<html><head></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; ">Dear colleagues,<div><br></div><div>We made a good showing at the SEALS conference in Bangkok last week. I have pasted in abstracts for the 5 papers presented on Hmong-Mien languages below. Please contact individual presenters for more information about their talks:</div><div><br></div><div>T. Daniel Arisawa <<a href="mailto:t.daniel.ari@gmail.com">t.daniel.ari@gmail.com</a>></div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre">Geneviève Caelen-Haumont <<a href="mailto:gcaelen@gmail.com">gcaelen@gmail.com</a>></span></div><div>Elisabeth Ginsburg <<a href="mailto:elisabeth.ginsburg@gmail.com">elisabeth.ginsburg@gmail.com</a>></div><div>Martha Ratliff <<a href="mailto:ac6000@wayne.edu">ac6000@wayne.edu</a>></div><div>Yoshihisa <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre">Taguchi <<a href="mailto:taguchi@L.chiba-u.ac.jp">taguchi@L.chiba-u.ac.jp</a>></span></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div>Best,</div><div>Martha</div><div><br></div><div>**********************************************************</div><div><br></div><div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 13px/normal Times; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Calibri" size="3">1) The degree of definiteness in noun phrases in Iu Mien</font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 11px/normal Times; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Calibri" size="3">T. Daniel Arisawa</font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 11px/normal Times; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Calibri" size="3">La Trobe University (CRLD) and Chiang Rai Rajabhat University</font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 11px/normal 'Times New Roman'; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Calibri" size="3"><br></font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 11px/normal 'Times New Roman'; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Calibri"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3">This paper discusses the general structure of noun phrases in relation to their definiteness in Iu Mien. Unlike European languages, Iu Mien does not have articles whether definite or indefinite. Nevertheless, it is possible to express various degrees of definiteness-indefiniteness distinction, e.g. indefiniteness, numerical specification, definiteness, and identifiability. Devices employed to indicate them include classifiers (e.g. </font><span style="font: normal normal normal 11px/normal Times; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Calibri" size="3"><i>dauh</i></font></span><span style="font-size: medium; font: normal normal normal 11px/normal Times; "> </span><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><person/animal>), numerals (e.g. </font><span style="font: normal normal normal 11px/normal Times; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Calibri" size="3"><i>yietc</i></font><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"> '</font></span><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3">one'), demonstratives (e.g. </font><span style="font: normal normal normal 11px/normal Times; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Calibri" size="3"><i>wuov</i></font><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"> '</font></span><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3">that'), and the identification particle (</font><span style="font: normal normal normal 11px/normal Times; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Calibri" size="3"><i>dongh</i></font><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"> '</font></span><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3">same'):</font></font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 11px/normal 'Times New Roman'; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Calibri" size="3"><br></font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 11px/normal Times; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Calibri" size="3">(1) Yie buatc<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>mienh<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>(highly indefinite)</font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 11px/normal 'Times New Roman'; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Calibri" size="3"> <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>1SG see<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre; "> </span>person</font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 11px/normal 'Times New Roman'; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Calibri" size="3"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre; "> </span>'I see people.'</font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 11px/normal 'Times New Roman'; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Calibri"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3">(2) Yie</font> <font class="Apple-style-span" size="3">buatc </font><span style="font: normal normal normal 11px/normal Times; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Calibri" size="3">dauh mienh</font><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="font-size: medium; white-space: pre; "> </span></span><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3">(indefinite) </font></font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 11px/normal 'Times New Roman'; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Calibri" size="3"> <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>1SG<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>see <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span> CLF person</font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 11px/normal 'Times New Roman'; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Calibri" size="3"> </font><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium; white-space: pre; "> </span><font class="Apple-style-span" face="'MS Mincho'">'</font><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Calibri" size="3">I saw a person.</font><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium; font: normal normal normal 11px/normal 'MS Mincho'; ">’</span><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Calibri" size="3"> </font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 11px/normal 'Times New Roman'; "><span style="font: 11.0px Times"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Calibri" size="3">(3) Yie buatc yietc dauh mienh<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>(numerical indefinite)</font></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 11px/normal 'Times New Roman'; "><span style="font: 11.0px Times"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Calibri" size="3"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>ISG see <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>one CLF person</font></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 11px/normal 'Times New Roman'; "><span style="font: 11.0px Times"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Calibri" size="3"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>'I saw one person.'