6. Zhuang: A Tai language with some Sinitic characteristics. Postverbal 'can' in Zhuang, Cantonese, Vietnamese and Lao
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Rint Sybesma
Abstract
This paper deals with an areal feature shared by languages spoken in Indo-China and Southern China, namely, the presence of a modal element in a for these languages a-typical post-verbal position. In this paper we investigate the properties of this element in Cantonese, Lao, Vietnamese and Zhuang. One of the questions we focus on is the fact that the element in question can be translated with ‘can’, but the languages differ in that only in a subset of them, it can mean ‘can-ability’. It turns out that the interpretational properties of the element is tightly interrelated with both syntactic and interpretational properties of the resultative construction.
Abstract
This paper deals with an areal feature shared by languages spoken in Indo-China and Southern China, namely, the presence of a modal element in a for these languages a-typical post-verbal position. In this paper we investigate the properties of this element in Cantonese, Lao, Vietnamese and Zhuang. One of the questions we focus on is the fact that the element in question can be translated with ‘can’, but the languages differ in that only in a subset of them, it can mean ‘can-ability’. It turns out that the interpretational properties of the element is tightly interrelated with both syntactic and interpretational properties of the resultative construction.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Editor and contributing authors vii
- 1. Introduction: Conceptual and methodological issues in areal linguistics 1
- 2. The problem of the Caucasian Sprachbund. 25
- 3. East Nusantara as a linguistic area 95
- 4. The Guaporé-Mamoré region as a linguistic area 151
- 5. An integrated areal-typological approach: Local convergence and morphosyntactic features in the Balkan Sprachbund 181
- 6. Zhuang: A Tai language with some Sinitic characteristics. Postverbal 'can' in Zhuang, Cantonese, Vietnamese and Lao 221
- Language index 275
- Author index 281
- Subject index 285
- Place index 291
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Editor and contributing authors vii
- 1. Introduction: Conceptual and methodological issues in areal linguistics 1
- 2. The problem of the Caucasian Sprachbund. 25
- 3. East Nusantara as a linguistic area 95
- 4. The Guaporé-Mamoré region as a linguistic area 151
- 5. An integrated areal-typological approach: Local convergence and morphosyntactic features in the Balkan Sprachbund 181
- 6. Zhuang: A Tai language with some Sinitic characteristics. Postverbal 'can' in Zhuang, Cantonese, Vietnamese and Lao 221
- Language index 275
- Author index 281
- Subject index 285
- Place index 291
