SIL International Publications

This book is a grammatical sketch of the Mashan Miao language spoken in five counties in the south of Guizhou province, China. Mashan Miao is of the Chuanqiandian branch of the Miao-Yao or Hmong-Mien family of languages. The population of speakers is approximately 130,000 people. The theoretical framework used in the syntactic analysis is Role and Reference Grammar. Limited research has been conducted in this language, it has mostly concerned phonology. There has been quite extensive documentation of other languages in the Hmong-Mien family. This book examines the layered structure of the clause in Mashan Miao, the noun phrase, the nature of adpositions and the structure of complex sentences. The data provides evidence that this language shares many features of other Hmong-Mien languages, it is an SVO language and an isolating language with no inflection. Modifiers follow the noun, there are deverbal prepositions and complex verb constructions are used to express a variety of meanings and functions. The speakers of this language also have heavy influence from Mandarin Chinese, and there is evidence of borrowing of structures. This book raises several topics for further research, particularly the interaction between phonology and syntax, and between syntax and semantics.