Linguistic Typology, Volume 18, Issue 1 (2014-05). pp. 83-140.
Language:
English
Abstract:
Miao-Yao is one of the major language families of mainland Southeast Asia, with perhaps over one hundred member languages. Despite this, very little information on word order in Miao-Yao has been made available in English or other European languages. Relying primarily on recently published Chinese descriptions, this article presents data on fourteen word order features for eleven Miao-Yao languages for use in large-scale typological studies. It also discusses two typologically unusual word order feature values which have been claimed to be largely or entirely restricted to Sinitic, but which are in fact widespread in Miao-Yao: XVO order and co-occurring VO/RelN order.