1 Syntax is the study of the order of and relationships between words in sentences. Criteria for determining these matters differs depending on the theoretical approach one takes. Syntactic analyses dates back to Ancient Greece and India. Within the last ha lf century, many new and diverging theories have arisen, though the most dominant theory was initiated by Noam Chomsky in the United States in the late 1950s. The Chomskyan movement revolutionized the field of linguistics, particularly in the area of synt ax. As some theories gained popularity, their proponents became more dogmatic, considering theirs to be the only adequate syntactic theories. Dogmatic teachings are more likely to fossilize theory than develop it.
2 Southeast Asia here includes Burma, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam, and Southern China. The many varieties of Chinese are not traditionally considered to be part of Southeast Asia, but they are being included due t o the massive influence of Chinese in Southeast Asia. Furthermore, all Chinese languages share many linguistic typological traits with the languages of Southeast Asia proper, though the southern varieties such as Cantonese, Hokkien, and Chaozhou, the thre e most common varieties in Southeast, share more similarities in phonology than northern Chinese.
3 The term "Western" applies largely to studies done within European countries and North America. However, the theoretical framework discussed most in this article has been developed largely in the United States, and has been adopted, problems and all, by linguists in countries around the world.
4 This study focuses on spoken language, as opposed to written language. Writing often differs from speech in ways that are beyond the scope of this paper. Spoken language is not considered to be inflexible, but rather it shows enough general patterns to a llow speakers of a language to communicate with others, and it allows linguistic analyses to explain those linguistic patterns. It is the analysis and explanation of those patterns in spoken language which is the concern of this paper.
5 There are altogether five major languages families in Southeast Asia, including Sino-Tibetan, Austroasiatic, Austronesian, Tai-Kadai, and Hmong-Mien. Despite this tremendous variety of languages, there are many general linguistic and cultural similaritie s that the peoples of this region share, in part due to the complex and continuous contact between the various groups.
6 Lawrence Thompson and David Thomas, "Vietnam," in Current Trends in Linguistics, Vol. II, Linguistics in East Asia and South East Asia, ed. Thomas A. Sebeok (Prague: Mouton, 1967), 817.
7 Theoretical concepts and terms are kept to a minimum throughout this paper. Any specialized terms used in this paper will be explained briefly in the notes.
8 These two concepts of function (how a class of words is used) and distribution (the position in which classes of words can appear in sentences) are basic criteria for determining analyzable units in languages.
9 In the Western sense, "common noun" is the general term for nouns that have the fewest restrictions in their usage in sentences, while proper nouns, such as names or people or places, have a much more restricted distribution (e.g., They usually do not occ ur with definite articles, as in "New York City" which cannot appear with the word "the").
10 J.R. Bernard, A Short Guide to Traditional English Grammar (Sydney, Australia: Sydney University Press, 1975), 35.
11 The use of an asterisk indicates that a sentence or phrase is ungrammatical or unacceptable. More specifically, it means that this author believes that these sentences are impossible.
12 Pragmatics in language is more powerful than prescribed grammar or even personal judgments of grammaticality. It is almost always possible to find ways in which language can be used that go against the generally accepted norms.
13 Though some general claims may be made about many aspects of Southeast Asian languages, not all of the aspects considered in this paper are the same in every language. Nonetheless, there are enough shared features among these languages to be considered S outheast Asian areal features.
14 Naturally, following the point of this paper, the translations provided are intended only as rough equivalents.
15 Standard romanized orthographies have been used for convenience and consistency. This is arguably a slightly hypocritical act considering the point of this paper, but one that should not interfere with its claims.
16 "Malay" is a non-political term for both Indonesian and Malaysian as they are, in linguistic and historical terms, dialects of the same language.
17 Thomas John Huday, "Thai," in The Major Languages of East and South-East Asia, ed. Bernard Comrie (London: Routledge, 1990), 41.
18 Determiners, or demonstratives, are used to indicate the position of the discussed object in relation to the speaker or event, such as whether something is nearby or far away (e.g., this).
19 Chinese is the exception in this case. Chinese does have a system of pronouns that, though lacking case marking attributes, are more similar to the traditional European categories than those of the typical Southeast Asian language.
20 The term "person" refers to whether the speaker (e.g., "I"), listener (e.g., "you"), or other party (e.g., "she") is being addressed or spoken about.
21 Pacoh is a Mon-Khmer language (a language family that includes Vietnamese, Khmer, as well as dozens of other less commonly spoken languages throughout Southeast Asia) spoken by about 10,000 persons in the mountainous region of central Vietnam along the Vi etnam/Laos border.
