Daic Passive Markers

Passive markers in over a dozen languages of Kam-Tai family have been collected and systemized in this thesis, such as the Zhuang, the Buyi language, Lingao language, the Dai language, the Lao language, Li language, Dong language, Mulao language, the Lajia language, Maonan language, Shui language, Gelao language and the Buyang language.These passive markers have been divided into categories by origins and meanings. This paper tries to point out which of them are words borrowed directly from passive markers of the Chinese language, which of them are related to Chinese words "zhao","chi", and which of them are originated from languages of Kam-Tai family.Combined with discourse materials and related dictionaries of the Kam-Tai family, the grammaticalization processes of certain typical passive markers of the Kam-Tai family have been presented in details in this paper, which includes t(?)k8、 t(?)k7of the Zhuang and the Buyi language; thuuk5of the Lao language, te:?(variations are t i:?1、 tia?’)of the the Zhuang and the Buyi language; tje?3of the Maonan language and the rja:i2of seven languages like Zhuang of the Kam-Tai family.Finally, the meaning of some passive markers have been analyzed and categorized. The Semantic evolution of some passive markers in the Kam-Tai family has been summarized and some related theoretical analysis has been given. The whole paper is divided into five parts:The first part is an introduction which introduces the main research languages and objectives in this thesis. The Research status, content, theoretical methods, and origin of the language materials of the Kam-Tai family are presented. In addition, the innovations of this thesis are introduced.The second part is the origins and classifications of the passive markers of the Kam-Tai family. Firstly, an overview of the Kam-Tai family passive markers is introduced. Then these passive markers have been divided into categories by origins (self-originated or other-origins), meanings (indicating suffering, giving, disposing or obtaining), and syntactic functions (can function as both a passive marker and a link verb).The third part is the research of the grammaticalization processes of certain typical passive markers of the Kam-Tai family. Combined with the discourse and related dictionaries, the grammaticalization processes of three groups of passive markers have been presented.The fourth part is the evolution and the development of the passive markers of the Kam-Tai family. Combined with example sentences, the semantic evolution, semantic and syntactic characteristics of some passive markers of the Kam-Tai family have been generalized and summarized into four groups. Some of the passive markers indicating suffering can function as modal auxiliaries to indicate have to do something; some of them can indicate meanings of both disposing and suffering; some of them can indicate meanings of both giving and letting, while some of them can indicate both meanings of letting and suffering.The fifth part is the conclusion, which includes providing the general ideas of this paper and the shortages and prospective of this paper.