Comparative constructions in Suansu and the languages of northeastern India [Not quotable]

Authors

  • Jessica Ivani University of Zürich

Keywords:

Suansu, Tibeto-Burman, typology, comparative constructions, language documentation

Abstract

This paper provides a first description of comparative constructions in Suansu, an unreported Tibeto-Burman language spoken in northeastern India, and frames the characteristics of Suansu comparative constructions from a typological perspective (following Stassen’s 1985 classification). To this purpose, comparative constructions from a sample of 28 Tibeto-Burman languages of the area are collected in an ad-hoc designed database and typologically discussed. Results reveal the presence of two main types that cluster geographically in the region, as well as high internal variation with respect to the subtypes. Based on the classification, Suansu is assigned to the Exceed comparative type, the only representative of this type in the sample.

2021-10-11 – Editor's Note

In agreement with the Author, the Editors have temporarily retracted the article “Comparative constructions in Suansu and the languages of northeastern India”. After publication of the article, well-founded concerns were brought to the attention of the Editors regarding the reliability of some of the cited published sources and, consequently, regarding the representation of some of the data presented. The Editors requested the author to correct these data accordingly. An amended version of the article will be published in a subsequent issue of the journal after a new round of revision. The temporarily retracted article must not be quoted.

2022-04-14 – Editor's Note

A revised version of this paper has been published in vol. 2, no. 1 (2022). It is available here: https://doi.org/10.6092/issn.2785-0943/14379

References

Abraham, P. T. 1985. Apatani grammar. Vol. 12. Central Institute of Indian Languages: Grammar Series. Mysore: Central Institute of Indian Languages.

Bickel, Balthasar & Nichols, Johanna. 2002. Autotypologizing databases and their use in fieldwork. In Peter Austin & Helen Dry & Peter Wittenburg (eds.), Proceedings of the International LREC Workshop on Resources and Tools in Field Linguistics. Nijmegen: Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics.

Bickel, Balthasar. 2010a. Capturing particulars and universals in clause linkage. Isabelle Bril (ed.), Clause-Hierarchy and Clause-Linking: The Syntax and Pragmatics Interface, 51–101. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins.

Bickel Balthasar. 2010b. Towards a multivariate typology of reference tracking. Presentation given at the Meeting of the Research Group 742, Leipzig, 21 April.

Bickel, Balthasar & Zakharko, Taras & Nichols, Johanna. 2016. Better data with late aggregation: Autotyp and beyond. Paper presented at Poznan Linguistics Meeting, Poznań, 15-17 September.

Bickel, Balthasar & Nichols, Johanna & Zakharko, Taras & Witzlack-Makarevich, Alena & Hildebrandt, Kristine & Rießler, Michael & Bierkandt, Lennart & Zúñiga, Fernando & Lowe, John B. 2017. The AUTOTYP typological databases. Version 0.1.0. (Available online at https://github.com/autotyp/autotyp-data/tree/0.1.0, Accessed on 10-11-2020).

Bobaljik, Jonathan D. 2012. Universals in comparative morphology: suppletion, superlatives, and the structure of words. Vol. 50. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Buja, Andreas & Cook, Dianne & Hofmann, Heike & Lawrence, Michael & Lee, Eun-kyung & Swayne, Deborah F. & Wickham, Hadley. 2009. Statistical inference for exploratory data analysis and model diagnostics. Royal Society Philosophical Transactions. 367(1906). 4361–4383.

Burling, Robbins. 1961. A Garo grammar. Vol. 25. Deccan College Monograph Series. Poona: Deccan College.

Burling, Robbins. 2003a. The language of the Modhupur Mandi, Garo: Vol. II: The Lexicon. New Delhi: Bibliophile South Asia.

Burling, Robbins. 2003b. The Tibeto-Burman Languages of Northeastern India. In Graham Thurgood & Randy J. LaPolla (eds.), The Sino-Tibetan Languages, 169-192. London/New York: Routledge.

Coupe, Alexander R. 2007. A grammar of Mongsen Ao. Berlin/New York: Mouton de Gruyter.

DeLancey, Scott. 2011. ‘Optional’ ‘ergativity’ in Tibeto-Burman languages. Linguistics of the Tibeto-Burman Area 34(2). 9-20.

Devi, Kongkham Hemabati. 2010. A descriptive grammar of Moyon. PhD Dissertation, Manipur University.

Dixon, Robert. 2008. Comparative constructions: a cross-linguistic typology. Studies in Language. 32(4). 787–817.

Ebersole, Harold. 1996. The Mru language: a preliminary grammatical sketch. Unpublished manuscript.

Fuchs, Catherine. 2014. La comparaison et son expression en Français. Paris: Éditions Ophrys.

Giridhar, P. P. 1994. Mao Naga grammar. Central Institute of Indian Languages: Grammar Series. Mysore: Central Institute of Indian Languages.

