Let us hypothesize that, at an earlier historical stage, input L and LM+MH# for a σ+σσ string yielded L.L.MH (phonologically: L+MH#) by successive association of the two input tones. At that stage, supposing that the rest of the system was as it is now, the output L+MH# must have been an outlier. Among the tone patterns of compound nouns with a L-tone determiner, it was the only one that contained anything other than L and H tones, because it was the only combination in which a tone pattern beginning in L could express itself fully on the head without contravening phonological rules. Apart from this one combination, the opposition between LM, LH, LM+#H and LM+MH# tones was always neutralized on compounds' head nouns by application of Rule 5: "All syllables following a H.L or M.L sequence receive L tone". Thus, this combination was the only counterexample to a local pattern of neutralization. It appears possible that speakers modified this unique output (\*L+MH#) by analogy with the more common pattern.

In other words, the scenario is at follows. First, an almost complete pattern of neutralization resulted from a phonological rule. The exception was \*L+MH#,

4 Another way of thinking of it would be to consider that the lexical tone pattern of the head gets associated in full, yielding *‡* **po˧lo˧-ʝi˩ʈʂæ˧˥**, and that this expression, which does not constitute a well-formed tone sequence due to the presence of a trough in the middle (the L in the M.M.L.MH sequence), is repaired by deletion of the final MH sequence and its replacement by L. Rule 5 could then be rephrased as Rule 5': "All syllables following a H.L or M.L sequence are lowered to L". Rule 5' would apply after association of the entire LM+MH# tone pattern, whereas under the present account, Rule 5 applies as soon as the M.L sequence is created, i.e. as soon as a L tone associates to the syllable /…**-ʝi˩**…/. Since both views have the same practical implications, the choice of one or the other can be made freely in view of one's theoretical preferences.

### 3.2 Determinative compound nouns. Part II: Discussion

from input L and LM+MH#. Later, neutralization was made exceptionless (in this corner of Yongning Na morphotonology) by a process of analogy: the one and only exception was regularized. This change created greater uniformity in the inventory of tone patterns of compounds, as it resulted in the current pattern of full neutralization of LM, LH, LM+#H and LM+MH# tones on compounds' head nouns. On the other hand, it detracted from the regularity of the correspondences between input tones and output tones, by adding an exception to the pattern of successive association of the tones of the determiner and the head. (The simplicity of the successive-association pattern makes it pleasing to the phonologist, but apparently less so to the speakers of the language: the simplicity of rules is one thing; the simplicity of output forms is another matter.) The new output for the combination of input L and LM+MH# was more similar to the tones of other compounds, but it had to be learnt individually.

This is admittedly a purely speculative scenario. But formulating this kind of hypotheses can be useful in order to see the tone combination rules as a coherent whole, rather than a mere collection of pieces of information. Successive association of the two input tones in compounds may never have been an exceptionless rule at any diachronic stage: on the contrary, cases where the output tone obtains by successive association of the input tones may conceivably have been *fewer* in number at some point in the past than they are now. But it is nonetheless useful to reason in terms of one prototype (in this case: successive association), listing and analyzing the combinations that do not obey this simple pattern, and looking for structural factors that may shed light on these cases. Further progress in this strand of research will require broader dialectal coverage than is available at present. The general topic of the diachronic dynamics of the Yongning Na tone system is taken up in Chapter 9.

### **3.2.8 A tendency to avoid long-distance movement of tones**

It was noted at the outset of this chapter, when discussing compounds of five syllables and more, that there was in Yongning Na a tendency to avoid processes that would result in long-distance movement of tone, namely reassociation of a H tone more than two syllables away from the word to which it is lexically attached. This tendency is confirmed by observations about the tone patterns that result from compounding. A floating H tone (#H) on the determiner plus a M tone on the head yields a final H tone (H#) on the compound, not a floating H tone (#H). A consequence is that the H tone does not move further away, as a floating tone would do. To propose an impressionistic description of the process: the H tone only floats once; at the outcome of the compounding process, its mode

of association does not retain any potential for further movement. It appears highly significant that the only σσ+σσ compounds that carry a floating H tone result from an input where the head had this tone in the first place, i.e. cases where the floating H tone does not move in the process of compounding. It seems as if a floating H tone loses its ability to float when it becomes modified by compounding.

Likewise, when the determiner carries H\$ or MH#, the H level in the lexical tone tends to remain close to the determiner's last syllable, even though the nature of this H level's anchoring is sometimes modified in compounding (as set out in §3.2.4).

The association of L tone to long stretches of syllables does not constitute a counterexample to the tendency to avoid long-distance movement of tones. This is tone spreading, neutralizing all tonal oppositions on a portion of the tone group; it is not an instance of tonal movement (reassociation of a tone away from the word to which it is lexically attached).

### **3.2.9 Brief remarks about slips of the tongue**

Hesitations, variants, and tonal slips of the tongue can offer insights into the tone system. A full-fledged study of this captivating topic would require more fine-grained tools than have been employed so far. The boundary between an acceptable variant and a commonly occurring mistake is not altogether clear, and the main consultant's judgments sometimes wavered between one and the other. While the greatest care was exercised to verify the data, the initial dichotomy between mistakes and acceptable variants would need to be followed up by specific experiments to ascertain the degree of acceptability of variants along a precise scale. (On the notion of gradient acceptability, see Kirby & Yu 2007; Coetzee & Pater 2008; Goldrick 2011.) An attempt at quantifying and analyzing mistakes is proposed in the discussion of numeral-plus-classifier phrases (§4.1.5); for compounds, only some preliminary remarks can be offered here.

To explore slips of the tongue, it is useful to take into account, for each of the surface phonological tone patterns, (i) the rules from whose application it can result, and (ii) the morphosyntactic constructions in which it is attested. For instance, the L tone category is not attested in any σσ+σ determinative compound (see Table 3.3b), so that cases where a σσ+σ compound is realized erroneously with a L tone cannot be put down to analogy with other σσ+σ compounds. (Examples include the realization of 'dog's brains' as *‡* **kʰv̩˩mi˩-ɬv̩˩** instead of /**kʰv̩˩mi˩-ɬv̩˥**/ in the recording DetermCompounds12.) It may be relevant here that σ+σσ compounds with the same tonal input yield a L tone (see Table 3.3c):

### 3.2 Determinative compound nouns. Part II: Discussion

the slip of the tongue may be an example of interference between the tone rules that apply on compounds with different syllabic patterns. But the erroneous pattern could also result from the mistaken application of a phonological rule of tone spreading, Rule 1: "L tone spreads progressively onto syllables that are unspecified for tone" (see §7.1.1). In that case, the mistake would consist in pairing the words together with a solely phonological adjustment instead of a morphophonological one.

Tonal slips of the tongue ("slips of the larynx"?) in the recorded Na data could also be adduced to argue that there is a special closeness between certain pairs (or subsets) of tonal categories. The M tone category seems more liable to confusions with #H than with other tones. For instance, errors involving /**lɑ˧**/ 'tiger' consist in the substitution of the tone pattern expected for a #H-tone word: *‡* **lɑ˧-ɬv̩˩** 'tiger's brains', instead of /**lɑ˧-ɬv̩˧˥**/, and *‡* **lɑ˧-hu˩mi˩** 'tiger's stomach', instead of /**lɑ˧-hu˧mi˥\$**/. (There are two instances of both of these mistakes; the recordings are: DetermCompounds6 and DetermCompounds7.) There are also instances of substitutions among H\$, MH# and H#, e.g. *‡* **hwɤ˧li˧-sɤ˥** instead of /**hwɤ˧li˧-sɤ˧˥**/ for 'cat's blood', and *‡* **hwɤ˧li˧-ɬv̩˧˥** instead of /**hwɤ˧li˧-ɬv̩˥**/ for 'cat's brains'. Finally, the speaker sometimes gets confused between the LM+H# and LM+MH# tones.

### **3.2.10 Perspectives for comparison across speakers**

The entire data set discussed here was provided by the consultant of reference, F4. Data was also elicited from three other speakers: F5, who is F4's daughterin-law; M21, a relative of F4, belonging to the same generation; and M23, who is M21's son. All three are less proficient speakers than F4, due to long stays away from Yongning in the case of M21, and to a generation gap in the case of F5 and M23, both proficient speakers of Southwestern Mandarin.

Unsurprisingly, some cross-speaker differences are observed. Analysis of this data is crucial to understanding the dynamics of the tone system. Some of the differences reflect the fact that the nouns at issue belong in different categories in the speech of the other consultants. For instance, 'flea' is /**kv̩˧ʂe˥\$**/ in F4's speech (LH tone), whereas in M21's speech it is /**kv̩˧ʂe#˥**/ (#H tone). Likewise, 'boar' is /**bo˩ɬɑ˥**/ in F4's speech (LH tone), whereas in M21's speech it fluctuates between /**bo˩ɬɑ˥**/ and /**bo˩ɬɑ˧˥**/ (LM+MH# tone). The difference in tones for 'boar's nose' between the two speakers – /**bo˩ɬɑ˥-ɲi˩gɤ˩**/ for F4 (tone: LH), and /**bo˩ɬɑ˧ɲi˧gɤ#˥**/ (tone: LM+#H) for M21 – is interpreted not to have originated in a difference in the rules that determine the tonal output for compounds, but in a difference in input tones. Both compounds follow the regularities summarized in Tables 3.3a–e, but the input combination is different.

This situation requires a full checkup of each consultant's tone system and lexicon as a preliminary to the selection of compound nouns for elicitation. On this basis, cross-speaker differences in the tone rules can be brought out.

To begin with a comparison within close age groups, Table 3.4 presents two differences between F4 and M21.

Table 3.4: Differences between speakers F4 and M21 in the tones of compounds.

The output that is obtained when combining two M tones over monosyllables is different for the two speakers, and this output is odd in both cases: why not use a simple concatenation of the input tones, yielding M tone for the compound, as happens for the other M+M compounds (σσ+σσ, σσ+σ and σ+σσ)? For both F4 and M21, the output differs from what would be expected as default. The combination of input #H and H\$ over disyllables (σσ+σσ) is also different for the two speakers, who both refused the other's variant when I tried it on them.

An interesting characteristic of these different patterns is that they nonetheless have a family resemblance: M21's patterns are not that different from F4's. M21 has –L tone on the phrase 'colt's stomach' (σσ+σσ); this same –L tone is found in F4's data, when monosyllabic input nouns with these tones are combined into a compound (σ+σ). Such observations suggest that subtle processes may be at play, whereby individuals bound by social ties tend towards a degree of convergence. One could speculate that, in cases where speakers wish to promote a feeling of community, for instance in relaxed discussions with a relative, they tend to accommodate to their interlocutor's tone patterns, occasionally adopting new patterns so as to emphasize linguistic common ground over differences. Since one and the same surface tone pattern is open to several phonological interpretations (e.g. /M.M/ may be the realization of underlying //M// or //#H//), this process of accommodation can result in a proliferation of divergent variant

### 3.2 Determinative compound nouns. Part II: Discussion

forms from one speaker to another. Speakers' adoption of tone patterns from their customary interlocutors could thus explain the extent of the observed pool of morphotonological variation. By a related process, speakers may tend to select from within this pool of variation those patterns that they feel will be most accessible to their addressee: avoiding, among possible variants, those that are felt to be most sharply at variance with the addressee's linguistic habits. Conversely, self-assertive speakers who want to distance themselves from the addressee could favour linguistic patterns that they feel are most different from those used by the addressee: this would be a possible path whereby a variant acquires prominence and eventually comes to be generalized by that speaker.

To test these hypotheses, one could examine dialogues, for instance comparing F4's tone patterns in conversations with different family members – whose tone patterns will need to be described with the greatest possible precision. This is a perspective for future research; it holds promise of bringing out mechanisms that play a key role in the evolution of the tone system, thereby shedding light on the system's synchronic outlook.

### **3.2.11 Exceptional items**

Some compounds possess lexical tones that differ from those that would be expected on the basis of their constituting elements. The irregularity can be due to the determiner, as in the first four lines of Table 3.5, or to the head, as in its last line. These examples are discussed one by one below.

### **<IP_ADDRESS> The noun 'Naxi'**

The noun 'Naxi' (/**nɑ˩hĩ#˥**/, tone: LM+#H) yields irregular results in two quadrisyllabic compounds (see the recording DetermCompounds16):

'Naxi' has a special status in Yongning Na. On the one hand, it refers to an ethnic group perceived as distinct from the Na: the Naxi of the Lijiang plain, some

### 3.2 Determinative compound nouns. Part II: Discussion

of whom settled in Yongning since the early 20th century but still retain their distinct costumes and language (on the cultural divide between the Naxi and Na, see Appendix B, in particular the end of §B.3.4). On the other hand, it is made up of the endonym of the Na, compounded with the word for 'person, human being', so that its independence from 'Na' is problematic. The exceptional treatment of this noun may have to do with the perceived necessity of handling the term in such a way as to attempt to avoid its perception as a compound meaning 'Na person'.

### **<IP_ADDRESS> The nouns 'nose' and 'hair'**

'Nasal mucus' is /**ɲi˧gɤ˧-dʑɯ˧˥**/ (tone: MH#); on the basis of the input nouns, /**ɲi˧gɤ#˥**/ 'nose' and /**dʑɯ˩**/ 'water', the expected tone would be #H (/†**ɲi˧gɤ˧ dʑɯ#˥**/). 'Hair (on the head)', /**ʁo˧hṽ̩˧˥**/, has the same tone (MH#); for this word, too, the expected tone would be #H: /†**ʁo˧hṽ̩#˥**/ (the input nouns both have H tone: /**ʁo˥**/ 'head; top' and /**hṽ̩˥**/ 'hair').

The etymology of these two words is self-evident. On the other hand, mucus is not just a kind of water ('nose-water'). The difference between hair on the head and on the body may seem smaller, but many languages have different roots for the two, e.g. French and Lao (Enfield 2006: 187-188). In Na, the compounds referring to 'hair (on the head)' and 'body hair' are lexicalized compounds ('body hair' is /**ʑi˩hṽ#˥**/, literally 'ape hair'). The irregular tone patterns of these two words may reflect an early lexicalization. The discrepancy between the tones of these items and the output of the currently productive tone rules for compounds may be due to different tone rules that applied at the time when these compounds were created. Or they may result from an evolution of the compounds away from the regular tone pattern, triggered by the perception of their status as lexical units rather than compounds. This second possibility might sound less plausible than the first, but item-by-item tone change accompanying lexicalization is a salient characteristic of the tone system of Laze, a language closely related to Na,5 so this possibility should not be lightly dismissed.

5 There are four lexical tones for Laze monosyllables (for predicates: H, M, L and MH; for nouns: H, M, L and a floating H tone); in theory, this could yield as many as sixteen tone patterns over disyllables, but only seven are observed. Tone changes occur as lexicalization takes place. Numerous combinations of two input tones other than H yield H+H. For instance, 'dog' is /**kʰɯ˧**/, and 'to beat' is /**ɖɯ˩**/. Their combination should yield M.L, but it comes out as H.H. This is a key process in the lexical integration of disyllables in Laze (Michaud 2008a; 2009; Michaud & Jacques 2012).

