Typological Characteristics of Interrogative Particles in Tibeto-Burman Languages:Also a Comparison between Chinese and Tibeto-Burman Languages
Based on an investigation and comparison of more than 50 kinds of interrogative particles in Tibeto-Burman languages and dialects,this paper studies interrogative particles in Tibeto-Burman languages by using the theories and methods of linguistic typology and descriptive linguistics.The paper finds that Tibeto-Burman languages can be classified into three types according to the number of interrogative particles they have,namely,the developed type,the underdeveloped type,and the poor type.The paper also finds that some interrogative particles in Tibeto-Burman are multi-functional,which can express interrogative mood,person,number,direction,and other meanings.Besides,there are a few cognates of interrogative particles in different languages,and the distribution is unbalanced.Tibeto-Burman languages and Chinese are homologous,and there are both similarities and differences between them.Through comparison,it is found that the similarities in analytic languages shared by Tibeto-Burman languages and Chinese determine the similar basic characteristics of interrogative particles,but the differences in analytic strength lead to different richness of interrogative particles.The interrogative particles have appeared in Chinese since ancient times,after differentiation of Sino-Tibetan languages.
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