• ‘stick on to’ • ‘to fainting’
• ‘lick’ • ‘black’
• ‘red’ • ‘catch on fire’
• ‘borrow’ • ‘tight’
• ‘bury’ • ‘get freeopen’
• ‘fall down’ • ‘become’ ‘cut’+ ‘become’= ‘cut to become’
• ‘roll over’ • ‘roast’
• ‘be friendly’ • ‘sprinkle’
• ‘know’ • ‘to distress’
• ‘sharp’ • ‘be related’
• ‘lift up’ • ‘cut through’
• ‘keep in mouth’ • ‘correctly’
• ‘wash’ • ‘penetrateinto’
• ‘stab through’ • ‘pass time’
9.4.3 Bisu posthead verbal slots
9.4.3.1 Four posthead verbal slots
The first slot after the verb head is occupied by directional verbs. They may immediately follow the main factive verb to show the direction of the action Xu 2001:81.
Next, modal verbs, such as tso
33
‘should’ , and ɕi
55
‘want’, phɣ
31
‘can’ may follow the directional verb Xu 2001:83. The causative verb pi
31
follows the factive verb in affirmative statements and intercedes between the negative adverb and the factive verb in negative statements Xu 2001:82.
Third, aspectual particles with these meanings may follow the modals Xu 2001:83: • ‘action about-to-begin’ ni
55
a
31
‘existing visible-reality’ ni
55
• ‘action in-progress’ pɣn
33
ne
55
• ‘action already begundone’ aŋ
55
• ‘action yet-continuing’ ba
55
...sɿ
55
for negation; ...ne
55
sɿ
33
for affirmative • ‘action-happened’ an
31
These particles are often the final element in a sentence. The position of the particle for ‘action already begundone’
aŋ
55
is exceptional in that it precedes directional verbs and may even intervene in the middle of a bisyllabic verb.
178 xa
55
man
55
aŋ
33
x ɯ
31
to
33
aŋ
55
la
55
wind big
appear
P
come ‘It is becoming very windy.’ Xu 2001:126
Two different pairings of the aspectual particles are possible Xu 2001:127: • ‘in-progress+yet-continuing’
pɣn
33
ne
55
sɿ
33
• ‘begun+about-to-begin’ aŋ
55
ni
55
a
31
The final fourth slot after the main verb is occupied by a particle with one of the following meanings Xu 2001:117, 129–131:
• ‘objective-declarative’ tɕi
55
a
31
• ‘subjective-declarative’ tɕi
55
, ‘probable’ ga
33
• ‘yes-no question’ la
31
• ‘wh-question’ ni
55
ɣ
31
9.4.3.2 Examples of verb chains in Bisu
179 ʑa
31
maŋ
33
xaŋ
31
thun
31
tsa
31
ph ɣ
31
ga
33
elderly person barley cake eat can P-probable
‘Elderly people can eat barley cakes.’ Xu 2001:83 180 m
ɯŋ
31
n ɯŋ
31
to
33
ne
33
la
55
aŋ
55
t ɕ
55
a
31
sun appear
P
‘modify’ come
P
‘perfective’
P
‘declarative’ ‘The sun has come out.’Xu 2001:122
9.4.4 Lahu posthead verbal slots
9.4.4.1 Four postverbal positions
The first position after the main verb is exclusively occupied by one lexeme from a group of verbal particles with these meanings:
• ‘into’ kə
• ‘enter’ lòʔ
• ‘appear’ tɔ̂ʔ
• ‘come’ là • ‘go’ qay
• ‘descend’ yàʔ
• ‘ascend’ tâʔ
• ‘send back’ qò • ‘take back’
qhɔ̀ʔ • ‘throw’ bà
• ‘fall’ ce • ‘send’
pɘ
There is a second slot occupied by members of an open group of active-verbs and adjectival-verbs with semantically specific but very heterogenous meanings, such as ‘be late’, ‘dare’, ‘be busy’, ‘be easy’,
‘be wearisome’, ‘be numerous’, and ‘be bored’ Matisoff 1973:221,225. Only one verb from this group may occupy the second slot after the main verb.
