The Category of Postverbal Particles in Naxi and Grammaticalization
Melody Ya-Yin Chang
Yuxi Normal University
Naxi is a Tibeto-Burman language spoken in the southwest of China.
The syntactic categories of postverbal particles in Naxi are dual: both functional and lexical at the same time. On the one hand, they functions like inflectional categories since inflectional components such as aspect and mood are expressed in the analytic categories of postverbal particles:
(1) a. xɯ³³ ɡɯ³³ mbɯ³³ b. xɯ³¹ ɡɯ³³ tʰv³³
rain drop prospective rain drop perfective
“It is going to rain.” “It has rained.”
c. xɯ³¹ ɡɯ³³ ne³¹ d. xɯ³¹ ɡɯ³³ tʂʰɿ³¹ rain drop progressive rain drop inchoative
“It is raining.” “It is starting raining.”
On the other hand, the postverbal particles in Naxi also exhibit strong verbal characters. In particular, they may license a locative subject. As shown in (2), when the postverbal particle ne³³ occurs, a locative NP can be licensed in subject position even if it is not part of the argument structure of the sentence:
(2) a. dʑy³¹ ɡv³³ xɯ³¹ ɡɯ³³ ne³³
mountain on rain fall progressive
“It is raining on the mountain.” (with strong visual effects)
b. * dʑy³¹ ɡv³³ xɯ³¹ ɡɯ³³
mountain on rain fall
It is worthy to note that the postverbal particles in Naxi have their origins in directional verbs, and nowadays their verbal uses are still retained:
(3) a. u³³jə³³ ɡu³¹mbe³³ mbɯ³³ ze³¹
WuYong LiJiang go.irrealis ze
WuYong will go to LiJiang.
b. u³³jə³³ ɡu³¹mbe³³ tʰv³³ ze³¹
WuYong LiJiang reach.realis ze
WuYong have reached LiJiang.
c. u³³jə³³ ɡu³¹be³³ tʂʰɿ³¹ ze³¹
WuYong LiJiang come.realis ze
WuYong came to LiJiang.
To properly analyze the postverbal particles in Naxi, we thus suggest that a grammaticalization path should be involved to relate the dual categories of Naxi postverbal particles. In this approach, the verbal category of the postverbal particle is the genesis, later an auxiliary (or light verb) status is developed, and finally an inflectional status arises.
Selected References:
Matisoff, J. A. (1991) “Areal and Universal Dimensions of Grammaticalization in Lahu,” in E.C. Traugott & B. Heine, eds., Approaches to Grammaticalization, vol. II: Focus on Types of Grammatical Markers, pp. 383-453. Amsterdam/ Philadelphia: John Benjamin’s Publishing Co.
梅广 (1996)《独龙语的句尾词研究》，载《语文研究》30期，页151-175.
木仕华 (2006)《纳西语句尾词研究》，汉藏语言研究，民族出版社，页168-179.
