Tongyin Yang A Grammar of Kam Revealed in its Narrative Discourse A Grammar of Kam Revealed in its Narrative Discourse Tongyin Yang A Grammar of Kam Revealed in its Narrative Discourse 123 TongyinYang Academy of Linguistic Sciences Jiangsu NormalUniversity Xuzhou,Jiangsu China ISBN978-981-10-2262-3 ISBN978-981-10-2263-0 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-981-10-2263-0 LibraryofCongressControlNumber:2016948613 ©SpringerScience+BusinessMediaSingapore2017 Thisworkissubjecttocopyright.AllrightsarereservedbythePublisher,whetherthewholeorpart of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission orinformationstorageandretrieval,electronicadaptation,computersoftware,orbysimilarordissimilar methodologynowknownorhereafterdeveloped. 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Theregisteredcompanyaddressis:152BeachRoad,#22-06/08GatewayEast,Singapore189721,Singapore Contents 1 Introduction.... .... .... ..... .... .... .... .... .... ..... .... 1 1.1 Aspects in Discussion and Their Respective Salience.. ..... .... 1 1.2 The Kam People, Language, and Their Homeland.... ..... .... 2 1.3 The Kam Autonym and Kam History.. .... .... .... ..... .... 3 1.4 Religion ... .... .... ..... .... .... .... .... .... ..... .... 5 1.5 Kam Language and Orthography . .... .... .... .... ..... .... 6 1.5.1 Genetic Affiliation... .... .... .... .... .... ..... .... 6 1.5.2 Dialectology .. ..... .... .... .... .... .... ..... .... 6 1.5.3 Phonology.... ..... .... .... .... .... .... ..... .... 8 1.5.4 Phrase Structure and Syntax ... .... .... .... ..... .... 10 1.5.5 Kam Orthography... .... .... .... .... .... ..... .... 10 1.6 Summary .. .... .... ..... .... .... .... .... .... ..... .... 12 2 Research Questions and Framework. .... .... .... .... ..... .... 13 2.1 Scope of This Present Research .. .... .... .... .... ..... .... 13 2.2 Literature Review.... ..... .... .... .... .... .... ..... .... 14 2.3 Schiffrin’s Five-Plane Discourse Model .... .... .... ..... .... 16 2.4 Summary .. .... .... ..... .... .... .... .... .... ..... .... 17 3 Data and Data Collection. ..... .... .... .... .... .... ..... .... 19 3.1 Yutou Kam Community.... .... .... .... .... .... ..... .... 19 3.1.1 Geographical and Administrative Information.. ..... .... 19 3.1.2 History and Internal Clan Structure.. .... .... ..... .... 20 3.1.3 As a Major Historical and Cultural Sites Under National Protection.. .... .... .... .... .... ..... .... 21 3.1.4 Language Use. ..... .... .... .... .... .... ..... .... 22 3.1.5 Oral Literature. ..... .... .... .... .... .... ..... .... 23 3.2 Storytelling Events... ..... .... .... .... .... .... ..... .... 23 3.2.1 Location and Time—the Where and When .... ..... .... 23 3.2.2 Participants: The Narrators and the Hearers—the Who .... 25 3.2.3 Stages of Folktale Narrating—the How and What.... .... 26 v vi Contents 3.2.4 The Social and Cultural Functions of Folktale Narrating—the Why.. .... .... .... .... .... ..... .... 27 3.2.5 The Decoys on Scene.... .... .... .... .... ..... .... 28 3.3 Data Collecting and Processing .. .... .... .... .... ..... .... 30 3.4 The Salience of the Two Selected Narratives.... .... ..... .... 31 3.5 Summary of the Recorded Narrative Data in LINGUALINKS.... 32 3.5.1 Summary of the Three Friends (TF). .... .... ..... .... 32 3.5.2 Summary of the Sky Repairing (SR). .... .... ..... .... 32 3.6 Summary .. .... .... ..... .... .... .... .... .... ..... .... 33 4 Analysis ... .... .... .... ..... .... .... .... .... .... ..... .... 35 4.1 Analysis of Discourse Conditioned Phonological and Grammatical Variations. .... .... .... .... .... ..... .... 35 4.1.1 Introduction... ..... .... .... .... .... .... ..... .... 35 4.1.2 A New Phoneme /ə/ . .... .... .... .... .... ..... .... 36 4.1.3 Discourse Induced Reduction of Directional Verbs... .... 39 4.1.4 Classifier Variants and Pronoun Modifiers of Kinship Terms in Discourse. .... .... .... ..... .... 47 4.1.5 Word Order Variations in Discourse. .... .... ..... .... 