</font></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 11px/normal 'Times New Roman'; "><span style="font: 11.0px Times"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Calibri" size="3">(3) Yie buatc wuov dauh mienh<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>(definite)</font></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 11px/normal 'Times New Roman'; "><span style="font: 11.0px Times"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Calibri" size="3"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>ISG see DEM CLF person</font></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 11px/normal 'Times New Roman'; "><span style="font: 11.0px Times"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Calibri" size="3"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>'I saw the/that person.'</font></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 11px/normal 'Times New Roman'; "><span style="font: 11.0px Times"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Calibri" size="3">(4) Yie buatc dongh wuov daug (mienh)<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>(identification + definiteness)</font></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 11px/normal 'Times New Roman'; "><span style="font: 11.0px Times"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Calibri" size="3"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>1SG see IDTF DEM CLF person</font></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 11px/normal 'Times New Roman'; "><span style="font: 11.0px Times"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Calibri" size="3"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>'I saw the/that very/same person.' (IDTF = identification)</font></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 11px/normal 'Times New Roman'; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Calibri"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><br></font></font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 11px/normal 'Times New Roman'; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Calibri"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3">To form complex noun phrases, the possessive particle </font><span style="font: normal normal normal 11px/normal Times; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Calibri" size="3"><i>nyei</i></font><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"> </font></span><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3">is employed as in (5): </font></font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 11px/normal 'Times New Roman'; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Calibri" size="3"><br></font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 11px/normal 'Times New Roman'; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Calibri" size="3">(5) </font><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium; "><span style="font: normal normal normal 11px/normal Times; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Calibri" size="3">Yie buatc meih nyei dorn </font></span></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 11px/normal 'Times New Roman'; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium; "><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>1SG see 2SG POSS son </span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 11px/normal 'Times New Roman'; "><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre; "> </span>'<font class="Apple-style-span" face="Calibri" size="3">I saw your son.<span style="font: normal normal normal 11px/normal 'MS Mincho'; ">’</span></font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 11px/normal 'Times New Roman'; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Calibri" size="3"><br></font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 11px/normal 'Times New Roman'; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Calibri"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3">In fact, </font><span style="font: normal normal normal 11px/normal Times; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Calibri" size="3"><i>nyei</i></font> </span><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3">is highly multifunctional, being a marker for the possessive, relative clauses, aspect, and adverbial phrases. (6) shows a complex noun phrase (in the square brackets) using </font><span style="font: normal normal normal 11px/normal Times; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Calibri" size="3"><i>nyei</i></font></span><span style="font-size: medium; font: normal normal normal 11px/normal Times; "> </span><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3">as the relativise marker; and more complex as (7).</font></font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 11px/normal 'Times New Roman'; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Calibri" size="3"><br></font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 11px/normal 'Times New Roman'; "><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3" style="font-family: Calibri; ">(6) </font><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium; ">Yie buatc</span><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Calibri" size="3"><span style="font: normal normal normal 11px/normal Times; "> </span></font><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium; ">meih gorngv</span><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Calibri" size="3"><span style="font: normal normal normal 11px/normal Times; "> </span></font><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium; ">taux</span><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Calibri" size="3"><span style="font: normal normal normal 11px/normal Times; "> </span></font><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium; ">nyei</span><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Calibri" size="3"><span style="font: normal normal normal 11px/normal Times; "> </span></font><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium; ">mienh</span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 11px/normal 'Times New Roman'; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Calibri"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>1SG</font><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="font-size: medium; white-space: pre; "> </span><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3">see</font><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="font-size: medium; white-space: pre; "> </span><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3">2SG</font><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="font-size: medium; white-space: pre; "> </span><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3">speak</font><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="font-size: medium; white-space: pre; "> </span><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3">about/CVB </font></font><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Calibri" size="3"> REL<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre; "> </span>person</font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 11px/normal 'Times New Roman'; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Calibri" size="3"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>'I saw the person whom you talked about.