Papers by Krishna Boro
Himalayan Linguistics, 2020
This paper provides a detailed description of how deictic motion events are encoded in a Tangsa v... more This paper provides a detailed description of how deictic motion events are encoded in a Tangsa variety called Hakhun, spoken in Arunachal Pradesh and Assam in India, and in Sagaing Region in Myanmar. Deictic motion events in Hakhun are encoded by a set of two motion verbs, their serial or versatile verb counterparts, and a set of two ventive particles. Impersonal deictic motion events are encoded by the motion verbs alone, which orient the motion with reference to a center of interest. Motion events with an SAP figure or ground are simultaneously encoded by the motion verbs and ventive particles. These motion events evoke two frames of reference: a home base and the speech-act location. The motion verbs anchor the motion with reference to the home base of the figure, and the ventives (or their absence) anchor the motion with reference to the location of the speaker, the addressee, or the speech-act. When the motion verbs are concatenated with other verbs, they specify motion associated with the action denoted by the other verb(s).
Linguistics of the Tibeto-Burman area, 2021
This paper describes a set of five focus enclitics in Bodo, a Tibeto-Burman language spoken in As... more This paper describes a set of five focus enclitics in Bodo, a Tibeto-Burman language spoken in Assam, India. The focus enclitics are phonologically bound morphemes which are attached to a phrase-level constituent of a sentence, such as the verb, its arguments, or its adjuncts. They all trigger existential presuppositions and express various kinds of semantic and pragmatic relations between the asserted proposition and presuppositions, such as inclusion, exclusion, contrast, concession, and correction. The description of these relations as well as other more context and construction specific functions encoded by the focus enclitics constitutes the core of this paper. This paper also examines the distribution of the focus enclitics and discusses their associated scope and interpretations. Finally, this paper investigates co-occurrence, co-occurrence restrictions, and interpretations of sequences of the enclitics.
Himalayan Linguistics, 2019
Journal of South Asian Languages and Linguistics, 2016
This paper investigates a set of five related constructions in Boro, called middle-like construct... more This paper investigates a set of five related constructions in Boro, called middle-like constructions, following Kemmer’s (
North East Indian Linguistics, 2009
Hakhun Tangsa is one of around eighty ethnic and linguistic communities called Tangsa or Tangshan... more Hakhun Tangsa is one of around eighty ethnic and linguistic communities called Tangsa or Tangshang. Hakhuns live mostly in Arunachal Pradesh, India, and in Sagaing Division, Myanmar. The number of speakers is estimated at around ten thousand. Hakhun is a Tibeto-Burman language, and it forms a subgroup with Nocte, Wancho, Phom, Konyak, Chang, and Khiamngan called Konyak or Northern Naga. Hakhun is a tonal language with twenty-two consonants, six vowels, and a simple syllable structure. Open word classes include Nouns and Verbs; property concept terms form a subclass of verbs. Noun roots are mostly monosyllabic, and most multisyllabic nouns are compounds. Nominal morphology includes prossessive prefixes and a set of semantically specific suffixes. Case is coded by postpositions. Verb roots are also mostly monosyllabic. A few verbs have suppletive stems. Verb serialization is common, and expresses complex events like resultative and sequential. A few grammaticalized verbs/elements contribute abstract meanings like phase, associated motion, causative, benefactive, etc. Typical verbal categories are expressed by independent particles. The most extensive and grammatically obligatory set consists of single syllable particles called operators, which express verbal categories like tense, mood, deixis, negation, inverse, and argument indexation. The typical argument indexation pattern is hierarchical. Deviations from this pattern is used to express certain pragmatic effects like affectedness and politeness. v Non-verbal clauses may take overt copulas depending on tense and polarity. Most semantic distinctions, such as equation, property-concepts, quantification, simulation, and location are expressed by the nominal strategy. Existential and possession are expressed by a distinct strategy. Typical verbal clauses include intransitive, transitive, and ditransitive; less typical ones include weather condition, sensation-emotion, reflexive, reciprocal, and 'need' constructions. Person-based splitergativity is seen in case marking, where first and second person singular arguments follow accusative, and the rest ergative alignment. Accusative alignment is also found in argument indexation in non-final clauses. The object alignment is indirective in case marking. Complement clauses include sentence-like, non-finite, and infinitive complement clauses. Adverbial clauses include various kinds of temporal clauses, temporal/conditional clauses, counterfactual, concessive, purpose, and substitutive clauses. Clause chaining (medial-final) is prevalent. Independent sentences are linked through tail-head linking and through connectives.
