Numeral classifiers in areal perspective: Khmer and Thai - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Numeral classifiers in areal perspective: Khmer and Thai 'syntactic borrowing' revisited RIKKER DOCKUM , YALE UNIVERSITY AUSTROASIATIC SYNTAX IN AREAL AND DIACHRONIC PERSPECTIVE 5-7 SEPTEMBER 2016

Huffman 1973 Examines the following, in varying levels of detail (i) noun phrases, further divided into centered NPs and coordinate NPs (ii) verb phrases, including examples of adjectival verbs, transitive verbs, modal verbs, completive verbs, and directional verbs (iii) adverbs (iv) adverbials (v) relators, dealing with prepositions and conjunction (vi) polite particles (vii) final particles (viii) major sentence types General conclusion: both the synchronic and diachronic evidence indicates that Khmer has converged with Thai

Huffman 1973 Huffman’s conclusion : both the synchronic and diachronic evidence indicates that Khmer has converged with Thai It’s not clear that Huffman is wrong. But I also not obvious that he’s right We have to rule out chance and coincidence, and we have to rule out common influence on both languages from an outside source. One thing we can definitely do, at least, is to cast a wider net

Classifier: unfortunately vague ‘Classifier’ has been used to mean: As is ever the case in linguistics, we have a terminology problem. This doesn’t mean that people are actually confused about the concept, but in both written and spoken discussion ambiguities arise, and of course the lack of standardization of the terminology acts as an impediment for finding relevant literature.

Classifier: unfortunately vague ‘Classifier’ has been used to mean: 1. Class terms (myna bird , jack fruit )

Classifier: unfortunately vague ‘Classifier’ has been used to mean: 1. Class terms (myna bird , jack fruit ) 2. Collective nouns ( deck of cards, gaggle of geese)

Classifier: unfortunately vague ‘Classifier’ has been used to mean: 1. Class terms (myna bird , jack fruit ) 2. Collective nouns ( deck of cards, gaggle of geese) 3. Repeater terms (identical to the head noun)

Classifier: unfortunately vague ‘Classifier’ has been used to mean: 1. Class terms (myna bird , jack fruit ) 2. Collective nouns ( deck of cards, gaggle of geese) 3. Repeater terms (identical to the head noun) 4. Measure terms (uncountable; sack of flour, cup of water)

Classifier: unfortunately vague ‘Classifier’ has been used to mean: 1. Class terms (myna bird , jack fruit ) 2. Collective nouns ( deck of cards, gaggle of geese) 3. Repeater terms (identical to the head noun) 4. Measure terms (uncountable; sack of flour, cup of water) 5. Enumerating terms (countable; loaves of bread, ears of corn)

Classifier: unfortunately vague ‘Classifier’ has been used to mean: 1. Class terms (myna bird , jack fruit ) 2. Collective nouns ( deck of cards, gaggle of geese) 3. Repeater terms (identical to the head noun) 4. Measure terms (uncountable; sack of flour, cup of water) 5. Enumerating terms (countable; loaves of bread, ears of corn) 6. Sign language hand shapes (classify nouns and verbs)

Classifier: unfortunately vague ‘Classifier’ has been used to mean: 1. Class terms (myna bird , jack fruit ) 2. Collective nouns ( deck of cards, gaggle of geese) 3. Repeater terms (identical to the head noun) To be clear, what I’m talking about in this talk is just this one category 4. Measure terms (uncountable; sack of flour, cup of water) 5. Enumerating terms (countable; loaves of bread, ears of corn) 6. Sign language hand shapes (classify nouns and verbs)

Classifier: unfortunately vague ‘Classifier’ has been used to mean: 1. Class terms (myna bird , jack fruit ) 2. Collective nouns ( deck of cards, gaggle of geese) 3. Repeater terms (identical to the head noun) 4. Measure terms (uncountable; sack of flour, cup of water) 5. Enumerating terms (countable; loaves of bread, ears of corn) “Classifiers” is sometimes used for to mean this subset

Classifier: unfortunately vague ‘Classifier’ has been used to mean: 1. Class terms (myna bird , jack fruit ) 2. Collective nouns ( deck of cards, gaggle of geese) 3. Repeater terms (identical to the head noun) 4. Measure terms (uncountable; sack of flour, cup of water) 5. Enumerating terms (countable; loaves of bread, ears of corn) “Numeral Classifiers” (Aikhenvald 2000) is this subset

Classifier: unfortunately vague ‘Classifier’ has been used to mean: 1. Class terms (myna bird , jack fruit ) 2. Collective nouns ( deck of cards, gaggle of geese) 3. Repeater terms (identical to the head noun) 4. Measure terms (uncountable; sack of flour, cup of water) Quantifiers Classifiers 5. Enumerating terms (countable; loaves of bread, ears of corn) Others have used this distinction, also problematic

Classifier: unfortunately vague ‘Classifier’ has been used to mean: 1. Class terms (myna bird , jack fruit ) 2. Collective nouns ( deck of cards, gaggle of geese) 3. Repeater terms (identical to the head noun) 4. Measure terms (uncountable; sack of flour, cup of water) 5. Enumerating terms (countable; loaves of bread, ears of corn) Classifiers, Numeral Classifiers, Sortal Classifiers, Specifiers, Numeral Coefficients, Generics, Counter Words

Classifier: unfortunately vague ‘Classifier’ has been used to mean: 1. Class terms (myna bird , jack fruit ) 2. Collective nouns ( deck of cards, gaggle of geese) 3. Repeater terms (identical to the head noun) 4. Measure terms (uncountable; sack of flour, cup of water) 5. Enumerating terms (countable; loaves of bread, ears of corn) All of these have Classifiers, Numeral Classifiers, Sortal Classifiers, Specifiers, been used over the decades just Numeral Coefficients, Generics, Counter Words for this one subcategory!

