Cover not available

Article published In: Language Contact with Chinese:
Edited by Zhiming Bao
[Journal of Pidgin and Creole Languages 38:1] 2023
► pp. 41–61

Get fulltext from our e-platform
JBE logo with link
PDF logo with download linkDownload PDF
EPUB logo with download linkDownload EPUB
authorization required

Nominalization in Wutun

ORCiD logo with link | University of Helsinki, Finland
Published online: 5 May 2023
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/jpcl.00103.san
Abstract
In this paper I discuss the various functions of nominalization in Wutun, a mixed Sinitic language spoken by ca. 4000 people in Qinghai Province, Northwest China. Nominalization in Wutun is expressed by the multi-purpose marker -de (cognate to Standard Mandarin de 的), which functions on both the lexical and clausal levels. Lexical nominalization takes the verb as its domain to derive nouns or adjectives, while clausal nominalization takes the entire clause as its domain and allows the clause to be treated as a noun phrase. Clausal nominalization in Wutun is used to form nominal complement clauses, relative clauses and adverbial subordinate clauses. In addition, the multi-purpose marker -de in Wutun has functions that go beyond nominalization, including pronominal function, pre-nominal modification and stand-alone usage, which is related to aspect and emphasis and plays an important role in stance-taking.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Lexical nominalization
  • 3.Clausal nominalizations
    • 3.1Nominal complement clauses
    • 3.2Relative clauses
    • 3.3Adverbial subordinate clauses
  • 4.Other uses of the general-purpose morpheme -de
    • 4.1Pronominal function
    • 4.2Pre-modification
    • 4.3Stand-alone usage
  • 5.Summary and conclusions
  • Acknowledgments
  • Notes
  • List of abbreviations
  • References
References (33)
References
Ansaldo, Umberto. 2015. Pidgins and creoles. In Encyclopedia of Chinese Language and Linguistics Online, General Editor Rint Sybesma. (18 May, 2022.)Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bakker, Peter. 2003. Mixed languages as autonomous systems. In Yaron Matras & Peter Bakker (eds.), The mixed language debate: Theoretical and empirical advances, 107–150. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Brosig, Benjamin, Foong Ha Yap & Karen Ahrens. 2019. Assertion, presumption and presupposition: An account of the erstwhile nominalizer YUM in Khalkha Mongolian. Studies in Language 43(4). 896–940.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Chappell, Hilary. 2001. Language contact and areal diffusion in Sinitic languages. In Alexandra Y. Aikhenvald & R. M. W. Dixon (eds.), Areal diffusion and genetic inheritance: Problems in comparative linguistics, 328–357. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Chen, Naixiong. 1982. Wutunhua Chutan 五屯话初探 [A preliminary investigation on Wutun speech]. Minzu Yuwen 11. 10–18. Beijing.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1986. Guanyu Wutunhua 关于五屯话 [An outline of Wutun linguistic structure]. Journal of Asian and African Studies 311. 33–52. Tokyo.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Chen, Naixiong & Chinggeltei. 1986. Baoanyu he Mengguyu 保安语和蒙古语 [The Bonan language and the Mongolian language]. (Menggu Yuzu Yuyan Fangyan Yanjiu Congshu 010). Hohhot: Nei Menggu Renmin Chubanshe.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Comrie, Bernard & Sandra A. Thompson. 1985. Lexical nominalization. In Timothy Shopen (ed.), Language typology and syntactic description, Vol III: Grammatical categories and the lexicon, 349–396. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Dede, Keith. 2015. Mixed languages. In Encyclopedia of Chinese Language and Linguistics Online, General Editor Rint Sybesma. (18 May, 2022.)Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Dixon, R. M. W. 2006. Complement clauses and complementation strategies in typological perspective. In Alexandra Y. Aikhenvald & R. M. W. Dixon (eds.), Complementation: A cross-linguistic typology, 1–49. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
DuBois, John. 2007. The stance triangle. In Englebretson, Robert (ed.), Stancetaking in discourse: Subjectivity, evaluation, interaction, 139–182. Amsterdam: John Benjamin’s. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Fried, Robert W. 2010. A grammar of Bao’an Tu, a Mongolic language of Northwest China. Buffalo, NY: State University of New York dissertation.
