Shan and Thai/Contrastive Grammar
shn-tha tests
Transfers tests that highlight grammatical difference
- (shn) ၽူၼ်တေမႃးဝႃႇ → (tha) ว่าฝนจะมา ("Rain will come (they said)")
- (shn) ၽူၼ်<n> တေ<vaux> မႃး<vblex> ဝႃႇ<comp> → (tha) ว่า<comp> ฝน<n> จะ<vaux> มา<vblex>
The complementizer is added to the end of the sentence in Shan but in Thai the complementizer goes at the beginning.
- (shn) ႁဵတ်းလႄႈသူၵေႃႈ → (tha) คุณจะทำปะ ("Are you going to do it?")
- (shn) ႁဵတ်း<vblex> လႄႈ<particle> သူ<prn> ၵေႃႈ<particle> → (tha) คุณ<prn> จะ<vaux> ทำ<vblex> ปะ<particle>
Each sentence has a prn+verb-complement-particle-thing and a vblex+verb-complement-particle-thing but the order in Shan is that the verb one comes first while in Thai the pronoun one comes first.
- (shn) ၶၼ်တေႃႈႁဵတ်းတႃႉ → (tha) ให้เงิน ถ้าทำ ("I will give you money if you do it")
- (shn) ၶၼ်<n> တေႃႈ<particle> ႁဵတ်း<vblex> တႃႉ<particle> → (tha) ให้<vblex> เงิน<n> ถ้า<conj> ทำ<vblex>
The semantics of the sentence are in two block chunks. The first two words in Shan mean the first two words in Thai but there orders are different and also their parts of speech are different. It is the same for the last two words. To illustrate, in Thai they gloss as 'give money if do', in Shan they gloss to 'money give do if'. We have not found any other example of this so we are not sure if this can be generalised.
- (shn) ၵႂၢႆးပဵၼ်ၸိုင် → (tha) ควายเดินกะเผลก ("The buffalo limps")
- (shn) ၵႂၢႆး<n> ပဵၼ်<vblex> ၸိုင်<vblex> → (tha) ควาย<n> เดิน<vblex> กะเผลก<adv>
The POS tag for the second word in Shan becomes an Adverb tag in Thai and the order of the two verbs in Shan switch places when translated to Thai.
The difference in POS can be done in in lexical transfer, perhaps with lexical selection. So the Shan is "buffalo limp walk" and the Thai is "buffalo walk limply"? If so, I think you'll want lexical selection to decide between "limp" and "limply", and then structural transfer to switch the order of vblex and adv, although maybe only when translated from vblex? (Depends on how Thai works though.) -JNW
