| Acknowledgement | 8 |
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| Preface | 9 |
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| List of Tables | 23 |
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| Abbreviations | 27 |
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| 1 The people and their environment | 31 |
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| 1.1 Nuosu history | 31 |
| 1.2 Nuosu society | 34 |
| 1.3 Nuosu culture and religion | 36 |
| 2 Language background | 37 |
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| 2.1 Genetic affiliation of Nuosu | 37 |
| 2.2 Nuosu and its dialects | 37 |
| 2.3 Literature survey on Nuosu | 39 |
| 2.4 Typological profile of Nuosu | 41 |
| 2.4.1 Phonology | 41 |
| 2.4.2 Morphology | 42 |
| 2.4.3 Syntax | 45 |
| 2.4.4 Pragmatics | 50 |
| 3 Phonology | 51 |
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| 3.1 Sounds and tones | 51 |
| 3.1.1 Consonants | 51 |
| A. Stops | 51 |
| B. Fricatives | 53 |
| C. Affricates | 54 |
| D. Nasals and laterals | 54 |
| 3.1.2 Vowels | 55 |
| 3.1.3 Tones | 57 |
| 3.2 Phonological processes | 57 |
| 3.2.1 Creaky voice | 57 |
| 3.2.2 Tone sandhi | 58 |
| 3.2.3 Syllable structure | 60 |
| 3.3 The logographic script | 61 |
| 3.3.1 Introduction | 61 |
| 3.3.2 Nuosu syllabary | 62 |
| 4 Word structure | 63 |
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| 4.1 Word categories | 63 |
| 4.1.1 Open categories | 63 |
| 4.1.2 Closed and semi-closed categories | 63 |
| 4.2 Affixation | 64 |
| 4.2.1 Inventory of prefixes | 65 |
| A. Size prefixes | 65 |
| B. Fruit prefix syp- | 65 |
| C. gga- ‘road’ | 65 |
| D. co- ‘person’ (also as free morpheme) | 66 |
| E. ddop- ‘word’ | 66 |
| F. hxie- ‘heart’ | 66 |
| G. ke- ‘mouth’ | 66 |
| H. mu- ‘place, sky, steam’ | 67 |
| I. o- ‘head’ | 67 |
| 4.2.2 Inventory of suffixes | 68 |
| A. Nominalizer suffixes | 68 |
| B. Gender/age suffixes | 70 |
| C. Adjectivizer suffixes | 71 |
| 4.3 Reduplication | 71 |
| 4.3.1 Nouns | 72 |
| 4.3.2 Classifiers | 73 |
| 4.3.3 Personal pronouns | 75 |
| 4.3.4 Verbs | 76 |
| 4.3.5 Adjectives | 77 |
| 4.3.6 Colour ideophones | 79 |
| 4.3.7 Idioms | 81 |
| AABB | 81 |
| ABAB | 81 |
| ABCB | 81 |
| ABAC | 83 |
| ABCD | 84 |
| 4.4 Compounding | 85 |
| 4.4.1 Nominal compounds | 85 |
| A and B are unrelated in meaning | 85 |
| A and B are figuratively related | 85 |
| A and B are parallel | 86 |
| A is the material of which B is made | 86 |
| B denotes a part of A | 86 |
| A is the producer of B | 87 |
| A is processed into B | 87 |
| A describes the kind or nature of B | 87 |
| B is a unit of A | 88 |
| A denotes the body part on which B is worn | 88 |
| B is a piece of equipment used in a means of transport, A | 88 |
| B denotes the dwelling or storing place of A | 88 |
| A denotes the body part of disease B | 89 |
| B is a representative symbol for A | 89 |
| A denotes the sign in Chinese zodiac for time unit B | 89 |
| 4.4.2 Verbal compounds | 90 |
| A and B are unrelated | 90 |
| A and B are antonymic | 90 |
| A and B are parallel | 90 |
| B denotes resultative state of A | 91 |
| 4.4.3 Mixed compounds | 91 |
| A is noun and B is verb | 91 |
| A is noun and B is classifier | 91 |
| A is verb and B is classifier | 92 |
| 5 The noun phrase | 93 |
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| 5.1 Introduction | 93 |
| 5.1.1 Constructions of the noun phrase | 93 |
| 5.1.2 The order of components in the noun phrase | 94 |
| 5.2 Qualifying nouns | 96 |
| 5.2.1 Noun classifiers | 96 |
| A. Animate sortal classifiers | 96 |
| B. Inanimate sortal classifiers | 98 |
| C. Diverse small-range sortal classifiers | 104 |
| D. Mixed nominal and verbal classifiers | 105 |
| E. Collectivizers | 106 |
| F. Partitioners and subclassifiers | 108 |
| G. Measure Words | 110 |
| H. Auto-classifiers | 113 |
| 5.2.2 Possession | 113 |
| 5.2.3 Adjectival modification | 117 |
| 5.2.4 Nominalization | 119 |
| A. The nominalizer su | 119 |
| B. The nominalizers ddu and dde | 124 |
| C. Appendix: The particle su | 128 |
| 5.3 Quantifying nouns | 131 |
| 5.3.1 Numerals | 131 |
| A. Cardinal numbers | 131 |
| B. Ordinal numbers | 133 |
| 5.3.2 Noun quantifiers | 135 |
| A. The quantifier mu ‘whole/all’ | 135 |
| B. The quantifier zzix ap zzi ‘every’ | 137 |
| C. The quantifier kep nyix ‘several’ | 139 |
| D. The quantifier ax pa ‘other’ | 140 |
| E. The quantifiers ax nyi ‘much’ / ix nyi ‘few’ | 141 |
| F. The quantifier cyp gge ‘some’ | 143 |
| G. The quantifier ax di ‘only’ | 143 |
| H. The quantifiers ax nyi yix nyi ‘at most’ / ix nyi yix nyi ‘at least’ | 146 |
| I. Other quantifying expressions | 147 |
| J. Appendix: The particle mu | 148 |
| 5.3.3 The additive noun conjunction si nip ‘and’ | 150 |
| 5.4 Localizing nouns | 153 |
| 5.4.1 Personal pronouns | 153 |
| A. The basic pronouns | 153 |
| B. The logophors | 157 |
| C. The dual pronouns | 164 |
| D. The possessive pronouns | 165 |
| E. The personal pronoun sut ‘someone else’ | 167 |
| F. The versatile pronoun go | 168 |
| G. Appendix: The particle go | 170 |
| 5.4.2 Reflexive anaphors | 173 |
| A. zyt jie ‘self’ as short-distance anaphor | 173 |
| B. zyt jie ‘self’ as long-distance anaphor | 174 |
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