60 4.2 Sentence-Final Particles (SFP) in Narrative Discourse . ..... .... 68 4.2.1 Introduction... ..... .... .... .... .... .... ..... .... 68 4.2.2 The Inventory of Kam SFPs... .... .... .... ..... .... 69 4.2.3 Phonological and Syntactic Features of SFPs .. ..... .... 73 4.2.4 Functions of Individual SFPs in Discourse.... ..... .... 81 4.2.5 SFPs and Discourse Markers (DM).. .... .... ..... .... 96 4.3 Structure of Narrative and Functions of Repetition.... ..... .... 100 4.3.1 Labov’s Six-Part Model of Narrative and Application in Kam .. .... .... .... .... ..... .... 100 4.3.2 Some Discourse Grammatical Characteristics of Narrative... ..... .... .... .... .... .... ..... .... 107 4.4 Communicative Aspects of Narrating.. .... .... .... ..... .... 113 4.4.1 Narrating as Communicational Social Interaction .... .... 114 4.4.2 Input from Non-decoy Audience.... .... .... ..... .... 116 4.4.3 Communication Operator lja31 . .... .... .... ..... .... 117 4.5 Summary .. .... .... ..... .... .... .... .... .... ..... .... 121 5 Conclusion. .... .... .... ..... .... .... .... .... .... ..... .... 123 5.1 Stated Goals and Findings .. .... .... .... .... .... ..... .... 123 5.2 Strengths, Weaknesses, and Limitations of the Present Study. .... 124 5.3 Recommendations for Future Research. .... .... .... ..... .... 125 Full Lingualinks Version of Sky Repairing... .... .... .... ..... .... 127 Full Lingualinks Version of Three Friends... .... .... .... ..... .... 223 Postscripts.... .... .... .... ..... .... .... .... .... .... ..... .... 307 References.... .... .... .... ..... .... .... .... .... .... ..... .... 309 Abbreviations 1S First person singular 2S Second person singular 3S Third person singular Adj Adjective Adv Adverb AP Adjective phrase AQ Asking question Asp Aspect Aux Auxiliary CLS Classifier CLSa Classifier with original initial CLSb Classifier with changed initial CM Commenting Comm Common noun Comp Complement CV Consonant + vowel CV(V)C Consonant + vowel (+ vowel) + consonant Dem Demonstrative DM Discource marker DV Directional verb FT Free translation GI Greeting and informational exchange Mkr Marker N Noun NEG Negation NL Non-linguistic instant response and reactions NP Noun phrase NR Necessary redundancy Num Numeral NumP Number phrase vii viii Abbreviations O Object Part. Particle PEN Personal experience narrative PERF Perfective PP Prepositional phrase Pre Preposition Pred Predicate Pro Pronoun ProP Pronoun phrase RE Reasoning or extension Rel Relative clause RR The rest of audience’s response S Sentence SFP Sentence-final particle Spec Specifier SR Sky Repairing, title of one of the two studied narratives Subj. Subject T Topic TAM Tense, aspect, modality TBU Tone-bearing-unit TF Three Friend, title of one of the two studied narratives V Verb YT Yutou, village name Chapter 1 Introduction 1.1 Aspects in Discussion and Their Respective Salience Because of the increasing interest in the ethnic minorities of China and continuous effortsfromscholarssuchasYangQuan,GuoqiaoZheng,MinwenDeng,Yaohong Long, Norman Geary, and Jerold Edmondson, many aspects of Kam culture, includingKamlanguage,history,socialstructure,architecturaltraditions,music,and oralliteraturehavebeenrevealedbya veritable explosion ofnew information since 1980s. Of special significance are the inclusion of Kam Grand Song into the list of UNESCO’sWorldIntangibleCulturalHeritagein2006,andAmyTan’sfascinating personal encounter with Kam culture as revealed in her fascinating piece of work VillageontheEdgeofTime(2008),whichattractstremendouspublicattention. The study of Kam language, as summarized by Tongyin Yang (1999, pp. 6–9), has been very fruitful. A great many important works have been published. Yet they are still limited in the sense that so far the effort has been focused on phonological, phonetical, and syntactic aspects. This paper aims to broaden the spectrum and investigate the Kam language from a functionalist’s perspective and