### **<IP_ADDRESS> The noun 'flour, powder'**

The word for 'powder, flour' is /**tsɑ˧bɤ˧**/, with M tone. According to the synchronically productive rules, the combination of this word with /**lv̩˧mi˧**/ 'stone', /**qʰɑ˧dze˧**/ 'sweetcorn' and /**dze˧ɭɯ˧**/ 'wheat' should yield a simple M-tone output, e.g. *†***lv̩˧mi˧-tsɑ˧bɤ˧** for 'fine sand'. But the observed forms, shown in Table 3.6, all carry a M.M.L.L tone pattern, corresponding to underlying –L (a L tone on the second part of the compound).

Table 3.6: Irregular compounds with /**tsɑ˧bɤ˧**/ 'flour, powder'.

The principle applied in the present study is that two lexical items of like phonological structure whose tones differ in at least one morphosyntactic context need to be recognized as belonging to different lexical tone categories. Mechanical application of this principle would lead to recognition of /**tsɑ˧bɤ˧**/ 'flour, powder' as the sole example of an umpteenth (twelfth) tonal category of disyllabic nouns. But it makes much more sense to try to explain the irregular behaviour of the compounds in Table 3.6 by other factors.

The word /**tsɑ˧bɤ˧**/ is a Tibetan loanword (from *rtsam pa* 'roasted flour'). The lowering of the tones on the latter part of the compounds in Table 3.6 echoes observations about a larger set of words of Tibetan origin: given names. These compounds will be referred to for short as 'Tibetan compounds'; this topic will be taken up in the analysis of proper names in §3.3.3.

### **<IP_ADDRESS> The noun 'sky'**

The disyllabic form of the noun 'sky' is /**mv̩˧ʁo˥\$**/. The monosyllabic root for 'sky' is /**mv̩˥**/; if the second syllable were /**ʁo˥**/ 'head; top', one would expect the

### 3.3 Coordinative compounds

compound to have #H tone (on the basis of the regularities set out in Tables 3.2a– e). But the second syllable could also be the postposition 'on' – itself likely to be grammaticalized from 'head'. This postposition is not in common use anymore (the common form is //**bi˩**// 'on; at': see §5.4.1); this is an obstacle to establishing its lexical tone and studying its combinatory properties.

### **3.3 Coordinative compounds**

### **3.3.1 The main facts**

In the closely related language Naxi, the tones of coordinative compounds are simply the concatenation of those of their constituents, e.g. /**ɲi˧nv̩˩-jæ˧kæ˩zɯ˧**/ 'wife and husband' from /**ɲi˧nv̩˩**/ 'wife' and /**jæ˧kæ˩zɯ˧**/ 'husband'.6 In Yongning Na, on the other hand, coordinative compounds are tonally active, to an extent comparable with determinative compounds.

Coordinative compounds are less common than determinative compounds, however, and less easy to elicit systematically. Syntactically, coordinative constructions can be applied to any pair of nouns. This is exemplified by the names of public houses in English. Combinations like "Fox and Hounds" or "Dog and Duck" refer to hunting traditions; others, such as "Bear and Ragged Staff", refer to heraldry. Once the pattern is established, new coordinative combinations can be created at will, such as the humorous "Snail and Salad", where the relationship between the two terms – and their relationship to the food served in the pub – is offered to the customer's fancy. In Yongning Na, any two nouns can be coordinated by means of the conjunction /**lɑ˧**/ 'and', but coordinative compound nouns are not as easy to coin: the two nouns must refer to entities that are commonly paired together.

Three sources were found: pairs of animal names of the two sexes, and their offspring, such as 'ewe and ram', 'ram and ewe', 'ewe and lamb', and 'ram and lamb'; pairs of kinship terms, such as 'uncle and nephew' and 'mother and daughter'; and successive numerals followed by the same classifier, such as 'two or three years', 'five or six months' or 'four or five days'. A broad sample of the first two sets can be found in the online recording CoordCompounds; the third set is found in CoordCompounds2. The consultant (F4) preferred to remain within the bounds of common sense, and non-matching pairs such as 'mother and nephew'

6 This tonally inert compound is of little phonological interest; on the other hand, it has some ethnolinguistic interest. As the Naxi of Lijiang like to point out, this compound places the wife in front of the husband, in contradiction of Confucian principles.

or 'grandmother and brother' were avoided. The data is set out in Tables 3.7a-3.7i. As elsewhere, a slash separates variants. Some tone patterns that were proposed by the investigator and refused by the consultant are indicated, with a double dagger *‡*, in the output column: for instance, in view of the existence of two variants for the combination /**ʐv̩˩ɬi˩-ŋwɤ˩ɬi˩˥**/ **≈** /**ʐv̩˩ɬi˩-ŋwɤ˥ɬi˩**/ 'four or five months', whose input nouns both have L tone, it was attempted to apply the L tone pattern of the variant /**ʐv̩˩ɬi˩-ŋwɤ˩ɬi˩˥**/ to other combinations of two L-tone nouns, such as 'nephews and nieces', /**ze˩v̩˩-ze˥mi˩**/. The fact that the L variant is not possible for these expressions (*‡* **ze˩v̩˩-ze˩mi˩˥**) is indicated through the mention '(*‡* L)' in the output column.

Three suffixes appear repeatedly in the table: the female/augmentative suffix /**-mi˩**/, the male suffix /**-pʰv̩˥**/, and the child/male/diminutive suffixe /**-zo˥**/. These suffixes are discussed in more detail in §5.1.

Most examples are quadrisyllabic, from two input disyllables (σσ+σσ). The two disyllabic examples (σ+σ) at the top of Table 3.7a are written without a hyphen, on the basis of the intuition that they are more strongly integrated than the others. Trisyllabic examples are of the structure *disyllable plus monosyllable* (σσ +σ), showing a preference for coordinative compounds where the first term has at least as many syllables as the second. Hexasyllabic compounds can be created, e.g. /**ŋwɤ˩-ɬi˩mi˩-qʰv̩˥-ɬi˩mi˩**/ (Dog2.64) 'the fifth and sixth months'.

Table 3.7a: Coordinative compounds of fewer than four syllables, arranged by input tones.

Table 3.7b: Quadrisyllabic compounds with M as the first input tone.

Table 3.7c: Quadrisyllabic compounds with #H as the first input tone.

Table 3.7d:Quadrisyllabic compounds with MH# as the first input tone.

Table 3.7e: Quadrisyllabic compounds with H\$ as the first input tone.

Table 3.7f: Quadrisyllabic compounds with L as the first input tone.

Table 3.7g: Quadrisyllabic compounds with L# as the first input tone.

Table 3.7h: Quadrisyllabic compounds with LM as the first input tone.

Table 3.7i: Compounds of four to six syllables with H# as the first input tone.

### 3.3 Coordinative compounds

### **3.3.2 Discussion: Tonal variability and lexical diversity**

The existence of variants was already observed for some determinative compounds (see Tables 3.3a–e), but the overall proportion of combinations that have variants is low: 7 combinations out of 257, all of which have H\$ tone on the head noun. For coordinative compounds, on the other hand, less regularity is observed. There are not only tonal variants, but compounds with identical input tones and different outputs. Among quadrisyllabic compounds, two different outputs (on different examples) are found for no fewer than six tonal combinations: those with input tones M and M, #H and M, MH# and M, H\$ and M, H\$ and #H, and L and #H. A seventh combination, #H and #H, even has three different outputs. For quadrisyllabic compounds, the proportion of tone combinations with two or three different outputs is about one out of four.

The general picture is thus one of great tonal diversity. But coordinative compounds are not simply characterized by a general looseness of their tone patterns, whereby two or three tonal variants would be acceptable for any combination of input tones. In cases where the same tonal input yields different tones in different coordinative compounds, it was attempted to substitute one for the other. For instance, input H\$ and M nouns yield a compound with #H tone in the case of 'little brothers and little sisters', //**gi˧zɯ˧-go˧mi#˥**//, but a compound with H# tone in the case of 'kids and little nanny goats', //**tsʰɯ˧zo˧-to˧qɑ˥**//; it was therefore attempted to substitute tones #H and H# for each other on coordinative compounds. These attempted variants were rejected by the consultant, as shown in Table 3.8. Clearly, each coordinative compound comes to carry a habitual tone pattern to the exclusion of others. Cross-speaker comparison (within the family, then extending the comparison to other micro-dialects) will be necessary to explore the paths of development of idiosyncratic preferences.

Table 3.8: Attempted tonal variants for coordinative compounds.

The diversity of tone patterns relates in subtle ways to the semantic diversity of coordinative compounds. Importantly, it is not always possible to arrive at

the meaning of coordinative compounds simply on the basis of their two constituents. For instance, /**hwɤ˧zo˧-hwɤ˧mi˥**/, made up of 'kitten' and 'she-cat', does not mean 'kitten and she-cat' (the child and the mother), but refers to cats in general, as a species. The terms for male and female puppies, /**kʰv̩˧zo#˥**/ and /**kʰv̩˧mv̩#˥**/ respectively, have come to be used as names for human newborns: an unlovely name is purposedly chosen to repel demons who may be lurking around to take their lives.7 The real name is only given after a couple of months, or sometimes as late as one full year after birth. The two terms /**kʰv̩˧zo#˥**/ and /**kʰv̩˧mv̩#˥**/, and their compound /**kʰv̩˧zo˥-kʰv̩˩mv̩˩**/, have become culturally specialized and have ceased to be used to refer to real puppies. There is thus a broad range of situations, from elicited combinations which the consultant may never have conceptualized before (such as 'male and female jackal') to highly lexicalized expressions. This sheds indirect light on the observed tonal diversity. However, the overall number of examples is too small to determine with confidence which outputs are currently productive. The logical next step to investigate this issue would be to test the degree of lexicalization of the various compounds.

The tone patterns observed to date are summarized in Tables 3.9a and 3.9b. When two different (and mutually exclusive) patterns are observed over different compounds, these patterns are separated by a semi-colon. In cases of free variation (over the same compound), the patterns are separated by a slash. In order to save space, tone categories for which there are no examples are simply omitted from the table.

Table 3.9a: The tones of coordinative compounds with monosyllabic second noun. A question mark indicates that no example was found.

Sixty percent of the combinations are identical with those found on determinative compounds. There is a considerable proportion of combinations for which

7 This is known in Chinese as "milk name" (乳名 *rǔmíng*), and constitutes one of the types of "names intended to avoid attracting the unwanted attention of gods, sparing the name-bearers the misfortunes wrought by the god's wrath or jealousy" (Chen 2016: 118).

Table 3.9b: The tones of coordinative compounds consisting of two disyllables. A question mark indicates that no example was found.

3.3 Coordinative compounds

no example was found; to the cells containing a question mark in the table must be added the empty columns, which are omitted from the table. Only 35 combinations were observed, out of a theoretically possible 223 (6×6 for σ+σ compounds, 11×6 for σσ+σ compounds, and 11×11 for σσ+σσ compounds). Since there is nothing to restrict input combinations, the gaps in Tables 3.9a and 3.9b must be considered accidental. This is due in part to the limitations of available materials, but the scarcity of examples, and the diversity of their tone patterns, also provides food for morphotonological thought: coordinative compounds are much less common than determinative compounds. It may be that there is no such thing as a full-fledged set of productive tone combination rules governing their tone patterns, and that newly minted coordinative compounds are based on analogy with the best example at hand: a lexicalized compound perceived (on grounds that may fluctuate) as liable to the same tone rules. A touch of expressivity may also be involved in the process: greater weight placed on one of the two elements in the compound, on semantic-stylistic grounds, could contribute to the selection of one tone pattern rather than another. This would constitute a clue to the observed diversity.

### **3.3.3 Compound given names and terms of address**

Compound given names and terms of address constitute two specific areas in the morphotonology of Yongning Na: they do not follow the regularities brought out above for other coordinative compounds.

In Yongning, given names are of Tibetan origin. They consist of a combination of two disyllabic names. For instance, /**ʝi˧tɕi˧-ɖɯ˩mɑ˩**/ is made up of /**ʝi˧tɕi˧**/ and /**ɖɯ˩mɑ#˥**/; /**ɖɯ˩ɖʐɯ˧-tsʰɯ˩-ɻ̍˩**/ is a combination of /**ɖɯ˩ɖʐɯ˧**/ and /**tsʰɯ˧ɻ̍#˥**/. Table 3.10 provides a list: disyllabic names, and attested combinations. The corresponding forms in Written Tibetan were proposed by Nathan Hill and Tsering Samdrup (p.c. 2016), and remain to be confirmed by eliciting the written forms from a monk in Yongning. Question marks indicate uncertain identifications. A dash '–' indicates that no forms are found in the set of recorded texts (and additional data will be necessary).

The tones of the second name are lowered to L in all cases, even when they could in theory be expressed without contravening any phonological rule. For instance, /**ɖɯ˩ɖʐɯ˧**/ and /**tsʰɯ˧ɻ̍#˥**/ could combine as *‡* **ɖɯ˩ɖʐɯ˧-tsʰɯ˧ɻ̍#˥**, by successive association of the tones of the two nouns. The expression *‡* **ɖɯ˩ɖʐɯ˧ tsʰɯ˧ɻ̍#˥** would not violate phonological conditions of well-formedness: there exist some four-syllable expressions that carry just this tone pattern, such as /**nɑ˩bɑ˧-ʁɑ˧ɭɯ#˥**/ (the name of a mountain). The lowering to L of the second part

Table 3.10: Yongning Na given names and identifications with Tibetan names proposed by Nathan Hill and Tsering Samdrup.

of compound names only applies to given names, not to compound names made up of a term of address and a two-syllable given name. For instance, a woman named /**ki˧zo#˥**/ may be addressed as /**ə˧mi˧-ki˧zo#˥**/ ("Mother **ki˧zo#˥**, Aunt **ki˧zo#˥**") by her nephews and nieces. This term of address is not realized as *‡* **ə˧mi˧-ki˩zo˩**, as would be the case if it were treated in the same way as compound given names. So the lowering of the last two syllables in given names, such as /**ɖɯ˩ɖʐɯ˧-tsʰɯ˩-ɻ̍˩**/ and all the other examples in Table 3.10, is puzzling: it cannot be put down to the application of tone rules that apply throughout the Yongning Na tone system. Nor can it be explained as the result of a process of lexicalization that would have taken place at an earlier stage in the language's history: the lowering process clearly has the status of an exceptionless synchronic rule, applying to all compound given names. Speakers retain a clear awareness of the two parts of the compound names as distinct components, each of which has a lexical tone of its own. One of the two parts of the given name serves as the usual term of address; it may be the first or (less commonly) the second. For instance, the name that was bestowed on me by a priest of the Yongning monastery is /**ʝi˧ʂɯ˥-ti˩ɖo˩**/; F4 chose to call me by the second part of that compound given name: /**ti˧ɖo˥**/, which she pronounced with its own lexical tone, not as a stump retrieved from the compound (in which case she would have said it with L tone).8 This is one of many pieces of evidence demonstrating that compounds such as /**ʝi˧ʂɯ˥-ti˩ɖo˩**/ are readily decomposable.

