Startseite Sinitic as a typological sandwich: revisiting the notions of Altaicization and Taicization
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Sinitic as a typological sandwich: revisiting the notions of Altaicization and Taicization

  • Pui Yiu Szeto EMAIL logo und Chingduang Yurayong
Veröffentlicht/Copyright: 19. Februar 2021

Abstract

Decades of works dedicated to the description of (previously) lesser-known Sinitic languages have effectively dispelled the common myth that these languages share a single “universal Chinese grammar”. Yet, the underlying cause of their grammatical variation is still a matter for debate. This paper focuses on typological variation across Sinitic varieties. Through comparing the typological profiles of various Sinitic languages with those of their Altaic and Mainland Southeast Asian (MSEA) neighbors, we discuss to what extent the variation within the Sinitic branch can be attributed to areal diffusion. Taking into account over 360 language varieties of seven different genetic affiliations (Sinitic, Turkic, Mongolic, Tungusic, Hmong-Mien, Tai-Kadai, Austroasiatic) and 30 linguistic features, we conduct a typological survey with the aid of the phylogenetic program NeighborNet. Our results suggest that convergence towards their non-Sinitic neighbors has likely played a pivotal role in the typological diversity of Sinitic languages. Based primarily on their degree of Altaic/MSEA influence, the Sinitic varieties in our database are classified into four areal groups, namely 1) Northern, 2) Transitional, 3) Central Southeastern, 4) Far Southern. This classification scheme reflects the intricate interplay between areal convergence, regional innovations, and retention of archaic features.


Corresponding author: Pui Yiu Szeto [pʰuy˧ jiu⇃ si˥tʰou⇃], Department of Linguistics, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam, Hong Kong, E-mail:

Acknowledgments

This paper is developed from the PhD thesis of the first author completed at the University of Hong Kong (Szeto 2019), supervised by Stephen Matthews and Umberto Ansaldo. Our sincere gratitude goes to them. An earlier version of this paper was presented at the 10th international conference of the European Association of Chinese linguistics (EACL-10) held at University of Milan and University of Milano-Bicocca in September 2018. We’d like to thank the audience for their insightful feedback. We are also grateful for the very helpful comments from the editor and anonymous reviewers.

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Supplementary Material

The online version of this article offers supplementary material (https://doi.org/10.1515/lingty-2021-2074).


Received: 2019-11-29
Accepted: 2020-09-19
Published Online: 2021-02-19
Published in Print: 2021-10-26

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