Burmese: A Comprehensive Grammar (routledge Comprehensive Grammars)

Synopsis

A Complete Reference Guide To Burmese Grammar. It Presents A Fresh, Accessible And Thorough Description Of The Language, Concentrating On The Real Patterns Of Use In Modern Burmese. The Book Moves From The Sounds And Script Through Morphology And Word Classes To A Detailed Analysis Of Sentence Structures And Semantic Features Such As Aspect, Tense, Negation And Reduplication. The Volume Is Organized To Promote A Thorough Understanding Of Burmese Grammar. It Offers A Stimulating Analysis Of The Complexities Of The Language, And Provides Full And Clear Explanations. Throughout, The Emphasis Is On Burmese As Used By Present-day Native Speakers. An Extensive Index And Numbered Paragraphs Provide Readers With Easy Access To The Information They Require-- Machine Generated Contents Note: 1. Introduction -- 1.1. Historical And Social Context -- 1.2. Myanmar And Burma: Literary And Colloquial Burmese -- 1.3. Burmese Today -- 1.3.1. Language And Its Speakers -- 1.3.2. Burmese Globalized: Loanwords, Code Mixing, And Slang -- 1.4. Structure Of Burmese: An Overview -- 1.4.1. Sounds -- 1.4.2. Grammatical Features -- 1.4.3. Role Of Context: Linguistic And Extralinguistic -- 1.5. About This Grammar -- 2. Sound System And Script -- 2.1. Sound System -- 2.1.1. Consonants -- Plain Consonants -- Consonant Clusters -- 2.1.2. Vowels -- Plain Vowels -- Vowels In Closed Syllables -- 2.1.3. Tones, Voice Quality, And Prosody -- Tones -- Stress And Prosody -- 2.1.4. Syllable Structure -- 2.1.5. Sandhi -- Voicing -- Assimilation -- 2.1.6. Regional And Sociolectal Variants -- 2.2. Script -- 2.2.1. Consonants -- 2.2.2. Ligatures -- Initial And Medial -- 2.2.3. Vowels -- Free And Bound -- 2.2.4. Rhymes -- Vowels And Final Consonants -- Representation Of Tones -- 2.2.5. Special Symbols -- 2.2.6. Numerals -- 2.2.7. Spacing And Punctuation -- 2.2.8. Finding Words In Dictionaries And Spelling Words -- Alphabetical Order -- Spelling Out Words -- 2.2.9. Chat Script -- 2.2.10. Other Methods Of Transcription -- 3. Parts Of Speech -- 3.1. Nominals -- 3.1.1. Nouns -- 3.1.2. Pronouns -- 3.1.3. Measure Words -- 3.1.4. Classifiers -- 3.2. Verbs -- 3.2.1. Main Verbs -- 3.2.2. Auxiliaries -- 3.2.3. Types Of Verbs -- Intransitive Verbs -- Transitive Verbs -- Property Verbs (adjectives) -- 3.3. Adverbs -- 3.3.1. Phrasal Adverbs -- 3.3.2. Clausal Adverbs -- 3.4. Markers And Particles -- 3.4.1. Grammatical Markers -- Phrasal Markers -- Clausal Markers -- 3.4.2. Pragmatic Particles -- Phrasal Particles -- Clausal Particles -- 4. Lexicon -- 4.1. Pronouns -- 4.1.1. First Person Pronouns -- 4.1.2. Second Person Pronouns -- 4.1.3. Third Person Pronouns -- 4.1.4. Other Pronouns -- 4.2. Kinship Terms And Personal Names -- 4.2.1. Kinship Terms -- 4.2.2. Personal Names -- 4.3. Numerals -- 4.3.1. Cardinal Numerals -- 4.3.2. Ordinal Numerals -- 4.3.3. Fractions Of Whole Numbers -- 4.3.4. Multipliers -- 4.3.5. Percentages And Distributives -- 4.4. Classifiers And Measure Words -- 4.4.1. Classifiers -- 4.4.2. Measure Words -- 4.5. Time And Date -- 4.5.1. Units Of Time -- 4.5.2. Adverbs Of Time -- 4.5.3. Days, Months, And Years -- 4.6. Meteorological And Natural Phenomena -- 4.7. Feeling Terms -- 4.8. Color Terms -- 4.9. Specific Vocabulary For Different