8 F4's son (M18) argued that the shortened name should be /**ʝi˧ʂɯ˥**/, but F4 maintained her initial choice, providing no further explanation than that she preferred /**ti˧ɖo˥**/. The choice depends in part on considerations of homonymy within the extended family: there are so few names that homonymy is a real issue, and concerns about inappropriate use of proper names runs deep in Asian cultures. This is evidenced by the taboo on using the names of important characters (emperors, but also one's elders) in China and neighbouring countries, a practice known as *bìhuì* 避讳 (studied in detail by Adamek 2012). In Yongning Na, the concern is not limited to elders, as illustrated by the following anecdote. In the course of telling the story BuriedAlive2, consultant F4 realized that the name of the woman protagonist, **/ɻ̍˩ʈʂʰe˧-ɖɯ˩mɑ˩**/, happened to be that of a member of her household. The consultant immediately substituted another name, /**no˩bv̩˧-tsʰɯ˩ɻ̍˩**/, exempt from association with family members. The character in the story has a less than glorious role; the coincidence of names threatened to build an unwanted association between the family member and the character's shameful behaviour. The concern was such that F4 would have preferred me to delete the recording of this version of the story altogether, so as to leave no trace of this unfortunate coincidence of names. But we had already spent much time working on the transcription, so I was not overjoyed at the prospect of outright deletion of the files. Fortunately, the consultant found comfort in the explicit disclaimer which is present on the recording, to the effect that the character's name was /**no˩bv̩˧-tsʰɯ˩ɻ̍˩**/ and *not* /**ɻ̍˩ʈʂʰe˧-ɖɯ˩mɑ˩**/, and she agreed that we should complete the transcription and allow access to this linguistic document.

### 3.3 Coordinative compounds

Should the tonal lowering of the latter part of compoun given names be considered as another instance of a tone rule applying in a highly specific morphosyntactic context: a tone combination rule that holds in given names, and nowhere else – not even in other sets of proper names, such as place names?

Interestingly, a similar process of lowering is found in compounds involving the word for 'powder, flour': /**tsɑ˧bɤ˧**/ (as reported in §<IP_ADDRESS>). According to the synchronically productive rules, the combination of this word with /**lv̩˧mi˧**/ 'stone', /**qʰɑ˧dze˧**/ 'sweetcorn' and /**dze˧ɭɯ˧**/ 'wheat' should yield a simple Mtone output, e.g. *†***lv̩˧mi˧-tsɑ˧bɤ˧** for 'fine sand'. But the observed forms, shown in Table 3.6, all carry a M.M.L.L tone pattern, corresponding to underlying –L (a L tone on the second part of the compound), just like the compound given names in Table 3.10. The label 'Tibetan compounds' is proposed for these compounds. From a synchronic point of view, this label may seem invalid, since none of the consultants has any knowledge of Tibetan (either spoken or written) and hence any awareness of Tibetan loanwords as such. The hypothesis here is that at some earlier point in time – one to four centuries ago? – speakers of Yongning Na who had some knowledge of Tibetan (a smattering would have been enough) applied a specific tonal treatment to compounds containing Tibetan words, by imitation of what they perceived as the Tibetan pattern. Tibetan was a prestige language in Yongning at least since the fourteenth century, and up until the midtwentieth century (see Appendix B, §B.1), so it is not unlikely that processes of imitation of prosodic patterns took place. This may have happened at the time when the Tibetan words were borrowed, or at a later stage, when speakers of Yongning Na who were aware of the status of these words as Tibetan in origin made efforts to copy (what they felt to be) Tibetan prosodic patterns. Cases of contact with a prestigious language can result in a range of unusual changes by imitation, including hypercorrections: see Meillet (1936: 99-103) on a possible case concerning Germanic and Romance, and Ferlus (2001) on cases in the Vietic subgroup of Austroasiatic; a highly speculative application to Tibetan has also been proposed (Ferlus 2003).

Supposing that imitation of Tibetan was at play in these compounds, it remains to be explained why lowering tone to L on the latter part of compounds had a Tibetan ring to Na ears, and at which point in history the adoption of this prosodic pattern took place. For want of a command of Tibetan, I am not in a position to investigate topics of historical contact with this language – one of many topics that remain for future investigations.

### **3.4 Compound nouns containing adjectives**

The tonal categories of adjectives will be brought out in §6.1.3. As a background to the discussion in the present section, here is a preview of the results: the four tonal categories of adjectives are L, M, H, and MH, with a subdivision among L-tone items, distinguishing La and Lb.

Compounds containing adjectives are a difficult topic in Yongning Na, not least because they are the product of lexicalization, and cannot be elicited systematically by asking consultants to coin compounds on the fly to bring out a full set of synchronic rules, as can be done for *noun plus noun* compounds. As a preliminary to the study of lexicalized compounds, it is useful to present adjectival phrases.

### **3.4.1 A productive construction: N+Adj+relativizer**

In Yongning Na, the association of adjectives to nouns is realized by the construction N+Adj+relativizer/nominalizer /**-hĩ˥**/. For instance, //**ɖɯ˩a**// 'big'9 yields //**ɖɯ˩-hĩ˩**// '(which is) big', and //**ʂɯ˧˥**// 'new' yields //**ʂɯ˧-hĩ˥\$**// '(which is) new'. These are added after the noun as a separate tone group, as in (4)-(7).

9 As explained on the first page of the introduction, morpheme-level transcriptions indicate lexical tone by means of tone symbols supplemented by subscript letters a b c to distinguish subcategories of lexical tones. The subcategories for verbs and adjectives are set out in Table 6.2 of §6.1.1. The pound symbol # is also part of the apparatus to transcribe the different categories of lexical tones, as was explained in §2.3.1.

3.4 Compound nouns containing adjectives

(7) qʰwɤ˧˥ | ʂɯ˧-hĩ˥ qʰwɤ˧˥ bowl ʂɯ˧˥ new -hĩ˥ nmlz 'new bowl'

No tonal interaction takes place between the noun and adjective. If an intensifier is substituted for the relativizer, the construction becomes a statement, as in (8). The construction (9) likewise means 'the fish is big'.

(8) ɲi˧zo˧ | ɖɯ˧ | ʐwæ˩˥. ɲi˧zo˧ fish ɖɯ˩a large ʐwæ˩ ints 'The fish is very big.'

(9) ɲi˧zo˧ | ɖɯ˧. ɲi˧zo˧ fish ɖɯ˩a large 'The fish is big.'

In example (10), the numeral-plus-classifier phrase has the effect of nominalizing a construction that would otherwise mean 'the fish is/was really big', rather than 'a very big fish'.

(10) ni³³ zɔ³³ fish 鱼 dɯ⁵⁵ big 大 ʐwæ¹³ ints 很 dɯ³³ one 一 mi³¹ cls 量词

> 'a very big fish' (example 187 from Lidz 2010: 215; her glosses and tone marking. cls: classifier; **⁵⁵**: High tone; **³³**: Mid tone; **³¹**: Low-falling tone; **¹³**: Low-rising tone.)

The word order Noun+Adjective in a noun phrase always signals a lexicalized item: to use a textbook example from English, a phrasal, nonlexicalized 'black bird' as distinct from 'blackbird' requires a relativizer (examples are provided a few lines below). For instance, //**ʐɯ˧nɑ˩**//, from //**ʐɯ˧**// 'liquor/spirits' and //**nɑ˩b**// 'black', does not mean 'black liquor, liquor of a black colour', but refers to a specific type of strong, high-quality spirits. This is a disyllabic noun, requiring an entry of its own in the dictionary; it is not a phrasal construction

(a description associating a quality to the entity that the noun refers to). The nouns //**ə˧mi˧-ɖɯ˩**// and //**ə˧mi˧-tɕi˩**//, referring to the mother's older sisters and younger sisters respectively, are lexical units, even though they can still be transparently analyzed as made up of //**ə˧mi˧**// 'mother' plus the adjectives //**ɖɯ˩a**// 'large' and //**tɕi˩a**// 'small'.

There also exist compounds with the adjectives 'big' and 'small' for maternal uncles, //**ə˧v̩˧˥**//: //**ə˧v̩˧-tɕi˥**// for 'mother's younger brother', and //**ə˧v̩˧-ɖɯ˧˥**// for 'mother's elder brother'. However, constructions with the relativizer //**-hĩ˥**// are more common: to clarify whether one is referring to the mother's elder brother or younger brother, the former is called /**ə˧v̩˧˥ | ɖɯ˩-hĩ˩˥**/, and the latter /**ə˧v̩˧˥ | tɕi˩-hĩ˩˥**/, as shown in (11a–11b).

(11) a. ə˧v̩˧˥ | ɖɯ˩-hĩ˩˥

ə˧v̩˧˥ uncle ɖɯ˩a big -hĩ˥ nmlz 'mother's elder brother, elder maternal uncle'

	- ə˧v̩˧˥ uncle tɕi˩a small -hĩ˥ nmlz 'mother's younger brother, younger maternal uncle' (Caravans.75, 76,

78, 79, 177–179, 196, 259, Elders3.23, 31, 32)

The study of successive occurrences within the same text confirms that the construction with the relativizer/nominalizer //**-hĩ˥**//, although it may seem cumbersome, is the standard construction to associate an adjective to a noun. This construction is not followed by a synthetic, compact N+Adj construction at later occurrences. For instance, example (13) follows example (12) at a distance of a few sentences inside the same narrative, and both contain the same construction with nominalizer.

 For instance, 'important person, great personage; adult' in Naxi is /**hi˧-ɖɯ˩**/ 'person'+'big'. In Yongning Na, the same concept is: /**ɖɯ˩-hĩ˩˥**/, 'big' plus relativizer, with 'person' as the implicit referent (e.g. Sister.13, 14, 34, Sister3.31, 36, 38, 41, and BuriedAlive3.5).

### **3.4.2 Lexicalized compounds of N+Adj structure**

The adjectives that appear in lexicalized combinations with nouns in the examples provided above are //**nɑ˩b**// 'black, dark', //**ɖɯ˩a**// 'large' and //**tɕi˩a**// 'small'. Is it a coincidence that 'black' is also the adjective used in the textbook example of English *black bird* and *blackbird*? The compound noun *blackbird* refers to *Turdus merula*, a species of thrush, while the combination of noun and adjective *black bird* refers to any bird of a black colour. The former, *blackbird*, carries stress on the first element of the compound (for short: "first-element stress"), whereas the latter, *black bird*, carries last-element stress: primary stress on *bird*. The meaning of *black bird* can be deduced from the meaning of its elements and the meaning of the construction, whereas the meaning of *blackbird* cannot be arrived at on the basis of the meaning of the elements. First-element stress is generally interpreted as a marker of degree of lexicalization. It has been observed, in a study of English, that "the number of adjectives that work in the way that *black* does in our *exemple*-*type* seems to be very restricted" (Bauer 2004: 9). Examples are shown in Table 3.11. But at the end of a quest using corpus-query tools to explore hypotheses about the relevance of factors such as the frequency of the particular collocations and contrasting patterns of premodification, the author concludes that the gaps in English adjective-plus-noun compounds are likely to be accidental. In Na, as in English, adjectives that appear in compound nouns do not constitute a closed set.

In English, there is variation across speakers (and even for one and the same speaker) in judgments about stress patterns, and in stress assignment in actual speech. In Yongning Na, on the other hand, noun-plus-adjective compounds are conspicuously different from attributive constructions, since the latter comprise

Table 3.11: Types of adjectives that appear in compound nouns in English (from Bauer 2004: 9).

a relativizer. This makes it easy to identify these compounds in Yongning Na. Their tonal analysis, however, is not straightforward. Examples are shown in tabular form, arranged by the tone of the adjective: La in Table 3.12, Lb in Table 3.13, M in Table 3.14, and H in Table 3.15. 10 (No compounds with MH-tone adjectives have yet been observed.) All these items are lexicalized: for instance, the phrase /**ʈʂʰæ˧nɑ˥**/ refers to a legendary stag, which only spirits are able to hunt down; it is thus different from an attributive construction ('black-coloured deer').

10 The subscript letters a b c added to the tones serve to distinguish subcategories of lexical tones. The subcategories for verbs and adjectives are set out in Table 6.2 (§6.1.1).

### 3.4 Compound nouns containing adjectives

Table 3.12: Examples of compounds containing the La-tone adjectives /**mo˩a**/ 'old', /**ɖɯ˩a**/ 'large', /**tɕi˩a**/ 'small', and /**pʰv̩˩a**/ 'white'. Note that no monosyllabic form is attested synchronically for 'stone' and 'ard'.

*a* The ard, also known as scratch plough, is the type of ploughing implement used in Yongning. Unlike the plough, the ard has a symmetrical share that traces a shallow furrow but does not invert the soil (Haudricourt & Jean-Brunhes Delamare 1955).

Table 3.13: Examples of compounds containing the Lb-tone adjective /**nɑ˩b**/ 'black'.

Table 3.14: Examples of compounds containing the M-tone adjectives /**pv̩˧**/ 'dry', /**bæ˧**/ 'stupid', /**tʰi˧**/ 'clever', /**tsʰi˧**/ 'hot' and /**ʂæ˧**/ 'long'.

Table 3.15: Examples of compounds containing the H-tone adjectives /**qʰæ˥**/ 'cold' and /**ɖæ˥**/ 'short'.

### 3.4 Compound nouns containing adjectives

In terms of tone, the compounds exhibit some diversity. Of the five compounds that relate to monosyllabic roots with H tone, three have L# tone, and two have H# tone. This is not related to any obvious structural property of the compounds: the compound /**hṽ̩˧nɑ˩**/, literally 'black hair', does not refer to a type of hair, but to 'wild animal', referring by synecdoche to the *possessor* of dark hair;11 on the other hand, the compound /**ʂe˧nɑ˩**/, literally 'dark meat', refers to a sort of meat (lean meat). (In the Indian linguistic tradition, /**hṽ̩˧nɑ˩**/ 'black hair' for 'wild animal' would be referred to as a *bahuvrīhi* compound: a compound that denotes a referent by a certain characteristic.) Semantically, there is no salient difference either. In the L#-tone compounds for 'dark hair' and 'lean meat' the adjective /**nɑ˩b**/ can be argued to have a literal interpretation as 'black, dark': traditionally, pigs and cattle were only slaughtered once a year, so that fresh meat was the exception; the norm for lean meat was the preserved sort, with a dark brown colour. By contrast, prinsepia (/**tɕʰi˧nɑ˥**/) is not black or dark-coloured, and /**kʰv̩˧nɑ˥**/ for 'dog' carries no hint of hair colour, so it may be argued that one of the two tone patterns corresponds to a semantically bleached use of the adjective. But this is less clear in the case of /**si˧nɑ˥**/, 'wood'+'dark', for 'deep forest': here the semantic indication of darkness seems present. Analysis of this issue is made more difficult by the rarity of lexical items sharing the same tone as 'black', //**nɑ˩b**//: the only other example observed to date is //**dʑɤ˩b**// 'good' (see §6.1.3).

A similar lack of one-to-one correspondence between input tones and output tone is also found for compounds containing the adjective /**ɖɯ˩a**/ 'large, big'. The compound nouns /**zo˧ɖɯ#˥**/ 'eldest son' and /**ʁo˧ɖɯ˧˥**/ 'tadpole' (literally 'big head') have different tones (#H and MH#, respectively), although both are made up of a noun root that has H lexical tone and the adjective /**ɖɯ˩a**/ 'big'.

