Origin of exceptions

Atkins and Levin made a study about the minute differences among near-synonym words such as, quake, quiver, shake, shiver, shudder, tremble, and vibrate. This set of words  are very similar, but syntactically different. For example the word shake tends to be used when the cause is external (I shaked the rattle), while the word shudder is used when the cause in internal (he shuddered from fear). They then concluded that future dictionaries should take into account these differences.

The second reading by Slobin studied the typology of different languages by asking participants of different languages to tell a narrative like “The frog story.” He then distinguished the different usages of verbs into verb-framed languages (V-languages) like Spanish, French,  italian, and satellite-framed like languages (S-languages) like English, German, and Dutch. The V-languages will tend to only have the verb like “exit,” while S-language will add a manner word to create motion like “popped out.”

The third paper by Haspelmath is about the morphology, how words change in different contexts, of words across languages  For example the word “read” will change into the word “reads” when the subject is a singular.

The final paper also by Haspelmath is about Morphological trees, hierarchical structure of compounding lexemes. For instance, the noun “baby” and the verb “sit”, can be compounded into the verb “babysit”, with the emphasis on the verb sit.

The main purpose of this blog is to use compound words in Thai to explain the evolution of language, and point out the origins of exceptions in Thai lexeme compounding. This example might also be able to explain similar phenomena in other languages.

Thai language has been influenced by many foreign languages such as Indian via Buddhism and Hinduism, Chinese through trade and migration, and European languages via colonialism and globalization. Since the indians were the first to come into contact, the most prevalent foreign languages in Thai are Pali/Sanskrit. For example,

Wata  +   Paiy       =  Watapaiy

Wind     Danger        Danger from wind (e.g. Tornados)

N               N

(The emphasis is on the word “Danger.”)

Maha + Racha (derived from Raja) = Maharacha

Great     King Great King

 A   N

(The emphasis is on the word “King.”)

In the above examples, the Pali/Sanskrit words are ordered in their original syntax; the modifier will always be in front of the word. This is opposite of the way Thai words are compounded like

Na   +  Kao    = Nakao

Field    Rice      Rice field

A A

(The emphasis is on the word “Field.”)

Later on Thais started to mix Thai (Siam) and Pali/Sanskrit words

Siam + In (Indra) = Siamin

Siam    Indra           god of Siam (king of Siam)

   N       N

(The emphasis is on the word “Indra.”)

Notice that the above word still follows the Pali/Sanskrit syntax.  However, some Thai words are compounded in the Thai way even though they are derived from Pali/Sanskrit words.

Nayok      +    Samakom   =        Nayoksamakom

chairman       association        association chairman

     N    N

(The emphasis is on the word “Chairman.”)

This particular compound word is not present in Pali/Sanskrit, but the Thais created this new word from their own needs and arranged it in this way because it used to be “Nayok(kong)samakom”. The word “Kong” (of) is a Thai word, so the whole compound word is written according to the Thai syntax.

Thai language also borrowed many words from Chinese such as,

Mei (Chinese) +    Nam (Thai) =    Meinam

Noodle                         soup          Soup noodle

   N                                N

(The emphasis is on the word “Noodle.”)

The final wave of influences came from the western languages.

Rean (comes from the Portuguese word “real”) + Tong  =  Reantong

medal/coin         gold  =  gold medal

     N           N

(The emphasis is on the word “medal.”)

From the examples of word compounding, native languages are influenced by the cultures their communities associated with. These communities will begin to borrow words and syntax from foreign languages. As the borrowed words become inadequate, the communities will begin to combine native and foreign words by using the foreign syntax. As the languages develop even further, the communities will start to combine foreign words with their own syntax. This phenomenon might explain why many languages like English and Thai have many syntax exceptions, depending on the degree of exposure to foreign language.