Hammarström, Harald & Forkel, Robert & Haspelmath, Martin & Bank, Sebastian. 2020. Glottolog 4.2.1. Jena: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History. (Available online at https://glottolog.org/, Accessed on 10-11-2020)

Heine, Bernd. 1997. Cognitive foundations of grammar. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Ivani, Jessica K., & Zakharko, Taras. 2019. Tymber. Database on nominal number marking constructions. Version 0.1.0. (Available online at https://github.com/jkivani/tymber/, Accessed on 10-10-2020)

Jacques, Guillaume. 2016. From ergative to comparee marker: multiple reanalyses and polyfunctionality. Diachronica 33(1). 1–30.

Joseph, U. V. 2007. Rabha. Vol. 1. Languages of the Greater Himalayan Region. Leiden: Brill.

Kerman, Jouni & Gelman, Andrew & Zheng, Tian & Ding, Yuejing. 2008. Visualization in Bayesian data analysis. In Chun-houh Chen & Wolfgang Hardle & Antony Unwin (eds.), Handbook of Data Visualization, 709–24. Berlin: Springer.

Konnerth, Linda. 2014. A grammar of Karbi. PhD dissertation, University of Oregon.

Krishan, Shree. 2001. A sketch of Raji grammar. In Yasuhiko Nagano and Randy J. Lapolla (eds.), New Research on Zhangzhung and Related Himalayan Languages, 449–497. Bon Studies. Osaka: National Museum of Ethnology.

Lalrempuii, C. 2005. Morphology of the Adi language of Arunachal Pradesh. PhD dissertation, North-Eastern Hill University.

Marrison, Geoffrey Edward. 1967. The classification of the Naga languages of North-East India. PhD dissertation, University of London.

Morey, Stephen. 2010. Turung: A variety of Singpho language spoken in Assam. Vol. 614. Pacific Linguistics. Canberra: Research School of Pacific; Asian Studies, Australian National University.

Mortensen, David. 2013. Database of Tangkhulic Languages. Unpublished manuscript. Accessed via the STEDT Database (https://stedt.berkeley.edu/) on 10-11-2020.

Nagaraja, K. S. 2010. Konyak grammar. Vol. 594. Central Institute of Indian Languages: Publication. Mysore: Central Institute of Indian Languages.

Paudyal, Netra Prasad. 2015. Aspects of Chintang syntax. PhD dissertation, Universität Zürich.

Post, Mark W. 2007. A grammar of Galo. PhD dissertation, LaTrobe University.

Post, Mark W. 2017. The Tangam language: grammar, dictionary and texts. Leiden: Brill.

Prasad, Bal Ram. 1991. Mising grammar. Mysore, India: Central Institute of Indian Languages.

Sangdong, David. 2012. A grammar of the Kadu (Asak) language. PhD dissertation, La Trobe University.

Sastry, G. Devi Prasada. 1984. Mishmi grammar. Mysore, India: Central Institute of Indian Languages.

Schackow, Diana. 2015. A grammar of Yakkha. Studies in Diversity Linguistics 7. Berlin: Language Science Press.

Singh, Hidam Brojen. 2000. A descriptive grammar of Chothe. PhD dissertation, Manipur University.

Stassen, Leon. 1985. Comparison and universal grammar. Oxford: Blackwell.

Stassen, Leon. 2013. Comparative constructions. In Matthew S. Dryer & Martin Haspelmath (eds.), The World Atlas of Language Structures Online. Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology. (Available online at https://wals.info/chapter/121, Accessed on 10-11-2020).

Stolz, Thomas. 2013. Competing comparative constructions in Europe. Berlin/New York: Mouton de Gruyter.

Sun, Tianshin. 1993. A historical-comparative study of the Tani (Mirish) branch in Tibeto-Burman. Linguistics of the Tibeto-Burman Area. 16. Ann Arbor: UMI.

Treis, Yvonne. 2018. Comparative constructions: An Introduction. Linguistic Discovery 16(1). i-xxvi.

Tuttle, Siri G. 2018. Comparative and superlative constructions in Alaskan Athabascan languages. Linguistic Discovery 16(1). 100-116.

Ultan, Russell. 1972. Some features of basic comparative constructions. Working Papers on Language Universals (Stanford) 9. 117–162.

Van Breugel, Seino. 2014. A grammar of Atong. Leiden: Brill.

Van Den Berg, René. 2018. More than most: comparative constructions in Muna. Linguistic Discovery 16(1). 117-140.

Wai, Lin Aung. 2013. A descriptive grammar of Kayah Monu. Master’s thesis, Payap University.

Wickham, Hadley & Cook, Dianne & Hofmann, Heike & Buja, Andreas. 2010. Graphical inference for infovis. IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics 16(6). 973–979.

Widmer, Manuel. 2014. A descriptive grammar of Bunan. PhD dissertation, Universität Bern.

Wright, Jonathan Michael. 2009. Hkongso grammar sketch. PhD dissertation, Graduate Institute of Applied Linguistics.

Downloads

Published

2021-08-31

How to Cite

1.
Ivani J. Comparative constructions in Suansu and the languages of northeastern India [Not quotable]. LTC [Internet]. 2021 Jan. 1 [cited 2024 Nov. 21];1(1):94-123. Available from: https://typologyatcrossroads.unibo.it/article/view/13429