To venture speculative hypotheses about the origin of these variegated tone patterns, first, they may belong to different historical layers, and hence reflect different tone rules, which applied at different diachronic stages. For instance, 'deep forest', 'dog' and 'prinsepia' might be earlier than 'wild animal' and 'lean meat', as the compounds look less transparent semantically. The morpheme /**nɑ**/ could be analyzed as a suffix in some cases, and as an adjective in others, on the analogy of the analysis of the morpheme /**mɔ¹³**/ by Lidz (2010: 182), distinguishing the adjective 'old' from its use as a suffix meaning 'dear (indicating respect)'.

11 Interestingly, the association of darker fur with wildness (less disposition to domestication) is confirmed by scientific studies of animal domestication (Trut 1999). The phenomenon is apparently due (at least in part) to links between levels of stress in an individual and amount of melanine, itself reflected in darker fur (Burchill & Thody 1986): individuals in the wild experience greater stress. Wild yaks have darker hair than domestic yaks (Leslie & Schaller 2009).

Another possibility is that some of these compounds are not based on the association of a monosyllabic noun with a monosyllabic adjective, but constitute a reduced form of longer words. For instance, the syllable /**si˧**/ in /**si˧nɑ˥**/ could result from the truncation of the disyllable /**si˧ɕi˧˥**/, meaning 'forest'.12 Evidence for the possibility to truncate this disyllable comes from /**tʰo˧ɕi˧˥**/ 'pine forest', which combines a monosyllable for 'pine' with the *second* syllable of /**si˧ɕi˧˥**/ 'forest'. In the case of 'eldest son' and 'tadpole', such a process appears rather implausible, as these disyllables seem to have a straightforward link to the monosyllabic nouns 'son' and 'head', respectively. If one nonetheless tries to push this hypothesis, one might hypothesize that 'tadpole' was built on the basis of a disyllabic noun, which in principle could still be present in another dialect.

A third possibility is that the adjective is not the same in all of these words: in synchrony, there exists an adjective /**nɑ˥**/ (not homophonous with /**nɑ˩b**/ 'black, dark') which means 'important, serious (e.g. a wound)', and this adjective, or some other adjective pronounced [**nɑ**], may have provided the second syllable in some adjectival compounds. This does not apply to 'eldest son' and 'tadpole', where the adjective seems recognizably identical – unless interpretation of 'tadpole' as 'big head' is not the correct etymology, but 'big head' seems fitting enough as the name of this small and amusing animal, which is an obvious candidate for frequent replacement through expressive coinages.

So far, consistency in the tone patterns of adjectival compounds seems limited to synchronically trivial patterns. For instance, it does not come as a surprise that Mid-tone /**ʐɯ˧**/ 'liquor/spirits' and Low-tone /**nɑ˩b**/ 'black' yield a compound with M+L surface tone pattern, /**ʐɯ˧nɑ˩**/: this looks like a case of simple concatenation. The same tone pattern is also found with another adjective that has the same lexical tone, /**dʑɤ˩b**/ 'good'. Disyllabic /**kɯ˧ dʑɤ˩**/ was easily extracted from the compound /**kɯ˧ dʑɤ˩ hɑ̃˩ dʑɤ˩**/ 'auspicious day', from /**kɯ˧**/ 'star' and /**hɑ̃˧˥**/ 'evening, night' (a term used to count days). (The L# tone pattern of /**kɯ˧ dʑɤ˩**/, literally 'good star', results in the following two syllables receiving L tone, through Rule 5.) The tone pattern of /**kɯ˧ dʑɤ˩**/ 'good star' is the same as that of /**ʐɯ˧nɑ˩**/ 'high-quality liquor'. This could suggest that both compounds belong to the same historical layer, but more examples would be necessary to investigate this issue further.

12 Creissels (1982: 50-52) reports cases of synchronic variation in Mandinka where nouns that occur more frequently in compounds than on their own tend to get extracted from compounds with the changed tone that they carry inside these compounds. The changed tone eventually replaces the original lexical tone. Such processes, which operate on a word-by-word basis, detract from the regularity of tonal correspondences across dialects, greatly complicating diachronic comparison and reconstruction.

### 3.4 Compound nouns containing adjectives

To sum up: in view of the limited number of examples found to date, and of their heterogeneity, it does not appear illuminating to pool them all into a table summarizing the tonal output of N+Adj compounds. Provisionally, examples are simply listed in Table 3.12, arranged by adjective, by decreasing number of examples.

As a general observation, it can be seen that the patterns in noun-plus-adjective compounds are not identical to those in noun-plus-verb combinations (described in Chapter 6). For instance, 'hot water', /**dʑɯ˩tsʰi˩**/, has L tone, from an input of L and M on the noun and adjective respectively; in noun-plus-verb combinations (either object plus verb or subject plus verb) with the same tonal input, the output is M.

The diachronic trend is for monosyllabic nouns to become less frequent, being replaced by disyllables. As disyllabic forms of nouns become lexicalized, the tonal correspondence between the noun-plus-adjective combination and the root ceases to be accessible to the speakers of the language, making the tone patterns of disyllables more vulnerable to replacement (through analogy or contact among dialects) than in cases where the root still exists as a monosyllable. Thus, in the current state of the language 'stone' and 'ard' are only attested as disyllables, except in compounds with the adjective 'old', where they are found in monosyllabic form. This raises the issue of whether it makes sense to extract a monosyllable from the disyllabic compounds with 'old'. The root for 'stone' could be reconstructed with a H tone, as \***lv̩˥**, on the basis of this root's tonal behaviour when it stands in an adjectival compound: the compound /**lv̩˧mo˥**/ 'old stone' carries H# tone, like the adjectival compounds created by adding 'old' to the H-tone monosyllables 'person', 'horse' and 'wood'. But closer examination shows that 'old stone' is not in common use in Yongning Na, and has no clear meaning of its own. It is a recent coinage, only found in a saying – example (14) – where it serves as a parallel to /**si˧mo˥**/ 'old wood'; its tone pattern also follows that of 'old wood'. (Use of the symbol 'F' for 'Focalization' in the sentence-level transcription is explained in §8.3.2.)

(14) lv̩˧mo˥ F | dʑɯ˧ | le˧-qv̩˩; | si˧mo˥ F | le˧-dze˩ kv̩˩! | no˧ F | ə˧tse˧ | le˧-ʂɯ˧ mɤ˧-tʰɑ˧˥ | di˩!

> tʰɑ˧˥ permissive di˩a exist.spatial

'Old stones are carried away by the stream; and old wood gets chopped down!  Context: jeering an elderly person. Na tradition assigns human beings a lifespan of sixty years; people getting past seventy are considered to be well past their expected lifespan.)

Further analysis will require gathering more examples, sorting them into sets according to their tone patterns, identifying the historical layers that they belong to, and examining their process of formation. As a first step in this direction, the following paragraph discusses items that are currently on the verge of lexicalization.

### **3.4.3 N+Adj combinations in the process of lexicalization**

In between adjectival constructions such as /**ə˧v̩˧˥ | ɖɯ˩-hĩ˩˥**/ 'mother's elder brother' (example (11a) above) on the one hand, and lexical items such as /**ə˧v̩˧ ɖɯ˧˥**/ (also meaning 'mother's elder brother': see Table 3.12) on the other, there are cases that offer insights into the process of lexicalization. 'Elderly person' is /**hĩ˧mo˥**/, from /**hĩ˥**/ 'person' and /**mo˩a**/ 'old'. In a set of twenty texts, this noun appears fifteen times, always in the plural, as /**hĩ˧mo˥=ɻæ˩**/; the fact that it is followed by a clitic shows that it is a full-fledged noun. But there is a higher number of occurrences (twenty-three) of /**hĩ˧ mo˥-hĩ˩**/, which also means 'elderly person', again from /**hĩ˥**/ 'person' and /**mo˩a**/ 'old', but with addition of the relativizer /**-hĩ˥**/. This is not quite like the adjectival construction presented in §3.4.1: in that construction, the noun constitutes a tone group on its own, e.g. /**tɕʰo˩˧ | ʂɯ˧-hĩ#˥**/ 'new ladle' (example (6) above), whereas 'elderly person' is realized as /**hĩ˧ mo˥-hĩ˩**/, in one tone group. At a push, it would be possible to say /**hĩ˧ | mo˩ hĩ˩˥**/ 'a person that is old', but this is judged decidedly awkward in the contexts where /**hĩ˧ mo˥-hĩ˩**/ is attested. The interpretation that can be proposed is that /**hĩ˧mo˥**/ is on its way towards lexicalization – as evidenced by the tonal interaction between its two constituting morphemes – but the perception of its second syllable as an adjective remains strong enough for the relativizer to be commonly added after it. The impossibility of adding the agent marker (*‡* **hĩ˧mo˥ ɳɯ˩**) or the topic marker (*‡* **hĩ˧mo˥ ʈʂʰɯ˩**) shows that /**hĩ˧mo˥**/ is not fully lexicalized yet. It is compulsory to add an intervening plural or relativizer: /**hĩ˧mo˥=ɻæ˩ ɳɯ˩**/, /**hĩ˧mo˥=ɻæ˩ ʈʂʰɯ˩**/, /**hĩ˧ mo˥-hĩ˩ ɳɯ˩**/, and /**hĩ˧ mo˥-hĩ˩ ʈʂʰɯ˩**/.

### 3.4 Compound nouns containing adjectives

For purposes of synchronic description, the notations adopted are /**hĩ˧mo˥ =ɻæ˩**/ and /**hĩ˧ mo˥-hĩ˩**/. In /**hĩ˧mo˥=ɻæ˩**/, the sequence /**hĩ˧mo˥**/ is transcribed as a lexical unit, with no hyphen or blank space between its two syllables. In /**hĩ˧ mo˥-hĩ˩**/, the first syllable is analyzed as a noun, and separated by a blank space from the adjective that follows. This notational distinction aims to draw attention to the versatility of disyllables made up of a noun and an adjective.   The noun can be followed by the agent adposition: /**zo˧bæ˩ ɳɯ˩**/ (Lake3.29, Lake4.24); there is no need for an intervening relativizer/nominalizer for quantization purposes, witness examples (15)–(17).

  The two words have different tones (L# tone for /**zo˧bæ˩**/, vs. M tone for /**zo˧tʰi˧**/) despite their constituting morphemes having the same tones. This tonal difference alerts us to the possibility that the two words may have different time depths. Syntactically, the two words also differ: it is not possible to say *‡* **mɤ˧-zo˧tʰi˧** 'not clever', on the analogy of /**mɤ˧-zo˧bæ˩**/ 'not stupid' (18). The first syllable of these two words is bleached enough for them to be used as adjectives for men and women alike, but in their nominal use they can only refer to men: /**zo˧bæ˩**/ means 'stupid man', and /**zo˧tʰi˧**/ 'clever man'; the corresponding words for women are /**mv̩˩-bæ˧mi˩**/ 'stupid woman' and /**mv̩˩tʰi˩**/ 'clever woman'.

### **3.4.4 A lexicalized compound of Adj+N structure**

So far, only one lexicalized compound of *adjective plus noun* structure has been found: /**pv̩˧lv̩˧**/ 'nonirrigated farmland; dry land', clearly related to /**pv̩˧**/ 'dry' and /**lv̩˧**/ 'field'. This word shows no phonological signs of antiquity, such as a difference in consonant, vowel or tone from its etymological components. But comparative evidence suggests that it may have some time depth: it is also found in Naxi, as /**pv̩˩ɭɯ˧**/, with the same Adj+N structure, the same meaning, and the same transparency in terms of its components (in Naxi, 'dry' is /**pv̩˩**/, and 'field' is /**ɭɯ˧**/). Naxi has another Adj+N compound containing 'dry': /**pv̩˩dy˩**/ 'dry land (as opposed to water)' (Pinson 2012: 55; note that there is a typographical error in the phonetic transcription, /**pv̩˩dv̩˩**/, which should be /**pv̩˩dy˩**/, as indicated by the orthographic transcription).

### **3.4.5 A lexicalized compound of V+Adj structure**

As a final observation about compounds, this paragraph discusses the only lexicalized compound of V+Adj structure observed so far: /**tsʰo˧ɖɯ˩**/ 'group dance', a dance that can involve from ten to about a hundred people. Its components are /**tsʰo˧b**/ 'to jump' (in a nominalized reading) and /**ɖɯ˩a**/ 'large'. An alternative interpretation whereby /**ɖɯ˩a**/ would have an adverbial reading ('jumping a lot') would be implausible, because /**ɖɯ˩a**/ does not have attested adverbial uses.

This is not a productive construction: it is not possible to create compounds such as 'banquet' from the verb 'to eat' and the adjective 'large', for instance. Still, the existence of the word /**tsʰo˧ɖɯ˩**/ 'group dance' can be interpreted as evidence of an occasional permeability of word classes. Across languages, the distinction

3.5 Concluding note

between nouns and verbs may be more or less stringent (Launey 1994, *passim*). In Naish languages, there are some borderline items. For example, Na /**kɤ˧ʈʂɯ˩**/, like Naxi /**kɯ˧ʈʂɯ˩**/, has both verbal and nominal uses, namely 'to speak' and 'speech; language' in Naxi and 'to tell' and 'speech' in Na.

### **3.5 Concluding note**

The complexity of the tone combination rules in various types of compounds in the Alawa dialect of Yongning Na, and the existence of exceptions to these synchronic rules, arguably shed light on the considerable diversity of patterns from one dialect to the next, and even among different speakers from the same village (not to mention the existence of variants within a single idiolect). A few compounds happen to carry the same tone sequence as would the simple juxtaposition of their constituting elements. Most carry a tone pattern that reflects their status as compounds; among these, the nature of the compound (determinative or coordinative) can also be identified from the tone pattern in a few cases, whereas in the others it must be arrived at on the basis of semantic information.

## **4 Classifiers**

A classifier is "a type of limited noun that occurs only after numerals (…), and whose selection is determined by a preceding (overt or implicit) noun" (Matisoff 1973: 88). The term 'classifier' is understood here in the syntactic sense of any noun that may appear directly after a numeral. This includes measure words ('inch', 'armspan', 'heap'…) and time words ('day', 'month', 'year'…), which immediately follow the numeral. In view of their great importance in the language, and of the richness of their tone patterns, classifiers are dealt with in a chapter of their own. The bulk of the chapter (§4.1) deals with the tonal behaviour of classifiers in association with numerals. But classifiers also associate with demonstratives (§4.2). In addition, numeral-plus-classifier or demonstrative-plus-classifier phrases can interact tonally with a preceding noun (§4.3).

Devoting tens of pages to the topic of nominal classifiers, after long chapters devoted to the tones of nouns (Chapter 2) and of compound nouns (Chapter 3), may cause alarm to the best-disposed of readers. Will the archipelago of tables never come to an end? Is there no better way to describe the tonal grammar of Yongning Na than by recording lump after lump of morphotonological detail?

