Word Order in Assamese and its neighbouring TBLs and Khasi

Word Order Manas Jyoti Bora (EGL14007) Linguistics and Language Technology Tezpur University MA 3rd Semester Language Universals and Language typology (LG501) Autumn 2015 1 Contents: 1.0 Introduction ................................................................................................................................................. 2 2.0 The word orders in Assamese………………………………………………………… 2 2.1 The Order of the constituents of the Noun Phrase…………................…………... 3 . The Word Orders in Mising………………………………………………………………. 4 . The Word Order of Khasi and Manipuri…………………………………………….. 5 4.1 Khasi…………………...…………………………………………………...…………………… 5 4.2 Manipuri………………………………………………………………………………………… 6 5.0 The Word Orders in Bodo and Karbi….……………………………………………… 7 5.1 Karbi…………………………………………………………………………………………………..……7 5.2 Bodo……………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 6.0 Conclusion………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 7.0 References………………………………………………………………………………………………… 2 1.0 Introduction: Word-order is a major parameter in etymologizing languages. The major word orders are the order of the constituents of the clause – subject, object, and verb – and of the noun phrase. The constituents S, O, and V, give six logically possible types – SVO, SOV, VSO, VOS, OSV, and OVS. However, the word order is only applicable to languages where there is a relation between subject and object; and also to languages in which there is a basic word order determined by grammatical relations relative to the verb. When we classify English as basically SVO, we abstract away from the fact that in special questions the word order of the wh-element is determined not by its grammatical relation, but rather by a general rule that places such elements sentence-initially, thus giving rise to such OSV orders as Whom did John see? Even in many languages that are often described as having free word order, there is some good indication that one of the orders is more basic than the others. In Russian, for instance, any permutation of S, O, and V will give a grammatical sentence, but the order SVO is much frequent than all of the other others put together. A further problem in assigning basic word order is where the language has a split, i.e. different basic orders in different constructions. A classic example is German which has the word order SVO in main clauses but SOV in subordinate clauses. The word orders within the noun phrase include: the relative order of adjective (A) and noun (N); the order of head noun (N) and relative clause (Rel) in the relative clause construction; the relative order of possessive (G) and head noun (N). the last among the major word order parameters to be examined here is whether a language has prepositions (Pr) as in English or postpositions as in Turkish – adam man icin for “for the man”. The major word order parameters of four languages belonging to three different language families are discussed in the subsequent sections here. The data of Assamese and Mising are primary and of Khasi and Manipuri are secondary. 2.0 The word orders in Assamese: Assamese is an Indo-Aryan language. The basic word order of the clause in Assamese is SOV. However, Assamese allows scrambling of the order of the constituents of the clause. Some examples are given below: (1) ram-e am-tu kha-l-e (SOV) Ram-NOM mango-CL eat-PST-3 (2) ram-e kha-l-e am-tu Ram-NOM eat-PST-3 mango-CL (SVO) 3 (3) kha-l-e ram-e am-tu (VSO) eat-PST-3 Ram-NOM mango-CL (4) am-tu kha-l-e ram-e (OVS) mango-CL eat-PST-3 ram-NOM But, as evident from different constructions, the order SOV is much more frequent than others. The subject almost always precedes the object. 2.1 The Order of the constituents of the Noun Phrase: The constituents within the noun phrases follow strict order in Assamese. The first order to be discussed within the noun phrase is that of the adjective and the noun. In Assamese, the adjective always precedes the noun (AN). For example: (5) godhur bostu (AN) (6) gorom pani hot heavy thing (AN) water “hot water” “heavy things” Secondly, the order is of the possessor and the possessed. The possessor precedes the possessed (GN). For example: (7) mur kitap (GN) (8) kɔmɔl-ɔr saikel my book Kamal-GEN bicycle “my book” “Kamal’s bicycle” (GN) Moving to the next word order within the noun phrase, we have the order of the noun and the relative clause in the relative clause construction. In Assamese the relative clause also precedes the noun. For example: (9) gan ga-i thok-a lora-tu song sing-NF stay-NMZ boy-CL “the boy who is singing” 4 as in, thok-a gan ga-i mur bondhu lora-tu song sing-NF stay-NF boy-CL my friend “The boy who is singing is my friend” The last among the major word order parameters is the order of adpositions – preposition and postpositions. Assamese is postpositional as it has some postpositions. This is clear from the sentences illustrated above. Some other examples are: (11) xita-r dwara Sita-REL by “by Sita” (10) gao-r pora village-REL from “from the village” Thus, Assamese conforms to Greenberg’s universal 24: “if the relative expression precedes the noun either as the only construction or as an alternative construction, either the language is postpositional or the adjective precedes the noun or both.” 3.0 The Word Orders in Mising: The data used here is based on the field training at Gogamukh area of Dhemaji district in Assam. The word order of Mising is very like that of Assamese. Mising has the basic order of SOV; the adjective precedes the noun (AN) and the possessor precedes the noun (GN). (12) Ƞɘ apin