Title

Indefinite Wh-Construals in Formosan Languages－a Comparative Study of kavalan, Tsou, and Seediq

Author

Wei-tien Dylan Tsai

Genre

Article  

Pages

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Key words

Austronesian linguistics, Formosan syntax, linguistic typology, indefinite wh-construals, grammatical theory

Abstract

      The task undertaken in this paper is to study infefinite wh-construals in Kavalan, Tsou, and Seediq. We made some preliminary observations concerning the relaed phenomena, and sketched a typological study of the three Formosan languages with respect to their distinctive syntactic behavior. We also propose to consider the〝mixed typology〞 problem from the point of view of language acquisition. It is claimed that a language type is not a primitive category, but should be treated as a bunch of distinctive features. Based on this more f lexible methodology, we are allowed to address the more fundamental issue concerning two conflicting notions： that is, linguistic diversity and linguistic universality.