A Typological Analysis of Causative Constructions in Piandin Naxi
This article, by Wang Yijun of Yuxi Normal University, examines causative constructions in Piandin Naxi, a variety of the Lijiangba sub-dialect of western Naxi spoken in Dadong Township, Lijiang. It identifies two causative types: an inflectional construction, restricted to a small set of verbs and marked by nasal-voiced/voiceless consonant alternation and tone change, which expresses direct, active causation; and an analytic construction, formed with preposed directional prepositions or the postposed marker tʂɚ¹¹ 'let,' which expresses indirect, unintentional causation and is now the dominant strategy as the language becomes more analytic. Comparing Naxi with Tibetan, Burmese, and Yi cognates, the author argues the inflectional alternations descend from lost pre-initial consonants (nasal- and *s-prefixes), and that Naxi causatives are evolving along a cline from inflectional, through mixed double-marking, toward purely analytic marking.
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