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Biactantial agreement in the Gongduk transitive verb in the broader Tibeto-Burman context

George van Driem

    Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingChapterResearch

    Abstract

    The Gongduk language is spoken in an enclave in south central Bhutan comprising several villages and hamlets in the mountains west of the Kurichu. The language occupies a distinct phylogenetic position within the Tibeto-Burman language family. The intransitive verb agrees for person and number with the subject, and the transitive shows biactantial agreement for person and number with both agent and patient. A morphological analysis has identified the individual agreement morphemes, their precise grammatical meaning and their patterns of allomorphy. The cognacy of the greater part of the desinences of the Gongduk verb with morphemes identifiable in the biactantial agreement systems of other Tibeto-Burman languages supports the view that at least a portion of such conjugational morphology must be reconstructed to the common ancestral language.
    Original languageEnglish
    Title of host publicationFunctional-Historical Approaches to Explanation: In honor of Scott DeLancey
    EditorsTim Thornes, Erik Andvik, Gwendolyn Hyslop, Joana Jansen
    Place of PublicationAmsterdam, Netherlands
    PublisherJohn Benjamins Publishing Company
    Pages69-81
    Edition1
    ISBN (Print)9789027206848, 9789027271976
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 2013

    Publication series

    NameTypological Studies in Language
    Number103
    ISSN (Electronic)0167-7373

    Keywords

    • Language in Time and Space (incl Historical Linguistics, Dialectology)
    • Linguistic Structures (incl Grammar, Phonology, Lexicon, Semantics)

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