Old Tibetan Annals: A Comprehensive Text Grammar. Part II

• Applicant: Dr. Joanna Bialek
• Subject Area: General and Comparative Linguistics, Experimental Linguistics, Typology, Non-European Languages ; Applied Linguistics, Computational Linguistics ; Asian Studies
• Term: from 2016 to 2022
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 324476415

• Final Report Year: 2023

Final Report Abstract

The substantive objective of the project (realised in two phases) was to provide an in-depth linguistic analysis of all grammatical and lexical aspects of the text of the Old Tibetan Annals-I (OTA-I; PT 1288 & ITJ 750) that is written in Old Literary Tibetan (OLT), the oldest known Tibetic language and, after Chinese and Pyu, the third oldest Trans-Himalayan language attested in written form. Due to the specific character of the primary corpus, notably its annalistic structure and content, not all grammatical and lexical phenomena encountered in OLT are attested therein. To remedy for this lacunae, the grammar has been complemented by including constructions from the secondary corpus that comprises all available texts written in OLT. The second phase of the project was devoted in particular to questions related to text structures beyond the level of a simple clause. Its focus was therefore directed towards complex clauses and discourse-related phenomena, such as subject-switch and co-reference, or zero-anaphora. An important contribution to Tibetic linguistics is the introduction and definition of grammatical relations as categories relevant to the description of the language. Furthermore, an in-depth examination of complex structures has revealed the existence of processes and constructions not noticed in previous studies of Tibetic languages, such as: participial adverbial clause, R-dislocation, relative clause extraposition, antipassive, derivative applicative in r-, analytical applicative in grogs byed, intransitive and transitive impersonal constructions, impersonal passive, noun incorporation, and cognate object construction. The OLT grammar produced within the two phases of the project will not only facilitate the interpretation and translation of usually highly demanding texts composed in the language, but it will also significantly contribute to our understanding of Tibetic languages, especially in the diachronic perspective. This detailed documentation of one of the oldest attested Trans-Himalayan languages might also occur crucial for the reconstruction of the language family. As a secondary objective, the online dictionary of the OTA has been launched. This first academic online dictionary of a Tibetic language contains the complete vocabulary of the OTA, including proper names, and is designed to house lexical data from other OLT texts when they have been analysed in the future.

Publications

• Old Tibetan verb morphology and semantics: An attempt at a reconstruction. Himalayan Linguistics, 19(1).
  Bialek, Joanna
  
• Towards a standardisation of Tibetan transliteration for textual studies. Revue d'Etudes Tibétaines 56:28–46
  Joanna Bialek
  
• Body Exposure and Embalming in the Tibetan Empire and Beyond: A Study of the btol Rite. Acta Orientalia Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae, 74(4), 625-650.
  Bialek, Joanna
  
• Comments on Jacques’ "The directionality of the voicing alternation in Tibetan”. Journal of the Southeast Asian Linguistics Society 14 (1):xii–xxiii
  Joanna Bialek
  
• Kinterms: New Potential Indicators for Dating Old Tibetan Documents. Revue d'Etudes Tibétaines: New Research on Old Tibetan Studies – Proceedings of the Panel Old Tibetan Studies VI – IATS 2019 60:6–48
  Joanna Bialek
  
• Naming the empire: from Bod to Tibet. A philologico-historical study on the origin of the polity. Revue d’Etudes Tibétaines 61:339–402
  Joanna Bialek
  
• Social Roots of Grammar: Old Tibetan Perspective on Grammaticalization of Kinterms. In Crossing Boundaries. Tibetan Studies Unlimited, edited by Diana Lange, Jarmila Ptáčková, Marion Wettstein and Mareike Wulff, 253–88. Prague: Academia Publishing House
  Joanna Bialek
  
• The organisation of stage stations in Central Asian colonial provinces of the Tibetan Empire according to Pelliot tibétain 1096r. Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, 31(4), 693-709.
  BIALEK, JOANNA
  
• The concept of power in Old Literary Tibetan. A lexicological analysis of čhab srid. Oriental Studies: Local and Global Perspectives 45:24–46
  Joanna Bialek
  
• bcan pos who were notkhri: Royal titulature and the succession to the throne in the Tibetan Empire. Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, 86(1), 121-146.
  Bialek, Joanna
  
• Discourse Structure and Argument Realisation in Old Literary Tibetan: From Text Composition to Verb Semantics. International Journal of Eurasian Linguistics, 5(1), 3-38.
  Bialek, Joanna
  
• Old Literary Tibetan scogs (CT sogs) "among others”: Etymology, constructions, and idiomatisation. Himalayan Linguistics, 21(3).
  Bialek, Joanna