Linguistics of the Tibeto-Burman Area, 2021
This paper describes a set of five focus enclitics in Bodo, a Tibeto-Burman language spoken in As... more This paper describes a set of five focus enclitics in Bodo, a Tibeto-Burman language spoken in Assam, India. The focus enclitics are phonologically bound morphemes which are attached to a phrase-level constituent of a sentence, such as the verb, its arguments, or its adjuncts. They all trigger existential presuppositions and express various kinds of semantic and pragmatic relations between the asserted proposition and presuppositions, such as inclusion, exclusion, contrast, concession, and correction. The description of these relations as well as other more context and construction specific functions encoded by the focus enclitics constitutes the core of this paper. This paper also examines the distribution of the focus enclitics and discusses their associated scope and interpretations. Finally, this paper investigates co-occurrence, co-occurrence restrictions, and interpretations of sequences of the enclitics.
Himalayan Linguistics, 2020
This paper provides a detailed description of how deictic motion events are encoded in a Tangsa
v... more This paper provides a detailed description of how deictic motion events are encoded in a Tangsa
variety called Hakhun, spoken in Arunachal Pradesh and Assam in India, and in Sagaing Region
in Myanmar. Deictic motion events in Hakhun are encoded by a set of two motion verbs, their
serial or versatile verb counterparts, and a set of two ventive particles. Impersonal deictic motion
events are encoded by the motion verbs alone, which orient the motion with reference to a center
of interest. Motion events with an SAP figure or ground are simultaneously encoded by the
motion verbs and ventive particles. These motion events evoke two frames of reference: a home
base and the speech-act location. The motion verbs anchor the motion with reference to the home
base of the figure, and the ventives (or their absence) anchor the motion with reference to the
location of the speaker, the addressee, or the speech-act. When the motion verbs are concatenated
with other verbs, they specify motion associated with the action denoted by the other verb(s).
Himalayan Linguistics, 2019
This paper describes argument indexation in Hakhun Tangsa, a language variety spoken by one of th... more This paper describes argument indexation in Hakhun Tangsa, a language variety spoken by one of the Tangsa sub-tribes called Hakhun across the Indo-Myanmar boarder on the Patkai mountain range. Most finite clauses in Hakhun carry an argument index in the verb complex, which codes person and number of the argument it cross-indexes. There are two sets of argument indexes in Hakhun Tangsa – one with a sonorous coda or no coda at all and the other with a stop coda. The choice between these two sets depends on the verbal operator in the verb complex. The typical argument indexation pattern in Hakhun Tangsa is hierarchical, i.e. the verb complex indexes the argument which is higher in person hierarchy irrespective of its grammatical relation. There are, however, certain irregularities in the realization of the argument index when two SAP arguments are involved in a transitive clause. The hierarchical indexation pattern is accompanied by overt direct/inverse coding, which identifies clauses either as direct or inverse with separate sets of verbal operators. Accusative indexation pattern is also found in the language, but only under certain semantic/pragmatic conditions and in certain constructions.
Journal of South Asian Languages and Linguistics, 2016
This paper investigates a set of five related constructions in Boro, called middle-like construct... more This paper investigates a set of five related constructions in Boro, called middle-like constructions, following Kemmer's (1993) semantic analytical framework of the middle voice. The paper presents a detailed analysis of these constructions , which include Spontaneous event constructions, Reciprocal and Collective constructions, Facilitative constructions, Reflexive-causative constructions , and Adversative constructions. These constructions share striking structural and functional features, including a morpheme za 'become, happen, take place', which is a verb in origin. The morpheme za 'become, happen, take place' can be characterized as a 'middle marker', which is used as a simple predicator in Spontaneous event constructions and as a serial verb in the other constructions. Functionally, these constructions express events in which there are either no construed agents or the agents are non-topical. Following Kemmer's semantic map approach, the event types are mapped onto the semantic transitivity continuum. What is notable in the semantic map of the Za constructions is that the area covered by Za constructions is not contiguous, which we would expect following principles like the Semantic Map Connectivity Hypothesis (Croft 2001: 96) and Semantic Map Continuity (Boye 2010).
