Cover not available

Article published In: Linguistics of the Tibeto-Burman Area
Vol. 46:1 (2023) ► pp.6–34

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

Elevational deixis in the Kiranti verb

ORCiD logo with link | CNRS-CRLAO-EPHE-INALCO
ORCiD logo with link | CNRS-HTL
Published online: 12 May 2023
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/ltba.21018.jac
Abstract
This article deals with elevational deixis in Kiranti languages, a feature which is pervasive in these languages in both the verbal and nominal domains. The system of elevation is described in most grammars of these languages as tripartite, following the typologically common system comprising up(wards), same level/across, down(wards) elevations.
This work reviews the available data on elevational deixis in the verbal system, and has two main contributions. First, it shows that motion verbs unspecified for elevation are an essential part of the elevation marking paradigm, and are obligatory in some specific elevational configurations. Second, it argues that on the one hand elevationally marked motion verbs are cognate as whole sets across Kiranti, and probably reconstructible to proto-Kiranti and beyond, and on the other hand that a subgroup of Kiranti including Chintang, Athpare, Belhare and Yamphu have innovated a second set of elevationally-marked motion verbs.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Features of elevational deixis
    • 2.1Elevation distinctions
    • 2.2Type of elevation coding
    • 2.3Domains of elevation coding
  • 3.Motion verbs
    • 3.1Venitive and itive verbs and elevation
    • 3.2Caused accompanied motion verbs
  • 4.Mismatches in the encoding of elevational deixis
    • 4.1Elevationally neutral locative with elevationally marked motion verbs
    • 4.2Neutralization of deixis
      • 4.2.1Neutralization of elevational deixis
      • 4.2.2Neutralization of motion deixis
    • 4.3Omission of allative and ablative marking
  • 5.Fluidity of the deictic center
  • 6.Diachronic evolution
    • 6.1Two sets of elevation deixis verbs
      • 6.1.1Set A
      • 6.1.2Set B
    • 6.2Historical shifts
  • Conclusion
  • Notes
  • Abbreviations
  • References
References (49)
References
Baxter, William H. III & Laurent Sagart. 2014. Old Chinese: A new reconstruction. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bickel, Balthasar. 1996. Aspect, mood, and time in Belhare: studies in the semantics-pragmatics interface of a Himalayan language. Zürich: Universität Zürich PhD dissertation.
. 1997. Spatial operations in deixis, cognition, and culture: where to orient oneself in Belhare. In Jan Nuyts & Eric Pederson (eds.), Language and conceptualization, 46–83. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1999. Cultural formalism and spatial language in Belhara. In Balthasar Bickel & Martin Gaenszle (eds.), Himalayan space: Cultural horizons and practices, 73–104. Zürich: Völkerkundemuseum der Universität Zürich.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2001. Deictic transposition and referential practice in Belhare. Journal of Linguistic Anthropology 10(2). 224–247. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bradley, David. 1979. Proto-Loloish. London: Curzon Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2003. Deictic patterns in Lisu and southeastern TibetoBurman. In David Bradley, Randy LaPolla, Boyd Michailovsky & Graham Thurgood (eds.), Language variation: Papers on variation and change in the sinosphere and in the indosphere in honour of James A. Matisoff, 219–236. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Doornenbal, Marius. 2009. A grammar of Bantawa. Leiden: Leiden University PhD dissertation.
van Driem, George. 1993. A grammar of Dumi. Berlin and New York: Mouton De Gruyter. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ebert, Karen H. 1997a. Camling. München: Lincom Europa.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
1997b. Grammar of Athpare. München: Lincom Europa.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2000. Camling texts and glossary. München: Lincom Europa.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Forker, Diana. 2020. Elevation as a grammatical and semantic category of demonstratives. Frontiers in Psychology 111. 1–19. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gong, Hwang-cherng. 1995. The system of finals in proto-Sino-Tibetan. In William S-.-Y. Wang (ed.), The ancestry of Chinese, 41–92. Journal of Chinese Linguistics Monograph Series.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hyslop, Gwendolyn. 2017. A Grammar of Kurtöp. Leiden: Brill. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Jacques, Guillaume. 2015. Derivational morphology in Khaling. Bulletin of Chinese Linguistics 8(1). 78–85. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2017. A reconstruction of Proto-Kiranti verb roots. Folia Linguistica Historica 381. 177–215. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Jacques, Guillaume & Aimée Lahaussois. 2014. The auditory demonstrative in Khaling. Studies in Language 38(2). 393–404. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Jacques, Guillaume, Aimée Lahaussois, Dhan Bahadur Rai and Yadav Kumar. 2015. Khaling-Nepali-English dictionary, version 1.0. Paris: Projet HimalCo. [URL]