There is a third postverbal slot occupied by a group of nonmutually exclusive verbs involving either • potentiality possible to, able to do X well, get tomanage to, and must; or
• meanings such as ‘be fittingcorrect’, be time to, be too manymuch. In the second and third postverbal slots, members of a fourth group of verbs may also be found.
Their meanings are very abstract in posthead position: • ‘continuative’
• ‘causative’ • ‘inchoative’
• ‘durative’ • ‘tentative’
• ‘completiveexhaustive’ • ‘benefactive’
• ‘permisso-causitive’ • ‘sufficitive’
Several members of this group can occur in series.
9.4.4.2 Schematic for possible order of groupspositions
The following schematic describes the possible ordering of the four groups in posthead verb position: • 0 head-verb
• 1 up to one directional indicator • 1a zero, one or more of the fourth group
• 2 up to one of the second group • 2a zero, one or more of the fourth group
• 3 up to two of the third group • 3a zero, one or more of the fourth group
The length of any given verb chain is limited by semantic hierarchy of headedness among the posthead verbs such that each of the verbs to the left of a given verb serves as the head verb of the given
verb. In addition some posthead verbs co-occur with certain prehead verbs in relationships of
subordination, coordination, or mutual exclusivity. Matisoff 1973:263. Sometimes this results in ambiguity:
181 tà y
ɔ cɨ begin talk
CAUS
‘begin to make him talk’ or ‘make him begin to talk’ Matisoff 1973:257 The following example illustrates a posthead verb concatenation in Lahu:
182 cì g̈ɔ̀
t ɔ̂ʔ mā
pî c
ɔ̂ teeth pull out show how
BEN
ought ‘They ought to show them how to pull out teeth.’ Matisoff 1973:239
Table 13. Posthead verb concatenations in Lahu Matisoff 1973: 221–249; Maximum length is four 1973:260
Just after
V
-head, only one of this
first group Only one verb from
this second group may follow
Several of this third group may follow
‘into’, ‘enter’, ‘appear’, ‘come’,
‘go’, ‘descend’, ‘ascend’, ‘send
back’, ‘take back’, ‘throw’, ‘fall’,
‘send’ ‘be late’, ‘dare’, ‘be
busy’, ‘be easy’, ‘be wearisome’, ‘be
numerous’ ‘possible to’, ‘able to do X well’, ‘get tomanage
to’, and ‘must’, or meanings such as ‘be fittingcorrect’, ‘be time to’, ‘be too
manymuch’
Several members of this group called “variables” can occur in series, and before, after, and among the above two groups.
‘Continuative’, ‘causative’, ‘inchoative’, ‘durative’, ‘tentative’, ‘completiveexhaustive’, ‘benefactive’, ‘permisso-causitive’, and ‘sufficitive’.
Matisoff does not think such an order can be reduced to a phrase structure rule such as the following:
“Verbal nucleus →
V
-head + 0–1 group 1 items + 0–2 variable + 0–1 group 2 items + 0–2 variables + 0–2 group 3 items + 0–2 variables”
He considers such a formulation “most jejune” Matisoff 1973:238. The problem is that it suggests a linear relationship, instead of a hierarchical one. He summarizes his point this way: “All of the verbs to
the left of a given verb serve as the latter’s head verb” Matisoff 1973:239. Since some auxiliaries can also be full verbs, some two-verb combinations are ambiguous. When a
prehead auxiliary and a posthead auxiliary of this dual sort form a chain, either one can become the head verb, resulting in structural ambiguity Matisoff 1973:201, 238:
183 tà = ‘begin’ prehead auxiliary or head verb
ša = ‘easy’ posthead aux or head verb tà ša = ‘easy to begin’ prehead auxiliary + head verb
tà ša = ‘begin to be easy’ head verb + posthead auxiliary
9.4.5 Lalo postverbal slots