Indeed, the tone patterns of phrases containing classifiers cause a disappointment to the linguist: they cannot be accounted for by phonological sandhi, nor do they obey a well-defined set of morphotonological rules.1 The tonal paradigms of the various categories of classifiers need to be learnt one by one. The tables recording these patterns are admittedly the most heavy-going in the present volume. But paradoxically, this chapter, which reports on the most irregular part of the Yongning Na tone system, carries a comforting message: there *is* a limit to the seemingly endless complexity of the system, even in those areas that contain most irregularities. I think (taking full responsibility for this immodest stance) that the present chapter gets close to an exhaustive description of its object, thereby showing that a comprehensive account of tone in Yongning Na is not an unreachable goal.

1 Some clarifications about the terms 'tone sandhi', 'morphotonology' and 'tonal morphology' are set out in §8.1.1.

### 4 Classifiers

### **4.1 Numeral-plus-classifier phrases**

Within the group of Naish languages, tonal alternations in numeral-plus-classifier phrases are vestigial in Naxi (as spoken in the plain of Lijiang), limited in Laze, and ubiquitous in Yongning Na. In the Alawa dialect of Yongning Na, the tone of the classifier is affected by the numeral to such an extent that arriving at the classifier's underlying tone is not a straightforward task. For instance, the classifier for days carries a H tone in /**ɲi˧-ɲi˥**/ 'two days', a LH tone in /**so˩-ɲi˩˥**/ 'three days', and a M tone in /**ʐv̩˧-ɲi˧**/ 'four days'; and the classifier for years has a MH tone in /**ɲi˧-kʰv̩˧˥**/ 'two years', a LH tone in /**so˩-kʰv̩˩˥**/ 'three years', and a L tone in /**ʐv̩˧-kʰv̩˩**/ 'four years'. This section proposes a synchronic description and analysis.2

For each noun in the vocabulary list collected in the course of fieldwork, a note was made of the classifiers typically associated with the noun, and this piece of information was included in the dictionary of Yongning Na (Michaud 2015a), following the example of Eugénie Henderson's dictionary of Bwe Karen (Henderson 1997). This obviously does not capture the full range of stylistic possibilities in the choice of classifiers, which are best studied from their actual use: "a noun can be accompanied by various classifiers depending on context, so it may not be adequate to describe one of these as the primary classifier at a lexical level" (François 2000: 167).3 But this information came in handy to put together a list of classifiers, yielding a total of over one hundred monosyllabic classifiers. (Disyllabic classifiers will be dealt with separately in §4.1.7.)

### **4.1.1 Elicitation procedures**

The logical first step in the study of the tones of classifiers consisted of conducting systematic elicitation with numerals.4 A first data set was elicited in 2009, covering the range of numerals from 1 to 30. Elicitation yielded less than fully consistent results, due in part to the fact that the consultant was not accustomed to lengthy counting tasks. One and the same noun-plus-classifier combination was

2 An earlier version of this section was published as Michaud (2013c). Among other differences, subcategories of tones for classifiers are now distinguished through subscript letters, e.g. Ma and Mb instead of the earlier notation as M1 and M2.

3 *Original text:* le même nom peut être accompagné de plusieurs classificateurs selon les contextes, sans qu'il soit légitime d'en privilégier un comme fondamental dès le lexique.

4 Classifiers are bound forms, which cannot be elicited in isolation (without an accompanying numeral or demonstrative). Numerals do not usually appear on their own either, but it is possible, at a push, to elicit them in isolation. The forms from one to ten are: /**ɖɯ˧˥**/ '1', /**ɲi˧˥**/ '2', /**so˩˥**/ '3', /**ʐv̩˧**/ '4', /**ŋwɤ˧**/ '5', /**qʰv̩˧˥**/ '6', /**ʂɯ˧**/ '7', /**hõ˧˥**/ '8', /**gv̩˧**/ '9', and /**tsʰe˧**/ '10'.

### 4.1 Numeral-plus-classifier phrases

realized with different tone patterns during different elicitation sessions. When such discrepancies were pointed out to the consultant, she would identify one pattern as correct and reject the others as mistaken. However, these *a posteriori* judgments also wavered: a variant that had been brushed aside as mistaken would come up again in a later session, and the consultant would then insist that it was correct. Initially, I wrongly assumed that only one tone pattern could be correct, but then it gradually became clear that there are two variants for some of the phrases. For instance, the association of '9' with the classifier for threads can be realized either as /**gv̩˧-kʰɯ˥**/ or as /**gv̩˧-kʰɯ˩**/. Taking into account these two factors – that occasional mistakes are not uncommon in systematic elicitation, and that two variants can both be correct –, a comprehensive description could finally be arrived at, dissipating earlier perplexity and frustration.

The data collected in 2009, covering the range of numerals from 1 to 30, shows that some classifiers have a tantalizingly similar but not identical behaviour: for instance, the classifier for days and the classifier for steps (of stairs) yield the same tone patterns for numerals up to thirteen, but differ for 14, 15, 16, 18, 19 and 22, as shown in Table 4.1. Thus, 'fourteen steps' is //**tsʰe˩ʐv̩˩-ɖwæ˥\$**// (tone: L+H\$; surface phonological form: /**tsʰe˩ʐv̩˩-ɖwæ˥**/), whereas 'fourteen days' is //**tsʰe˩ʐv̩˩-ɲi˩**// (tone: L; surface phonological form: /**tsʰe˩ʐv̩˩-ɲi˩˥**/).

This finding led to the decision to include the full range of numerals from 1 to 100 in a second set of recordings. A total of 2,810 numeral-plus-classifier phrases were recorded. In the recordings that cover the range from 1 to 100, the intervals [50..59] and [80..89] were not recorded, because previous elicitation had shown that their tone patterns were identical with those of [40..49] and [60..69], respectively. Shortening the list of numerals reduced consultant fatigue.

The entire set of transcribed recordings is available online, with both a surface phonological transcription and an indication of the underlying tonal pattern.

No amount of continuous speech would be enough to obtain all the numeralplus-classifier combinations from 1 to 100, hence the choice to resort to systematic elicitation. However, some of the combinations are also attested in the transcribed narratives.

Table 4.1: Surface phonological form of the classifiers for days and for steps, in association with numerals from 1 to 30.

### 4.1 Numeral-plus-classifier phrases

### **4.1.2 Results: Nine tonal categories for monosyllabic classifiers**

The nine tonal categories were brought out by distributional analysis, distinguishing sets of monosyllabic classifiers that have the same behaviour when combined with numerals. These nine categories are shown in the nine data columns of Tables 4.3a–d and 4.4a–d.

The choice of labels for the nine categories brought out by distributional analysis was guided by structural hints. The tone patterns in association with the numerals '6' and '8' is not highly informative, since almost all tonal oppositions are neutralized in this context (the only tones that are observed are H# and H\$). Likewise, in phrases involving '3' and '10', only two patterns are observed. After '4' and '5', four groups can be distinguished, but if these patterns were indicative of the classifiers' lexical tone, the system would only contain two High tones (#H and H#) and two L tones (L# and L). There would be no Mid tones, and no contours. This would be completely unlike the lexical tones of the other monosyllabic nouns found in Yongning Na, which consist of H, M, L and two types of rising contours, analyzed as MH and LM.

On the other hand, the tone patterns in association with the numerals '1' and '2' make good sense as labels for tonal categories. These four patterns are H, MH, M and L, all of which exist as lexical tones for nouns. They are therefore adopted, adding a letter to distinguish the subcategories (two for H, MH and M, and three for L), by order of decreasing frequency (e.g. there are more classifiers in category Ma than Mb). Such labels for subcategories are also used for verbs, among which it is necessary to distinguish two subcategories of L tones, La and Lb, and three subcategories of M tones, Ma, Mb and Mc (see Chapter 6). Note, however, that tonal subcategories are established separately for nouns and verbs, and that no arguments can be proposed to identify these subcategories across parts of speech. For instance, the label 'La' as used for verbs does not refer to the same category as 'La' for classifiers. In order to preclude misunderstandings, it would be possible to use different subscript letters, for instance using Greek letters for subcategories of classifiers, and Latin letters for subcategories of verbs. But it seemed advisable to use Latin letters in all cases to avoid an extravagant profusion of symbols.

The nine categories (Ha, Hb, MHa, MHb, Ma, Mb, La, Lb and Lc) are illustrated in Table 4.2.

### 4 Classifiers

Table 4.2: One example of each of the nine tonal categories of monosyllabic classifiers.

A summary of all the tone patterns which these nine categories of classifiers yield in association with numerals in the range from 1 to 100 is presented in Tables 4.3a–d and 4.4a–d. These tables contain, in tightly packed form, the information necessary to generate the surface phonological tone patterns of all numeral-plus-classifier phrases in the Alawa dialect of Yongning Na.

The mass of information presented in Tables 4.3a–d and 4.4a–d may seem staggering. Were it not for the clear evidence from recorded data, one could suspect that this multiplicity of tone patterns was an artefact of elicitation procedures.

Variants are separated by a slash (/). For typographical reasons, the table is divided into two halves: the H and MH tones (Ha, Hb, MHa and MHb) in a first table (4.3), and the M and L tones (Ma, Mb, La, Lb and Lc) in a second table (4.4).

Numeral-plus-classifier phrases typically constitute one single tone group5 – although speakers can choose to split them into two groups for expressive (emphatic) purposes, as will be discussed in Chapter 7. The juncture indicated by '–' does not separate the phrase into two tone groups, but into two parts, corresponding to tens on the one hand, units and the classifier on the other. This juncture is found after the first two syllables, in phrases containing numerals above twenty. These phrases consist of two syllables referring to tens ('two-ten' for 'twenty', 'three-ten' for 'thirty', and so on) followed by the last digit followed by the classifier (except for the round figures 'twenty', 'thirty' and so on: no zero is indicated, and the classifier follows directly, as in /**ʐv̩˧tsʰi˩-kʰv̩˩**/ 'forty years').

5 The *tone group* is the unit within which tonal processes apply in Yongning Na. It could also be referred to as *phonological phrase*. Chapter 7 is devoted to this morphotonological unit, which is fundamental to Na prosody.

Table 4.3a: The underlying tone patterns of the nine categories of numeral-plus-classifier phrases. H and MH tones. Numerals from 1 to 25.

Table 4.3b: The underlying tone patterns of the nine categories of numeral-plus-classifier phrases. H and MH tones. Numerals from 26 to 50.

Table 4.3c: The underlying tone patterns of the nine categories of numeral-plus-classifier phrases. H and MH tones. Numerals from 51 to 75.

Table 4.3d: The underlying tone patterns of the nine categories of numeral-plus-classifier phrases. H and MH tones. Numerals from 76 to 100.

Table 4.4a: The underlying tone patterns of the nine categories of numeral-plus-classifier phrases. M and L tones. Numerals from 1 to 25.

### Classifiers

Table 4.4b: The underlying tone patterns of the nine categories of numeral-plus-classifier phrases. M and L tones. Numerals from 26 to 50.

Table 4.4c: The underlying tone patterns of the nine categories of numeral-plus-classifier phrases. M and L tones. Numerals from 51 to 75.

Table 4.4d: The underlying tone patterns of the nine categories of numeral-plus-classifier phrases. M and L tones. Numerals from 75 to 100.

### 4.1 Numeral-plus-classifier phrases

For instance, /**so˧tsʰi˧so˩-ɲi˩**/ '33 days' can be represented as /**so˧tsʰi˧–so˩-ɲi˩**/ to show the juncture between the two parts (glosses for the four syllables: 'three ten – three - clf.days'). The items in Tables 4.3a–d and 4.4a–d that begin with '–' do not have any specified tone on their first part; that part receives a Mid tone by default. Using again the phrase '33 days' as an example, it has a –L tone pattern: a Low tone that associates after the juncture, yielding /…**so˩-ɲi˩**/. Since Low tones do not spread regressively ('right-to-left'), the first part of the phrase receives M tone by default (/**so˧tsʰi˧**…/), resulting in the final output /**so˧tsʰi˧so˩ ɲi˩**/.

Likewise, the items whose tone pattern ends with '–' do not have any specified tone on their second part. That part receives its tones by the application of the phonological tone rules that govern tonal groups in the Alawa dialect of Yongning Na. For instance, 'forty years' has the tone pattern L#–: L# tone (a final L tone) associates to the first half of the phrase, yielding /**ʐv̩.tsʰi˩**…/. As already mentioned, tones do not spread leftward; the first syllable receives a Mid tone by default, hence /**ʐv̩˧tsʰi˩**…/. At this point a phonological tonal rule applies (see §7.1.1): Rule 5, "All syllables following a H.L or M.L sequence receive L tone". This amounts to saying that a tone cannot be surrounded by higher tones within a tone group: there are no | MLM | sequences, nor are there | HMH |, | HLM |, | MLMH |, and so on. The only possible tone on the second part of the phrase is therefore L. The final output is /**ʐv̩˧tsʰi˩-kʰv̩˩**/, as shown in Figure 4.1.

### **4.1.3 Why little evidence about the tones of classifiers can be gleaned from the free forms in which they originate**

In what precedes, the tones of classifiers were analyzed on the basis of synchronic distributional properties. Mention needs to be made of other methods, and why they have not provided decisive evidence so far on the phonological nature of the tonal categories of classifiers.

Relevant evidence could, in principle, come from those classifiers that correspond transparently to a free form: a noun or a verb. For example, the classifier for blows is /**dɑ˧˥**/, a cognate object of the verb /**dɑ˧˥**/ 'to hit, to strike', as exemplified in (1).

### 4 Classifiers

Figure 4.1: A detailed representation of tone-to-syllable association for the numeral-plus-classifier phrase /**ʐv̩˧tsʰi˩-kʰv̩˩**/ 'forty years'.

(1) ɖɯ˧-dɑ˧ tʰi˥-dɑ˩

ɖɯ˧ one dɑ˧˥ clf.blows tʰi˧ dur dɑ˧˥ to\_strike 'to strike blows' (Sister3.135)

The tonal correspondence with the verb looks transparent: both the verb and its grammaticalized form as a classifier carry MH tone. Similarly, 'mountain, hill' is /**ʁwɤ˧**/, and as a classifier it yields /**ʁwɤ˧**/ 'heap (of something)', which has the same phonological form as the free noun, including its M tone. 'Beam', /**ɖʐo˥**/, is also identical in form to its self-classifier /**ɖʐo˥**/. Taking these three examples, it seems as if the tone category of a classifier were identical to that of the corresponding free form.

### 4.1 Numeral-plus-classifier phrases

Other examples, however, do not exhibit such simple correspondences. A different tonal correspondence for H-tone nouns is exemplified by /**kɯ˥**/ 'star', which yields /**kɯ˧**/ (Mb category) as a self-classifier. 'Bowl' is /**qʰwɤ˩˧**/ (LM tone), whereas as a classifier it yields /**qʰwɤ˧˥**/ 'bowlful' (MHa category). To date, too few classifiers can be straightforwardly related to full nouns (or verbs) for the search of tonal correspondences between lexical word and classifier to be fruitful.