Grunow-Hårsta, Karen. 2007. Evidentiality and mirativity in Magar. Linguistics of the Tibeto-Burman Area 30(2). 151–194.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hashimoto, Mantaro. 1976. Language diffusion on the Asian continent: Problems of typological diversity in Sino-Tibetan. Computational Analysis of Asian and African Languages 31. 49–63.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Janhunen, Juha. 2007. Typological interaction in the Qinghai linguistic complex. Studia Orientalia 1011. 85–103.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2012. On the hierarchy of structural convergence in the Amdo Sprachbund. In Pirkko Suihkonen, Bernard Comrie & P. Solovyev (eds.), Argument structure and grammatical relations: A cross-linguistic typology, 177–189. Amsterdam: John Benjamin’s. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Janhunen, Juha, Marja Peltomaa, Erika Sandman & Xiawu Dongzhou. 2008. Wutun. (Languages of the World/Materials 466). Muenchen: Lincom Europa.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Koptjevskaja-Tamm, Maria. 1993. Nominalizations. Oxford: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Longacre, Robert E. 2007. Sentences as combinations of clauses. In Timothy Shopen (ed.), Language typology and syntactic description, second edition, Vol II: Complex constructions, 372–420. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lee-Smith, Mei W. & Stephen A. Wurm. 1996. The Wutun Language. In Stephen A. Wurm, Peter Mühlhäusler & Darrell R. Tryon (eds.) Atlas of Languages of Intercultural Communication in the Pacific, Asia and the Americas. (Trends in Linguistics, Documentation 13, vol. II (2), 883–897. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lü, Shuxiang. 1980. Xiandai Hanyu babai ci 现代汉语八百词. [800 Modern Chinese words]. Beijing: Shangwu Yinshuguan.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Meakins, Felicity. 2013. Mixed languages. In Peter Bakker & Yaron Matras (eds.), Contact languages: A comprehensive guide. (Language Contact and Bilingualism 6), 159–228. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Sandman, Erika. 2016. A Grammar of Wutun. Helsinki: University of Helsinki dissertation.
. 2021. Wutun as a mixed language. In Eeva Sippola & Maria Mazzoli (eds.) New Perspectives on Mixed Languages. From Core to Fringe. (Language Contact and Bilingualism 18), 325–359. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Sandman, Erika & Camille Simon. 2016. Tibetan as a ”model language” in the Amdo Sprachbund: evidence from Salar and Wutun. Journal of South Asian Languages and Linguistics (JSALL) 3(1). 85–122. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Sio, Joanna Ut-Seong. 2011. The Cantonese ge3. In Foong Ha Yap, Karen Grunow-Hårsta & Janick Wrona (eds.), Nominalization in Asian languages: Diachronic and typological perspectives. (Typological Studies in Language 96), 125–146. Amsterdam: John Benjamin’s. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Szeto, Pui Yiu, Umberto Ansaldo & Stephen Matthews. 2018. Typological variation across Mandarin dialects: An areal perspective with a quantitative approach. Linguistic Typology 22(2). 233–275. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Tribur, Zoe. 2019. Verbal morphology of Amdo Tibetan. Oregon: University of Oregon dissertation.
Wu, Hugjiltu. 2003. Bonan. In Juha Janhunen (ed.), The Mongolic languages. (Routledge Language Family Series 5), 325–345. London & New York: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Xu, Dan. 2017. The Tangwang language. An interdisciplinary case study in Northwest China. Springer.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Yap, Foong Ha, Karen Grunow-Hårsta & Janick Wrona. 2011. Introduction: Nominalization strategies in Asian languages. In Foong Ha Yap, Karen Grunow-Hårsta & Janick Wrona (eds.), Nominalization in Asian languages: Diachronic and typological perspectives. (Typological Studies in Language 96), 1–57. Amsterdam: John Benjamin’s. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Yap, Foong Ha, Yi Deng & Marco Caboara. 2017. Attitudinal nominalizer(s) in Chinese: Evidence of recursive grammaticalization and pragmaticization. Lingua 2001. 1–21. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Yixiweisa Acuo. 2004. Daohua yanjiu 倒话研究 [Research on Dao vernacular]. (Zhongguo Xin Faxian Yuyan Yanjiu Congshu). Beijing: Minzu Chubanshe.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue