Some Speculations on the Noun Phrase Structure of Jingpo

14 Pages·0.289 MB·English

by  Chi-Hang Cheung Candice.

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Some Speculations on the Noun Phrase
Structure of Jingpo*
Candice Cheung Chi Hang
Department of Linguistics, University of Southern California

1. Introduction
This paper focuses on a far less-studied language, Jingpo – a Tibeto-Burman
language that allows the demonstrative to appear either prenominally or
postnominally. One of the major goals of this paper is to accommodate the
different distribution of the demonstrative in the language. Another goal of this
paper is to provide an adequate account for adjectives, since it has been noted in
the literature (Gu & Dai 2003) that they can appear in either prenominal or
postnominal position (though with slightly different forms).
This paper is organized as follows: in the following section, some background
information about Jingpo will be provided. In section 3, I will illustrate the
different properties of prenominal and postnominal adjectives, and I will argue
that prenominal and postnominal adjectives have different statuses. The
properties of the demonstratives in Jingpo as well as its distributional patterns
will be examined in section 4. In section 5, I will provide a principled account for
the different placements of the demonstrative. Some concluding remarks will be
given in section 6.

2. Background Information about Jingpo
Jingpo belongs linguistically to the Kachinic group within the Tibeto-Burman
family, and is spoken by the Jingpo ethnic group who mainly reside in three
different regions, including the northeastern part of Myanmar (formerly Burma),
the contiguous areas of India (Arunachal Pradesh and Nagaland), and China
(Yunnan). Like most languages belonging to the Tibeto-Burman family, Jingpo is
a SOV language.
The Jingpo data presented in this paper are of two principal types: written and
oral. The written data are drawn from a number of different sources, including
Jingpo-Chinese dictionary (Xu et. al. 1983), grammar books (Liu 1984, Dai & Xu
1992) and current research on the grammar of Jingpo (Dai 1998, Dai & Gu 2003,
among many others). As for the oral data, they are principally collected from my
native informants who reside in Dehong Dai-Jingpo autonomous prefecture in
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Yunnan province and Burma. The data presented in this paper are based on
colloquial spoken Jingpo.

3. The Distribution of Adjectives
In Jingpo, the distribution of adjective is relatively ‘free’, as it may occur
immediately before or after the noun, as illustrated in the following examples:1

(1) a. gaba ai hpun b. hpun gaba
big MOD tree tree big
‘big tree’ ‘big tree’ (Dai & Xu 1992: 325)

Note that prenominal adjectives must be followed by the modifying marker ai
(abbreviated as MOD in (1a) and (2a)); whereas for postnominal adjectives, the
presence of ai is always barred (2b):2

(2) a. hkye *(ai) hte tsom *(ai) nampan nhtan masum
red MOD and beautiful MOD flower Clbunch three
‘three bunches of red and beautiful flowers’ (Gu & Dai 2003: 87)
b. Nta gaba (*ai) dai hkik hkik ai wa!
building big MOD that magnificent REDUP 3SG(Subj)STA EXC
‘That big building is very magnificent!’

Gu & Dai (2003) provide extensive evidence arguing that postnominal adjectives
(as in (1b) and (2b)) should be analyzed as a compound with the internal structure
[head + modifier], whereas the prenominal adjective plus ai (as in (1a) and (1a))
should be analyzed as a modifier which adjoins to the noun phrase. Let us review
some of the evidence for treating [N(oun) + Adj(ective)] as a compound. In
Jingpo, when a disyllabic noun forms a compound with an adjective, the first
syllable of the noun is often deleted, with the resulting compound ending up with
the last syllable of the noun plus the adjectives. Some typical examples are shown
below (adopted from Gu & Dai 2003: 76):

(3) nampan → pan + hkye → panhkye
‘flower’ ‘red’ ‘red flower’
(4) hpunpyen → pyen + chyang → pyenchyang
‘board’ ‘black ‘blackboard’

In addition, Gu & Dai show that the compounds thus formed always resist
modification from adverbs, as shown by the contrast between examples (a) and (b)
below (adopted from Gu & Dai 2003: 76-77):

(5) a. panhkye b. *pan-grai-hyke
‘red flower’ Intended reading: ‘very red flower’
(6) a. pyenchyang b. *pyen-nau-chyang
‘blackboard’ Intended reading: (Lit.) ‘too black board’
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Second, Gu & Dai show that there are many compounds in Jingpo which have the
head-initial structure (examples in (7) are adopted from Gu & Dai 2003: 85):

(7) a. ma bau hkrai noi lung nep
child adopt bridge suspend stone bed
‘adopted child’ ‘suspension bridge’ ‘bed stone’
b. *bau ma *noi hkrai *nep lung
adopt child suspend bridge bed stone

Based on the above evidence, Gu & Dai conclude that [N + Adj] as shown in (1b)
and (8) above must be analyzed as a compound. However, note that their
argument is incomplete, since for one thing, the compounds shown in (7) do not
involve the [N + Adj] form, and the fact that these compounds always show head-
initial structure does not necessarily imply that all N-initial elements must be
treated as compounds. For another, while they have shown that compounds
derived from [N + Adj] resist adverb modification (5-6), they have not provided
direct evidence showing that [N + Adj] (as in (1b) and (2b)) also shares the same
property. In what follows, I will provide crucial evidence showing that
prenominal and postnominal adjectives should be analyzed as having different
statuses in the language.

3.1 Different properties of [Adj + ai + N] and [N + Adj]
Prenominal adjectives are different from postnominal ones in (at least) three
respects: first, while [Adj + ai + N] always allows adverb modification, [N + Adj]
does not (8a-b):

(8) a. grai gaba ai hpun b. hpun (*grai)gaba (*grai)
very big MOD tree tree very big very
‘very big tree’ ‘big tree’
The fact that [N + Adj] always resists adverb modification provides important
support for the view that it has the status of a compound, since recall that those
derived from [N + Adj] (as in (5-6)) have essentially the same property.
Second, prenominal and postnominal adjectives differ in terms of conjunction.
As shown in (9), [Adj + ai] can always be conjoined by the connective hte ‘and’.
However, only [N + Adj], but not postnominal adjectives alone, can be conjoined
by hte, as demonstrated by the contrast between (10a) and (10b).

(9) hkye *(ai) hte tsom *(ai) nampan nhtan masum
red MOD and beautiful MOD flower Clbunch three
‘three bunches of red and beautiful flowers’
(10) a. *nampan hkye hte tsom nhtan masum
flower red and beautiful Clbunch three
b. nampan hkye hte nampan tsom nhtan masum
flower red and flower beautiful Clbunch three
‘three bunches (in which there are) red flowers and beautiful flowers’
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In addition, note that (9) and (10) have different interpretations: the only reading
for (9) is that all flowers in the three bunches are both red and beautiful, whereas
the form in (10) means that within the three bunches of flowers, there are two
types of flowers, namely, red flowers and beautiful flowers.
Third, it is noted that multiple occurrence of different [Adj + ai] forms is always
allowed (11), whereas for postnominal adjectives, only a single adjective can
show up, as illustrated by the contrast between (12a-c) and (12d).

(11) gaba *(ai) hkye *(ai) dui *(ai) myin *(ai) namsi
big MOD red MOD sweet MOD ripe MOD fruit
‘big red sweet ripe fruit(s)’
(12) a. *namsi myin dui hkye gaba
fruit ripe sweet red big
Intended reading: ‘big red sweet ripe fruit(s)’
b. *namsi dui hkye gaba
fruit sweet red big
Intended reading: ‘big red sweet fruit(s)’
c. *namsi hkye gaba
fruit red big
Intended reading: ‘big red fruit(s)’
d. namsi gaba
fruit big
‘big fruit(s)’

Based on the fact that [N + Adj] behaves like compounds in that both resist
modification by adverbs (see (5-6) above) and that multiple postnominal
adjectives are always barred in Jingpo, I argue that [N + Adj] is best-analyzed as
a compound with the noun being the head, as schematized in (13):

(13) NP
!
N0
V
N0 A0
! !
nampan hkye
flower red
‘red flower’

Having established that [N + Adj] has the status of a compound in Jingpo, I will
turn to prenominal adjectives in the next section.

3.2 Analysis for prenominal adjectives
As demonstrated in the previous section, prenominal adjectives differ from
postnominal ones in three crucial respects: first, they allow adverb modification
while postnominal ones don’t. Second, conjunction of two prenominal [Adj + ai]
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forms by hte ‘and’ is possible but it is always barred when postnominal adjectives
alone are conjoined. Third, multiple [Adj + ai] forms are always permissible
when appearing prenominally but only a single adjective can show up
postnominally. Further investigation into this third property of prenominal
adjectives reveals a stark contrast between English and Jingpo in terms of the
ordering restrictions on adjectives. A well-known fact about English adjectives is
that they exhibit a rigid order: Adjquality > Adjsize > Adjcolor (14). In contrast,
multiple [Adj + ai] forms preceding the noun can be randomly ordered in Jingpo
(15):3

