"Typological patterning of the contact-induced shift in some morphosyntactic features in Amdo Tibet"

In Chinese Inner Asia, the synthetic (agglutinative) typology characteristic of at least one  endangered Turko-Mongolic language, Salar, has shifted to an analytic typology more typical of the dominant Mandarin Chinese language (and to a lesser extent in Amdo Tibet, also Amdo  Tibetan). Earlier (Dwyer 1995, 2013), I described how serial verb constructions expressing aspect and Aktionsart had been preserved in Xinjiang (Western) Salar, but replaced by adverbial analytic constructions in Amdo (Eastern) Salar, under Mandarin and Amdo Tibetan influence. Such as shift from synthetic to analytic complex predication has been documented for other linguistic areas, e.g. South Asia (Masica 2005).

Typologically similar languages under similar contact conditions (social, economic, linguistic) should show similar changes. Further, morphosyntactic similarity may best be evaluated via exponence (the number of categories expressed in a single marker (e.g. tense + aspect/Aktionsart for verb suffixes in Turko-Mongolic, Bickel and Nichols 2013) and other variables, rather than solely by synthetic/analytic/fusional.

Therefore, this paper poses two questions as refinements to the earlier conclusions above: First, to what extent is this typological shift away from serial verb typology also present in other Turko-Mongolic languages in the Amdo area? If the shift in Salar is due to dominant-language contact, then we would expect a similar lack of verb serialization in e.g. Sarig Yugur, Bonan, and Monguor.

Second, what other variables reveal contact-induced shift in this linguistic area? For an example of exponence, Turko-Mongolic verb affixes in a Mandarin-dominant area would likely express fewer categories (i.e. be monoexponential, a single function). I also examine interrogative marking and perspective marking.