On the hierarchy of structural convergence in the Amdo Sprachbund
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Juha A. Janhunen
Abstract
The languages of the Amdo region in the Sino-Tibetan borderzone form an areal union of the Sprachbund type, in which all participants have been approaching a common goal of structural uniformity. There are, however, differences as to how the goal of uniformity has been achieved in each given language. Some structural features seem to be easily lost or borrowed, while others are more stable and language-specific. Observations made of the Amdo Sprachbund confirm results obtained in other parts of the world concerning the stability of features like ergative and nominal phrase word order. On the other hand, the universally rare category of perspective, present in several languages of the Amdo region, seems to be easily transferred from one language to another.
Abstract
The languages of the Amdo region in the Sino-Tibetan borderzone form an areal union of the Sprachbund type, in which all participants have been approaching a common goal of structural uniformity. There are, however, differences as to how the goal of uniformity has been achieved in each given language. Some structural features seem to be easily lost or borrowed, while others are more stable and language-specific. Observations made of the Amdo Sprachbund confirm results obtained in other parts of the world concerning the stability of features like ergative and nominal phrase word order. On the other hand, the universally rare category of perspective, present in several languages of the Amdo region, seems to be easily transferred from one language to another.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- The editors vii
- The authors ix
- Preface xi
- Introduction xiii
- A deceptive case of split-intransitivity in Basque 1
- Some argument-structure properties of ‘give’ in the languages of Europe and Northern and Central Asia 17
- Grammatical relations in a typology of agreement systems 37
- Causatives in Agul 55
- Continuity of information structuring strategies in Eastern Khanty 115
- Patterns of asymmetry in argument structure across languages 133
- Topic marking and the construction of narrative in Xibe 151
- On the hierarchy of structural convergence in the Amdo Sprachbund 177
- Pyramids of spatial relators in Northeastern Turkic and its neighbors 191
- What’s in the head of head-marking languages? 211
- Transitives, causatives and passives in Korean and Japanese 241
- Core argument patterns and deep genetic relations 257
- Three takes on grammatical relations 295
- On aspect, aspectual domain and quantification in Finnish and Udmurt 325
- Indexes 355
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- The editors vii
- The authors ix
- Preface xi
- Introduction xiii
- A deceptive case of split-intransitivity in Basque 1
- Some argument-structure properties of ‘give’ in the languages of Europe and Northern and Central Asia 17
- Grammatical relations in a typology of agreement systems 37
- Causatives in Agul 55
- Continuity of information structuring strategies in Eastern Khanty 115
- Patterns of asymmetry in argument structure across languages 133
- Topic marking and the construction of narrative in Xibe 151
- On the hierarchy of structural convergence in the Amdo Sprachbund 177
- Pyramids of spatial relators in Northeastern Turkic and its neighbors 191
- What’s in the head of head-marking languages? 211
- Transitives, causatives and passives in Korean and Japanese 241
- Core argument patterns and deep genetic relations 257
- Three takes on grammatical relations 295
- On aspect, aspectual domain and quantification in Finnish and Udmurt 325
- Indexes 355