Activities -- 4.10. Elaborate Expressions -- 4.11. Ideophones -- 4.12. Loanwords -- 4.12.1. Pali/sanskrit -- 4.12.2. English -- 4.12.3. Others -- 5. Word Structure -- 5.1. Derivational Affixes -- 5.1.1. Nominal Prefix? -- 5.1.2. Nominal Suffixes -- Abstract Nouns -- People -- Something To V -- Modifying -- Gender -- 5.1.3. Derivation By Tone Change -- 5.2. Compounding -- 5.2.1. Nouns -- Modifying Compounds -- Additive Compounds -- Euphonic Compounds -- Exocentric Compounds -- 5.2.2. Verbs -- Verb-verb, Not Analyzable -- Verb-verb, Modifying -- Verb-verb, Additive -- Verb-verb, Euphonic -- Noun-verb -- 5.3. Reduplication -- 5.3.1. Nominal Reduplication -- 5.3.2. Measure Words And Classifiers -- 5.3.3. Verbal Reduplication -- Preverbal: Adverbial -- Postnominal: Attributive -- Special Reduplication Patterns -- 5.3.4. Adverbial Reduplication -- 6. Phrase Structure -- 6.1. Noun Phrase -- 6.1.1. Plural Markers -- Twe/dwe `general Plural' -- To/do `associative Plural' -- 6.1.2. Classifier Phrase -- 6.1.3. Quantifiers -- Tain/dain `each, Every' -- T-n-loun `the Whole N' -- Sloun / -zloun, -loun `all Of' -- Paun/baun `sum, Combined Number, Total' -- ?mya.zoun `(at/the) Most',?n (sf (b.zoun `(at/the) Least' -- ?mya.zu `most Of, Majority',?n (sf (b.zu `fewest Of, Minority' -- Ttho `some' -- ?a.loun `all' -- Ta-x-tle `some, A Few' -- Mka `more Than, Not As Few As' -- 6.1.4. Enumeration -- Exhaustive Lists -- Representative Lists -- Non-specific Parallel Lists -- 6.1.5. Demonstratives -- 6.1.6. Interrogatives And Indefinites -- 6.1.7. Ttha `other', `another' -- 6.1.8. Attributive Modifiers -- Verbal Attributives -- Nominal Attributives -- Adverbial Attributives -- 6.1.9. Possessives -- 6.1.10. Postnominal Markers -- Case Markers -- Location Markers -- Derived Postpositions -- 6.2. Verb Phrase -- 6.2.1. Preverbal Auxiliaries -- La `come' And (sk (bwa `go' -- Pyan `return' -- Tha? `pile Up, Impose, Put On Top' -- Sh (sf (b? `connect, Continue' -- Lai? `follow, Go Around And' -- Au? `walk, Go Around And' -- Sa `begin' -- To/to.tin `do In Advance' -- Ti `look' -- Ku/ku.i `help' -- Wain `surround' -- Paun `combine, Add' And Khw (sf (b `split, Take Apart, Separate' -- Pe `give' -- 6.2.2. Postverbal Auxiliaries -- Thin/in `want To' -- Se/ze `let' -- Phu/bu `have Had The Experience, Ever' -- Ya `get, Must' -- Lai? `follow, Just, For Good, Without Further Consideration' -- La `come' -- (sk (bwa/owa `go' -- Ne `stay' -- Tha `keep' -- Pe `give' -- (sk (bin/oin `proper, Suitable, Appropriate, Should, Ought' -- Y (sf (b `dare' -- Ta?/da? `able, Skilled, Know How' -- Nain `capable' -- ?a `free' -- Khain `order' -- Pyan-bi `do Again' -- Ya `can, Way' -- Pi `finished' -- Koun `all' -- 6.2.3. Negation -- 6.2.4. Plural Subject -- 6.2.5. Displacement In Space And Time -- 6.2.6. Importance, Politeness, Emphasis -- 6.2.7. Aspectual Markers -- (sk (be/oe `yet' -- ?oun `further, More, Again' -- T/d `change Of Situation' -- 6.2.8. Status Markers -- T (sf (b/d (sf (b `non-future, Realis' -- M (sf (b `future, Irrealis' -- Pi/bi `new Situation' -- Phu/bu `negation' -- N (sf (b `prohibitive' -- 6.3. Adverbial Phrase -- 6.3.1. V-v Reduplication -- 6.3.2. N-lo, V- (sk (b.lo/d.lo `as, Like' -- 6.3.3. N-n (sf (b, V-ta/da-n (sf (b `with' And N-m (sf (b, M-v-ph (sf (b/b (sf (b `without' -- 6.3.4. ?