<span style="font: 11.0px 'MS Mincho'">’</span></font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 11px/normal 'Times New Roman'; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Calibri" size="3"><br></font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 10.6px/normal 'Times New Roman'; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Calibri"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3">(7) </font><span style="font: normal normal normal 10.6px/normal Times; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Calibri" size="3">Yie buatc </font></span><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3">[</font><span style="font: normal normal normal 10.6px/normal Times; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Calibri" size="3">dongh meih gorngv taux </font></span></font><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Calibri" size="3"><span style="font: normal normal normal 10.6px/normal 'Times New Roman'; ">(</span>nyei<span style="font: normal normal normal 10.6px/normal 'Times New Roman'; ">) </span>wuov dauh <span style="font: normal normal normal 10.6px/normal 'Times New Roman'; ">(</span>mienh</font><span style="font: normal normal normal 10.6px/normal 'Times New Roman'; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Calibri" size="3">)]</font></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 10.6px/normal 'Times New Roman'; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Calibri" size="3"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>1SG see IDTF 2SG speak about/CVB REL DEM CLF person </font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 10.6px/normal 'Times New Roman'; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Calibri" size="3"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre; "> </span>'I saw that very/same person whom you talked about.</font><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Calibri" size="3">'</font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 13px/normal Times; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Calibri" size="3"><br></font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 13px/normal Times; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Calibri" size="3">Court (1986:193-4) only briefly mentions the omission (indicated by the round brackets above) of </font><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium; "><i>nyei</i></span><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Calibri"><span style="font-size: medium; font: normal normal normal 11px/normal Times; "> </span><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3">and of the noun head (e.g. </font><span style="font: normal normal normal 11px/normal Times; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Calibri" size="3"><i>mienh</i></font><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"> </font></span><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3">'person') (each in less than one page). Building upon his observations, the present study attempts to explain the omission of these elements in terms of definiteness and identifiability of noun phrases.</font></font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 13px/normal Times; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Calibri" size="3"><br></font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 13px/normal Times; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Calibri" size="3"><br></font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 13px/normal Times; "><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 13px/normal Times; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Calibri" size="3">2) When diachrony is helping for a synchronic study: The case of the Mo Piu tones from the Hmong-Mien family in Northern Vietnam</font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 11px/normal Times; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Calibri" size="3">Geneviève Caelen-Haumont<span style="font: 7.0px Times">a </span>and Katarina Bartkova<span style="font: 7.0px Times">b</span></font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 11px/normal Times; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Calibri" size="3"><span style="font: 7.0px Times">a</span>Hanoi University of Sciences and Technology and <span style="font: 7.0px Times">b</span>Université de Lorraine</font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 11px/normal 'Times New Roman'; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Calibri" size="3"><br></font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 11px/normal 'Times New Roman'; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Calibri" size="3">The aim of our study is to describe an unknown branch of the Hmong-Mien family of languages which is unwritten and endangered. The Mo Piu ethnic minority lives in a remote area of the Northern Vietnam mountains. Since 2009, 4 recording sessions have been conducted. Studies have been carried out in two domains, in phonetics/phonology and ―tonetics‖/tonology. The present study focuses on the problem of Mo Piu tones. Previous studies [Caelen-Haumont, 2010, 2012] presented a former description of their nature and shapes. However, due to the context and speaker variability, the tone contours of the prototypes still remain an unsolved problem. Our goal is thus first, to check 2 methods of annotation relying on 2 annotation tools and also to improve on our former results on the Mo Piu language, by describing more precisely the tones contours.</font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 11px/normal 'Times New Roman'; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Calibri" size="3"><br></font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 11px/normal 'Times New Roman'; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Calibri" size="3">The corpus used was recorded at the MICA Institute in November 2012 by 2 male speakers selected for their strong knowledge of the Mo Piu language. The present study uses a list of 175 words or compound words uttered 3 times by 1 speaker (525 items), extracted from the Calmsea list (extended), and grouped according to 1-8 prototones [Ratliff, 2010]. Though on the basis of this corpus a diachronic and a synchronic studies can be achieved, the focus here is on the synchronic perspective.</font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 11px/normal 'Times New Roman'; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Calibri" size="3"><br></font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 11px/normal 'Times New Roman'; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Calibri" size="3">To check the objectivity of the annotations, 2 automatic and semi-automatic tonal annotation tools were used: Praat-Momel-Mistral+ [Weber and al., 2012] and Prosotran [Bartkova and al., 2012], enabling a comparison of the tonal annotation results. The first part of this study presents the comparison of the tonal annotations yielded by these 2 tools, and the second part, in the frame of the words of the prototones lists, presents the mean values and standard-deviations of the patterns of the Mo Piu tones. In the semi- automatic (i.e. semi-manual) procedure, at the step of the xls files, a correction was made if necessary, concerning the threshold effect: ± 5 Hz around the threshold was granted. The conclusion is that the automatic and manual procedures are mostly in concordance.