13. Some Terminology and Bibliography

Linguistics and grammatical studies are an area where, perhaps more than most, historical analyses and terminology weigh heavily on the present. This applies both to linguistics in general and to the grammatical study of specific languages. Even worse, attempts to update terminology have only created an even greater proliferation of model-bound terminology.

In this post I use the fairly traditional terms 'main clause' and 'subordinate clause', which roughly equate to 'matrix clause' and 'embedded clause' in other analyses.

To characterise the role of clauses in the grammar I adopt several terms from Matić et al 2014.

'Daughter' is equivalent to what Guntsetseg calls 'Complement Clause (Participial).'

'Ad-subordinative' is partly equivalent to Guntsetseg's 'Adverbial Clause'.

'Co-subordinative' relates to clause chains said to be tied together by 'subordinating converbs'.

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13.1. Some Grammatical Terms

English	Mongolian	Other
Reflexive
Reflexive-possessive declension (Poppe); Reflexive declension (Sechenbaatar); Reflexive possessive marker (Janhunen); Reflexive suffix (Tserenpil-Kullmann)	Хамаадуулах нөхцөл; Эгэх нөхцөл (Tserenpil-Kullmann)	(Rus.) Притяжательный аффикс; Посессивный аффикс; (Ch.) 反身领属后缀; 反身领属的附加成分 (Qingge'ertai); (Ja.) 再帰所有接尾辞 (Yamakoshi)
Verbal noun 〖suffix〗
Verbal noun (Poppe); Participle (Janhunen, Sechenbaatar); Participial suffixes; Gerund; Gerundive; Noun Determining Suffix (Tserenpil-Kullmann)	Үйлт нэр; Tэмдэг үйл үг; Нэр үгийг тодотгон холбох нөхцөл (Tserenpil-Kullmann)	(Rus.) Причастие; (Ch.) 形动词 (Qingge'ertai); (Ja.) 動名詞形接尾辞 (Hashimoto) 連体形 (Yamakoshi)
Converb
Converb; Participle; Adverbial participle; Converbal suffixes; Verb Determining Suffix (Tserenpil-Kullmann)	Нөхцөл үйл үг; Үйлийг тодотгон нөхцөл; Үйл үгийг тодотгон холбох нөхцөл (Tserenpil-Kullmann)	(Rus.) Конверб; (Ch.) 副动词 (Qingge'ertai); (Ja.) 副動詞; 連用形 (Yamakoshi)

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13.2. Translating "Switch-Reference"

"Switch-Reference" is a confusing and none-too-elegant term that is not understandable in terms of ordinary English, in which it would normally be understood as "a reference related to or associated with switches/switching". In fact, the term is better interpreted as an instruction, similar to 'Execute program' in computerese, whereby a particular marker or markers issue an instruction to 'switch the referent' (i.e., the subject or agent) of the sentence. 'Referent Switching' might have been a more intelligible term but was also more likely to have been lost among ordinary linguistic jargon.

Translations into other languages mindlessly reflect the awkwardness of the English. German Wikipedia calls it "Switch-Reference", although it gives "Umschaltung der Referenz" ('switching of reference') as a possible German equivalent.

In Japanese, the relatively scanty literature calls it 交替指示 kōtai shiji 'replacement instruction', 転換指示 tenkan shiji 'inversion instruction', or 指示転換 shiji tenkan 'instruction inversion'. Only the final one makes any kind of sense in Japanese, but might still be better expressed as 指示者転換 shijisha tenkan 'referent inversion'.

The corresponding Chinese terms, which can be found here and there, are 轉換指稱 / 转换指称 zhuǎnhuàn zhǐchēng 'conversion reference' and 指稱轉換 / 指称转换 zhǐchēng zhuǎnhuàn 'reference conversion', of which only the second makes sense. Again, a more intelligible term might be 所指轉換 / 所指转换 suǒzhǐ zhuǎnhuàn 'referent conversion'.

For Mongolian I would like to tentatively propose заалтын өөрчлөлт zaaltyn öörčlölt 'referent changing'.

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13.3. Bibliography

The following are works that I have accessed or referred to.

Akiba, Katsue 1977, Switch Reference in Old Japanese. In Proceedings of the 3rd Annual Meeting of the Berkeley Linguistics Society Pp 610-619. (Dowloaded from the Internet)

Anisman, Adar 2010, Switch Reference in Khalkha Mongolian (MA Language documentation and description), School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London.

Bayarmaa Khalzaa 2017, Mongolian Language for Intermediate Students, Ulaanbaatar: Lingo Lab.

Bayarmaa Khalzaa 2006, Mongolian Colloquial Speech: Language Exercises For Mongolian Language Students, Ulaanbaatar: Lingo Lab. (Latest edition appeared in 2017.)

Bergelsen, Mira B. and Kibrik, Andrej A. (1995), The system of switch-reference in Tuva: Converbal and masdar-case forms. In Haspelmath, Martin and König, Ekkehard, (eds.) Converbs in Cross-Linguistic Perspective (Empirical Approaches to Language Typology 13), Berlin / New York: Mouton de Gruyter.

