Resultative Constructions In Zhuang

This thesis reports on the field work of the author about the morpho-syntax of resultative constructions in Zhuang, a minority language in the Zhuang Autonomous Region of Guangxi. Being a sister language with Thai of Tai languages in the Tibeto-Burman branch of the Sino-Tibetan family, Zhuang constitutes a unique opportunity for us to broaden our linguistic knowledge concerning relatively unknown languages. With the help of the Zhuang native speakers, the study has its focus on Northern Zhuang, a variety of the language spoken in and around Mashan County.Since Comrie proposed the cross-linguistic approach which is attempting to determine the universal properties of relative clauses by comparing their syntactic form in a large number of languages, this approach has got widely pushed by the relevant works in this matter. Therefore, this study first takes linguistic typology as its framework in examining cross linguistic pattern in Zhuang, Chinese and English, then it goes on to make a detailed analysis of Zhuang resultative constructions, specifically with the focus on the semantic properties and syntactic construction of the Zhuang resultative constructions and the aspectual property of Zhuang verbs used in resultative constructions as well, and finally it concludes with some of the major findings of the canonical syntax construction, of the prototype and of possible semantic properties in resultative constructions of Zhuang. Based on fruitful research in the resultative constructions done by both overseas and domestic scholars, the author of this work mainly is concerned about the semantic property and syntactic structure of the resultative constructions in Zhuang. By a comparative investigation, the author comes to a final conclusion:there exists a cross-set relation between Zhuang, Chinese and English in terms of semantic foundation for canonical pattern of resultative constructions. That is to say Zhuang, Chinese and English share some intersection in this matter. The relationship among these three investigated languages can be formalized as the mathematical terms: However, Zhuang is a minor ethnic language spoken by the Zhuang, so it may maintain its own ethnic characteristics in the process of the development, though it has more or less been subjected to the impact of other languages in the language community. Therefore, this work is mainly attempting to describe the language phenomena and to identify some related language facts in order to summarize the similarities and differences as well. By doing a typological classification, this study teases out the similarities the three investigated languages share. The motivation of this particular study originates from the interests of the author, a native speaker of Zhuang, in cross-linguistic studies. Since this is the first attempt in the field of cross-linguistic studies, it is worth examining the research problem more closely in the future.