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Article published In:
Studies in Language
Vol. 45:4 (2021) ► pp.887–920

The development of perfectivity in Khamti Shan

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Khamti Shan features the marking of perfectivity comprised of three clause-final particles, one perfective and two imperfectives, each emerging from the basic verbs, yau¹ ‘finish’, u⁵ ‘live’, and nam⁵ ‘(be) extensive’. While the perfective category is straightforward, the imperfective category shows an unusual bifurcation, the first imperfective marker accommodating continuatives and habituals and the second imperfective marker working exclusively with the nominal predicate construction, clauses of potentiality (hortatives, futures), and the progressive construction. All three particles of perfectivity develop from lexical sources, with the pathways ‘finish’ > completive > perfective and ‘live’ > continuous/progressive > imperfective being well-documented across languages. The pathway ‘extensive’ > imperfective, on the other hand, appears unique to Khamti Shan. I motivate the usage of these perfectivity particles (primarily) with a semantic-cognitive analysis.
Keywords: Tai, Shan, Khamti, perfective, imperfective, aspect, grammaticalization
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Background on Khamti Shan
    • 2.1The language and its speakers
    • 2.2Typological characteristics
    • 2.3Data
  • 3.Lexical underpinnings
  • 4.The perfectivity particles in context
    • 4.1Perfective (pfv)
    • 4.2First Imperfective (ipfv.i)
    • 4.3Second Imperfective (ipfv.ii)
  • 5.Grammaticalization of the perfectivity particles
    • 5.1The yau¹ pathway
    • 5.2The u⁵ pathway
    • 5.3The nam⁵ pathway
  • 6.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • Abbreviations
  • References
Published online: 2 December 2020
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https://doi.org/10.1075/sl.19001.ing
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