Bisang, Walter 1998, Adverbiality: the view from the Far East in Adverbial Constructions in the Languages of Europe ed. der Aowera, John, Berlin / New York: Mouton de Gruyter (partial view through Google Books)

Brosig, Benjamin 2014, Aspect, evidentiality and tense in Mongolian: From Middle Mongol to Khalkha and Khorchin Stockholm: Stockholm University.

Corbett, Greville G. 2005, The canonical approach in typology In Zygmunt Frajzyngier, Adam Hodges & David S. Rood (eds.), Linguistic diversity and language theories, 25–49. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. (Downloaded from the Internet)

Guntsetseg, Dolgor 2011, The so-called reflexive(-possessive) suffix in Mongolian Presentation at “The World of Reflexives“ Workshop 25-27 August 2011, Utrecht University. Available here.

Guntsetseg, Dolgor 2016, Differential Case Marking in Mongolian (Tungoso Sibirica 39), Wiesbaden: Harrossowitz.

Hashimoto, Kunihiko 2000, 副動詞構文の対格形主語 (The Accusative Subject in Converbal Constructions) Online: Muroran Institute of Technology Academic Resources Archive.

Hashimoto, Kunihiko 2007, モンゴル語の目的語節の統語論 (The Syntax of Object Clauses in Mongolian) Online: Muroran Institute of Technology Academic Resources Archive.

Hsiao, Su-ying 2012, The Nominative/Genitive Alternation in Modern Inner Mongolian Relative Clauses: A Statistical Perspective Linguistic Research 29(2), 351-380. (Downloaded from the Internet)

Hsiao, Suying 2013, The Grammatical Temporal System from Middle Mongolian to Modern Mongolian Language and Linguistics 14.6:1075-1103 (Downloaded from the Internet)

Inner Mongolian Educational Press (ed.) 2005 ᠬᠡᠯᠡ ᠦ ᠰᠢᠨᠵᠢᠯᠡᠯ ᠦᠨ ᠨᠡᠷ᠎ᠡ ᠲᠣᠮᠢᠢ᠎ᠡ 语言学名词术语 (Terminology of Linguistics) (Chinese English Mongolian social science terminology series.) Huhhot: Inner Mongolian Educational Press.

Jacobsen, William H., Jr. 1967, Switch-reference in Hokan-Coahuiltecan. In Dell H Hymes & William E Bittle (eds.), Studies in Southwestern ethnolinguisLcs: meaning and history in the languages of the American Southwest, 238–263. The Hague & Paris: Mouton & Co. (Downloaded from the Internet)

Janhunen, Juha A. 2012, Mongolian (London Oriental and African language library 19.) Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins.

Matić, Dejan, van Gijn, Rik, Van Valin, Robert D. Jr 2014 Information structure and reference tracking in complex sentences: An overview. In Information Structure and Reference Tracking in Complex Sentences, 1-44. Rik van Gijn, Jeremy Hammond, Dejan Matić et al (ed.), Amsterdam: John Benjamins. (partial view through Google books)

Poppe, Nikolas 1954, Grammar of Written Mongolian (Fifth unrevised printing 2006, Porta Linguarum Orientalium Neue Serie 1. Originally published 1954) Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz.

Qingge'ertai. 1991, 蒙古语语法 (A Grammar of the Mongolian Language) Huhhot: Inner Mongolian People's Publishing.

Ramstedt, G.J, (1903), Über die Konjugation des Khalkha-Mongolischen (Suomalais-ugrilaisen Seuran toimituksia XIX - Mémoires de la Société Finno-ougrienne XIX (Reprint, Osnabrück, Otto Zeller 1968 (Downloaded from the Internet)

Ross, Daniel 2016, Delimiting and Demystifying Switch-Reference: on distinguishing form and function Presentation to Syntax of the World’s Languages 7, Mexico City, 19 August 2016. (Downloaded from the Internet)

Schlepp, Wayne. 1991, Subject Change in the Compound Sentences of Literary Mongolian. In Mongolian Studies Vol. 14, 1991, Mongolia Society (Bloomington, Indiana).

Sechenbaatar, Borgijin. 2003, The Chaxar Dialect of Mongolian: A morphological description (Mémoires de la Société Finno-Ougrienne 243.) Helsinki: Finno-Ugrian Society.

Tserenpil, D., Kullmannn, R. 2005, Mongolian Grammar (Монгол хэлний хэлзүй ᠮᠣᠩᠭᠣᠯ ᠬᠡᠯᠡ ᠦ ᠵᠦᠢ) Third revised editon, Ulaanbaatar. (4th revised edition appeared in 2008, 5th revised edition appeared in 2015.)

Tumurtogoo, D. 2004, Хэлшинжилэлийн нэр томъёоны хураангүй толй (Монгол-Орос-Англи) (A Concise Dictionary of Linguistics: Mongolian-Russian-English), Ulaanbaatar.

Uranchimeg, T. 2007, Mongolian Language Handbook: For Learners of the Mongolian Language (Revised edition) (Монгол Хэл Сурах Гарын Авлага: Гадаадыинханд зориулав) Ulaanbaatar.

Van Gijn, Rik (2016), Switch reference: An overview. In van Gijn, Rik and Hammond, Jeremy (eds.), Switch Reference 2.0 Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins.

Yamakoshi, Yasuhiro 2012, 詳しく分かるモンゴル語文法 (Монгол хэлзүй) Tokyo: Hakusuisha.