</font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 11px/normal 'Times New Roman'; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Calibri" size="3"><br></font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 11px/normal 'Times New Roman'; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Calibri" size="3">Our study allows also for a reduced number of different tone patterns and gives more precision about them, bringing to light a bidirectional pattern for falling tones /54/ (/544/) and /43/ (/433/), and a one direction pattern for /41/ (and of course for the plateau /33/). Concerning the prototones study, from these limited data restricted to only 1 speaker and containing an unbalanced number of items among the types of prototones, some new hypotheses can only put forward: the 2, 3, 5, 8 ones seem to have merged into the same tone /43/, while the prototone 1 seems to mostly correspond to the tone /54/. As for the other prototones, other data are needed to confirm whether 6 is split up in two tones /43, 41/, and whether 4 leads to the plateau /33/.</font></div></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 13px/normal Times; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Calibri" size="3"><br></font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 13px/normal Times; "><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 13px/normal Times; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Calibri" size="3">3) Topological relations in White Hmong: Description and typology</font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 11px/normal Times; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Calibri" size="3">Elisabeth Ginsburg</font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 11px/normal Times; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Calibri" size="3">Australian National University</font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 11px/normal 'Times New Roman'; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Calibri" size="3"><br></font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 11px/normal 'Times New Roman'; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Calibri"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3">The paper describes the expression of topological relations in White Hmong, a Hmong Mien language, from the perspective of syntax and semantics. Melding linguistic description with comparative typology, I compare Hmong with other languages as described in </font><span style="font: normal normal normal 11px/normal Times; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Calibri" size="3"><i>Grammars of Space </i></font></span><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3">(Levinson and Wilkins, 2006). The original data used in this paper has been collected using the Bowerman and Pederson (1992) Topological Relations Picture Series. </font></font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 11px/normal 'Times New Roman'; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Calibri" size="3"><br></font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 11px/normal 'Times New Roman'; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Calibri" size="3">Topological relations have not yet been fully described in White Hmong but preliminary analysis shows that White Hmong behaves in an unexpected way cross- linguistically. For example White Hmong seems to violate the 'Implicational hierarchy across topological space' put forth by Levinson and Wilkins (2006: 519). This hierarchy describes how semantics influence the choice of which grammatical construction will most likely be used in certain contexts.</font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 11px/normal 'Times New Roman'; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Calibri" size="3"><br></font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 11px/normal 'Times New Roman'; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Calibri"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3">By comparing the semantic maps developed for other languages found in Levinson and Wilkins (2006: 553-562) we begin to see where White Hmong fits in the bigger picture. Where typically languages express topological relations using constructions which may include adpositions and locatives, White Hmong and Kilivila (an Austronesian language of Papua New Guinea, described in Senft 2006: 206-229) frequently do not. In White Hmong and Kilivila, there are expressions of figure ground relationships which make extensive use of verbs and avoid locatives, although they can do so in different ways. The White Hmong example below shows a topological relationship which is expressed with the use of a single verb, </font><span style="font: normal normal normal 11px/normal Times; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Calibri" size="3"><i>nkaug</i></font></span><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3">, 'poke through'. </font></font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 11px/normal 'Times New Roman'; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Calibri" size="3"><br></font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 11px/normal 'Times New Roman'; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Calibri"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3">(1)</font><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="font-size: medium; white-space: pre; "> </span><span style="font: normal normal normal 11px/normal Times; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Calibri" size="3"><i>Tus<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre; "> </span>xib xub<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre; "> </span>nkaug<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre; "> </span>lub<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre; "> </span>txiv<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre; "> </span>ev.paum</i></font></span></font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 11px/normal 'Times New Roman'; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Calibri" size="3"><span style="font: normal normal normal 9px/normal 'Times New Roman'; "><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>CL<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre; "> </span></span>arrow<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre; "> </span>poke.through <span style="font: normal normal normal 9px/normal 'Times New Roman'; ">CL<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre; "> </span></span>fruit<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre; "> </span>apple</font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 11px/normal 'Times New Roman'; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Calibri" size="3">'The arrow is poking through the apple.' (White Hmong)</font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 11px/normal 'Times New Roman'; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Calibri" size="3"><br></font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 11px/normal 'Times New Roman'; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Calibri" size="3">The second example shows how Kilivila treats the same spatial relationship.