(14) a. a wonderful big red car b. *a red big wonderful car
(15) a. gaba *(ai) hkye *(ai) dui *(ai) myin *(ai) namsi hkum mi
big MOD red MOD sweet MOD ripe MOD fruit Cl one
‘one big red sweet ripe fruit’
b. myin *(ai) dui *(ai) hkye *(ai) gaba *(ai) namsi hkum mi
ripe MOD sweet MOD red MOD big MOD fruit Cl one
‘one ripe sweet red big fruit’
c. dui *(ai) hkye *(ai) gaba *(ai) myin *(ai) namsi hkum mi
sweet MOD red MOD big MOD ripe MOD fruit Cl one
‘one sweet red big ripe fruit’
d. hkye *(ai) dui *(ai) myin *(ai) gaba *(ai) namsi hkum mi
red MOD sweet MOD ripe MOD big MOD fruit Cl one
‘one red sweet ripe big fruit’

Given the fact that there is no fixed ordering of multiple [Adj + ai] forms, I adopt
the adjunction analysis, and assume that APs, which host [Adj + ai], are adjuncts
to NP (see Jackendoff 1977, Valois 1991, Bernstein 1993, Ernst 2002, among
others). On this view, noun phrases with multiple prenominal adjectives like (15a)
will yield the structure in (16):

(16) NP
V
AP NP
4 V
gaba ai AP NP
4 V
hkye ai AP NP
4 V
dui ai AP NP
4 4
myin ai namsi

Note that in (16), I have assumed that the prenominal APs have a ‘nested
structure’ with the higher AP c-commanding the lower ones, given the fact that
the higher APs do not modify the head noun alone, as in the case of coordination
structure (for instance, a typical example would be ‘a red, wonderful and big
flower’ in English, where each of the adjectives modifies only the head noun).
Rather, the higher APs always modify the lower constituent that includes the c-
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commanded APs and the head noun, viz., it has a similar reading to the English
example in (14a). In other words, despite the fact that Jingpo differs from English
with respect to the ordering restrictions of prenominal APs, the two languages are
quite similar in that both exhibit a nested interpretation for noun phrases with
prenominal adjectives.
To briefly summarize, I have shown that prenominal and postnominal adjectives
should be analyzed as having different statuses in the language: the former being
part of a compound, whereas the latter are adjuncts that modifies NP.

4. The Distribution of Demonstratives
Jingpo, similar to other classifier languages, does not possess definite or
indefinite articles. However, in contrast to most languages that have only two or
three demonstratives locating the referents at different points on a distance scale,
e.g., a proximal demonstrative such as this in English, and its corresponding
distal demonstrative that, Jingpo has three additional demonstratives, which
indicate whether the referent is at a higher, level or lower elevation relative to
both speaker and hearer. A summary of the semantic properties of these five
demonstratives is given in Table 1 below:

Table 1. Demonstratives in Jingpo
Proximal (Near Speaker) ndai
Distal (Near Hearer) dai
Up (Away from Speaker and Hearer) htora
Level (Away from Speaker and Hearer) wora
Down (Away from Speaker and Hearer) Lera

The demonstratives in Table 1 can all appear in the topic position. This indicates
that they are independent elements, as exemplified in (17):

(17) Dai go nye a n re.
that TOP my GEN NEG be
‘That is not mine.’ (Dai & Xu 1992: 193)

Extensive documentation on the grammar of Jingpo (see Liu 1984, and Dai &
Xu 1992) has shown that the distribution of the demonstrative is relatively free.
All the demonstratives in table 1 can either precede or immediately follow the
noun is also supported by its distributional patterns when co-occurring with other
elements in the noun phrase, including the prenominal adjective, classifier,
numeral and the noun, as demonstrated by the contrast in well-formedness
between (18a-b) and (18c-d). (for clarity, the whole noun phrases are underlined
and the demonstratives are put in boldface).4 Note that (18a-b) have exactly the
same interpretation despite the different placements of the demonstratives. In
addition, the contrast between (18a) and (18e) further indicates that the
prenominal demonstrative can only precede, but not follow, the adjective. Put
differently, the adjective must be adjacent to the noun (18a-b, 18e). Also note that
the presence of the topic marker go is always optional in Jingpo.
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(18) a. Ndai (gaja ai) n-gu kyin masum (go) grai hpro ai.
this good MOD rice Clcatty three TOP very white 3SG(Subj)STA
‘These three catties of good rice are very white.’
b. (Gaja ai) n-gu ndai kyin masum (go) grai hpro ai.
good MOD rice this Clcatty three TOP very white 3SG(Subj)STA
‘These three catties of good rice are very white.’
c. *(Gaja ai) n-gu kyin ndai masum (go) grai hpro ai.
good MOD rice Clcatty this three TOP very white 3SG(Subj)STA
d. *(Gaja ai) n-gu kyin masum ndai (go) grai hpro ai.
good MOD rice Clcatty three this TOP very white 3SG(Subj)STA
e. *(Gaja ai) ndai n-gu kyin masum (go) grai hpro ai.
good MOD this rice Clcatty three TOP very white 3SG(Subj)STA