examinethevariousaspectsofKamnarrativediscourseatvariouslevels,including languagevariation,sentence-finalparticles(SFPs),structuralpropertiesofnarrative, andcommunicationinstorytelling.Morespecifically,phonological,morphological, and syntactic variations discovered in narrative discourse will be discussed within Schiffrin’s (1987) discourse model and to discover at what level(s) these variants occur and how. Observed SFPs will be categorized and examined individually within context to detect their semantic, syntactic, discourse, and communication functions. This study will also address the structure of Kam narrative following Labov’s (1967) six-part anatomy of narrative structure, and the dynamic commu- nication between the speaker and the audience in storytelling. These phenomena mentioned above are all salient. First of all, in an isolating language such as Kam, linguistic variations are relatively highly constrained by theirlackofmorphologicalmarkers.Deviationisconsidered‘unusual’andrequires ©SpringerScience+BusinessMediaSingapore2017 1 T.Yang,AGrammarofKamRevealedinItsNarrativeDiscourse, DOI10.1007/978-981-10-2263-0_1 2 1 Introduction scrutiny. As will be reported in Chap. 4, variations at various levels have been detected. They carry high significance since they may manifest the interactive processesinthelanguagesystem.Seekinglinguisticinterpretationintheirdiscourse contextswillenhanceone’sunderstandingofthemechanismsofvariationandtheir rolesonlevelsofthediscoursestructure.Secondly,SFPsoccupyaspecialposition in Asian languages (Matisoff 1973; Li and Thompson 1981; Person 2000). As demonstrated in Person’s (2000) work, their mysterious and even elusive at timesrolesinlanguagecanmostefficientlybeidentifiedthroughexaminingdatain a discourse context. Study will focus on functions of SFPs after a full directory of Kam SFPs is compiled. Storytelling narrative is not only the most well stud- ied discourse genre, but also the one that integrates deeply with other aspects of community life. By exploring structural and communicational properties of storytelling narrative, one will achieve a better comprehension of the way a Kam narrative is built up and its social and cultural functions are expected to emerge. The motivation behind these efforts is, on the one hand, to reveal structural characteristics of Kam discourse through naturally occurring narrative data col- lectedfromfieldwork.Ontheotherhand,itintendstoidentifytherelationbetween the linguistic forms and their manifested functions at different levels of discourse structure.Someofthatgoesbeyondthelanguageitselfandmustbeaddressedasof a relation between the social system and linguistic representation. Another extra motivation for conducting research on relatively broader topics is that the current study isthefirst systematic and extensive effort indiscovering discourse pattern in the Kam language. It is for the above-mentioned purposes that video and audio imagesoftwonaturally-occurrednarrativeswererecorded.Fulltranscriptionofthe narratives is included at the end of the book as appendix. As detailed in Sect. 1, the rest of the current chapter introduces general description of the Kam people, their history, religion, language and orthography. Chapter 2 addresses research questions and the framework adopted. Chapter 3 analyzes the nature of data, data sources, and provides a full version of the two narratives in LINGUALINKS LIBRARY format.1 Chapter 4 analyzes observed featuresindiscoursewithinSchiffrinandLabov’sframeworks.Chapter5concludes the study, highlighting the contribution that it is making, along with its limitations and weaknesses. 1.2 The Kam People, Language, and Their Homeland The Kam are one of the fifty-five officially recognized ethnic minorities in China, whoarecalledDònginChinese侗族,theKamarewellknownfortheirextensive musictradition,especiallyfortheirextraordinarychoralsinging.TheKamproverb 1LINGUALINKSiselectronicreferencematerialsdesignedtosupportlanguagefieldworkbySIL International.