PhD theses
Aspects of Chintang Syntax
Netra Prasad Paudyal, 2007–2015
This study aims to give a descriptive overview of some aspects of Chintang syntax. It focuses primarily on noun phrase structure, basic clauses, complement clauses, nominalization strategies and various types of adverbial clauses (including those expressed by non-finite forms). In addition, it also deals with the basic phonology, morphology, complex predicates, adverbs, and various types of particles and discourse markers. Most of the data for this project are drawn from the Chintang Language Corpus, but the researcher has also been collecting, eliciting and cross-checking data himself during his fieldwork from 2008 to 2010.
Object-conditioned differential marking in Chintang and Nepali
Robert Schikowski, 9/2009–9/2012
Chintang and Nepali, the national language and lingua franca of Nepal, both have differential marking patterns conditioned by properties of objects. Chintang has a construction similar to an antipassive where the A of a transitive sentence is marked by the nominative (instead of the ergative) and is linked to S agreement on the verb (instead of bipersonal agreement with A and O). Nepali has a differential object marking pattern where O is variably marked by the nominative or the dative. The aim of the project is to compare the two phenomena with respect to formal and functional properties, but also with respect to modellability in statistic terms. The main means to reach this aim is the use of large corpora, which are being syntactically annotated as part of the project.
