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In:Typological Hierarchies in Synchrony and Diachrony
Edited by Sonia Cristofaro and Fernando Zúñiga
[Typological Studies in Language 121] 2018
► pp. 403–424

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Chapter 12
Generic person marking in Japhug and other Gyalrong languages

Published online: 26 July 2018
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/tsl.121.12jac
Abstract
This paper discusses the history of generic person marking systems in several Gyalrong languages. While closely related, Japhug and Tshobdun differ considerably: the inverse prefix marks generic A in Japhug, while it appears in the generic P form in Tshobdun. We propose a historical scenario to explain how such radically different systems came into being, proposing in particular that one of the generic human markers was grammaticalized from a nominalizer, and show that our reconstruction can also explain the origin of the local scenario portmanteau 1→2 and 2→1 prefixes. These reconstructions allow us to establish the existence of several previously unattested grammaticalization pathways.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Inverse and generic marking in Japhug
    • 2.1The verbal paradigms
    • 2.2Inverse in non-local scenarios
    • 2.3Generic marking
    • 2.4Inclusive vs exclusive generic marking
  • 3.Nominalization in Japhug
    • 3.1Overview of participle prefixes in Japhug
    • 3.2Nominalization and generic
  • 4. Tshobdun and Situ
    • 4.1Generic person marking and nominalization in Tshobdun
    • 4.2Generic person marking and nominalisation in Situ
  • 5.Historical perspectives
    • 5.1From nominalization to generic marking
    • 5.2The origin of the local scenario portmanteau prefixes
  • 6.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • Abbreviations
  • References
References (32)
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