Cover not available
Article published In:
Linguistics of the Tibeto-Burman Area
Vol. 43:2 (2020) ► pp.292–309

The origin of the causative and simulative suffix -ter in Hakha Lai and Falam Chin

| California State University, Fullerton
This paper investigates the origin of the causative (CAUS) and simulative (SML) suffix -ter in two varieties of Lai language, Hakha Lai and Falam Chin. It also shows that Proto Central Chin (PCC) full verbs *tiir ‘to send someone to do an errand’ and *der ‘to pretend to’ grammaticalized and merged into the Lai CAUS and SML suffix -ter due to frequency pressure, the first time this type of argument for semantic change is used in Kuki-Chin (KC).
Keywords: causative, dialect, frequency pressure, merger, prefix, reflexive, simulative, suffix
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
    • 1.1Causative Constructions in Kuki-Chin Languages
    • 1.2Origin of the causative suffix -ter in Hakha Lai and Falam Chin
    • 1.3Origin of the SML suffix -ter in Hakha Lai and Falam Chin
    • 1.4Discussion on frequency pressure
  • Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 4 January 2021
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/ltba.19016.bik
References (31)
References
Bible Society of India. 2017. Pathian Lehkhabu Thianghlim (“The Holy Bible in Mizo (Lushai))”. Bangalore: The Bible Society of India.Google Scholar
Bible Society of Myanmar. 1978. Lai Baibal Thiang (“The Holy Bible in Hakha Lai”). Yangon: The Bible Society of Myanmar.Google Scholar
. 1985. Baibal Thiang Hlim (“The Holy Bible in Falam”). Yangon: The Bible Society of Myanmar.Google Scholar
Berkenfield, Catie. 2001. The role of frequency in the realization of English that . In Joan Bybee & Paul Hopper (eds.), Frequency and the emergence of linguistic structure, 281–307. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bybee, Joan. 2015. Language Change. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Chhangte, Lalnunthangi. 1993. Mizo syntax. Eugene: University of Oregon PhD dissertation.Google Scholar
Dahrawka, P. S. 1964. Mizo thawnthu (“Legends and folktales of the Mizo people”). Aijal, Mizoram, India: Sasem Bookstall and Agency.Google Scholar
Givón, Talmy. 1971. Historical syntax and synchronic morphology: An archaelogist’s field trip. Proc. of the Seventh Regional Meeting of the Chicago Linguistics Society, Chicago, April 16–18, 1971, 394–415.Google Scholar
King, Deborah. 2010. Voice and valence-altering operations in Falam Chin: A role and reference grammar approach. Arlington: University of Texas PhD dissertation.Google Scholar
Konnerth, Linda. 2018. The historical phonology of Monsang (Northwestern South-Central/“Kuki-Chin”): A case of reduction in phonological complexity. Himalayan Linguistics 17(1): 19–49. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Ling, Joel. 2011. Ram King (“The Lonely Land”). Yangon, Myanmar.Google Scholar
Lorrain, James Herbert. 1940. Dictionary of the Lushai language. Calcutta: Royal Asiatic Society of Bengal. (Reprinted 1965, 1976)Google Scholar
Lorrain, James Herbert & Fred W. Savidge. 1898. A grammar and dictionary of the Lushai language. Shillong, India: Assam Secretariat Printing Office.Google Scholar
Matisoff, James A. 1969. Verb concatenation in Lahu: The syntax and semantics of ‘simple’ juxtaposition. Acta Linguistica Hafniensia (Copenhagen) 12(1): 69–120. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
1973. The grammar of Lahu. Berkeley: University of California Press. (Reprinted 1982)Google Scholar
1976. Lahu causative constructions: case hierarchies and themorphology / syntax cycle in a Tibeto-Burman perspective. In Masayoshi Shibatani (ed.), The grammar of causative constructions, 413–441. New York: Academic Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
1988. The dictionary of Lahu. Berkeley, Los Angeles, London: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Myint Soe. 1999. A reference grammar of Burmese. Eugene: University of Oregon PhD dissertation.Google Scholar
Ohala, John. 1981. The listener as a source of sound change. In Carrie S. Masek, Robert A. Hendrick & Mary Frances Miller (eds.), Papers from the parasession on language and behavior, 178–203. Chicago: Chicago Linguistic Society.Google Scholar
Okell, John. 1969. A reference grammar of colloquial Burmese. London: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Ozerov, Pavel. 2018. Tone assignment and grammatical tone in Anal (Tibeto-Burman). Studies in Language 42(3): 708–733. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Peterson, David. 1998. The morphosyntax of transivization in Lai. Linguistics of the Tibeto-Burman Area. 21(1): 87–153.Google Scholar
. 2017. On Kuki-Chin subgrouping. In Picus S. Ding & Jemin Pekley (eds.), Social-historical linguistics in Southeast Asia: New Horizon for Tibeto-Burman Studies in Honor of David Bradley, 189–209. Brill. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Ringe, Donald & Joseph F. Eska. 2013. Historical linguistics: Towards a twenty-first century reintegration. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Smith, K. Aaron. 2001. The role of frequency in the specialization of English anterior. In Joan Bybee and Paul Hopper (eds.), Frequency and the emergence of linguistic structure, 361–382. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Smith, Tomoko Yamashita. 1998. The middle voice in Lai. Linguistics of the Tibeto-Burman Area. 21(1): 1–52.Google Scholar
Thomason, Sarah Grey & Terrence Kaufman. 1988. Language contact, creolization, and genetic linguistics. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Tluangneh, Thlasui. 2002. The middle voice in Lai. Cincinnati: Cincinnati Christian University MA thesis.Google Scholar
Van Bik, Harvey (ed.). 2018. Lai tuanbia (“Lai folktales”). Hakha, Chin State, Myanmar: Chin Research Center of Chin Christian University.Google Scholar
Van Bik, Kenneth. 2003. Three types of causative constructions in Hakha Lai. Linguistics of the Tibeto-Burman Area 25(2): 99–121.Google Scholar
. 2009. Proto-Kuki-Chin: A reconstructed ancestor of the Kuki-Chin languages. [STEDT monograph series 8]. Berkeley: University of California.Google Scholar