Classifiers borrowed from Mandarin constitute another potential source of evidence on the tones of Yongning Na classifiers. For instance, it can be assumed that the tone subcategories used to accommodate recent borrowings serve in synchrony as unmarked, default categories: Ha or Hb, MHa or MHb, and so on. However, only one borrowing was observed: /**tɕi˧˥**/ for 'pound (weight unit)', from Mandarin *jīn* 斤. Its tonal category is MHa, i.e. the majority category for classifiers with a MH tone, but it would be unreasonable to draw general conclusions from this isolated example. The way forward here would consist in a more thorough study of Chinese loanwords than has been conducted so far.

### **4.1.4 Indirect confirmation for the H, MH, M and L categories of classifiers from frequency in surface forms**

The frequency of appearance of the various tonal levels provides support (albeit weak and indirect) for the four tonal 'super-categories' of classifiers proposed here, namely H, MH, M and L. Under the (admittedly simplistic) assumption that the contribution made by the tone of the classifier will be reflected statistically in the tone patterns of numeral-plus-classifier phrases, the labels H, MH, M and L adopted here make good sense. Averaging over the entire range of tone patterns from the number 1 to the number 100, the categories that have a High tone after '1' and '2' (labelled Ha and Hb in Tables 4.3a–d and 4.4a–d) are also those with the highest proportion of H tones (either on their own: H#, #H, H\$, or as part of a MH or MH# contour) and the lowest proportion of L tones. Conversely, the three tonal categories of classifiers that have a Low tone after '1' and '2' (analyzed phonologically as La, Lb and Lc, respectively) have the lowest proportion of H tones and the highest of L tones. The other two categories (with subgroups Ma and Mb, and MHa and MHb) are between these two extremes. Again as expected, Ma and Mb have a higher proportion of M tones, and a lower proportion of H tones, than MHa and MHb. These rule-of-thumb comparisons, which do not carry demonstrative value, are simply mentioned to convey a feel for the overall outlook of the data.

Another indirect way of approaching this data consists of examining the occasional mistakes made by the consultant.

### 4 Classifiers

### **4.1.5 The amount of mistakes in the recordings correlates with the degree of tonal complexity**

As was mentioned earlier (§4.1.1), the task of realizing long series of numeralplus-classifier phrases was challenging for the consultant. Among the 2,810 tokens, 7% have a mistaken tone pattern,6 i.e. a tone pattern which the consultant (F4) consistently judged to be incorrect (a tonal slip of the tongue) when we returned to the data after recording sessions.

These mistakes reflect in part the phonological complexity of the tone patterns at issue. The notion that mistakes provide insights about language dates back at least to Henri Frei's *Grammar of mistakes* (1929); see also Fromkin (1973), Rossi & Peter-Defare (1998) and Nooteboom (2011). The usefulness of speech errors and word games to gain insights into tonal systems was shown by Hombert (1986: 180–181). Speakers of Mandarin, Cantonese, Minnan and Thai tend to move the tones with the syllables when changing a C1V1C2V2 sequence into C1V2C2V1 or C2V2C1V1 , whereas speakers of Bakwiri (also known as Bakweri; Bantu branch of Niger-Congo) tend to leave tone patterns unchanged. (See also Wan & Jaeger (1998) on Mandarin.)

Figure 4.2 shows the distribution of mistakes as a factor of the range of tens: how many of the observed mistakes concern numerals between 1 and 9 (leftmost bar), 10 and 19 (second bar), etc. The ranges of numerals between 50 and 59, and between 80 and 89, are not represented: they were not included in the recordings (to reduce the consultant's fatigue), because the phonological tone patterns for 50–59 are always identical with those for 40–49, and those for 80–89 with 60–69.

Figure 4.3 shows the distribution of mistakes as a factor of the last digit (units): how many mistakes concern numbers ending in '1' (namely 1, 11, 21, 31, 41, and so on), in '2', etc.

The data is not symmetrical enough for a full-fledged statistical treatment. In particular, (i) there is more data for some tonal categories than others, (ii) some combinations have several repetitions, and (iii) there is slightly more data in the range [1..10] than for higher numerals. Some observations can nonetheless be made. The numerals ending in '6' and '8' (e.g. '6', '16', '26'; '8', '18', '28') are noticeably less subject to mistakes, and those beginning with these same numbers (e.g. '60', '61', '62', '63', '80', '81', '82', '83') are also slightly less often mispronounced than neighbouring "numeral-runs". Importantly, numerals ending in '6' and '8' are also the least complex in tonal terms, due to the neutralization

6 This figure includes some items that were deleted from the sound files at an early stage of the study, before the principle of preserving the recordings unchanged was adopted.

Figure 4.2: Number of mistakes in the recorded numeral-plus-classifier phrases as a factor of the range of tens.

Figure 4.3: Number of mistakes in the recorded numeral-plus-classifier phrases as a function of the last digit (units).

of many tonal distinctions after these two numerals. By contrast, numeral-plusclassifier phrases containing numbers ending in '7' and '9', which display the greatest diversity in tone patterns, are among the most frequently mistaken, although '7' does not stand out within the top half of the list of mistakes, which includes {2, 4, 5, 7, 9}.

### **4.1.6 About variants of tone patterns**

As noted at the outset of this chapter, some phrases allow for variant tone patterns. This situation is more frequent for higher numerals than for numerals below twenty. For instance, the association of '47' with the classifier for round objects can be realized either as /**ʐv̩˧tsʰi˩–ʂɯ˧-ɭɯ˥**/ or as /**ʐv̩˧tsʰi˩–ʂɯ˩-ɭɯ˩**/. No observed numeral-plus-classifier phrase has more than two acceptable variants for its tone pattern.

### 4 Classifiers

Many of the variants can be explained in light of the phonological rules which hold within a tone group (see §7.1.1). If the numeral-plus-classifier phrase is treated as one tone group, then these rules apply. For instance, the numeral '44' in association with the classifier for tools, /**nɑ˧a**/, allows for the following two variants: /**ʐv̩˧tsʰi˩–ʐv̩˧-nɑ˥**/ and /**ʐv̩˧tsʰi˩–ʐv̩˩-nɑ˩**/. The first of these phrases, /**ʐv̩˧tsʰi˩–ʐv̩˧-nɑ˥**/, is not a well-formed tone group, since it does not obey Rule 5: inside a tone group, all syllables following a M.L sequence receive L tone. The expression /**ʐv̩˧tsʰi˩–ʐv̩˧-nɑ˥**/ is therefore to be analyzed as consisting of two tone groups: /**ʐv̩˧tsʰi˩ | ʐv̩˧-nɑ˥**/ (tone pattern: L# for the first tone group, and H# for the second). If this phrase were treated as one tone group, the tones of its last two syllables would be lowered to L. This is precisely what happens in the other variant that is attested for this phrase: /**ʐv̩˧tsʰi˩ʐv̩˩-nɑ˩**/ (tone pattern: L#–). The two variants can therefore be described as (i) a form consisting of two tone groups, and (ii) a simplified form, whose tonal pattern results straightforwardly from its treatment as a single tone group. (The same phenomenon is reported in the Lataddi dialect: see Dobbs & La 2016.)

The same applies to all tonal patterns in the range [40..59], [70..79] and [90..99], since the first two syllables (corresponding to '40', '50', '70' and '90' respectively) have a Mid-plus-Low pattern. This pattern precludes any tone other than L on the following syllables within the same tone group (by Rule 5). One would therefore expect all of these combinations to have two variants. This holds true as a general rule: when the consultant indicated a complex form and I tried substituting a simplified form, that form was never rejected by the consultant. On the other hand, for some combinations only the simpler form is acceptable. For instance, for '44' with a classifier of category Mb, such as /**ɭɯ˧b**/ (the classifier for round objects), one has to say /**ʐv̩˧tsʰi˩ʐv̩˩-ɭɯ˩**/ (tone pattern: L#–).

Supposing, on the analogy of category Ma, that *†***ʐv̩˧tsʰi˩ | ʐv̩˧-ɭɯ˥** was acceptable at an earlier stage of the language, it must be supposed to have fallen out of use. For category Ma, where there are currently two variants in common use, the consultant's intuition is that the complex variant, /**ʐv̩˧tsʰi˩ | ʐv̩˧-nɑ˥**/, is somewhat "slow" and "clumsy": it conveys special emphasis and is only appropriate as part of an expressive strategy to draw attention to the figure at issue. To sum up, the integration of numeral-plus-classifier phrases into one tone group is the general rule.

Interestingly, when a phrase ends in two Low-tone syllables, it is possible to test whether these Low tones result from the levelling down of originally non-Low tones (as in the case of /**ʐv̩˧tsʰi˩–ʐv̩˩-nɑ˩**/, mentioned above) or whether they reflect an underlying Low tone. When the phrase is divided into two tone groups,

### 4.1 Numeral-plus-classifier phrases

if the second group has an underlying L tone, it receives a post-lexical final H tone, by the application of Rule 7 ("If a tone group only contains L tones, a postlexical H tone is added to its last syllable"). For example, '23 years' (category MHa) can be realized either as /**ɲi˧tsi˧–so˩-kʰv̩˩**/ or as /**ɲi˧tsi˧ | so˩-kʰv̩˩˥**/, revealing that its underlying tone pattern is M–L, whereas with the classifier for tools it would be incorrect to say *‡* **ʐv̩˧tsʰi˩ | ʐv̩˩-nɑ˩˥**: the variant with a division into two groups is /**ʐv̩˧tsʰi˩ | ʐv̩˧-nɑ˥**/. This explains neatly why the contour-creating final H tone is only allowed for some of the phrases. A device for forcing the division of the phrase into two tone groups consists of inserting the syllable /**lɑ˧**/ 'and' before the last digit: e.g. /**ʂɯ˧tsʰi˩ lɑ˩ | qʰv̩˧-ʁwɤ˥**/ '79 heaps'.

### **4.1.7 Disyllabic classifiers, and what they reveal about the tones of numerals**

Only a few disyllabic classifiers were observed. One is a reduplicated monosyllable: /**ʈʂʰe˧***∼***ʈʂʰe˧**/ 'the width of a room'.7 Others are nouns, e.g. /**ʝi˧qʰv̩#˥**/ 'bull's horn' can be used as a classifier, since bull horns were used to drink or to pour liquids, for instance to pour water into a pot. The noun 'bull's horn' is in competition, in its use as a classifier, with another classifier referring specifically to hornfuls of liquids, /**qʰv̩˧tʰv̩˧**/, which is more commonly used than the noun. 'Bottle', /**to˩bi#˥**/, can be used as a noun, /**to˩bi#˥ | ɖɯ˧-ɭɯ˧**/ 'a bottle', or as a classifier, /**ʐɯ˧ | ɖɯ˧-to˩bi˩**/ 'a bottle of liquor/spirits'. The classifier for ladlefuls is /**bv̩˩dze˩**/, and that for handfuls (using both hands) is /**lo˩dzi˩**/.

The disyllabic classifiers observed to date fall into one of four tonal categories: M, #H, L, and LM+#H. In terms of their behaviour in association with numerals, these four tonal categories fall into two sets: M and #H on the one hand, L and LM+#H on the other. Tables 4.5a and 4.5b present the data. Clearly, the relevant juncture for tone assignment in these phrases is that which precedes the classifier, even for numerals under twenty: describing the tone pattern of /**ɖɯ˧-to˩bi˩**/ 'one bottle' requires the recognition of a juncture preceding the classifier, i.e. /**ɖɯ˧ – to˩bi˩**/.

### **4.1.8 Two numerals plus a classifier, conveying approximation**

Two numerals can accompany a classifier, conveying an approximative number. This can be likened to the coordinative construction 'num or num' in English: 'one or two', 'two or three'… This construction is less common than coordinative

7 Roselle Dobbs (p.c. 2016) points out that the classifier /**ʈʂʰe˧***∼***ʈʂʰe˧**/ 'the width of a room' may be reduplicated from the verb /**ʈʂʰe˧b**/ 'to stretch'.

### Classifiers

Table 4.5a: The tonal behaviour of disyllabic classifiers with lexical M or #H tone.

Table 4.5b: The tonal behaviour of disyllabic classifiers with lexical L or LM+#H tone.

compounds consisting of two numeral-plus-classifier phrases, such as /**ɖɯ˧-ɲi˧ - ɲi˧-ɲi˧**/ 'one day-two days' and /**ɲi˧-ɲi˧ - so˧-ɲi˥**/ 'two days-three days', presented in §3.3. Table 4.6 sets out the results of elicitation with the noun 'day'. A dash '–' indicates that the combination is not in use. This is not to say that there is a hard-and-fast rule against the combinations marked with a dash in Table 4.6, only that those combinations seemed less felicitous to the consultant,

### 4.1 Numeral-plus-classifier phrases

for various reasons that may involve considerations of homophony along with frequency of use and semantics. For instance, the expression /**ɖɯ˧-ɲi˧ ɲi˧**/, literally 'one-two days', actually means 'a few days', somewhat like 'a couple of days' in English. Since this expression easily covers the range from one to four, it makes the combinations '2 and 3' and '3 and 4' unnecessary. Among higher numbers, a reason why the combination '7 and 8' is deemed acceptable may be that it corresponds to 'a week or so', a span of time that has some relevance in the consultant's current conceptualization of time, in which weeks are a relevant unit because the grandchildren's schooling is punctuated by the succession of weeks. Seen in this light, the combination '6 and 7' should be about as relevant as '7 and 8', and could be acceptable at a push: *‡* **qʰv̩˧-ʂɯ˧ ɲi˧** 'six or seven days'.

Table 4.6: Expressions conveying an approximative number: two numerals plus a classifier.

The fact that the expressions in Table 4.6 do not belong to a full, productive paradigm in the consultant's speech led to the conclusion that it would not be appropriate to attempt systematic elicitation of phrases consisting of two numerals and a classifier. There was a concern that elicitation of unusual forms (many of them new coinages) would not yield consistent results (as mentioned in §<IP_ADDRESS>). This is one of many topics that remain for future research.

### **4.1.9 Conclusions about numeral-plus-classifier phrases**

From the mass of information set out above, it is clear that the tone patterns of numeral-plus-classifier phrases encapsulate information not derived from phonological rules. The system as presented in Tables 4.3a–d and 4.4a–d is regular and productive, in that all the classifiers of a given tone category have the same tone

### 4 Classifiers

patterns. As this system lends itself straightforwardly to computer implementation, a simple Perl script was written.8 It takes as its input the classifier's tone category and segmental composition and a numeral (or range of numerals) from 1 to 100. The data in Tables 4.3a–d and 4.4a–d is stored inside the script, allowing for the tone pattern to be recovered through table lookup. The surface phonological tone pattern is then assigned to the phrase on the basis of the general rules governing tone assignment in this dialect (rules which are encoded into the script), such as that simple L and M tones attach to all the syllables within their domain, tone sequences attach to syllables "left-to-right", and so on. For instance, providing as input the numeral '44' and the classifier for tools, /**nɑ˧a**/ (tonal category: Ma), the script yields the following two variants for '44 tools': /**ʐv̩˧tsʰi˩–ʐv̩˧-nɑ˥**/ (tone pattern: L#–H#) and /**ʐv̩˧tsʰi˩–ʐv̩˩-nɑ˩**/ (tone pattern: L#–).

