Introduction to Sinitic and Sino-Tibetan

下面为大家整理一篇优秀的paper代写范文- Introduction to Sinitic and Sino-Tibetan，供大家参考学习，这篇论文讨论了汉语系与汉藏语系。汉藏语系，即跨喜马拉雅语系，是由400多种语言组成的语系。说这种语言的地方大多在亚洲，如东亚、东南亚和南亚，其人数仅次于以印欧语系为母语的人。在这些语言中，使用人数最多的分支语言之一是汉语，汉语的种类非常丰富。汉藏语系存在的条件之一是，部分汉藏语系人口分布在偏远地区，可能分布在深山峻岭之中，这使得汉藏语系语言的记录更加困难，这使得汉藏语系语言在一定程度上缺失了。汉藏语系的分类相当模糊。对于低级分支，分类已经很好地建立起来，而对于高级分支，其中的一个分支则相当模糊。

This study will choose the Sinitic and Sino-Tibetan to study in. Sino-Tibetan languages, known as the Trans-Himalayan, are a language family composed of more than 400 languages (LaPolla & Dory, 2005). The locations for speaking such languages are mostly in Asian places, such as the East Asia, Southeast Asia and South Asia. The number of people speaking these languages are the second followed by Indo-European languages of native speaker. Among these languages, one of the branch languages with the most large language speakers are the Chinese with such a abound varieties (to now, more than 1.3 billion speakers, a single language with the most language speakers in the Earth) (LaPolla, & Yang, 2004). What are followed is the Burmese, with 33 million speakers, Tibetic languages with 8 million speakers. One of the conditions for Sino-Tibetan languages is that some of the Sino-Tibetan languages speakers are in remote areas which may be in deep mountains which makes the record for such languages much harder, which makes the languages missing in some way. The classification of the Sino-Tibetan is quite vague. For the low-level branches, the classification is well established while for the high-level one of the branches are quite vague. The traditional idea for such classification is that the Sino-Tibetan is classified into two part, one Sinitic and the other Tibeto-Burman branches. The scholars in different countries also hold different views to the classification. Chinese linguists believe that Tai-Kadai and Hmong-Mien languages are the branches of Sino-Tibetan languages while some western linguists do not think so. The percentage of speakers in Sino-Tibetan languages can be seen in the following chart:

The Sinitic languages is known as the Chinese languages, which are composed of many dialects, are a branch of Sino-Tibetan languages. To some scholars, the Sinitic languages are equivalent to Chinese. The reason why it is called Sinitic languages is that Sinitic languages are composed of the various branches and dialects instead of one language.

Cognates

There are some cognate among the Sino-Tibetan languages. Cognates can be defined as the words that may have a common etymological source. (Crystal, 2011). This term is derived from the Latin word, cognatus whose meaning is "blood relative".

This also applicable to the Sino-Tibetan languages. There are some cognates among the families in Sino-Tibetan languages from many aspects.

From the Phonological aspects, there will be the comparison between the Chinese and Thailand. The comparison will be as the following:

The consonant cluster in Sinitic and Thailand. Some consonant cluster are also the consonant cluster in Thailand language:

Sinitic Thailand

Skin: fu<*pljag

Family: tçia<*krag

Closed: kuan<*kwran  Pliak（Skin）

K’rua（Kitchen, Family）

Kləəח（Latch）

However, some consonant cluster are not in Sinitic which is there in Thailand.

Sinitic Thailand

Put down: faɧ<*pjaɧ

Tie: tçie<*kit

Isolation: ku<*kag Ploɧ（Put down）

klat（Tie）

These cognates even can be traced back to ancient Sinitic and ancient Sino-Tibetan.

Ancient Sinitics    Tibetan

Hug: *sklep>tsep

Disease *sglig>dzit

Sit *aglorʔ>dzorʔ *sgleb>sdeb

*sglig>sdig

*sglod>sdod

The cognates can be found in the consonants

Ancient Sinitics Tibetan

*njijs gnyis

These examples show that there is a strong genetic relations between the branches within the family. The phonology of these branches has the similarities, indicating that the sources of these words may be the same. There are some characteristics about the cognates. Some may share similar meanings with different pronunciations, while some share same similar pronunciations with different forms. To Sinitic, the writing system to some extent, are quite unique. It is hard to find similar the writing forms with the other branches. However, there are still some evidences showing that the similar pronunciations proves the genetic relations between the Sinitic and Sino-Tibetan languages.

Typology

There are some shared features in Sinitic and Sino Tibetan languages. Here are two aspects from morphology and Syntactic.

