyuanhui Yanjiushi [Research Unit of the Guizhou Provincial Ethnic Languages Guidance Committee] (ed.). 1965. Miaohan jianming cidian. [Miao-Chinese concise dictionary.] Guiyang: Guizhou Nationalities Press.Google Scholar
GMYZWY & ZKYSMYDDEGD = Guizhousheng Minzu Yuwen Zhidao Weiyuanhui Yanjiushi Chuanqiandian Fangyan Zu [Research Unit of the Guizhou Provincial Ethnic Languages Guidance Committee, Chuanqiandian Dialect Group] & Zhongguo Kexue Yuan Shaoshu Minzu Yuyan Diaocha Di Er Gongzuo Dui [Academia Sinica Minority Nationalities Language Survey, Second Workgroup] (eds.). 1958. Chuanqiandian Fangyan Miao-Han Jianming Cidian [Miao-Chinese Concise Dictionary, Chuanqiandian Dialect]. Guiyang: Guizhou Nationalities Press.Google Scholar
Heine, Bernd & Tania Kuteva. 2005. Language contact and grammatical change. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Himmelmann, Nikolaus P. 2004. Lexicalization and grammaticalization: opposite or orthogonal? In Walter Bisang, Nikolaus P. Himmelmann & Björn Wiemer (eds.), What makes grammaticalization? – A look from its fringes and its components, 21–42. Berlin: de Gruyter Mouton.Google Scholar
Iwasaki, Shoichi & Preeya Ingkaphirom. 2005. A reference grammar of Thai. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Jarkey, Nerida. 2015. Serial verbs in White Hmong. Leiden: Brill. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Johnson, Charles & Se Yang. 1992. Dab neeg Hmoob: Myths, legends and folktales from the Hmong of Laos. St. Paul, Minnesota, USA: Macalester College Linguistics Department.Google Scholar
Johnson, Keith. 1997. Speech perception without speaker normalization: An exemplar model. In Keith Johnson & John W. Mullennix (eds.), Talker variability in speech processing, 145–165. San Diego: Academic Press.Google Scholar
. 2007. Decisions and Mechanisms in Exemplar-based Phonology. In Maria-Josep Sole, Patrice Speedor Beddor & Manjari Ohala (eds.), Experimental approaches to phonology, 25–40. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Kirchner, Robert. 2012. Modeling exemplar-based phonologization. In Abigail C. Cohn, Cécile Fougeron, & Marie Huffman (eds.), The Oxford handbook of laboratory phonology, 332–44. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Kuryłowicz, Jerzy. 1965. The evolution of grammatical categories. Diogenes 13(51). 55–71. Reprinted 1975: Esquisses linguistiques II1, 38–54. Munich: Fink. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Li, Charles N. & Sandra A. Thompson. 1981. Mandarin Chinese: A functional reference grammar. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Li, Yunbing. 2015. Miaoyu dongci de jufa yuyi shuxing yanjiu [A study on the syntactic semantic properties of Hmong language]. Beijing: China Social Sciences Press.Google Scholar
Lyman, Thomas Amis. 1979. Grammar of Mong Njua (Green Miao). Self-published.Google Scholar
Meng, Chaoji. 2001. Yaozu Bunuyu fangyan yanjiu [Dialect studies of the Bunu language of the Yao ethnicity]. Beijing: Publishing House of Minority Nationalities.Google Scholar
Mortensen, David R. 2013. Tonally conditioned vowel raising in Shuijingping Mang. Journal of East Asian Linguistics 22(3). 189–216. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. 2015. soc.culture.hmong (SCH) Usenet corpus . Available at [URL] (last access 24 March 2021). Self-published.
Mottin, Jean. 1978. Éléments de grammaire Hmong Blanc. Bangkok: Don Bosco Press.Google Scholar
Narrog, Heiko & Bernd Heine. 2018. Introduction: Typology and grammaticalization. In Heiko Narrog & Bernd Heine (eds.), Grammaticalization from a typological perspective, 1–15. Oxford: Oxford University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Packard, Jerome L. 2000. The morphology of Chinese: A linguistic and cognitive approach. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Parsons, P. Kenneth & R. Keith Parsons (eds.). 2001. Hua Miao-English glossary. Available at [URL] (last access 24 March 2021).
Payne, Thomas E. 2017. Morphological Typology. In Alexandra Y. Aikhenvald (ed.), The Cambridge handbook of linguistic typology, 78–94. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Pierrehumbert, Janet B. 2001. Exemplar dynamics: Word frequency, lenition and contrast. In Joan Bybee & Paul J. Hopper (eds.), Frequency and the emergence of linguistic structure, 137–158. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2002. Word-specific phonetics. In Carlos Gussenhoven & Natasha Warner (eds.), Laboratory Phonology 71. 101–140. Berlin: de Gruyter Mouton.Google Scholar
Rake, Steve (ed.). n.d. A Hua-Miao archive: Songs and stories and a glossary of phrases of the Hua Miao of South West China. Available at [URL] (last access 24 March 2021).