In the current version of the script, all of the information set out in Tables 4.3a– d and 4.4a–d is encoded in full, specifying the tone patterns of 900 combinations (9 tone categories of classifiers times 100 numerals). This allows for straightforward table-lookup, but is uneconomical from the point of view of linguistic modelling. The addition of some rules could significantly reduce the number of combinations that need to be indicated. In particular, the tone patterns of [40..49] are identical with those of [50..59]; likewise for [60..69] and [80..89]. Numerals ending in '1' also have identical patterns with those ending in '2', with a few exceptions in category Hb. The information provided for each subcategory (Ha and Hb, Ma and Mb, and so on) could also be simplified by considering one of the subcategories as the norm, and only supplying the forms for the other subcategories where they differ from that norm. However, it is clear that even after this simplification task had been conducted, large numbers of tonal patterns would still need to be specified individually. For instance, neither Ha nor Hb can be considered as a simplified version of the other. The systematic presence of a L tone in all the phrases from '10' to '19' could suggest that the patterns for Hb constitute a simplified version of those for Ha, but there also exists a complication for Hb and not for Ha, namely the presence of different tones after numerals ending in '1' and '2'. This observation is a striking counterexample to the pan-Naish generalization that the numerals '1' and '2' always have the same tone patterns – a generalization which holds for Naxi and Laze, and for all the rest of the Na data. Finally, an idiosyncratic tone pattern is observed for /**to˥**/ 'armful': this classifier belongs to the Ha category, but the combination '11 armfuls' is realized as /**tsʰe˧ɖɯ˧-to˧**/ instead of the expected /**†tsʰe˩ɖɯ˩-to˩˥**/.

8 I plan to make computer tools available from an institutional repository in future. Until this plan comes to fruition, interested readers are invited to get in touch with me.

4.2 Demonstrative-plus-classifier phrases

### **4.2 Demonstrative-plus-classifier phrases**

A demonstrative and a following classifier are always integrated into one tone group, as in (2), where the proximal demonstrative //**ʈʂʰɯ˥**// and the classifier for pairs or sets //**dzi˧b**// combine as /**ʈʂʰɯ˧-dzi˧˥**/ 'this set'.

(2) no˩bv̩˧ | ʈʂʰɯ˧-dzi˧˥ | le˧-ʑi˩, | tʰi˧-mv̩˧-kʰɯ˧˥. no˩bv̩˧ given\_name ʈʂʰɯ˥ dem.prox dzi˧b clf.sets/pairs le˧ accomp ʑi˩b to\_bring\_along tʰi˧ dur mv̩˧a to\_put\_on -kʰɯ˧˥ caus 'Nobbu brought that set [of clothes], and made [her] wear [the clothes].' (BuriedAlive3.73)

The elicitation procedure for demonstrative-plus-classifier phrases was similar to that used for numeral-plus-classifier phrases, and similar puzzles were encountered.

As explained in the previous section, the tonal categories of classifiers were established on the basis of their behaviour when combined with numerals. The nine tonal categories of monosyllabic classifiers are: Ha and Hb; MHa and MHb; Ma and Mb; and La, Lb and Lc. As for the proximal demonstrative, /**ʈʂʰɯ#˥**/, and the distal demonstrative, /**tʰv̩#˥**/, they both carry lexical #H tone. The expectations were that, in demonstrative-plus-classifier phrases, (i) there would be no difference between proximal and distal demonstratives, since they have the same lexical tone, and (ii) all classifiers within each of the nine tonal categories would have the same tonal behaviour.

The first prediction was verified: phrases containing /**ʈʂʰɯ#˥**/ 'this' and /**tʰv̩#˥**/ 'that' always have the same tonal behaviour. The second prediction, on the other hand, was incorrect: some of the tonal categories for classifiers proved to be less than fully homogeneous. The account provided below starts out from the simplest cases, and progresses towards the category for which the greatest degree of divergence was found.

When combined with demonstratives, Ha and Hb behave in the same way, as do MHa and MHb. This is the simplest part of the picture: the distinction between Ha and Hb is neutralized in this context, and the distinction between MHa and MHb is likewise neutralized. Categories Ma and Mb behave differently from each other, but in a consistent and simple way, with only one possible pattern: demonstrative plus Ma-tone classifier yields L#, e.g. /**tʰv̩˧-nɑ˩**/ (classifier for

### 4 Classifiers

tools); demonstrative plus Mb-tone classifier yields #H, e.g. /**tʰv̩˧-ɭɯ#˥**/ (generic classifier).

Among Low tone categories of classifiers, La and Lc are relatively straightforward. All La-tone classifiers have the same behaviour, allowing two variants: H# and H\$. Both variants are firmly attested. The speaker expresses a preference for the former, but this slight imbalance appears to be the same for all examples, suggesting that there does not exist any clear (lexicalized) preference for the one or the other in association with a specific classifier. Lc-tone classifiers allow no less than three variants: MH#, H# and H\$.

Category Lb is the most problematic. In the production data, there are three variants, H#, H\$ and MH#. But for some classifiers of this category (e.g. /**mi˩b**/, the classifier for animals, and /**kʰɯ˩b**/, the classifier for long objects), MH# is by far the most frequent pattern, with H\$ as an occasional variant, and H# rarely attested. For other classifiers, H# and H\$ appear with comparable frequency, whereas MH# is seldom found.

When several variants were proposed by the investigator and the consultant was asked which ones were correct, a similar picture emerged: MH# is strongly preferred for some classifiers, with H\$ as an acceptable variant, whereas H# is dispreferred (either refused as incorrect, or judged as marginally acceptable only). For other classifiers, the preferred form is with H# tone, H\$ tone is an acceptable variant, and MH# tone is not. Table 4.7 presents these two sets, provisionally labelled as 'type I' and 'type II'.

The consultant's acceptance of variants fluctuated from session to session, but the distinction between types I and II was confirmed in the course of a long series of elicitation sessions. Examples from the recorded texts provide evidence to the same effect.

The tone patterns for all categories of classifiers are set out in Table 4.8, using the distal demonstrative, /**tʰv̩#˥**/, as an example. (As mentioned above, the tone patterns for the proximal demonstrative, /**ʈʂʰɯ#˥**/, are the same.) The corresponding online recordings are DemClf, DemClf2 and DemClf3.

The 'type I' and 'type II' distinction among Lb-tone classifiers constitutes an impressive extra intricacy within the classifiers' system of nine tonal categories. Category Lb is a subdivision within the L category of tones; its further division into types I and II constitutes a subdivision within a subdivision. From the point of view of phonological output, type I within the Lb category yields an output (MH# / H\$) which does not coincide with any other within the system.

### 4.3 Tonal interactions with a preceding noun

Table 4.7: The two subcategories of Lb-tone classifiers, based on their behaviour in association with demonstratives.

### **4.3 Tonal interactions with a preceding noun**

Occasionally, there is tonal interaction between a numeral-plus-classifier or demonstrative-plus-classifier phrase and the preceding noun, as in (3).

(3) ə˧mi˧! | pæ˧kʰwɤ˧ so˧-ɭɯ˥ ki˩ mæ˩! ə˧mi˧ pæ˧kʰwɤ#˥ so˩ ɭɯ˧ ki˧a

intj silver\_coin three clf to\_give mæ˧ disc.ptcl 'Wow! [(S)he] is giving you three silver coins!'

### 4 Classifiers

Table 4.8: The tone patterns of demonstrative-plus-classifier phrases.

According to the main consultant's memories, (3) is the type of comment that uncles and aunts would make when a child received significant amounts of money on the occasion of their coming-of-age ceremony. To offer only one coin would be inappropriate, as gifts should come in pairs. Two coins is a beautiful gift. Three coins is beyond expectations (the equivalent at the time of about half a month's salary).

The tonal derivation for the phrase 'three silver coins' is as follows:

Other examples of such tonal interaction include (4) and (5).

(4) mv̩˩zo˩ tʰv̩˩-ɭɯ˩˥ mv̩˩zo˩ girl tʰv̩˥ dem.dist ɭɯ˧b clf.generic 'that girl' (ComingOfAge2.60; Tiger2.139, 141, 147)

### 4.3 Tonal interactions with a preceding noun

(5) ə˧v̩˧ tʰv̩˧-v̩˧ ə˧v̩˧˥ uncle tʰv̩˥ dem.dist v̩˧ clf.individual 'that uncle' (Tiger2.109)

The underlying tonal category of such expressions can be established in the same way as that of nouns, by tests such as adding the copula. The expression 'three silver coins' /**pʰæ˧kʰwɤ˧ so˧-ɭɯ˥**/ in (3) yields /**pʰæ˧kʰwɤ˧ so˧-ɭɯ˥ ɲi˩**/, revealing that its tone is H#: //**pʰæ˧kʰwɤ˧ so˧-ɭɯ˥#**//. By contrast, 'that uncle', /**ə˧v̩˧ tʰv̩˧-v̩˧**/ (5), yields /**ə˧v̩˧ tʰv̩˧-v̩˧ ɲi˥**/, revealing that its tone is #H: //**ə˧v̩˧ tʰv̩˧-v̩#˥**//. (As for (4), its surface form suffices to determine its underlying tone: it can only be //L//.)

Why is tonal change only occasional? Here are some speculations.

First, if tone change were systematic, it would entail the neutralization of some of the tonal distinctions among classifiers. This is because the number of possible tone patterns in tone groups of three syllables or more is not as high as the combinatorial diversity in sequences of short tone groups. For instance, after disyllabic nouns carrying a L# tone, determiners would have their tones lowered to L (by application of Rule 5: "All syllables following a H.L or M.L sequence receive L tone"), which would entirely neutralize tonal oppositions among classifiers. Even if the majority of contrasts among different categories of classifiers were retained, tonal change would increase opacity, as there would be more cases where surface phonological tone on determiners differed from underlying tone. Given the richness of the tone system of classifiers, an increase in opacity would be likely to create a pressure towards the simplification of the system. The fact that tonal interaction between a noun and a following determiner is only occasional may thus favour the preservation of the current system. Functionally, having a choice between two options widens the range of stylistic possibilities.

While discourse factors are paramount in determining whether there is interaction between the noun and the phrase that determines it, the tonal category may also play a role. All other things being equal, some tones appear to resist interaction because the tonal output would be non-trivial, requiring the speaker to remember the morphologically conditioned tone combination rule that applies for this combination. Other tones are more prone to interaction because adjusting the noun with the following determiner phrase is simply a matter of applying phonological rules. For instance, if the noun's tone is L#, it feels easiest to integrate this noun with the following phrase, because the phonological consequence is a simple levelling down of the tones of the following syllables within the tone group: the noun's two syllables get M and L tone, respectively,

### 4 Classifiers

and all syllables following this M.L sequence receive L tone by Rule 5. In this case, division into two tone groups would require the extra effort of preserving the tones of the determiner phrase from lowering. This is possible, but it requires a stylistic motivation to emphasize the two constituents.

The implication for the analysis of the tone system would be that some tones are more combination-prone than others, because the tone combination rules in which they are involved follow from phonological rules, and hence tend to be exceptionless and simple to implement. The spreading of L# onto following syllables, mentioned in the previous paragraph, appears as the best example. Other tones are less combination-prone because tone changes in which they are involved are less straightforward, and tend to allow several variants. The H\$ tone category is a case in point.

Such asymmetries inside the tone system, with some tones more change-prone than others, would be reflected in the frequency of tonal interactions between a noun and a following determiner (N+dem+clf, N+num+clf). Systematic verification of these hypotheses must be deferred until later.

### **4.4 Concluding note**

While the tone patterns of classifiers may appear staggeringly complex, phrases containing classifiers are frequent in discourse, a factor which is known to favour the preservation of irregular morphology. As to the system's diachronic origin, some reflections are set out in §9.3.2.

If anyone read this whole chapter with uninterrupted excitement and engagement, they are invited to imagine how much more elaborate the picture would have been if Yongning Na had had the fortune to be used as a medium for the expression of concepts of number theory such as ordinals and fractions. Tibetan, for instance, has ordinals, and means to express fractions and other mathematical concepts (Liu et al. 2010), which tend to seep into other languages in the area of cultural Tibetan influence (e.g. Nar-Phu, spoken in the Manang district of Nepal: Noonan 2003: 342). Dzongkha (a Bodic language spoken in Bhutan) has fascinating complexities such as the use of fractions in its counting system (Mazaudon 1985). But in Yongning Na there are no ordinal numbers or fractions. Examples that contain ordinal numbers in other languages (such as English and Chinese) correspond to turns of phrase with cardinal numbers in Yongning Na. For instance, in (6), 'on the eighth day' is expressed as 'one day [after] seven

### 4.4 Concluding note

days', i.e. 'the day after seven days had elapsed'.9 In (7), the equivalent of 'the first person who will come' is 'whoever comes', understood by inference from context as 'the *first* person who comes'.10 Other examples are found in Renaming. 29, 38 and Funeral.2.

hĩ˥ person ɲi˩ interrog.who le˧ accomp tsʰɯ˩a to\_come ɻ ̍˩ to\_turn\_toward -dʑo˥ top 'The first person who comes along… (*literally:* whoever comes along…)' (Renaming.14)

Contact with Chinese, including training in mathematics at school, currently creates a pressure towards the use of ordinals and fractions, but the result is the wholesale adoption of Chinese forms.

9 The context to example (6) is as follows. A young woman choked because she gulped down boiled eggs that got stuck in her throat; family members assumed that she was dead, and buried her. She came to herself when robbers looting her grave put her body upright to rip off the valuable garments in which she had been interred.  Ghost lore has it that the dangerous period within which ghosts can return is limited to seven days, so the mother asked the daughter to stay in hiding until seven days had elapsed, and only return home after that time.

10 This example requires an explanation about context.  This is a form of symbolic adoption, intended to give the child a new start in life. The stranger gives the infant a new name, and a small token, such as a button from their dress. Example (7) is part of the instructions that the parents receive about what they should do for their child.

## **5 Combinations of nouns with grammatical elements**

This chapter brings together data on a wide range of constructions containing nouns, from morphological derivation – mostly nouns containing gender suffixes – and reduplication, to combinations of nouns with particles in discourse.

### **5.1 Derivational affixes: Gender suffixes and kinship prefix**

### **5.1.1 Introduction to gender suffixes**

The most common derivational affixes in Na are gender suffixes: /**-mi**/, /**-zo**/ and /**-pʰv**/,1 carrying the meaning 'female, mother', 'son, young', and 'male', for instance in /**ɬi˧mi˧**/ 'female roebuck', /**ɬi˩zo˩**/ (variant: /**ɬi˧zo#˥**/) 'young roebuck', and /**ɬi˩pʰv̩˩**/ (variant: /**ɬi˧pʰv̩#˥**/) 'male roebuck' (Lidz 2010: 177-179).2

The suffixes /**-mi**/ and /**-zo**/ also serve as augmentative and diminutive suffixes, respectively. 'Mother' stands for 'large', and 'son' for 'small', as in numerous languages of the area (see Mazaudon 2003 on Tamang, and a cross-language discussion by Matisoff 1992). For instance, /**kʰɤ˧˥**/ 'basket (carried on back)' yields /**kʰɤ˧mi˥\$**/ 'large basket' and /**kʰɤ˧zo#˥**/ 'small basket'. The augmentative or diminutive meaning has faded away from many suffixed forms, which have thereby become lexicalized. For instance, monosyllabic /**ljɤ˩˥**/ and suffixed /**ljɤ˩mi˥**/ are both used to refer to the same object, namely main (supporting) beams. The augmentative and diminutive suffixes are not highly productive: there is no diminutive counterpart (*†***ljɤ˩-zo#˥**) to /**ljɤ˩mi˥**/ 'main beam', for instance. The slanting beams upholding the roofing (planks or tiles), which rest on the supporting beams, are called /**ʐv̩˩ɭɯ˥**/. When referring to a large-sized

1 At this stage, no tone is indicated for these three suffixes: establishing their tone category is a key objective of §5.1.