Classifier: unfortunately vague This is the type I am talking about today Bon (2012)

What is the range of variation? Noun NUM CLF Logical possibilities: Noun-NUM-CLF NUM-CLF-Noun Noun-CLF-NUM CLF-NUM-Noun NUM-Noun-CLF CLF-Noun-NUM

What is the range of variation? Noun NUM CLF Logical possibilities: Noun-NUM-CLF NUM-CLF-Noun Noun-CLF-NUM CLF-NUM-Noun NUM-Noun-CLF CLF-Noun-NUM Found throughout East and Southeast Asia NUM-CLF form a cohesive unit, in that order, and the locus of variation is on where they fall with respect to the head noun

What is the range of variation? Noun NUM CLF Logical possibilities: Noun-NUM-CLF NUM-CLF-Noun Noun-CLF-NUM CLF-NUM-Noun NUM-Noun-CLF CLF-Noun-NUM Found elsewhere in the world (examples?)

What is the range of variation? Noun NUM CLF Logical possibilities: Noun-NUM-CLF NUM-CLF-Noun Noun-CLF-NUM CLF-NUM-Noun NUM-Noun-CLF CLF-Noun-NUM ‘Never’ found (Allan 1977, Greenberg 1972, 1975; but cf. Adams 1989:24, note 8, which I think is incorrect)

Areal Overview IAa. DEM | NUM-CLF-ADJ-Noun IAb. DEM | NUM-CLF | Noun-ADJ IBa. NUM-CLF | Noun-ADJ-DEM IIAa. DEM-Noun-ADJ | NUM-CLF IIBb. Noun-ADJ | NUM-CLF | DEM IICc. Noun-ADJ-DEM | NUM-CLF Jones (1970)

Areal Overview Sino-Tibetan Mon-Khmer Tai-Kadai Hmong-Mien Austronesian IAa. Modern Cebuano Chinese IAb. Mien IBa. Vietnamese, White Tai, Hmong Malay, Brou, Sedang Black Tai, Nung Indonesian IIBb. Karen Palaung, Shan, Thai Javanese Khmer , Khmu IICc. Lisu IIAa. Ancient Chinese, Lolo, Burmese, Lahu, Maru Rawang Jones (1970)

Areal Overview Sino-Tibetan Mon-Khmer Tai-Kadai Hmong-Mien Austronesian IAa. Modern Cebuano Chinese IAb. Mien IBa. Vietnamese, White Tai, Hmong Malay, Brou, Sedang Black Tai, Nung Indonesian IIBb. Karen Palaung, Shan, Thai Javanese Khmer , Khmu IICc. Lisu IIAa. Ancient Chinese, Lolo, Burmese, Who innovated? Lahu, Maru Rawang Jones (1970)

Dimensions of distance Genetically Geographically Close Distant Close Distant It’s not entirely clear who innovated. Consider two dimensions of distance between languages of a family: geographic distance and genetic distance

Dimensions of distance Thai Genetically Geographically Close Distant Close Lao --- Distant Khamti Kam Lao and Khamti classifier phrases pattern with Thai Lao is both geographically and genetically close to Thai Khamti is geographically distant but genetically close

Dimensions of distance Thai Genetically Geographically Close Distant Close Lao --- Distant Khamti Kam Kam on the other hand, is goth geographically distant and genetically distant from Thai , and so we see a different classifier phrase order And it’s not clear we have a good case of genetically distant but geographically close to Thai

Dimensions of distance Mon-Khmer Kam-Tai Branch Language Order Branch Language Order Khmeric Khmer NOUN NUM CLF SWTai Thai NOUN NUM CLF Khmuic Khmu NOUN NUM CLF SWTai Lao NOUN NUM CLF Mlabri NOUN NUM CLF SWTai Ahom NOUN NUM CLF Monic Mon NOUN NUM CLF SWTai Khamti NOUN NUM CLF Katuic Bru NUM CLF NOUN NTai Zhuang NUM CLF NOUN Pacoh NUM CLF NOUN Kam Bru NUM CLF NOUN Bahnaric Jeh NUM CLF NOUN Sui Jeh NUM CLF NOUN Sre NUM CLF NOUN Vietic Vietnamese NUM CLF NOUN Ruc NUM CLF NOUN So let’s step back and look at the subgroups that Thai and Khmer belong to in their respective families (The black bars just divide up clades further within those subgroups)