dɔ-ka I (SOV) rice eat-PST “I ate rice.” (13) aile kɔ:nɘdɘ (AN) “good girl” as in bɯ akɯ aile 3SG one.CL good kɔ:nɘdɘ girl “She is a good girl.” (14) ram-kɔ bɯmɔ Ram-GEN sister (younger) “Ram’s sister.” (GN) 5 In questions also, Mising exhibit the same word order. A question particle is also used variably. For example: (15) mɯlɯ nɘ arɯk gɯ-ka-n yesterday you paddyfield (Adv S O V) go-PST-Q “Did you go to paddyfield yesterday?” Thus, we see that although Assamese (IA) and Mising (TBL) belong to two different language families, their word orders are same. Both the languages fall under one of the major types of language listed by Greenberg: SOV/Po/GN/AN 4.0 The Word Order of Khasi and Manipuri: Khasi is an Austro-Asiatic language spoken in Meghalaya and Manipuri is spoken mainly in Manipur. Khasi belongs to the Mon-Khmer group of Austroasiatic language family, whereas Manipuri belongs to the Kuki-Chan group of Tibeto-Burman language family. Khasi and Manipuri have different word orders with respect to basic constituent structure: Khasi has SVO and Manipuri has SOV. The data included here are taken from Grierson and H. S. Sharma (1999). 4.1 Khasi: Khasi is a SVO language which agrees with Greenberg’s universal 5: “if a language has dominant SVO order and the genitive follows the governing noun (NG), then the adjective likewise follows the noun (NA)”. Examples: (16) u la-piniap iau kasim he PST-kill (SVO) the bird “He killed the bird.” (17) ki-shakri jong-u (NG) PM-servants his-PM “His servants.” (18) ki-kinthey ba-bha PM-woman REL-good “good woman” (NA) 6 In Khasi the adposition precedes the noun (ApN), i.e. it is prepositional. For example, (19) u la-leit sha iew he PST-go to (S V Pr O) market “He went to market.” Thus, Khasi rightly falls under one of the major types of language listed by Greenberg: SVO/Pr/NG/NA. 4.2 Manipuri: Manipuri is a SOV language in which the adjective either precedes or follows the noun within the noun phrase: AN or NA. However, the possessor precedes the possessed noun (GN). Examples: (20) jon-nɘ sɘn-du-bu kɘl-li (SOV) John-NOM cow-DET-ACC whip-NFUT “John whipped the cow.” (21) tombә-gi kar (GN) tomba-GEN car “Tomba’s car.” (22) ɘcɘwbɘ tebɘl big (AN) table or, tebɘl ɘcɘwbɘ (NA) table big “big table.” Manipuri agrees with Greenberg’s universal 7: if in a language with dominant SOV order there is no alternative basic order, or only OSV as the alternative, then all adverbial modifiers of the verb likewise precede the verb. Examples: (23) tom-nɘ phi-si ley-li Tom-NOM cloth-DET buy-NFUT “Tom bought this cloth.” (SOV) 7 (24) phi-si tom-nɘ ley-li (OSV) cloth-DET Tom-NOM buy-NFUT “Tom bought this cloth.” The following examples show the position of adverbial modifiers: (25) mәhak tɘpnә cɘt-li he slowly go-NFUT “He went slowly.” (26) mәhak thunɘ lak-kɘni he quickly come-FUT “He will come quickly.” Thus, it seems that Manipur belongs to the type that Assamese belongs to with the exception that the former has equal occurrences of NA: SOV/Po/GN/AN or NA. 5.0 The Word Orders in Bodo and Karbi: Bodo and Karbi both belong to Tibeto-Burman Language Family. The word orders of Bodo are SOV in the declarative sentences, and GN and AN in the noun phrases. The word orders of Karbi are also same. The only difference is that in Karbi, the possessed is marked. These are exemplified in the following sections: 5.1 Karbi: (27) ne tharve choetlo I (SOV) mango ate “I ate the mango.” (28) jiten a-hem (GN) Jiten GEN-house “Jiten’s house.” (29) kaheno ɔso bad boy “bad boy” (AN) 8 as in, gupal inut kaheno ɔso Gupal one bad boy “Gupal is a bad boy.” 5.2 Bodo: (30) aȠ thaizu-khou za-bai (SOV) I mango-ACC eat-PST. “I ate the mango.” (31) riȠsar-ni bwida (GN) Ringsar-GEN brother (elder) “Ringsar’s brother.” (32) mɯzaȠ huasa-gotho good (AN) M-child “good boy” as in, biyw mɯzaȠ huasa-gotho he good M-child “He is a good boy” Thus, we see that although the word orders in Bodo and Karbi are similar and both belong to the same language family (TBL), Karbi exhibits “head-marking” in the possessive construction and also the marker is prefixed. Both the languages belong to the type: SOV/Po/GN/AN. 9 6.0 Conclusion: In the conclusion, it can be said that word orders are correlated. For instance, if a language has the basic order SOV, and if it has AN order, then it will necessarily have GN and RelN. From the discussion of the word orders of the six languages, it seems that languages from different language families may exhibit different orders: Assamese and Khasi; and also that they may exhibit the same orders: Assamese and other TibetoBurman languages discussed. Finally, following Lehmann, we can do away with the order of subject as irrelevant from a general typological viewpoint, so that we may indeed work with two major types of language: OV and VO. Comrie lists two major types of language with respect to which Khasi belongs to the type: VO/Pr/NG/NA; and the rest belong to the type: OV/Po/GN/AN. SL NO: Language 1 2 3 4 5 6 Assamese Mising Khasi Manipuri Karbi Bodo Language Family Indo-Aryan TBL Austroasiatic TBL TBL TBL Word Order SOV SOV SVO SOV SOV SOV A, N G, N Type AN AN NA AN/NA AN AN GN GN NG GN GN GN OV/Po/GN/AN OV/Po/GN/AN VO/Pr/NG/NA OV/Po/GN/AN or NA OV/Po/GN/AN OV/Po/GN/AN Table 1: Word orders of the Languages. . 10 7.0 References: Comrie, Bernard. (1989). Language Universals and Linguistic Typology. Massachusetts: Blackwell Publishers Inc. Grierson, George A. (2000). Languages of North-Eastern India. New Delhi: Gyan Publishing House. Sharma, H.S. (Spring 1999). “A Comparison between Khasi and Manipuri Word Order.” Linguistics of the Tibeto-Burman Area. Volume 22.1.