A Grammar of Maonan

Abstract

Maonan is a Kam-Tai (Tai-Kadai) language spoken by 75,000 people in the border area of Guangxi and Guizhou provinces of China. This grammar book is the first volume to account for the phonology, word-formation, syntax, grammaticalization and lexicalization patterns of Maonan from a typological and ethno-linguistic perspective. It renders a comprehensive description of Maonan with analysis of the neutralization of semantic macroroles and the dialectic interrelations between subject and topic. Particular attention is paid to the interplay between syntactic and semantic valencies.The detailed analysis of the Maonan aspects is also unprecedented. It examines Maonan tone sandhi from a totally new approach. The book also gives a full description of the clause final particles of Maonan.

About the Author

Dr Lu Tian-Qiao has taught Kam-Tai linguistics in the Central University of Nationalities in Beijing, China, and has published in Kam-Tai (aka Tai-Kadai) linguistics in the past 20 years. He is competent in Kam-Tai languages and several Sinitic languages. His main interest has been the ethno-linguistic and typological research in the Kam-Tai and Sino-Tibetan languages. His recent research emphasis is on the interplay between syntactic and semantic valencies and the dialectic relationship between subject and topic in syntactic analysis.