</font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 11px/normal 'Times New Roman'; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Calibri" size="3"><br></font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 13px/normal Times; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Calibri"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3">(2)</font><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="font-size: medium; white-space: pre; "> </span><span style="font: normal normal normal 11px/normal Times; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Calibri" size="3"><i>Ekausi keyala esuvisi miyana bovada ebasisi e-kau-si<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre; "> </span>keyala<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre; "> </span>e-suvi-si<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre; "> </span>mi-ya-na<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre; "> </span>bovada<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre; "> </span>e-basi-si </i></font></span></font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 13px/normal Times; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Calibri"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3">3.-take-</font><span style="font-size: medium; font: normal normal normal 9px/normal 'Times New Roman'; ">PL<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre; "> </span></span><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3">spear</font><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="font-size: medium; white-space: pre; "> </span><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3">3.-enter-pl</font><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="font-size: medium; white-space: pre; "> </span><span style="font-size: medium; font: normal normal normal 9px/normal 'Times New Roman'; ">DEM</span><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3">-</font><span style="font-size: medium; font: normal normal normal 9px/normal 'Times New Roman'; ">CP</span><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3">.-flexible-</font><span style="font-size: medium; font: normal normal normal 9px/normal 'Times New Roman'; ">DEM<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre; "> </span></span><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3">pumpkin</font><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="font-size: medium; white-space: pre; "> </span><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3">3.-stab-</font><span style="font-size: medium; font: normal normal normal 9px/normal 'Times New Roman'; ">PL </span><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"> </font></font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 13px/normal Times; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Calibri"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3">'They take a spear, they enter this pumpkin (with it) they spear (it).' Kilivila (Senft 2006: 216)</font></font></div></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 13px/normal Times; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Calibri" size="3"><br></font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 13px/normal Times; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Calibri" size="3">4) Grammatical features shared by Austronesian and Hmong-Mien</font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 11px/normal Times; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Calibri" size="3">Martha Ratliff</font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 11px/normal Times; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Calibri" size="3">Wayne State University</font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 11px/normal 'Times New Roman'; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Calibri" size="3"><br></font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 11px/normal 'Times New Roman'; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Calibri" size="3">Over the past several years, linguistic similarities across pairs or sets of East and</font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 11px/normal 'Times New Roman'; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Calibri" size="3">Southeast Asian language families have given rise to a number of well-known proposals</font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 11px/normal 'Times New Roman'; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Calibri" size="3">for a closer relationship between one pair or set of families than others. This work has</font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 11px/normal 'Times New Roman'; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Calibri" size="3">primarily involved comparing small portions of the lexicon, supported by hints of sound</font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 11px/normal 'Times New Roman'; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Calibri" size="3">correspondences, but has also involved comparing some closed word sets and</font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 11px/normal 'Times New Roman'; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Calibri" size="3">grammatical features. In every case, we are challenged to provide a historical explanation</font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 11px/normal 'Times New Roman'; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Calibri" size="3">for the best of this evidence, such as the similarity between the numeral systems of the</font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 11px/normal 'Times New Roman'; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Calibri" size="3">TK language Buyang and AN (Sagart 2004). I do not find the idea of the late Stanley</font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 11px/normal 'Times New Roman'; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Calibri" size="3">Starosta (2005)—that Sino-Tibetan, Hmong-Mien, Tai-Kadai (Kra-Dai), Austronesian,</font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 11px/normal 'Times New Roman'; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Calibri" size="3">and Austroasiatic may all somehow be connected at a great time depth—too daring as a</font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 11px/normal 'Times New Roman'; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Calibri" size="3">working hypothesis. One advantage of this hypothesis is that it allows us to remain open-</font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 11px/normal 'Times New Roman'; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Calibri" size="3">minded about all three major proposals: Austric, Austro-Tai, and STAN, as well as</font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 11px/normal 'Times New Roman'; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Calibri" size="3">―Yangzian‖ (AA-HM). As a contribution to work on the East Asian complex, I would</font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 11px/normal 'Times New Roman'; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Calibri" size="3">like to present some grammatical similarities between the centrally-located (and thus</font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 11px/normal 'Times New Roman'; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Calibri" size="3">historically significant) HM languages and AN.