Academic literature on the topic 'Khmer language Grammar'

Despite the fact that there are a number of researches working on Khmer Language in the field of Natural Language Processing along with some resources regarding words segmentation and POS Tagging, we still lack of high-level resources regarding syntax, Treebanks and grammars, for example. This paper illustrates the semi-automatic framework of constructing Khmer Treebank and the extraction of the Khmer grammar rules from a set of sentences taken from the Khmer grammar books. Initially, these sentences will be manually annotated and processed to generate a number of grammar rules with their probabilities once the Treebank is obtained. In our experiments, the annotated trees and the extracted grammar rules are analyzed in both quantitative and qualitative way. Finally, the results will be evaluated in three evaluation processes including Self-Consistency, 5-Fold Cross-Validation, Leave-One-Out Cross-Validation along with the three validation methods such as Precision, Recall, F1-Measure. According to the result of the three validations, Self-Consistency has shown the best result with more than 92%, followed by the Leave-One-Out Cross-Validation and 5-Fold Cross Validation with the average of 88% and 75% respectively. On the other hand, the crossing bracket data shows that Leave-One-Out Cross Validation holds the highest average with 96% while the other two are 85% and 89%, respectively.

Abstract This research investigates the turn-taking system used in an English conversation across different cultural backgrounds: between an Anglo-Australian female and a Khmer-background female. Throughout the data there is evidence of both speakers’ orientation to the rules of turn-taking as described by Sacks, Schegloff and Jefferson (1974). The normative speaker reveals nonnative speakerlike features in her grammar, but on an interactive level the turn-taking system is working smoothly and without hitches. Both speakers have the skills to interactionally coordinate speaker transitions in a systematic and orderly way, following the rules and using the resources described by Sacks et al. It is particularly striking that in this conversation, the nonnative speaker’s language reveals many nonnative features, but the turn-taking system operates on a native speaker level.

Cette thèse constitue la première grammaire d’envergure de la langue stieng, une langue minoritaire en danger parlée au Cambodge et au Vietnam. Si le nombre exact de locuteurs est à ce jour méconnu, la population stieng compterait 51 540 membres dans les deux pays. Ce travail se base sur deux variétés différentes de stieng, toutes deux parlées au Cambodge, dans la région de Kratie et le district de Snuol. L’étude s’appuie sur des données de première main collectées auprès de onze locuteurs, dans le cadre de trois séjours de terrain totalisant 12 mois et réalisés dans des villages traditionnels. Cette thèse répond à un double objectif : elle propose d’une part, une description d’une langue en danger encore très peu décrite, dans un cadre de linguistique typologique-fonctionnelle, génétique et aréale et, d’autre part, le développement de thématiques particulières. Ce travail propose dans un premier temps une introduction sociolinguistique de la langue dans le but de contextualiser la recherche. Puis, les thèmes linguistiques abordés dans cette thèse couvrent la phonologie et la morphosyntaxe. La partie phonologique propose une synthèse de la phonologie du stieng dans une perspective comparative et diachronique. La partie morphosyntaxe est quant à elle scindée en différentes sous-parties dédiées aux catégories de mots ainsi qu’aux domaines nominal, verbal et phrastique. Une attention particulière est accordée aux thèmes de la catégorisation nominale, de la composition nominale, du temps-aspect-mode (TAM), des constructions verbales en série et de l'expression de l’espace. Les annexes de cette thèse présentent des informations complémentaires au sujet de la situation des minorités du Cambodge, des éléments relatifs à l’analyse phonologique ainsi que trois textes, glosés et traduits, extraits d'une base de données plus ample compilée dans le cadre des séjours de terrain
This dissertation is the first far-ranging grammar of Stieng, a language of oral tradition of the Môn-Khmer group, spoken in Cambodia and Vietnam. If the exact number of speakers is currently unknown, the whole Stieng community may group 51 540 members in both countries. This dissertation is based on two different varieties of Stieng, both spoken in Cambodia (Kratie province, Snuol district). This study relies on primary data obtained among 11 speakers, within three fieldtrips realized in traditional villages, for a total duration of 12 months. This dissertation achieves a double objective by proposing a description of an endangered language, so far very little described, in a functional-typological, areal and genetic framework and by developing specific topics. The dissertation starts with a sociolinguistic introduction of the language in order to contextualize the research. Then the linguistic topics covered in the dissertation include the phonology and the morphosyntax. The phonology part gives a summary of the phonology of the language in a comparative and diachronic perspective. The morphosyntax part is divided into different subparts respectively dedicated to word classes and the nominal, verbal and phrase domains. Special attention is given to the topics of nominal categorization, nominal composition, tense-aspect-mood (TAM), verbal serialization and the expression of space. The appendices provide additional information about the situation of minority peoples of Cambodia, further elements about the phonological analysis and three texts, glossed and translated, extracted from a larger database compiled during the fieldtrips