Language and Culture in Northeast India and Beyond: In honor of Robbins Burling, 2015
North East Indian Linguistics, Volumn 4, 2012
Dissertation by Krishna Boro
This dissertation presents a comprehensive description of Hakhun Tangsa. Hakhun Tangsa is one of ... more This dissertation presents a comprehensive description of Hakhun Tangsa. Hakhun Tangsa is one of around eighty ethnic and linguistic communities called Tangsa or Tangshang. Hakhuns live mostly in Arunachal Pradesh, India, and in Sagaing Division, Myanmar. The number of speakers is estimated at around ten thousand. Hakhun is a Tibeto-Burman language, and it forms a subgroup with Nocte, Wancho, Phom, Konyak, Chang, and Khiamngan called Konyak or Northern Naga.
Hakhun is a tonal language with twenty-two consonants, six vowels, and a simple syllable structure. Open word classes include Nouns and Verbs; property concept terms form a subclass of verbs. Noun roots are mostly monosyllabic, and most multisyllabic nouns are compounds. Nominal morphology includes prossessive prefixes and a set of semantically specific suffixes. Case is coded by postpositions.
Verb roots are also mostly monosyllabic. A few verbs have suppletive stems. Verb serialization is common, and expresses complex events like resultative and sequential. A few grammaticalized verbs/elements contribute abstract meanings like phase, associated motion, causative, benefactive, etc. Typical verbal categories are expressed by independent particles. The most extensive and grammatically obligatory set consists of single syllable particles called operators, which express verbal categories like tense, mood, deixis, negation, inverse, and argument indexation. The typical argument indexation pattern is hierarchical. Deviations from this pattern is used to express certain pragmatic effects like affectedness and politeness.
Non-verbal clauses may take overt copulas depending on tense and polarity. Most semantic distinctions, such as equation, property-concepts, quantification, simulation, and location are expressed by the nominal strategy. Existential and possession are expressed by a distinct strategy. Typical verbal clauses include intransitive, transitive, and ditransitive; less typical ones include weather condition, sensation-emotion, reflexive, reciprocal, and ‘need’ constructions. Person-based split-ergativity is seen in case marking, where first and second person singular arguments follow accusative, and the rest ergative alignment. Accusative alignment is also found in argument indexation in non-final clauses. The object alignment is indirective in case marking.
Complement clauses include sentence-like, non-finite, and infinitive complement clauses. Adverbial clauses include various kinds of temporal clauses, temporal/conditional clauses, counterfactual, concessive, purpose, and substitutive clauses. Clause chaining (medial-final) is prevalent. Independent sentences are linked through tail-head linking and through connectives.
Tibeto-Burman by Krishna Boro
Intransitive si 'go': Imperfective Negative 1SG si nìŋ si-má:-ŋ (< si ma-iŋ) 1PL:EXCL si nùŋ s... more Intransitive si 'go': Imperfective Negative 1SG si nìŋ si-má:-ŋ (< si ma-iŋ) 1PL:EXCL si nùŋ si-má:ʷ-ŋ (< si ma-uŋ) 1PL:INCL si menɘ́ si-mà mɘ 2SG si nétʃɘ̀ si-ma tʃɘ 2PL si nétʃʷù si-má tʃʷu 3SG si nè si-maʔ 3PL si hené ~ si nehe si-mà he
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Papers by Krishna Boro
variety called Hakhun, spoken in Arunachal Pradesh and Assam in India, and in Sagaing Region
in Myanmar. Deictic motion events in Hakhun are encoded by a set of two motion verbs, their
serial or versatile verb counterparts, and a set of two ventive particles. Impersonal deictic motion
events are encoded by the motion verbs alone, which orient the motion with reference to a center
of interest. Motion events with an SAP figure or ground are simultaneously encoded by the
motion verbs and ventive particles. These motion events evoke two frames of reference: a home
base and the speech-act location. The motion verbs anchor the motion with reference to the home
base of the figure, and the ventives (or their absence) anchor the motion with reference to the
location of the speaker, the addressee, or the speech-act. When the motion verbs are concatenated
with other verbs, they specify motion associated with the action denoted by the other verb(s).
Dissertation by Krishna Boro
Hakhun is a tonal language with twenty-two consonants, six vowels, and a simple syllable structure. Open word classes include Nouns and Verbs; property concept terms form a subclass of verbs. Noun roots are mostly monosyllabic, and most multisyllabic nouns are compounds. Nominal morphology includes prossessive prefixes and a set of semantically specific suffixes. Case is coded by postpositions.