Ratliff, Martha. 1990. The influence of geographical change on grammar: The case of Hmong spatial deictics. Manuscript, ICSTLL 23.Google Scholar
. 1992. Meaningful tone: A study of tonal morhpology in compounds, form classes, and expressive phrases in White Hmong. DeKalb, USA: Northern Illinois University Center for Southeast Asian Studies.Google Scholar
. 2010. Hmong-Mien language history. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics.Google Scholar
Savina, F. M. 1916. Dictionnaire Miao-Tseu-Français. Bulletin de l’Ecole française d’Extrême- Orient 161. 1–246. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Smirnova, Elena. 2015. Constructionalization and constructional change: The role of context in the development of constructions. In Jóhanna Barðdal, Elena Smirnova, Lotte Sommerer & Spike Gildea (eds.), Diachronic construction grammar, 81–106. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Sposato, Adam. 2015. A grammar of Xong. Buffalo: University at Buffalo, State University of New York PhD dissertation.Google Scholar
Taguchi, Yoshihisa. n.d. Vocabulary of Lan Hmyo. Excel spreadsheet.
. 2008. Luobohe Miaoyu cihuishu [A vocabulary of Luobohe Miao]. Tokyo: Tokyo Foreign Languages University.Google Scholar
. 2012. On the irrealis marker sz55 in Hmyo. Paper presented at the 45th International Conference on Sino-Tibetan Languages and Linguistics, Singapore, 26–28 October 2012.
. 2013. On the phylogeny of Hmongic languages. Powerpoint, SEALS 23. Thompson, Laurence C. 1987. A Vietnamese reference grammar. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press.Google Scholar
Thompson, Laurence C. 1987. A Vietnamese reference grammar. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press.Google Scholar
Traugott, Elizabeth C. 2010. (Inter)subjectivity and (inter)subjectification: a reassessment. In Hubert Cuyckens, Kristin Davidse & Lieven Vandelanotte (eds.), Subjectification, intersubjectification and grammaticalization, 29–69. Berlin: de Gruyter Mouton. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Wang, Deguang. 1986. Weining Miaoyu huayu cailiao [Spoken language materials of the Weining Miao language]. Minzu Yuwen 1986(3). 69–80.Google Scholar
Wang, Fu-Shi. 1972. The classifier in the Wei Ning dialect of the Miao language in Kweichou. Miao and Yao linguistic studies: Selected articles in Chinese, translated by Chang Yü-Hung & Cho Kwo-ray. ed. Herbert C. Purnell, Jr., 111–185. Ithaca, NY, USA: Southeast Asia Program, Cornell University.Google Scholar
Wang, Fushi. 1985. Miáoyǔ jiǎnzhì [Brief guide to Miao language]. Beijing: Nationalities Press.Google Scholar
Wedel, Andrew B. 2007. Feedback and regularity in the lexicon. Phonology 241. 147–185. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
White, Nathan M. n.d. Chuanqiandian corpus. Unpublished text corpus.
2014. Non-spatial setting in White Hmong. Langley, BC, Canada: Trinity Western University MA thesis.Google Scholar
2020. Word in Hmong. In Alexandra Y. Aikhenvald, Robert M. W. Dixon & Nathan M. White (eds.), The phonological word and grammatical word: A cross-linguistic typology, 213–259. Oxford: Oxford University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2021. Prehistory of verbal markers in Hmong: What can we say? In Luca Ciucci (ed.), From fieldwork to reconstruction: historical issues in hotspots of linguistic diversity. A special issue of Studia Linguistica. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Wu, Zhengbiao & Guangying Yang. 2010. Jian tan Miaozu yingxiong shishi “Ya Lu Wang” de ji yi zhengli wenti. [Simultaneously discussing the transcription of the Miao people’s epic poem “King Ya Lu” and sorting out issues.] Minzu Fanyi 2010(3). 58–65.Google Scholar
Xiong, Jay. 2017. Lub Hmoob txhais (Hmong-English dictionary). Available at [URL] (last access 24 March 2021).
Xiong, Yuyou & Diana Cohen. 2005. Student’s practical Miao-Chinese-English handbook. Kunming, China: Yunnan Nationalities Publishing House.Google Scholar
Yip, Po-Ching & Don Rimmington. 2004. Chinese: A comprehensive grammar. Abingdon, UK: Routledge.Google Scholar