Cet ouvrage est consacré à la description systématique de trois unités fondamentales du Kmher contemporain, présentant une très large diversité d'emplois. Elles manifestent d'une part une ambivalence catégorielle : elles peuvent en effet prendre une fonction proprement lexicale aussi bien que grammaticale (préposition, mot du discours, particule, etc. ). Cette ambivalence conduit à une réflexion sur les fondements même d'une catégorie grammaticale. D'autre part, au sein de chacune de ces fonctions, elles sont susceptibles de correspondre à des valeurs très variées. Le travail s'attache à proposer pour chaque unité une caractérisation générale, visant à expliquer le mode de constitution de ces valeurs, en fonction des différents contextes dans lesquels il peut être mis en jeu
This work brings out a systematic description of three basic items in Khmer, displaying both a categorial ambivalence (they are liable to work as lexical as well as grammatical items, such as particules, prepositions, discursive words), rising thus the question of the foundation of grammatical categories, and a large range of meanings. A unitary characterisation of each item is put forward for each item, in order to account for the constitution of each meaning in relation with the various types of context in which it is used

This thesis presents a description of verbal complementation in Khmer. The theoretical framework used in this thesis is that of Lexical-Functional Grammar. Three major types of verbal complements and their characteristics have been investigated at length. There are two types of sentence-like (S-like) complements in Khmer: S-like complements with a complementiser and S-like complements without a complementiser. This study shows that the characteristics of S-like complements without a complementiser are similar to those of S-like complements with a complementiser, except that only S-like complements with a complementiser can be preceded by the negative or the polar question particle. The interpretations of pronouns in S-like complements with and without a complementiser are the same as that of simple sentences. There is no control relation in S-like complements either with or without a complementiser. As Khmer is a pro-drop language, an argument in S-like complements with and without a complementiser can also be unexpressed. The interpretation of an unexpressed argument in S-like complements with and without a complementiser is free as is that of normal clauses. Controlled complements in Khmer are classified into subject-controlled complements and object-controlled complements. The controller of the unexpressed complement subject is an argument in the matrix clause. Although the strings produced by a complement-taking predicate followed by a controlled complement are superficially similar to those of serial verb constructions, it can be shown that controlled complements are lexically specified by the matrix predicate whereas the verbal structures following the first verb in serial verb constructions are not. In addition to these three major types of complements, this study investigates the verb qaoy in complements. Although qaoy has many meanings and functions, this study mainly focuses on the verb ~ meaning 'to have someone d? something; to allow'. When qaoy introduces a complement, it retains characteristics of verb. However, it is proposed that the verb qaoy in complements can be classified as the predicate~ and the non-predicate~- Characteristics of the predicate~ and those of the non-predicate qaoy in complements are examined. Of all complement constructions discussed in this study, complements containing gaoy are the most interesting ones. It is shown that formalisms of Lexical-functional Grammar are well suited for analysing complement constructions in Khmer. Although a string associated with a complement containing the predicate ~ and that associated with a complement containing the non-predicate ~ look superficially similar, LFG formalisms provide different analysis for these similar strings .

Southeast Asia (SEA) is not only rich in multicultural areas but also rich in multilingual nations with the population of more than 624 million and more than 1,253 languages (Ethnologue 2015). With the cultural uniqueness of each country, this region also accords each national languages with language planning and political management. This strategy brings a challenges to SEA and can lead to conflicts among other ethnic groups, largely owing to leadership. The ethnic conflicts of SEA bring controversy between governments and minorities, such as the ethnic conflict in Aceh, Indonesia, the Muslim population of the south Thailand, and the Bangsa Moro of Mindanao, of the Philippines. The objective of this paper is to investigate the characteristics of the linguistic perspectives of SEA. This research examines two main problems. First, this paper investigates the linguistic area which refers to a geographical area in which genetically unrelated languages have come to share many linguistic features as a result of long mutual influence. The SEA has been called a linguistic area because languages share many features in common such as lexical tone, classifiers, serial verbs, verb-final items, prepositions, and noun-adjective order. SEA consists of five language families such as Austronesian, Mon-Khmer, Sino-Tibetan, Tai-Kadai, and Hmong-Mien. Second, this paper also examines why each nation of SEA takes one language to become the national language of the nation. The National language plays an important role in the educational system because some nations take the same languages as a national language—the Malay language in the case of Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore. The research method of this paper is to apply comparative method to find out the linguistic features of the languages of SEA in terms of phonology, morphology, and grammar.