The above data show that Jingpo noun phrases allow only two possible orders,
which are listed below:

(19) a. [Dem + (Adj + ai) + N + Cl + Num] (=18a)
b. [(Adj + ai) + N + Dem + Cl + Num] (=18b)

In what follows, I will provide a unified account for the relatively free
distribution of the demonstratives manifested in Jingpo noun phrases.

5. A Unified Account
Before turning to the question of how the relatively ‘free’ distribution of the
demonstrative can be captured under a principled account, I would like to discuss
the feature composition of demonstratives, and suggest that it should be distinct
from definite articles. First, as argued in Bennett (1978), when one says this/that
book, one is actually saying the book here or the book there. This can be
attributed to the general properties of demonstratives in natual languages that
require demonstration. This can be done by an actual pointing gesture or it can be
made explicit in the discourse by the addition of locative elements such as here or
there that makes clear which place/location is intended, as demonstrated in the
following examples ((20a-b) are drawn from Kayne 2004, and (21a-b) are from
Bernstein 1997: 91):

(20) a. this here book b. that there book (nonstandard English)
(21) a. cette femme-ci b. ce livre-lá (French)
this woman-here that book-there
‘this woman’ ‘that book’

Following Bennett’s insight and also Jean-Roger Vergnaud’s remarks (personal
communication), it is logical to conceive that demonstratives in natural languages
are composed of three different features, including (i) the [+def] feature, (ii) the
[deictic] feature, and (iii) the ‘place’ or ‘location’ feature that can be ascribed to
the locative elements like here or there that can be either overt or covert. In
contrast, definite articles in simplex noun phrases like ‘the book’ simply have the
[+def] feature. Note that the different feature compositions of demonstratives vs.
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definite articles are also reflected in their different acceptabilities in various types
of clauses.5 For instance, it has been noted in Bernstein (1997) that only definite
articles, but not demonstratives with definite interpretation, are allowed in
restrictive relative clauses, as illustrated below ((22b) and (23b-c) are from
Bernstein 1997: 102):

(22) a. the guy that I know (nonstandard English)
b. this here guy that I know
‘a guy that I know’ (NOT: ‘this guy that I know’)
(23) a. le livre que j’ai acheté (French)
the book that I-have bought
‘the book that I have bought’
b. *ce livre que j’ai acheté ci
this book that I-have bought here
Intended: ‘this book that I have bought’ (NOT: ‘a book that I have bought’)
c. *ce livre-ci que j’ai acheté
this book-here that I-have bought
Intended: ‘this book that I have bought’ (NOT: ‘a book that I have bought’)

In addition, according to Bernstein, the locative element can show up only with
the presence of the demonstrative but not vice versa, as demonstrated in (24-25):

(24) this/that (here) book vs. *here/there book (nonstandard English)
(25) ce livre jaune(-la) vs. *livre jaune-la (French)
that book yellow book yellow-there
‘that yellow book’

In order to capture the dependency relation between the locative element and
demonstrative, Bernstein proposes that the locative element occupies the head of
a function projection that I label as LocP, and the demonstrative is always base-
generated in Spec-LocP position, whether or not the locative is present (see also
Schmitt 2000 for similar proposal). Moreover, she assumes that the LocP takes
the Number Phrase (NumP), i.e., the host of [singular/plural] feature, as its
complement, as shown in (26):

(26) [LocP this [Loc’ here] [NumP [Num’ bookk] [NP tk]]] (nonstandard English)

