Sino-tibetan Cause And Effect Class Complex Sentences

This dissertation gives a systematic research on cause-effect complex sentences in Sino-Tibetan languages. The contents include:(1) from synchronic perspectives, the dissertation describes systematically syntactic characters of cause-effect complex sentences in Sino-Tibetan languages, semantic characteristics and positions of conjunctive markers in cause-effect complex sentences; (2) from diachronic perspectives, the dissertation discusses homologous relations of conjunctive markers of cause-effect complex sentences in Sino-Tibetan languages, and then makes further investigation on its evolutionary track; (3) from typological perspectives, the dissertation first probes into the characteristics of cause-effect complex sentences in whole Sino-Tibetan languages family, and then review on the characteristics of cause-effect complex sentences in Chinese.The significance of the dissertation lies in the followings:(1) Help to deepen the recognition of complex sentences characteristics in whole Sino-Tibetan languages family. Generally speaking, the research on complex sentences of Sino-Tibetan languages is still in the starting phase because of uneven lingual studies on different languages:for one thing, the studies on cause-effect complex sentences in Chinese started comparatively earlier and has obtained a great number of achievements, while the studies on cause-effect complex sentences in Tibeto-Burman group, Zhuang-Dong group and Miao-Yao group are relatively weak, only stopping in the stage of mere description; and for another, the past descriptions of complex sentences in single languages are much more than those of comprehensive comparison between multiple languages, which restrains our knowledge of complex sentences characteristics in Sino-Tibetan family. The study of cause-effect complex helps to deepen either the recognition of complex sentences characteristics in whole Sino-Tibetan family, or the understanding to complex sentences characteristics of different single language on the basis of lingual comparisons. (2) Benefits historical and comparative study on Sino-Tibetan family. The evolutionary tracks of each language can be discovered by means of comparisons between branches and groups as well as the analysis on etymological relations of conjunctive markers of complex sentences. (3) Typological meanings. The dissertation selects about forty of Sino-Tibetan languages and makes comparative studies, trying to seek the similarities and differences of complex sentences in Sino-Tibetan family and to conclude some useful typological features according to linguistic theories, especially the references of linguistic typology. Meanwhile, some present typological principles can also be testified.The dissertation adopts the methods as follows:(1) Comparison. The dissertation, first of all, makes comparisons of syntactic characters and conjunctive markers of complex sentences within each language group to define their characteristics, and then makes comparisons between groups of Sino-Tibetan family to finally define characteristics of complex sentences in whole Sino-Tibetan languages family. (2) Combination of "Triangular theory of exterior-interior-value" and "Mandarin-Dialects-Classical Chinese". "Triangular theory of exterior-interior-value", a relatively mature study method of Chinese complex sentences put forward by Xing Fu-yi, can be applied to complex sentences studies of minority languages so as to discover sentence patterns, semantics and pragmatics of the complex sentences in different languages. (3) Statistics. The statistics of about forty Sino-Tibetan languages involved in this dissertation are typical and convincing. The author draws conclusion from the analysis based on the data.The innovation of the dissertation is manifested in the following ways:(1) Make a complete comparison of cause-effect complex sentences in Sino-Tibetan family, and analyze their syntactic characters and conjunctive markers. (2) Reveal the origin and evolution of some conjunctive markers. (3) Illustrate the impact of language contact on conjunctive markers and even syntactic characters of complex sentences to different extent. (4) Analyze the positions of conjunctive markers using typological theories. This dissertation is divided into seven parts as follows.Chapter One:Introduction. This chapter defines the research range and object, offers a summary of the main contribution to cause-effect complex sentences in Sino-Tibetan languages followed by a brief introduction to the previous research, and then introduces guiding principles, research methods, and source of materials of the paper.Chapter Two:Cause-effect Complex Sentences in Sino-Tibetan Languages. This chapter describes syntactic characters of cause-effect complex sentences in Sino-Tibetan languages from aspects of syntactic classification and semantic relations. And then it gives an analysis of conjunctive markers from composition, phonetic character and positional distribution, etc. Finally, it points out the multi-function of cause-effect conjunctive markers.Chapter Three:Hypothesis Complex Sentence in Sino-Tibetan Languages. This chapter provides firstly a description of syntactic characters of hypothesis complex sentence in Sino-Tibetan languages from aspects of syntactic classification and semantic relations, and then an analysis of conjunctive markers of hypothesis complex sentence from aspects of from composition, phonetic character and positional distribution, etc.Chapter Four:Conditional Complex Sentences in Sino-Tibetan languages. This chapter makes a description of syntactic characters of conditional complex sentences in Sino-Tibetan languages from aspects of syntactic classification and semantic relations, and then an analysis of conjunctive markers of conditional complex sentences according to their positional distribution.Chapter Five:purpose Complex Sentences in Sino-Tibetan Languages. This chapter offers a description of syntactic characters of purpose complex sentences in Sino-Tibetan languages from aspects of syntactic classification and semantic relations, and then an analysis of conjunctive markers of purpose complex sentences from views of composition and positional distribution. The chapter points out conjunctive markers of purpose are closely related to those of cause-effect.Chapter Six:Historical Evolution of Cause-effect Conjunctive Markers in Sino-Tibetan Languages. This chapter combs the etymological relation, origin and grammaticalization of cause-effect conjunctive markers in Sino-Tibetan languages from historical respective, looks back to the historical evolution of cause-effect conjunctive markers in Chinese, and then explains the historical evolution of cause-effect conjunctive markers in other Sino-Tibetan languages except Chinese. The borrowing characters of cause-effect conjunctive markers in Sino-Tibetan languages are discussed finally in this chapter.Chapter Seven:Characteristics of Complex Sentences in Sino-Tibetan languages in Typological Viewpoint. The chapter discusses the association between distributions of cause-effect conjunctive markers and The principle of relator in the middle in Sino-Tibetan languages in Typological viewpoint. It reveals the multi-functions of cause-effect conjunctive markers as well as the enlightenment of their orders of existence. Finally there is a comparison to characters of cause-effect complex sentences in Chinese.General Conclusion. This chapter includes an overview of the main points of the dissertation and points out the incomplete aspects of the dissertation and gives directions for further research.