Jacques, Guillaume, Aimée Lahaussois & Shuya Zhang. 2021. Associated motion in Sino-Tibetan/Trans-Himalayan. In Antoine Guillaume & Harold Koch (eds.), Associated motion, 819–853. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lahaussois, Aimée. 2003. Thulung Rai. Himalayan Linguistics Archive 11. 1–25.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2009. Koyi Rai: An initial grammatical sketch. Himalayan Linguistics Archive 41. 1–33.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2011. The Thulung Rai verbal system: An account of verb stem alternation. Cahiers de Linguistique Asie Orientale 40(2). 189–224. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lai, Yunfan. 2017. Grammaire du khroskyabs de Wobzi. Paris: Université Paris III PhD dissertation.
Lin, Youjing. 2002. A dimension missed: East and west in Situ rGyalrong orientation marking. Language and Linguistics 3(1). 27–42.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2003. Tense and aspect morphology in the Zhuokeji rGyalrong verb. Cahiers de linguistique – Asie orientale 32(2). 245–286. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2017. How grammar encodes space in Cogtse Rgyalrong. Himalayan Linguistics 16(1). 59–83. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Michailovsky, Boyd. 1985. Tibeto-Burman dental suffixes: Evidence from Limbu (Nepal). In Graham Thurgood, James A. Matisoff & David Bradley (eds.), Linguistics of the Sino-Tibetan area: The state of the art, 363–375. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1988. La langue hayu. Paris: Editions du CNRS.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1994. Manner vs place of articulation in the Kiranti initial stops. In Hajime Kitamura, Tatsuo Nishida & Nagano Yasuhiko (eds.), Current Issues in Sino-Tibetan Linguistics, Osaka: National Museum of Ethnology.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2002. Limbu-English dictionary. Kathmandu: Mandala Book Point.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2010. Preliminaries to the comparative study of the Kiranti subgroup of Tibeto-Burman. In Sino-Tibetan Comparative Studies in the 21st Century International Symposium, 145–170. Taipei.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2012. Internal reconstruction of the Dumi verb : Lexical bases and stem formation. Linguistics of the Tibeto-Burman Area 35(2). 49–87.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2015. On Limbu directionals and locative expressions. In Mark W. Post, Stephen Morey & Scott DeLancey (eds.), Language and culture in Northeast India and beyond: In honor of Robbins Burling, 114–125. Canberra: Asia-Pacific Linguistics.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2017. Kiranti languages. In Graham Thurgood and Randy LaPolla (eds.), The Sino-Tibetan languages, 646–679. London: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Michailovsky, Boyd, Martine Mazaudon, Alexis Michaud, Séverine Guil-laume, Alexandre François & Evangelia Adamou. 2014. Documenting and researching endangered languages: The Pangloss collection. Language Documentation and Conservation 81. 119–135.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Opgenort, Jean-Robert. 2004. A grammar of Wambule. Leiden: Brill. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Paudyal, Netra. 2015. Aspects of Chintang syntax. Zürich: University of Zürich PhD dissertation.
Post, Mark W. 2019. Topographical deixis in Trans-Himalayan (Sino-Tibetan) languages. Transactions of the Philological Society Volume 117(2). 234–255. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Rai, Netramani. 2016. A grammar of Dumi. Kathmandu: Tribhuvan University PhD dissertation.
Rutgers, Roland. 1998. Yamphu, grammar, texts and lexicon. Leiden: Research School CNWS.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Schackow, Diana. 2015. A grammar of Yakkha. Berlin: Language Science Press. [URL].
Schapper, Antoinette. 2014. Elevation in the spatial deictic systems of Alor-Pantar languages. In Marian Klamer (ed.), The Alor-Pantar languages: History and typology, 247–284. Berlin: Language Science Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Sun, Jackson T.-S. 2000. Parallelisms in the verb morphology of Sidaba rGyalrong and Lavrung in rGyalrongic. Language and Linguistics 1(1). 161–190.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Tolsma, Gerard Jacobus. 2006. A grammar of Kulung. Leiden: Brill.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Turin, Mark. 2012. A grammar of the Thangmi Language. Leiden: Brill.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Zhang, Shuya. 2018. Stem alternations in the Brag-bar dialect of Situ Rgyalrong. Linguistics of the Tibeto-Burman Area 41(2). 294–330. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2020. Le dialecte de Brag-bar du rgyalrong situ et sa contribution à la typologie de l’expression des relations spatiales: le mouvement associé et l’orientation. Paris: Inalco PhD dissertation.
Cited by (1)

Cited by one other publication

González Pérez, Manuel David
2025. From elevation to identifiability: Topography as discourse-cognitive signposting. Journal of Pragmatics 246 ► pp. 14 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 27 november 2025. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.

Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue