Tone morphemes in sinitic: Where prosody meets morphology

Abstract

Tone morphemes are used in the coding of a variety of grammatical functions in Sinitic languages: These include plural formation of personal pronouns, the diminutive forms of nouns, as well as different kinds of perfective and completive aspect marking, reported for dialects located in non-contiguous areas of China in the north and the south. With respect to verbal morphology, we first examine the different processes and stages of morphologization between the Yue and Hakka dialects, on the one hand, and Northern Sinitic on the other. Second, we propose the pathway of evolution that leads to the pluralization of Sinitic pronouns by tone morphemes, as well as the pathway that leads to tone morphemes coding perfective aspect in Yue and Hakka. 摘要: 声调语素用于编码汉语方言中的各种语法功能：以中国境内南北方非相邻地区的汉语方言为实证，我们发现汉语方言中的"声调语素"具有多种语法功能，包括指示人称代词的复数形式、指示名词的小称形式、及标记不同种类的完整体和完成体等。就动词形态而言，我们首先考察粤语、客家话和北方汉语之间不同的发展过程和形态化阶段；再者，提出汉语中由声调语素导致的人称代词复数化演变路径，以及在粤语和客家话中声调语素指示完成体的另一演变路径。