LINGUIST List 22.1997

Mon May 09 2011

Diss: Lang Doc/Syntax: Lidz: 'A Descriptive Grammar of Yongning Na ...'

Editor for this issue: Mfon Udoinyang <mfonlinguistlist.org>

        1.     Liberty Lidz , A Descriptive Grammar of Yongning Na (Mosuo)
Message 1: A Descriptive Grammar of Yongning Na (Mosuo)
Date: 08-May-2011
From: Liberty Lidz <libertylidzberkeley.edu>
Subject: A Descriptive Grammar of Yongning Na (Mosuo)
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Institution: University of Texas at Austin Program: Department of Linguistics Dissertation Status: Completed Degree Date: 2010

Author: Liberty A. Lidz

Dissertation Title: A Descriptive Grammar of Yongning Na (Mosuo)

Linguistic Field(s): Language Documentation                             Syntax
Dissertation Director:
Tony Woodbury
Dissertation Abstract:

This dissertation is a descriptive grammar of Yongning Na (Mosuo), aTibeto-Burman language spoken in southwestern China. The theoreticalapproaches taken are functional syntax and the discourse-based approach tolanguage description and documentation. The aim of this dissertation is todescribe the ways that the language's features and subsystems intersect tomake Na a unique entity: analycity; zero anaphora; OV word order;topic/comment information structure; a five-part evidential system; aconjunct/disjunct-like system that intersects with evidentiality and verbalsemantics; prolific grammaticalization; overlap between nominalization andrelativization and associated structures; representation of time throughaspect, Aktionsart, adverbials, and context; and the Daba shamanic register.

Topics covered in the grammar include a description of the sociolinguisticenvironment; the phonemic inventory; phonological processes; compounding;word classes; the structure of noun phrases; the classifier system; typesof possession; methods for quantification; grammatical relations andnon-systemic 'ergative' and 'anti-ergative' marking; the structure of verbphrases; the multiple existential verbs; the aspectual system;evidentiality; grammaticalization; clause-combining; narrative texts; andlexicon.


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