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Copyright by Liberty A. Lidz 2010 The Dissertation Committee for Liberty A. Lidz Certifies that this is the approved version of the following dissertation: A Descriptive Grammar of Yongning Na (Mosuo) Committee: Anthony C. Woodbury, Supervisor Nora England Megan Crowhurst Patience Epps Graham Thurgood Qing Zhang A Descriptive Grammar of Yongning Na (Mosuo) by Liberty A. Lidz, B.A. Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of The University of Texas at Austin in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy The University of Texas at Austin December, 2010 Dedication For Lance Hahn requiescat in pace Acknowledgements First, my deep thanks go to the Na for their hospitality, intellectualism, enthusiasm, warmth, and the energy put into our research. I would like to thank Geze Dorje for the long hours he put into all facets of this research, as well as for his acute insight into phenomena linguistic, anthropological, and sociological. I would also like to thank Yang Zhenhong and Lamu Gatusa, colorful and brilliant men whose work I admire deeply, and who were extremely generous with their time and help. I also thank Hua’er Zhao, Tseren Dorje, Erqing, Awu Daba, Dibi Daba, Mupha Daba, Yongzhutser Daba, Da Lang, Dan Bing and Husi Chawu, and the people of Luoshui. Wu Yinghui of Yunnan Normal University and Yang Hui of Yunnan University provided crucial help in arranging research permission, no small matter given the number of bureaus involved, and shared valuable insight into conducting fieldwork in Yunnan from their own extensive research experiences. He Shaoying of Yunnan Minorities University was instrumental in helping me to start my research in the summer of 2001. Zhou Hua Shan was extremely helpful in sharing his knowledge of Na life gained through his lengthy fieldwork in the region, and I thank him tremendously for providing an introduction to my main native speaker consultant. Tami Blumenfield became an excellent friend, and I have benefited tremendously from discussions with her, both in the field and over the years. I would also like to express my gratitude to the National Science Foundation, the National Science Foundation Office of International Science and Engineering, and the IEFS and Department of Asian Studies at the University of Texas at Austin for research grants without which this research would not have been possible. v I thank my advisor, Tony Woodbury, for taking me on as an advisee. When I was applying for graduate school in 1999, few departments considered descriptive and documentary research a worthy scholarly pursuit. I was extremely lucky to find an advisor and a department so fundamentally grounded in descriptive and documentary linguistics, both in terms of training and of values. I am tremendously grateful for his support in every way over the years, without which this research could not have happened. I thank my committee members, Nora England, Patience Epps, Qing Zhang, Graham Thurgood, and Megan Crowhurst, for their support over the years, their insightful comments and discussion. Alexandra Aikhenvald, Nicholas Evans, Martin Haspelmath, John Haviland, Nikolaus Himmelmann, and Heidi Johnson also contributed comments, questions, and discussion which helped shape my work. I also thank faculty at the University of Texas past and present, particularly Rajesh Bhatt, Lisa Green, Robert Harms, Björn Lindblom, Richard Meier, Scott Myers, Carlota Smith, and Keith Walters; my undergraduate advisors at Barnard, Joseph Malone and Dirk Obbink; and Penelope Rainey, a remarkable teacher who first exposed me to linguistic analysis through Classical Greek. I have always considered that the Tibeto-Burman linguistic region seems to draw some of the best and most interesting people. James Matisoff and Randy LaPolla in particular have very generously given me extensive and very helpful comments. I also thank Alexis Michaud for his detailed comments, willingness to share his phonological acumen, and discussion over the years. Laura Bennetts, Balthasar Bickel, David Bradley, Daniel Bruhn, Shobhana Chelliah, Katia Chirkova, Richard Cook, Alec Coupe, Scott DeLancey, Roselle Dobbs, Jonathan Evans, Carol Genetti, Zev Handel, Inga-Lill Hansson, Lee Hogan, Gwendolyn Hyslop, John B. Lowe, David Peterson, David Solnit, Kenneth VanBik, Alice Vittrant, Justin Watkins, and Dominc Yu have all provided useful comments and terrific discussions. STEDT has been a wonderful and stimulating intellectual environment in which to finish my dissertation. vi I am grateful to my classmates Lynda de Jong Boudreault, Cheng-Fu Chen, Elaine Chun, Hilaria Cruz, Shannon Finch, Taryne Hallett, Cynthia Hansen, Fred Hoyt, Anita Huang, Susan Smythe Kung, I-Wen Lai, Chingwan Lee, Er-Xin Lee, B’alam Mateo- Toledo, Eric McCready, Laura Mahalingappa, Sadaf Munshi, Alexis Palmer, Ginger Pizer, Kate Shaw Points, Elias Ponvert, Fei Ren, Malavika Shetty, Aaron Shield, Jessica White Sustaíta, Alexandra Teodorescu, and Christina Willis for many hours of useful discussion around the