Tungus-Manchu Publications for the Period of 1970–1990
Gorelova, Liliya
Academy of Sciences of Russia
35th Meeting of the PIAC, Taipei 1992
Syntax is the least studied field of both Literary Manchu and the Sibe language. Syntax is a sphere of language which is the least receptive to borrowings, as it usually does not borrow syntactical patterns but creates new ones according to its own tendencies. On the other hand, this sphere is distinguished for the fact that the level of development of any language is closed connected with the level of development of the syntax of complex and compound sentences which are to reflect complex events of the reality. The texts, which I have recorded in 1992 from the native Sibe informants, show that complex sentences are organized in the Spoken Sibe language by a number of its own syntactical means which do not exist either in Literary Manchu or in written Sibe. Some of them including analitical constructions and conjunctions are presented in this paper. These new language means are based on the already known ones which acquire new syntactical meanings.