Ɬwa

N5 as a Marker of the Degree of Expressiveness in the Kam Language

Bibliographic Data

ID5901412
AuthorsHui He (0000-0001-7981-2180, Mahidol University, corresponding author)
Year2023
Volume8
Issue4
Pages261
Publication date2023-11-08
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueLanguages (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2226-471X • E-ISSN: 2226-471X
PublisherMDPI AG (PUBLISHER • IT)
DOI10.3390/languages8040261
OpenAlexW4388494429
LanguageEN
References cited16

This paper presents an analysis of syntactic collocations that include the constraints on an adjective phrase (AP) and adverbs or final particles (X) in the ɬwa:n5 + AP + X construction, as well as its pragmatic features and grammatical functions in the Kam language. ɬwa:n5 functions as an exclamative marker (EM) that conveys the expressive meaning of the speaker's attitude. The primary lexical meaning of ɬwa:n5 is 'to calculate' or 'to regard as', and the word is borrowed from Chinese (算 suàn, 'to count', 'to calculate', 'to regard as'). The role of ɬwa:n5 in the construction ɬwa:n5 + AP + X will mainly be discussed in this paper. In addition, the adjectives that can collocate with ɬwa:n5 are subject to a gradeability restriction, that is, only gradable adjectives can collocate with ɬwa:n5. In general, the ɬwa:n5 construction is used to express that the speaker expected an existing situation with a gradable property; in reality, the degree follows a particular scalar and surpasses the expectation

Adjective · Degree (music · Discourse marker · Linguistics · Meaning (existential · Natural language processing · Noun · Phrase · Physics · Computer Science · Language, Discourse, Communication Strategies · Language, Metaphor, and Cognition · Mathematics · Philosophy · Psychology · Syntax, Semantics, Linguistic Variation

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