lunch table and in the hallways, and for their friendship over the years. The University of Texas Linguistics Department has been blessed with fantastic administrative staff, and I thank Leslie Crooks, Gina Pollard, Brian Price, Benjamin Rapstine, Kathy Ross, and Andrea Truesdale, as well as Joey Walker outside the department, for years of assistance in numerous matters big and small. I would also like to thank Brett Bays, Kelly Bogdan, Kyra Choudhury, Arwen Curry, David and Rosa-Maria DiDonato, Gordon Edgar, Joe Gross, Timmy Hefner, Jason McGill, Mike McKee, Mike Millett, Adam Pfahler, Chris Pfeffer, Stacey Pridham, Rachel Rinaldo, Joe S., Kate Short, David Uskovich, Wang Xiaokun, and Ben White for their friendship over the years. I thank Lance Hahn, Katharine and Victor Lidz, Adam Lidz and Sonja Pacho, Larry Lidz, and Ruth and Theodore Lidz, for their invaluable love and support. vii A Descriptive Grammar of Yongning Na (Mosuo) Publication No._____________ Liberty A. Lidz, Ph.D. The University of Texas at Austin, 2010 Supervisor: Anthony C. Woodbury This dissertation is a descriptive grammar of Yongning Na (Mosuo), a Tibeto- Burman language spoken in southwestern China. The theoretical approaches taken are functional syntax and the discourse-based approach to language description and documentation. The aim of this dissertation is to describe the ways that the language’s features and subsystems intersect to make Na a unique entity: analycity; zero anaphora; OV word order; topic/comment information structure; a five-part evidential system; a conjunct/disjunct-like system that intersects with evidentiality and verbal semantics; prolific grammaticalization; overlap between nominalization and relativization and associated structures; representation of time through aspect, Aktionsart, adverbials, and context; and the Daba shamanic register. Topics covered in the grammar include a description of the sociolinguistic environment; the phonemic inventory; phonological processes; compounding; word classes; the structure of noun phrases; the classifier system; types of possession; methods for quantification; grammatical relations and non-systemic ‘ergative’ and ‘anti-ergative’ marking; the structure of verb phrases; the multiple existential verbs; the aspectual system; evidentiality; grammaticalization; clause-combining; narrative texts; and lexicon. viii Table of Contents List of Tables.............................................................................................................xxv List of Figures........................................................................................................xxviii Abbreviations...........................................................................................................xxxi Index of Classifiers................................................................................................xxxiv Chapter 1: Sociolinguistic overview........................................................................1 1.1 Classification .........................................................................................3 1.2 Methodology..........................................................................................9 1.2.1 Computing environment..........................................................12 1.3 Typological profile...............................................................................14 1.4 The people............................................................................................14 1.5 Subsistence...........................................................................................16 1.6 Tourism................................................................................................17 1.7 Language vitality.................................................................................19 Chapter 2: Segmental phonology...........................................................................21 2.1 Syllable structure ......................................................................................21 2.2 Consonant inventory.................................................................................23 2.2.1 Obstruents..................................................................................25 2.2.1.1 Stops............................................................................22 2.2.1.1.1 Bilabial stops ...................................26 /pʰ, p, b/ 2.2.1.1.2 Alveolar stops ...................................27 /tʰ, t, d/ 2.2.1.1.3 Velar stops .......................................27 /kʰ, k, g/ 2.2.1.1.4 Uvular stops ....................................28 /qʰ, q, ɢ/ 2.2.1.2 Fricatives.....................................................................29 2.2.1.2.1 Labiodental fricative ................................30 /f/ 2.2.1.2.2 Alveolar fricatives and ........................31 /s/ /z/ 2.2.1.2.3 Alveo-palatal fricatives and ................31 /ɕ/ /ʑ/ 2.2.1.2.4 Retroflex fricatives and .......................32 /ʂ/ /ʐ/ 2.2.1.2.5 Velar fricative and glottal fricative .....32 /ɣ/ /h/ ix