22 Saundra Watson, "Personal pronouns in Pacoh," Mon-Khmer Studies (1964), 81-97.
23 For a list of such languages, Robert K. Headley Jr., "Some considerations on the classification of Khmer," in Austroasiatic Studies Part I, eds. P.N Jenner, L.C. Thompson, and S. Starosta (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1976), 430-451.
24 The term "Universal Grammar" is very important in linguistic literature and particularly in the Chomskyan approach. Within that approach to linguistic study, the features of any single language are enough to make claims about the parameters, the "Univers al Grammar", of any other language. "Universal Grammar" seems to this author to be a paradox: namely, using a single language (typically English) to explain "universals" about languages of the world.
25 The term "classifier" is used in linguistic literature in addition to other terms, such as "measure". For other discussion on classifiers in Southeast Asia, see P. J. Honey, and E. H. S. Simmonds, "Thai and Vietnamese: some elements of nominal structure compared," Linguistic Comparison in Southeast Asia and the Pacific. (London: University of London: School of Oriental and African Studies, 1963).; Robert B. Jones, "Classifier constructions in Southeast Asia," Journal of the American Oriental Society 90, no.1 (1970): 1-12.; Benjamin K. T'sou, "The structure of nominal classifier systems," Austroasiatic Studies Part II, Oceanic Linguistics Special Publication, eds. P. N Jenner, L. C. Thompson and S. Starosta, no. 13 (Honolulu: Univ ersity of Hawaii Press, 1976), 1215-1248.; and Clark, Marybeth. 1989. "Hmong and Areal Southeast Asia," Papers in Southeast Asian Linguistics, Southeast Asian Syntax 11 (1989): 175-230.
26 Both the Malay and Khmer examples are the contracted forms to parallel forms. The use of classifiers in Malay, which more typically occur preceding nouns, is certainly more complex than the brief presentation possible in this paper. The point of this ex ample is to show the syntactic similarities between Southeast Asian languages, not to argue for one inflexible viewpoint over another.
27 This author has encountered this opinion expressed by two Southeast Asian linguists, Eric Schiller, "Autolexical solutions to the problem of 'parts of speech' in Southeast Asian languages," in Papers from the First Annual Meeting of the Southeast Asian Linguistics Society 1991, eds. Martha Ratcliff and Eric Schiller (Tempe, AZ: Arizona State University Press, 1992), 397-415; and Hung Tuong Nguyen, Personal Communication.
28 The notion of underlying representations is that languages have surface structures (that which is pronounced) and an underlying logical form. Thus, classifiers would have to be in the underlying representation of English and European languages, which is not a troubling notion but certainly an unnecessary one.
29 With the caveat that this author may be influenced by the Western tradition, in this author's opinion, the above mentioned data suggest that classifiers are nouns, though nouns of a special class having special syntactic restrictions and semantic functions.
30 Bernard, A Short Guide, 51.
31 Two such texts include Vivian J. Cook, Chomsky's Universal Grammar: An Introduction. (Great Britain: Page Bros Norwich Ltd., 1988); and Liliane Haegeman, Introduction to Government and Binding Theory (Great Britain: Cambridge University Pres s, 1991).
32 Noted in Schiller, "Autolexical Solutions."
33 Three works that include discussion of preposition in Southeast Asian languages are (1) Marybeth Clark, "Hmong and Areal Southeast Asia," in Papers in Southeast Asian Linguistics, Southeast Asian Syntax (1989): 175-230; (2) Marybeth Clark and Amara Prasithrasint, "Synchronic derivation in Southeast Asian languages," in Southeast Asian Linguistics presented to Andre-G. Haudricourt, eds. S. Ratankul, D. Thomas, and S. Premisirat (Bankok: Mahidol University, 1985), 34-81, and (3) Kitima Indramb arya, "Are there prepositions in Thai?,"in Papers from the Third Annual Meeting of the Southeast Asian Linguistics Society, ed. Mark Alves (Tempe, AZ: Arizona State University, Program for Southeast Asian Studies, 1995), 101-117.
34 Indrambarya, "Are there prepositions in Thai?," 110.
35 "Predicate" is a general term that refers to any event or state of being. This is another weak spot in the Western approach since verbs are most often considered predicates in European languages, whereas in Southeast Asian languages, nouns, "adjectives" (i.e., stative verbs), and prepositional phrases may serve as predicates in addition to verbs.
37 Cook, Chomsky's Universal Grammar; Liliane Haegeman, Introduction to Government and Binding Theory.