-v-ti/di `very' -- 6.3.5. Khn (sf (b/gn (sf (b `abruptly' -- 7. Clause And Sentence Structure -- 7.1. Makeup Of Clauses -- 7.1.1. Clauses With Verbal Predicates -- 7.1.2. Clauses With Non-verbal Predicates -- Identity: Zero Copula, Phyi? `to Be', M-hou?-phu `it Is Not' -- Existential And Possessive: I `exist, There Is, Have' And Pa `be Included' -- Locative: Ne `be At, Stay, Remain' -- 7.2. Clause Types -- 7.2.1. Independent Clauses -- Status Markers -- Constituent Order -- Non-finite Independent Clauses -- 7.2.2. Dependent Clauses -- Complement Clauses -- Nominalized Clauses -- [clause-fin, Np] Lo -- [clause, Xp]-hman -- Relative Clauses -- Adverbial Clauses -- Negative -- Conditional -- Purposive -- Causal -- Sequential -- Temporal -- Concessive -- Clauses With Postpositions -- 7.3. Transitivity -- 7.3.1. Intransitive -- 7.3.2. Transitive -- 7.3.3. Ditransitive -- 7.4. Valency Changing -- 7.4.1. Passive -- 7.4.2. Causative -- Lexical -- Periphrastic -- V-se/ze -- V-khain -- Pe-v -- [clause]-?aun Lou? -- 7.4.3. Benefactive -- 7.5. Participation -- 7.5.1. Solitary -- 7.5.2. Reciprocal -- 7.5.3. Associative -- 7.5.4. Distributive -- 7.6. Combining Sentences -- 8. Form And Functions Of Utterances -- 8.1. Statements -- 8.1.1. Plain Statements -- General Statements -- Emphatic Statements -- 8.1.2. Reported Speech -- Self-report Or General Report -- Second Person Report -- Third Person Report -- 8.2. Questions -- 8.2.1. Polar Questions -- 8.2.2. Content Questions -- Pronominal Interrogatives -- Interrogative Modifiers -- Interrogative Quantifiers -- Temporal Interrogatives -- Locative Interrogatives -- Other Interrogatives -- Indefinites -- 8.2.3. Alternative Questions -- 8.2.4. Tag Questions -- 8.2.5. Elliptical Questions -- 8.3. Requests -- 8.3.1. Direct Imperatives -- Softening A Command -- Intensifying A Command -- 8.3.2. Prohibitive -- 8.3.3. Adhortatives -- 8.3.4. Indirect Imperatives/optatives -- 9. Negation -- 9.1. Negating Verbs -- 9.1.1. Standard Negation -- Basic Negation -- Negation With Modifier -- Negation With Incorporated Nouns -- Negation In Colloquial Language -- Negation In Dependent Clauses -- Negated Complement And Relative Clauses -- 9.1.2. Aspectual/temporal Negation -- 9.1.3. Emphatic Negation -- Intensifying Adverbial -- Negated Quantifier/indefinite -- 9.2. Negating Non-verbal Elements -- 9.2.1. Negating Nouns And Adverbials -- 9.2.2. Negating Clauses -- 9.3. Nominal And Clausal Negation -- 9.3.1. Nominal Negation -- 9.3.2. Clausal Negation -- 9.4. Indefinite Negation -- 10. Expression Of Tense, Aspect, And Modality -- 10.1. Tense -- 10.1.1. Non-future/realis -- 10.1.2. Future/irrealis -- 10.2. Aspect -- 10.2.1. New State Of Affairs -- 10.2.2. Old State Of Affairs -- Past And Present Reference -- Future Reference -- 10.2.3. Ongoing Event -- 10.2.4. Displacement In Time And Space -- Activity Directed Towards The Center Of Interest -- Activity Done At Another Place -- Activity Removed From Present -- 10.2.5. Change Of State And Direction -- La `come' -- (sk (bwa/owa `go' -- La And (sk (bwa/owa Compared -- 10.2.6. Experiential -- 10.2.7. Completive -- 10.2.8. Repetitive -- 10.2.9. Continuous -- 10.3. Aspect And Manner -- 10.3.1. Without Further Ado: Lai? -- 10.3.2. For The Time Being: Tha -- 10.3.3. Have Time To Do:?a. Mathias Jenny And San San Hnin Tun. Includes Index.