</font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 11px/normal 'Times New Roman'; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Calibri" size="3"><br></font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 11px/normal 'Times New Roman'; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Calibri" size="3">At the 2004 SEALS meeting in Bangkok I presented the idea that the stability of</font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 11px/normal 'Times New Roman'; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Calibri" size="3">individual basic lexical items is idiosyncratic, and the stability of phonologically-similar</font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 11px/normal 'Times New Roman'; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Calibri" size="3">roots for the same basic concepts in two sister-candidate families, in conjunction with</font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 11px/normal 'Times New Roman'; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Calibri" size="3">more conventional evidence, can point to a higher-level relationship. HM and AN share a</font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 11px/normal 'Times New Roman'; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Calibri" size="3">few of these stable roots. In this presentation, I would like to present complementary</font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 11px/normal 'Times New Roman'; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Calibri" size="3">evidence from grammar to suggest that HM and AN may have had a period of shared</font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 11px/normal 'Times New Roman'; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Calibri" size="3">history. In particular, I will review and extend my earlier work on (1) the stative and</font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 11px/normal 'Times New Roman'; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Calibri" size="3">causative prefixes of AN and HM (both appear in the identical AN/HM words for 'die'</font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 11px/normal 'Times New Roman'; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Calibri" size="3">and 'kill'); (2) the AN and HM personal pronouns; and (3) the AN and HM spatial deictic</font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 11px/normal 'Times New Roman'; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Calibri" size="3">systems. A person-based, three-way contrast ('this near me', 'that near you', 'that</font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 11px/normal 'Times New Roman'; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Calibri" size="3">neutral') is typical for AN, but is relatively unusual for languages spoken on the</font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 11px/normal 'Times New Roman'; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Calibri" size="3">mainland [NOTE: in the discussion after the talk, it was pointed out that such a system</font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 11px/normal 'Times New Roman'; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Calibri" size="3">is indeed attested on the mainland]. The lexical and grammatical evidence taken together is </font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 11px/normal 'Times New Roman'; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Calibri" size="3">slight in quantity but is strong in specificity, and requires an explanation.</font></div></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 11px/normal 'Times New Roman'; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Calibri" size="3"><br></font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 11px/normal 'Times New Roman'; "><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 13px/normal Times; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Calibri" size="3">5) On the phylogeny of Hmongic languages</font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 11px/normal Times; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Calibri" size="3">Yoshihisa Taguchi</font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 11px/normal Times; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Calibri" size="3">Chiba University</font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 11px/normal 'Times New Roman'; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Calibri" size="3"><br></font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 11px/normal 'Times New Roman'; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Calibri" size="3">The aim of this paper is to explore the phylogeny of the Hmongic languages, which constitute one of the branches of the Hmong-Mien language family. Several scholars have proposed family tree diagrams for this group, but most of them do not show evidence to support their trees. This paper will explore the phylogeny of this language group mainly based on lexical evidence, but also try to support the result with some phonological evidence.</font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 11px/normal 'Times New Roman'; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Calibri" size="3"><br></font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 11px/normal 'Times New Roman'; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Calibri" size="3">In the first section, I will draw a tree based on lexical evidence, using a list of lexical data of Hmong-Mien, which are selected on the basis of the CALMSEA wordlist (Matisoff 1978). The data are from several sources, including Wang (1985), Mao and Li (1997, 2005), Mao and Meng (1986), and Meng (2001). Next, I go on to examine the phylogenetic status of the lexical data in each slot of the list in terms of cognacy and borrowing possibility, mainly based on Ratliff (2010). Finally I input them into an algorithm to find the best tree(s). In the second section, I will try to determine whether or not the phonological innovations that these languages are assumed to have undergone support the calculation result obtained in the previous section.</font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 11px/normal 'Times New Roman'; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Calibri" size="3"><br></font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 11px/normal 'Times New Roman'; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Calibri" size="3">The main points of this study include: (1) we must propose a tree with many ranks for the Hmongic languages, in contrast to the flat trees that have been proposed, and (2) "the Miao language" in the previous classification, which includes Xiong (Xiangxi), Hmu (Qiandong), and Hmong (Chuanqiandian), is not tenable as a single monophyletic group, but each of these three languages belongs to different subgroups of the family.</font></div></div></body></html><br>
<hr>
<p align="center">To unsubscribe from the MY-HM list, click the following link:<br>
<a href="&*TICKET_URL(MY-HM,SIGNOFF);" target="_blank">&*TICKET_URL(MY-HM,SIGNOFF);</a>
</p>