2 Liberty Lidz's notations are /**-mi33**/, /**-zɔ33**/ and /**-pʰu33**/. Consultant F4's word for 'grandmother's brother', /**ə˧pʰv̩˧**/, is glossed by L. Lidz as 'grandfather (father of mother or father)' in the Luoshui dialect, and transcribed as /**ɑ33-pʰv̩33**/ (p. 766), but it also appears as /**ɑ33-pʰu33**/ at places, e.g. pp. 269, 503 and 763.

### 5 Combinations of nouns with grammatical elements

slanting beam, it is not possible to use an augmentative *†***ʐv̩˩ɭɯ˥-mi˩**, with the intended meaning of 'a large-sized /**ʐv̩˩ɭɯ˥**/'. Instead, constructions with the adjectives /**tɕi˩a**/ 'small' or /**ɖɯ˩a**/ 'large' are used. (About the association of adjectives to nouns in Yongning Na, see §3.4.1.)

Etymologically, the second syllable of the words /**ɲi˧mi#˥**/ 'sun' and /**ɬi˧mi˧**/ 'moon', which currently lack monosyllabic counterparts, probably originates in the same morpheme /**mi**/. Since these two words also have the same structure in Naxi (/**ɲi˧me˧**/ and /**he˧me˧**/) and Laze (/**ɲie˧mie˧**/ and /**ɬie˧mie˧**/), two languages closely related to Na, their disyllabic status is likely to have some historical depth. The suffix /**zo**/ appearing in /**ɲi˧zo#˥**/ 'fish', another disyllable without a monosyllabic counterpart, is also found in Laze (/**ze˧**/ 'son', /**ɲi˩ze˥**/ 'fish'), whereas Naxi has a monosyllable: /**ɲi˧**/.

The discussion below covers names of animals and peoples with gender suffixes, as well as the augmentative and diminutive suffixes. Needless to say, words that contain a /**mi**/ syllable of other origin were excluded, e.g. the name of the Yongning monastery, /**ɖæ˩mi˧**/, which is a loanword from Tibetan *dgra med*.

The suffixes for *female*, *young* and *male* are related to the free morphemes /**mi˩˧**/, /**zo˥**/ and /**pʰv̩˧**/, which appear in contexts such as (1)-(3). In this case, there is no mystery in the evolution from the nouns to the derivational affixes.

The free forms /**zo˥**/ 'young/male' and /**pʰv̩˧**/ 'male' have different tones (H and M, respectively), whereas the suffixes /**-zo**/ and /**-pʰv**/ always have the same tonal patterns, even sharing the same tonal variants, as in the example of 'roebuck'. However, neutralization of tonal oppositions on nouns in the process of

### 5.1 Derivational affixes: Gender suffixes and kinship prefix

grammaticalization as gender suffixes is not thoroughgoing: the tonal behaviour of /**-zo**/ and /**-pʰv**/ differs from that of the female suffix /**-mi**/.

From a tonal point of view, there is thus evidence that these three derivational elements have become distinct from the free nouns in which they originate. This is reminiscent of classifiers: the study of classifiers provided in Chapter 4 reveals that the tone system of classifiers is not identical to that of free nouns, and that the tone of a classifier is not necessarily the closest equivalent of that of the noun from which it derives. To repeat an example from §4.1.2, there are two tonal correspondences among classifiers for H-tone nouns, the one illustrated by 'beam', /**ɖʐo˥**/, which has /**ɖʐo˥a**/ (category Ha) as its self-classifier, and the other illustrated by /**kɯ˥**/ 'star', which yields /**kɯ˧b**/ (Mb tone category) as a selfclassifier. Seen in this light, differences in tone between a noun as a full form and as a derivational suffix are not a particularly out-of-the-way finding in the context of Yongning Na morphotonology.

The difference in tone patterns between /**-mi**/ and the other two suffixes suffices to establish that suffixes are not toneless. But ascertaining the tones of these suffixes is not an easy matter. A simple test consists in combining them with a Mtone noun: the M tone has properties that make it suitable for use in tonal tests. M can be followed by any tone (unlike H, which can only be followed by L), and it does not spread (unlike L), so it would seem to offer the best possible context for the lexical tone of the following morpheme to manifest itself in. This works out well for verbs: a useful tonal test consists in observing a verb's tone after a M-tone morpheme such as the negation prefix, /**mɤ˧-**/. In this context, H-tone verbs surface with H tone, MH-tone verbs with MH tone, and so on (see §6.1.1). But the three gender suffixes all yield the same result after a M-tone monosyllable: for instance, /**lɑ˧**/ 'tiger' yields /**lɑ˧mi#˥**/ 'female tiger', /**lɑ˧zo#˥**/ 'baby tiger' and /**lɑ˧pʰv̩#˥**/ 'male tiger'. After disyllabic M-tone nouns, on the other hand, the results are different: thus, /**si˧gɯ˧**/ 'lion' yields /**si˧gɯ˧-mi˩**/ 'female lion', with L tone on the suffix, and /**si˧gɯ˧-zo#˥**/ 'baby lion', with a floating H tone. On this slender basis, the two sets of suffixes are provisionally transcribed as carrying lexical L and H tone, respectively. They are transcribed hereafter as //**-mi˩**//, //**-zo˥**// and //**-pʰv̩˥**//. It must be cautioned that this tentative identification does by no means encapsulate all the information about the tonal behaviour of these two types of suffixes, which is set out in tabular form below.

### **5.1.2 The facts**

Tables 5.1a–g and Tables 5.2a–b present the data concerning the suffixes //**-mi˩**//, //**-zo˥**// and //**-pʰv̩˥**//. The examples are arranged by tone of the suffixed form.

### 5 Combinations of nouns with grammatical elements

Tables 5.1a–g present disyllables, and Tables 5.2a–b trisyllables. Nouns in which the suffixes are augmentative or diminutive and not gender suffixes are italicized (i.e. nouns that do not refer to animals or ethnic groups). As elsewhere, a slash separates variants. A dash '–' in a cell indicates that the form does not exist: for instance, it is not possible to use a word suffixed with /**-zo**/ for 'piglet' (the attested form is /**bæ˧bv̩˥**/). A double dagger *‡* preceding a noun indicates that it is a form that was proposed by the investigator and rejected by the consultant. For instance, "**ʐæ˩mi#˥** (*‡* **ʐæ˩mi˩**)" for 'female leopard' indicates that the tonal variant *‡* **ʐæ˩mi˩**, tested by the investigator on the analogy of the existence of a Ltone variant /**ʑi˩mi˩**/ for 'female ape', whose root belongs in the same category as 'leopard', was rejected by the consultant.

Table 5.1a includes two roots, 'thumb' and 'bee', which are not synchronically attested as monosyllables, but whose internal reconstruction yields a LM-tone root.

For two of the items that lack a monosyllabic counterpart, the tone of the root can be arrived at through internal reconstruction. Since there is a substantial number of examples (seven) of LM-tone disyllables corresponding to LMtone monosyllables, and there is no other attested source for LM-tone disyllables, /**dze˩mi˧**/ 'bee' and /**lo˩mi˧**/ 'thumb' can be hypothesized to be derived from LMtone roots: **\*dze˩˧** and **\*lo˩˧**.

But for most of the items that lack a monosyllabic counterpart, internal reconstruction does not lead to a clear-cut conclusion, because several tone categories of roots feed into the same tone categories of disyllables. For instance, /**ɲi˧zo#˥**/ 'fish' may have originated in a monosyllabic root of any tone category except H, and M-tone words with the /**-mi˩**/ suffix, such as /**ɖɤ˧mi˧**/ 'fox', may be derived from any of the following four tone categories of monosyllables: LH, L, H or MH. The last two items in Table 5.1g, 'hwamei (a species of bird)' and '(cigarette) lighter', carry a tone that does not correspond to any of the attested correspondences.

The purpose of Tables 5.1a–g and 5.2a–b is to provide a bird's eye view of the tonal correspondences. It does not present information about etymology and frequency of use: for instance, that /**ɻ̍˧mi˧ ̃** / 'treek trunk' (in Table 5.1e) etymologically means 'big bone'; that /**po˧lo˧**/ is a more common form for 'ram' than the /**-pʰv̩˥**/ suffixed form /**jo˧pʰv̩#˥**/ **≈** /**jo˩pʰv̩˩**/ (literally 'male sheep') shown in Table 5.1d; or that /**-zo˥**/ suffixed forms are more common than /**-pʰv̩˥**/ suffixed forms to refer to male mules and water buffalos (Table 5.1g). Some such facts are adduced in the discussion below; they can be looked up in the corresponding entries in the dictionary (Michaud 2015a).

Table 5.1b: Nouns with gender suffixes or augmentative/diminutive suffixes. Disyllabic words. LH-tone roots.

Table 5.1c: Nouns with gender suffixes or augmentative/diminutive suffixes. Disyllabic words. M-tone roots. Only one type of correspondence.

Table 5.1d: Nouns with gender suffixes or augmentative/diminutive suffixes. Disyllabic words. L-tone roots. Only one type of correspondence.

Table 5.1e: Nouns with gender suffixes or augmentative/diminutive suffixes. Disyllabic words. H-tone roots.

Table 5.1f: Nouns with gender suffixes or augmentative/diminutive suffixes. Disyllabic words. MH-tone roots.

Table 5.1g: Nouns with gender suffixes or augmentative/diminutive suffixes. Disyllabic words without a corresponding monosyllable.

Table 5.2a: Nouns with gender suffixes or augmentative/diminutive suffixes. Three-syllable words derived from M-tone disyllables.

Table 5.2b: Nouns with gender suffixes or augmentative/diminutive suffixes. Three-syllable words without a corresponding disyllable.

### **5.1.3 Discussion**

The tonal correspondences between monosyllabic roots and disyllables are not one-to-one. The diversity of tonal correspondences suggests that disyllables with these suffixes have different degrees of lexicalization, and different degrees of historical depth. It would thus be misleading to think of all the suffixed forms as the result of a synchronic, currently productive morphological process. Semantically, there is a continuum between disyllables with a clearly female meaning, such as 'sow', and disyllables in which the semantic content of the suffix has become bleached, e.g. /**kʰv̩˩mi˩**/ which simply means 'dog', not specifically 'shedog'. After semantic bleaching, suffixes need to be added anew to specify gender. For instance, on the basis of /**njɤ˧mv̩˥mi˩**/ 'camel', the words for 'camel calf' and 'male camel' come out as /**njɤ˧mv̩˥mi˩-zo˩**/ and /**njɤ˧mv̩˥mi˩-pʰv̩˩**/, respectively. But these two forms, while readily understandable, are considered awkward by the main consultant. Does this mean that the /**-mi˩**/ component in /**njɤ˧mv̩˥mi˩**/ 'camel' is still perceived as carrying its female meaning? Not necessarily: the slight weirdness of /**njɤ˧mv̩˥mi˩-zo˩**/ 'camel calf' and /**njɤ˧mv̩˥mi˩-pʰv̩˩**/ 'male camel' seems due to the /…**mi.zo**/ and /…**mi.pʰv**/ sequences, where the suffix reactivates, as it were, the gender denotation of /**-mi˩**/ in 'camel'.

The study of combinations for which two tone patterns are acceptable, e.g. /**hwɤ˧zo#˥**/ and /**hwɤ˧zo˥\$**/ for 'male kitten', reveals that tonal variants are item-specific (lexicalized). Out of the set of nine words suffixed in /**-zo˥**/ or /**-pʰv̩˥**/ corresponding with a MH-tone root, only four allow both variants, #H and H\$. Among the nine words, four refer to names of objects: 'basket', 'needle', 'scales', and 'bowl'. Interestingly, none of these four allows a tonal variant: they all fall into one category or the other (#H for 'needle', and H\$ for the other three). By contrast, four of the five animal names allow both variants. The difference between the gender suffixes and size suffixes in this respect is not clearcut: some nouns referring to objects allow two variants. For instance, 'ladle' conforms to the exceptionless existence of two tonal variants for LM-tone roots: /**tɕʰo˩mi#˥**/ **≈** /**tɕʰo˩mi˧**/, and /**tɕʰo˩zo#˥**/ **≈** /**tɕʰo˩zo˧**/. Still, there appears to be a statistical tendency for animal names to preserve a tonal flexibility reflecting the stronger perception of their internal structure by the speakers.

In some cases, it is possible to identify factors that have played a role in contributing to the current tonal output: 'little bottle', /**kɤ˩zo˩**/, does not have the expected #H-tone variant /**†kɤ˧zo#˥**/; to the consultant, the latter form immediately summoned up the given name /**kɤ˧zo#˥**/. Supposing that 'little bottle' once had two tonal variants, L and #H, the pressure to avoid homophony may have played a role in the selection of the variant /**kɤ˩zo˩**/ to the exclusion of the other.

### 5 Combinations of nouns with grammatical elements

The discussion below is arranged by tone of the root noun, in the same order as in Tables 5.1a–g and 5.2a–b. For each tone category of roots, forms suffixed with //**-mi˩**// are discussed first, followed by forms with //**-zo˥**// and //**-pʰv̩˥**//.

### **<IP_ADDRESS> LM-tone roots**

Table 5.1 brings out no fewer than four tone correspondences between monosyllables with LM tone and their suffixed forms: LM, as in /**bo˩mi˧**/ 'sow' and /**æ˩mi˧**/ 'hen'; M, as in /**bv̩˧mi˧**/ 'female yak', /**ɖʐwæ˧mi˧**/ 'female sparrow' and /**kɤ˧mi˧**/ 'female falcon'; LM+#H, in /**dv̩˩mi#˥**/ 'female weasel', /**ɑ˩mi#˥**/ 'goose', /**dzo˧mi#˥**/ 'female lizard', and /**nɑ˩mi#˥**/ 'Na woman'; and finally L, in /**pʰɤ˩mi˩**/ 'female jackal'.

Three LM-tone nouns outside the semantic sphere of animal names can carry the /**-mi˩**/ suffix, with three of the above four tone patterns. One has M tone: /**bv̩˧mi˧**/ 'big food steamer' (from /**bv̩˩˧**/ 'food steamer'). Another has LM+#H tone: /**tɕʰo˩mi#˥**/ 'big ladle' (from /**tɕʰo˩˧**/ 'ladle'). The third has L tone: /**ʐɤ˩mi˩**/ 'road, path', which does not specifically mean 'large road' anymore: the monosyllable /**ʐɤ˩˧**/, likewise meaning 'road, path', is falling into disuse.