Abstract A recent line of research concerns how an existential claim is bundled with a modal component — in particular, one relating to speakers’ ignorance — in the nominal domain. The primary focus of this paper is to discuss a case of epistemic indefinites in Cantonese which takes the form of m-zi-WH ‘not-know-WH’. I argue for two claims in this paper. First, I propose that mzi is an (overt) choice function operator that binds wh -expressions and disjunctive expressions. Second, I suggest that the ignorance component associated with mzi is a conventional implicature, representing a new type of the ignorance component for epistemic indefinites. I also discuss a potential grammaticalization path of m-zi , connecting its syntactic distribution to its semantic properties. The findings in this paper uncover a new breed of epistemic indefinites and contributes to our understanding of both the interpretation of wh -expressions in Cantonese and the study of how natural languages encode an ignorance component in nominal expressions.
Abstract This article proposes a refined dialectological framework for Situ Gyalrong and pursues two primary objectives. First, by identifying shared innovations, it delimits the external boundaries of Situ within the Gyalrongic subgroup, thereby resolving debates about the affiliation of its northern dialects spoken around Barkam with those of the southern regions. Second, building on Gong’s ( 2017 ; 2018 ) distinction between deprenasalizing and leniting dialects, the paper argues that both deprenasalization and lenition occurred multiple times in Situ dialects. It identifies distinct strata of deprenasalization separating southern and northern varieties within the deprenasalizing group and demonstrates that lenition of voiceless stops defines a Bragbar-Kyomkyo subclade within the leniting group. While the proposed classification provides a foundation for future research, the sound changes examined, deprenasalization, lenition, and fortition, also contribute to Gyalrongic historical linguistics and to the areal typology of sound changes in the Qiangic-speaking region.
