A web of relations : a grammar of rGyalrong Jiăomùzú (Kyom-kyo) dialects

Abstract

'A Web of Relations' is a descriptive grammar of the Jiaomuzu dialects of rGyalrong, a Qiangic language of the Tibeto-Burman family. rGyalrong is spoken in north-west Sichuan Province in the People's Republic of China.

The dissertation contains eight chapters and a collection of texts. Chapter 1 gives an overview of the Qiangic languages, the rGyalrong people and Jiaomuzu Township, the field work site. Chapter 2 describes the phonology. Chapters 3 through 7 contain a description of the morphology, dealing with pronouns, nouns, adverbs and some smaller word classes such as expressives, interjections and conjunctions, and finally verbs. In Jiaomuzu the verbal morphology is by far the most complex part. Chapter 8 discusses sentence structure. The three texts at the end of the dissertation illustrate the structures described in the previous chapters.

Native speakers of Jiaomuzu place a high value on understanding and communicating the exact relationships between participants in a speech act as well as their position in the contexts both of the particular situation in which the speech act occurs and in their wider environment. The language reflects, especially in the verbal morphology, this web of relations.