Adopting Bernstein’s proposal that the demonstrative occupies the Spec of LocP,
where the head position of LocP can be filled or empty, I suggest that Loc0 is the
locus of [deictic] feature, and the locative elements can optionally appear in such
position to specify the location. Additionally, assuming that demonstratives have
a uniform structure in natural languages, I propose that the demonstrative in
Jingpo occupies the Spec-LocP position, and Loc0 subcategorizes NumP as its
complement, similar to the case found in English (see (26) above).6 Following
Tang’s (1990) proposal that the noun phrase structure of Mandarin is composed
of four distinct layers: (i) DP as the locus of definiteness (a la Li 1999), (ii) NumP
as the host of numerals, (iii) ClP as the host of classifiers, and (iv) NP that serves
as the lexical or substantive layer, I assume that the noun phrase structure of
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Jingpo is exactly the same as Mandarin, except that the former is head-final,
given that Jingpo is widely accepted as a strictly head-final language (Dai & Gu
2003).7 Following these assumptions, noun phrases with demonstrative would
then have the underlying structure schematized in (27a). Since noun phrases with
demonstrative in Jingpo, like those in Mandarin, must be interpreted as definite, I
further propose that the demonstrative must raise to Spec-DP before Spell-Out to
check off the [+def] feature through Spec-head agreement, as in (27b).

(27) a. DP b. DP
V V
D’ DemP D’
V V
LocP D0 LocP D0
V V [+def]
DemP Loc’ tDemP Loc’
V V
NumP Loc0 NumP Loc0
V [deictic] V [deictic]
ClP Num0 ClP Num0
V V
NP Cl0 NP Cl0
V V
......... ..........

As shown in (27b), the proposed analysis has an additional advantage of nicely
accommodating the prenominal distribution of the demonstrative as manifested in
the [Dem + (AP) + N + Cl + Num] order.
While noun phrases with either prenominal or postnominal placement of the
demonstrative seem to have the same meaning (see (19-20) above), it should be
noted there are contexts in which the [(AP) + N + Dem + Cl + Num] order is
preferred. There is tendency to use this order when the referent denoted by the
noun is taken as new information or being contrasted. For instance, the [(AP) + N
+ Dem + Cl + Num] order is preferred in contexts like (28) (‘#’ is used to indicate
the oddness of the sentence), where n-gu ‘rice’ is taken as the new information.

(28) a. Shi a rai gara ra re ni?
his GEN thing which REDUP be 3SG(Subj)STA.Q
‘Which item(s) belong(s) to him?’ (Dai and Xu 1992: 58)
b. Hpro ai n-gu ndai kyin masum go shi a re.
white Mod rice this Clcatty three TOP his GEN be
‘Those three catties of white rice are his.’
c. #Ndai hpro ai n-gu kyin masum go shi a re.
this white MOD rice Clcatty three TOP his GEN be
‘Those three catties of rice are his.’

Alternatively, when the head nouns n-gu ‘rice’ and namsi ‘fruit’ are contrasted as
in (29) (which may be used as the first utterance by a customer in the market), the
same order is also preferred.

(29) a. Ngai go n-gu ndai kyin masum hpe ra nngai,
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I TOP rice this Clcatty three AOM want 1SG(Subj)STA
namsi ndai hkum mali hpe n ra nngai.
fruit this Cl four AOM NEG want 1SG(Subj)STA
(Lit.)‘I want these three catties of rice, I don’t want these four fruits.’
b. #Ngai go n-gu ndai kyin masum hpe ra nngai,
I TOP rice this Clcatty three AOM want 1SG(Subj)STA
ndai namsi hkum mali hpe n ra nngai.
this fruit Cl four AOM NEG want 1SG(Subj)STA
(Lit.)‘I want these three catties of rice, I don’t want these four fruits.’

Based on the fact that the N-initial order is always preferred when the referent of
the NP is interpreted as new information or when the NP is involved in
contrastive focus structure, I suggest that the [(AP) + N + Dem + Cl + Num]
order is derived by phrasal movement of NP (along with the prenominal AP
adjuncts) to Spec-Focus Phrase (FocP), and the movement is triggered by Focus.
Following this proposal, noun phrases with the [(AP) + N + Dem + Cl + Num]
order would have the structure shown in (30):

(30) FocP
qp
NP Foc’
V V
........ DP Foc0
V [focus]
DemP D’
V
LocP D0
V [+def]
tDemP Loc’
V
NumP Loc0
V [deictic]
ClP Num0
V
tNP Cl0

Given the structure in (30), it is expected that phrasal movement of NP only takes
place when the FocP is present. Since I have shown that the N-initial order is only
preferred in certain specific contexts, it is plausible to assume that FocP is
projected only in those contexts, hence explaining the optionality of the NP
movement.
In sum, I have suggested that the [(AP) + N + Dem + Cl + Num] order is
derived by phrasal movement of NP (along with its adjoined prenominal APs),
which is triggered by Focus.

6. Concluding Remarks
This paper is primarily concerned with the noun phrase structure of Jingpo, and
the central goal is to provide a principled account for the prenominal/postnominal