Morphology

The morphological similarities among the families are present in the many aspects. The first is the clausal morphology. As for the clausal morphology, there are some evidence to be shown in the particles across the branches, such as OC *lja (歟), Newar lā, Burmese lâ, Meithei la (Matisoff, 1995). The Sinitic language uses the form as a connection, such as *le hwa (也呼) (Norman 1988). What is more, the pronouns are also markers to show the similarities. The first and second person pronouns are rebuilt in the whole family as 1st person *ŋa ⪤ ŋay; 2nd person *na ⪤ naŋ. However, there is no third person pronoun or plural pronouns in the branches, even at Sinitic level.  Apart from two aspects, there is some similarities from the aspect of classifiers and definite marking. Both in Sinitic and Tibeto-Burman languages develop the classifiers and definite marking. Here are some examples: Rawang  lègā tiq bok [book one CL] ‘one book’, lègā bok‘the book’, Cantonese yat55 ga33 che55 [one CL vehicle] ‘one car’, ga33 che55 (roughly) ‘the car’. In fact, it is not a characteristic in all the languages, but a feature in part of Southeast Asia (Baron 1973). What is more, there is some similarities in constitute order. According to LaPolla (2012), there are some common orders in all ST languages: GENITIVE-HEAD order and MODIFIERMODIFIED order in N-N structures. What is more, the Tibeto-Burman languages share some common points such as verb-final word order along with an immediate preverbal unmarked focus points. Currently, Sinitic languages, the Karen languages, and Bai languages also have an unmarked focus position, but in post verbal focus. Such position makes these the argument appear in post-verbal focus position in the sentences or in the clauses.

Syntactic Typology

There is an early stage for the study of the Sino-Tibetan languages for the constructions of the language branches. The main characteristic of the family languages are that ST languages are proto-languages which was monosyllabic. For the syntactic functions, Sino-Tibetan languages have few grammatical relations since there are few branches having the passive constructions in Sino-Tibetan family. In the Sino-Tibetan family, the order of NPs is generally decided by pragmatic elements and the variations of word order. All the Sino-Tibetan languages are arranged in RELATIVE-NOUN order. To Sinitic languages, there is no nominalizers or relative markers in the relative sentences originally. However, gradually it developed some such clauses structures in the following time. In Sinitic languages, the relative clause is nominalized, the structure of clauses is a substructure of the NN modifier-modified construction. These rules are also applied in some Sino-Tibetan languages, such as the TB languages and so on.

In terms of Chinese, there was a gradual change in the grammatical structure and information structure (LaPolla, 1993). The information structure is topic-comment structures rather than the subject-predicate (LaPolla, 1993). Information structure is the key element which determines the grammatical structures.

Anything else

There is still more to be explored in the study of Sinitic and Sino-Tibetan languages. There is a unique characteristics in the Sinitic grammatical structures. For Sinitic languages, the structures in Northern Chinese, such as Mandarin, Yue-Guangzhou and Min-Xiamen, especially in the aspect of specific characteristics of Sinitic perfectives. In this aspect, it is remarked that perfectives are employed with obligation in parts of the Sinitic languages in the past contexts, especially in the presence of quantified or definite post-verbal nouns.

The further study would be this aspects in details.

Reference

Crystal, David, ed. (2011). "Cognate". A Dictionary of Linguistics and Phonetics (6th ed.). Blackwell Publishing. p. 104.

LaPolla, Randy J. & Dory Poa (2005) Jiaodian jiegou de leixing ji qi dui Hanyu cixu de yingxiang (The typology of focus structures and their effect on word order in Chinese), in Xu Liejiong and Haihua Pan (eds.), Jiaodian jiegou he yuyi de yanjiu (Studies on the structure and semantics of focus), 57-78. Beijing: Beijing Foreign Studies University Press.

LaPolla, Randy J. & Dory Poa (2006). On describing word order, in Felix Ameka, Alan Dench, & Nicholas Evans (eds.), Catching Language: The Standing Challenge of Grammar Writing, Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter, 269-295.

LaPolla, Randy J. & Yang, Jiangling (2004). Reflexive and middle marking in Dulong-Rawang’, Himalayan Linguistics 2 http://www.linguistics.ucsb.edu/HimalayanLinguistics/articles/2004/HLJ02.html

LaPolla, Randy J. (Luo Rendi) & Yang Jiangling (1993). Cong yuyan, fangyan de bijiao liaojie yuyan de lishi fazhan (Understanding the historical development of a language by comparing it with related languages and dialects), Journal of Sino-Tibetan Linguistics

Lee, Edith & Yuet Ying (2002). The influence of information structure on word order in Cantonese. MA in Linguistics thesis, City University of Hong Kong.

Lee Yeon-ju & Sagart, Laurent (2008) ‘No limits to borrowing: The case of Bai and Chinese’, Diachronica 25.3: 357–385

Li, Yongsui and Wang, Ersong (1986) Haniyu jianzhi (Brief description of the Hani language), Beijing: Minzu Chubanshe.

Liu, Danqing (2008) Yufa diaocha yanjiu shouce (Handbook for grammar fieldwork and analysis). Shanghai: Shanghai, Jiaoyu Chubanshe.

Matisoff, James A. (1995) The Grammar of Lahu, (University of California publications in Linguistics, 75) Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press.

Norman, Jerry (1988) Chinese, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

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