Himalayan Linguistics

Muklom Tangsa is a Tibeto-Burman (TB) language variety with rich verbal inflection that exhibits hierarchical indexing and a non-canonical inverse system. Indexes will align with S, A, P, or R arguments, depending on the configuration, but not with the T argument. Inverse marking is triggered by high-ranked P arguments, i.e. the speech act participant (SAP) P, but also by SAP R and even SAP possessors. We can conclude that verb marking and NP marking are relatively disintegratedː the system of expressing semantic roles by case markers or postpositions does not nicely align with the system of indexing and inverse marking on the verb. This structure, commonly found among TB languages, is known as ‘associative agreement’, as opposed to ‘integrative agreement’, which nicely aligns NP and verb domains (see Bickel 2000). This chapter provides an overview of verb inflection in Muklom based on primary data.