[Lingtyp] Numeral 'one' and 'as soon as'

[Chris Donlay]

 Khatso (Sino-Tibetan/Tibeto-Burman/Yi), spoken in Yunnan, has nearly the same construction. The difference is that the first clause containing 'one' is often followed by the topic marker, which itself can indicate temporal sequence. The topic marker is often omitted in casual speech, though. Since Khatso is a distant relative of the Sinitic languages, this construction may date back to Proto-ST -- or it may have been borrowed more recently from Mandarin. Looking at other Yi languages might shed light on this.
cd

    On Wednesday, March 31, 2021, 10:33:56 PM PDT, Jesus Francisco Olguin Martinez <olguinmartinez at ucsb.edu> wrote:  
 
 Dear all,

Sorry for not having been clearer in my previous email.
Yes, English 'once' is used in this way :) 
I did not mention English and other European languages  because in Mandarin and the other Hmong-Mien languages I mentioned before, the second clause appears with another linker (lit. on(c)e........'(and) then').  Accordingly, these languages show some sort of correlative construction. Based on the languages of the sample, this usage of 'on(c)e' in a correlative construction is not common cross-linguistically. It seems that Hmong-Mien languages have copied this strategy with native material from Mandarin. This is some sort of 'pattern replication'. I was expecting to receive more answers concerned with languages spoken in this area in order to see if these languages have also copied this pattern from Mandarin.
Thank you in advance.
Best,
On Wed, Mar 31, 2021 at 8:37 PM Jesus Francisco Olguin Martinez <olguinmartinez at ucsb.edu> wrote:

Dear all,
I hope this message finds you well.
As I was consulting various sources, it seems that the numeral 'one' in the expression of 'as soon as' is not common cross-linguistically. 
In my sample, this is attested in Standard Mandarin (i.e. yī), Xong (Hmong-Mien), and Iu Mien (Hmong-Mien). Are you aware of any other languages that express 'as soon as' in a similar way?
Thank you very much in advance.
Best,
-- 
Jesús Olguín MartínezPh.D. Candidate, Dept. of LinguisticsUniversity of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB)http://www.linguistics.ucsb.edu/people/jesús-olguín-martínez


-- 
Jesús Olguín MartínezPh.D. Candidate, Dept. of LinguisticsUniversity of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB)http://www.linguistics.ucsb.edu/people/jesús-olguín-martínez_______________________________________________
Lingtyp mailing list
Lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org
http://listserv.linguistlist.org/mailman/listinfo/lingtyp
  
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/lingtyp/attachments/20210401/313727d3/attachment.htm>