Verb roots are also mostly monosyllabic. A few verbs have suppletive stems. Verb serialization is common, and expresses complex events like resultative and sequential. A few grammaticalized verbs/elements contribute abstract meanings like phase, associated motion, causative, benefactive, etc. Typical verbal categories are expressed by independent particles. The most extensive and grammatically obligatory set consists of single syllable particles called operators, which express verbal categories like tense, mood, deixis, negation, inverse, and argument indexation. The typical argument indexation pattern is hierarchical. Deviations from this pattern is used to express certain pragmatic effects like affectedness and politeness.
Non-verbal clauses may take overt copulas depending on tense and polarity. Most semantic distinctions, such as equation, property-concepts, quantification, simulation, and location are expressed by the nominal strategy. Existential and possession are expressed by a distinct strategy. Typical verbal clauses include intransitive, transitive, and ditransitive; less typical ones include weather condition, sensation-emotion, reflexive, reciprocal, and ‘need’ constructions. Person-based split-ergativity is seen in case marking, where first and second person singular arguments follow accusative, and the rest ergative alignment. Accusative alignment is also found in argument indexation in non-final clauses. The object alignment is indirective in case marking.
Complement clauses include sentence-like, non-finite, and infinitive complement clauses. Adverbial clauses include various kinds of temporal clauses, temporal/conditional clauses, counterfactual, concessive, purpose, and substitutive clauses. Clause chaining (medial-final) is prevalent. Independent sentences are linked through tail-head linking and through connectives.
Tibeto-Burman by Krishna Boro
variety called Hakhun, spoken in Arunachal Pradesh and Assam in India, and in Sagaing Region
in Myanmar. Deictic motion events in Hakhun are encoded by a set of two motion verbs, their
serial or versatile verb counterparts, and a set of two ventive particles. Impersonal deictic motion
events are encoded by the motion verbs alone, which orient the motion with reference to a center
of interest. Motion events with an SAP figure or ground are simultaneously encoded by the
motion verbs and ventive particles. These motion events evoke two frames of reference: a home
base and the speech-act location. The motion verbs anchor the motion with reference to the home
base of the figure, and the ventives (or their absence) anchor the motion with reference to the
location of the speaker, the addressee, or the speech-act. When the motion verbs are concatenated
with other verbs, they specify motion associated with the action denoted by the other verb(s).
Hakhun is a tonal language with twenty-two consonants, six vowels, and a simple syllable structure. Open word classes include Nouns and Verbs; property concept terms form a subclass of verbs. Noun roots are mostly monosyllabic, and most multisyllabic nouns are compounds. Nominal morphology includes prossessive prefixes and a set of semantically specific suffixes. Case is coded by postpositions.
Verb roots are also mostly monosyllabic. A few verbs have suppletive stems. Verb serialization is common, and expresses complex events like resultative and sequential. A few grammaticalized verbs/elements contribute abstract meanings like phase, associated motion, causative, benefactive, etc. Typical verbal categories are expressed by independent particles. The most extensive and grammatically obligatory set consists of single syllable particles called operators, which express verbal categories like tense, mood, deixis, negation, inverse, and argument indexation. The typical argument indexation pattern is hierarchical. Deviations from this pattern is used to express certain pragmatic effects like affectedness and politeness.
Non-verbal clauses may take overt copulas depending on tense and polarity. Most semantic distinctions, such as equation, property-concepts, quantification, simulation, and location are expressed by the nominal strategy. Existential and possession are expressed by a distinct strategy. Typical verbal clauses include intransitive, transitive, and ditransitive; less typical ones include weather condition, sensation-emotion, reflexive, reciprocal, and ‘need’ constructions. Person-based split-ergativity is seen in case marking, where first and second person singular arguments follow accusative, and the rest ergative alignment. Accusative alignment is also found in argument indexation in non-final clauses. The object alignment is indirective in case marking.
Complement clauses include sentence-like, non-finite, and infinitive complement clauses. Adverbial clauses include various kinds of temporal clauses, temporal/conditional clauses, counterfactual, concessive, purpose, and substitutive clauses. Clause chaining (medial-final) is prevalent. Independent sentences are linked through tail-head linking and through connectives.