A Grammar of Shaowu: A Sinitic Language of Northwestern Fujian in China (Sinitic Languages of China)

This is the first comprehensive grammar of Shaowu, a Min language spoken in Shaowu city and its environs in northwestern Fujian province, China. The book offers first-hand linguistic data collected over four years in the field, now placed at the disposal of researchers and students working in language documentation, comparative linguistics and Sinitic typology. It can serve as a reference grammar for those interested in learning the Shaowu language, thereby helping to preserve it. In addition, the book provides insights into Shaowu's classification which has been widely debated, thus elucidating its genetic affiliation. 0 The book first presents Shaowu's geography, demography and history. It then profiles the language's phonology and lexicon, before providing a detailed description of its syntax, notably on its nominal, predicate, clausal and complex sentence structures, which are the focus of the book. 0 The typological profile of Shaowu is also treated with the conclusion that the language has Gan, Hakka, Mandarin and even some Wu overlays on its Min base. The Shaowu language serves an excellent example to illustrate the degree of hybridity a language can attain due to intensive language contact over time Preface Acknowledgements Contents List of tables List of maps List of abbreviations Glossary of specific terms and notational symbols Abstract Résumé Shaowu as a Sinitic language Periodisation of Sinitic Special characters and symbols, transcription and glossing conventions Background & overview Chapter 1 Introduction Chapter 2 Geography, demography and history of Shaowu Part I: Phonetics & phonology Introduction Chapter 3 Phonology Part II: Nominal structure Introduction Chapter 4 Pronominal systems Chapter 5 Classifier systems and counting paradigms Chapter 6 Affixal morphology Chapter 7 Reduplication Chapter 8 Compounding Chapter 9 Kinship terms Chapter 10 Locative adpositions around NPs Chapter 11 Relative clauses Chapter 12 Possessive noun phrases and inalienability Part III: Predicate structure Introduction Chapter 13 Verb classes Chapter 14 Adpositional phrases Chapter 15 Adverbs and adverbial phrases Chapter 16 Negation and negative markers Chapter 17 Modality, modal auxiliaries and their syntax Chapter 18 Postverbal complements of manner, extent and degree and their markers Chapter 19 Postverbal complements and compounds of result, direction and potentiality Chapter 20 Aspectual system Part IV: Clausal structure Introduction Chapter 21 Topic-comment sentence constructions Chapter 22 Structures of comparison Chapter 23 Multifunctional morpheme [pɔŋ21] 帮 and its grammaticalisation pathways Chapter 24 Benefactive constructions Chapter 25 Object-marking constructions Chapter 26 Multifunctional morpheme [tie53] 得 and its grammaticalisation pathways Chapter 27 Ditransitive constructions Chapter 28 Passive constructions Chapter 29 Causative constructions Chapter 30 Existential and identity constructions Chapter 31 Copular constructions Chapter 32 Locative constructions Chapter 33 Interrogative structures: Polar, disjunctive and content questions Chapter 34 Imperatives and other moods Chapter 35 Clause-final particles Part V: Complex sentences & clause combining Introduction Chapter 36 Coordination Chapter 37 Subordination Chapter 38 Temporal subordination of simultaneity and sequentiality Chapter 39 Causal constructions Chapter 40 Conditional constructions Chapter 41 Concessive constructions Chapter 42 Purposive constructions Chapter 43 Other types of complementation in complex sentences Chapter 44 Co-subordination Chapter 45 Conclusion Part VI: Lexicon Chapter 46 Mini lexicon Part VII: Transcription samples A children’s song Shaowu, the Iron City Shaowu and its geography Bibliography Index

This is the first comprehensive grammar of Shaowu, a Min language spoken in Shaowu city and its environs in northwestern Fujian province, China. The book offers first-hand linguistic data collected over four years in the field, now placed at the disposal of researchers and students working in language documentation, comparative linguistics and Sinitic typology. It can serve as a reference grammar for those interested in learning the Shaowu language, thereby helping to preserve it. In addition, the book provides insights into Shaowu's classification which has been widely debated, thus elucidating its genetic affiliation.

The book first presents Shaowu's geography, demography and history. It then profiles the language's phonology and lexicon, before providing a detailed description of its syntax, notably on its nominal, predicate, clausal and complex sentence structures, which are the focus of the book.

The typological profile of Shaowu is also treated with the conclusion that the language has Gan, Hakka, Mandarin and even some Wu overlays on its Min base. The Shaowu language serves an excellent example to illustrate the degree of hybridity a language can attain due to intensive language contact over time.