A Typological Analysis of the Predicate–Complement Structure in the Naxi Language
Xu Yi analyzes the predicate–complement structure of the Dayan Town vernacular of Western Naxi from a linguistic-typology perspective. The paper catalogs eight semantic categories of complement (result, degree, state, purpose, direction, modality, aspect, and causation) and two structural types — a "tight" (juxtaposed) type, where predicate and complement bond closely with no intervening particle, and an "inserted" type, linked by one of four structural particles (ȵø31, its reduplicated extension, mɛ33, and pəu55). It shows the structure's strongly analytic character (fixed word order, monosyllabic complements, multi-layered nesting) and traces multiple levels of grammaticalization among causative, modal, and directional-verb complements. Comparing Naxi with Chinese, Yi, and Jingpo, the paper concludes that Naxi's predicate–complement structure is more developed than Jingpo's, less developed than Chinese's, and roughly on par with Yi's, correlating with each language's overall degree of analyticity.
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