• verb with an enclitic:
vkyfwm
loutta ‘work’ verb ‘work’ + nominalizing particle,
• nouns formed by doubling, with or without a proclitic and rhyming syllables:
aumif:aumif:
kaun:gaun: ‘good’ verb ‘good’ + verb ‘good’ with voiced onset
in close juncture;
r\ynfhw\ynfh
mapyei tabyei ‘not quite full’ negative prefix m
ă-verb ‘full’ + reduced numeral one tă- verb ‘full’; kanlan ‘across’ verb
‘across’ with tone change to match following syllable + ‘road’;
eD wdwd
ni tidi ‘reddish’ verb ‘red’ + reduplicated rhyming syllable t-t- which copies vowel and
tone of the main verb, in close juncture to indicate diminished quality of the verb. The doubled verbs as well as doubled nouns are considered to be noun expressions
by Cornyn 1944:31.
It could be said that Cornyn’s treatment constituted a further advance toward emic categorization of Burmese word forms, shedding Western constructions deemed necessary for
the second language learner. His classifications also incorporated the concept of embeddings from other levels. The word-level forms listed above demonstrate a sense of the categoriality
of free forms as a superordinate category incorporating structural properties of both free and bound forms in various combinations. This level he labels Form. A similar breadth of
inclusion is demonstrated in his next level of category labeled Expression. Cornyn utilized a kind of tacit hierarchy without actually specifying or discussing how levels relate to each
other. This hierarchy has been inferred to have the form of figure 17.
Sentence Expression
Form
Figure 17. Cornyn’s 1944 grammatical hierarchy
The Expression unit includes compounds, phrases, and relative clauses—all units marked by postpositional particles that relate information to the wider sentence. The Sentence
unit has three types: narrative, imperative, and equational.
3.4.5 Forbes
Forbes 1967:195 recognized two kinds of words, the simple word a minimal free form and the complex or compound word. The work cited here is only about nouns so it is not known
how she would distinguish other word classes. Regarding nouns, Forbes noted the way in which simple and complex forms, often labeled phrases, function as nouns in Burmese.
Simple nominal words like
acG:
hkwe ‘dog’,
xD
hti ‘umbrella’,
q|m
hca.ra ‘teacher’
function in clear nominal ways. Larger sequences also function as single nominal units, such as
vlqdk:
lu hcui ‘criminal’,
rae.uvmwJhvl
mane.ka. la tai. lu ‘the man who came
yesterday’, and
vla\cmufamuf.
lu hkauk yauk. ‘six people’.
Forbes’ criterion for distinguishing between the nominal word and phrase is principally phonological. She does not even suggest that ‘the man who came yesterday’ is a
relative clause, rather it is a sequence with open juncture. Open versus close juncture is the principle criterion, but consideration is also given to free versus bound, and the type of
numeral classifiers taken by the nominal. Her paper focused primarily on describing the
various types of combinations of nouns and verbs in the compound noun construction. Each type of compound is systematically described for its structural properties and constraints on
combination.
Two-member compounds N + N, N + V, V + N with sub-types are classified. It should be noted that Forbes not only judged NN sequences to be compounds but also NV,
which some have called an attributive phrase. In addition, the VV sequence can be nominal, though it can also be verbal. The distribution of such compounds within the sentence
determines the interpretation of nominal versus verbal. Table 6 lists compound nouns with two members of the compound.
Pattern Example Component Meaning
Compound Meaning
1 NN
enf:vrf:
nany: lam: way + road
way means
\ynfol
pyany su country + person
citizen 2 NV
acG:|L:
hkwe: ru:
dog + wild mad dog
vlif
lu ngai person + young
youth 3 VN
0ifaiG
wang ngwai enter
+ silver
income
atmifol
aung su victory + person
conqueror 4 VV
pnf:a0:
cany: we:
bundle + be far meeting
ajumf\im
krau ngra shout + shout
advertisement Table 6. Two-member compound nouns
Forbes also classifies three-member compounds for which it must be noted that the internal structure always consists of two members, N or V. These first combine into a single
constituent and subsequently add a third element to the first combination to form the whole three-part compound nominal. The preference of Burmese structure for pairs or doublets is
clearly manifest in the three-member compound noun, e.g., NV + NV N first, and then N + N to complete the compound. Table 7 lists the types of three-member compound nouns.
Pattern Example Component Meaning
Compound Meaning
tvfwef:ausmif:
a-lai tan: kyaung:
middle + grade +
school middle school
1. NNN NN
a\ryJqD:
mre pai: hci: ground +
bean oil peanut oil
a|aG:tdk:
re nwe: ui:
water+ hot pot
kettle 2.
NVN NN
a|csdKig:
re hkyui nga: water +
sweet fish fresh water fish
oifwef:cef:
sang tan: hkan:
study + line
class
room lecture hall
3. VNN NN
oifwef:om:
sang tan: sa:
study + line son
trainee
juufa\ceD
krak hkre ni chicken +
foot
cross
red red cross
4. NNV NV
twGif:a|:r’
a-twang: re: hmu
inside + matter regard as
important secretary
ig:a\cmufajumf
nga: hkrauk krau
fish + dry fry fried dried fish
5. NVV NV
a|aeGjurf:
re nwe kram: water + hot
harsh plain tea
\rifuGif:usf
mrang kwang: kyai
see + area
view
wide panoramic
view 6.
VNV NV
tdyf|mcif:
ip ra hkang: sleep
+ place
spread out bed sheet
Table 7. Three-member compound nouns
It should be noted that the pattern of N + V is that of the clausal predication in Burmese. Significantly, this particular structure of nominal compounding demonstrates what
we find at the clause and sentence level—that both these structures are nominal units. This supports the present thesis that clause and sentence units in Burmese operate similarly to
nominal structures—both conceptually and grammatically.
The matter of headedness also arises in these constructions. Forbes noted that immediate constituency does not necessarily follow juncture patterns. The grammatical head
of the final nominalization sequence in a three-member compound often has close juncture whereas the first two elements, which are semantically more blended and grammatically
immediate constituents, are often marked by open juncture. This is contrary to the iconic principle and another indication that phonology, grammar and semantics are not isomorphic,
that is to say, not related constructionally one-to-one.
3.4.6 Minn Latt
