This chapter gives an introductory overview of the patterns of reference and nominal syntax in the languages of mainland Southeast Asia. The chapter begins with the principles by which head nouns are modified, for example by adjectives or relative clauses, or in possessive constructions. Many languages of the area have systems of nominal classification, especially numeral classifiers and class terms. Personal pronoun systems range from extremely simple, such as in certain varieties of Chinese, to extremely complex, such as in the systems of Thai, Burmese, or Cambodian, whose systems of pronouns show elaborate distinctions in social-hierarchical structure and politeness. Demonstrative systems of the area span the range of complexity, ranging from two-term systems to systems with eight or more distinctions.

This chapter provides an introductory overview of the phonological systems used in the languages of mainland Southeast Asia. The chapter begins with an overview of the various systems of consonants and vowels that are found, and the phonotactic principles by which those segments are combined to form syllables. The closely-related phenomena of register and tone are then introduced and defined, followed by an outline of the processes of tonogenesis, by which a language can develop a tone system. The chapter closes with a discussion of further aspects of the area’s sound systems, including tone sandhi, intonation, the prosodic hierarchy and criteria for different notions of ‘word’.

This chapter gives an introductory overview of the strategies for forming words in the languages of mainland Southeast Asia. The chapter begins with a discussion of the form class distinctions that are found, including the categories of noun, verb, adjective, adposition, and adverb. Of the various processes for forming words, the chapter focuses on compounding and reduplication, which are relied upon widely in languages of the area, and affixation, which is a speciality of Austroasiatic languages in particular. The chapter features a section on the uses of tone in word formation, a feature of Hmong-Mien languages. Psycho-collocations are discussed: an area-wide form of compounding involving the mention of body parts to denote emotional and psychological states.

This chapter outlines the complex historical processes that have shaped the present-day distribution of communities and ethnic groups across mainland Southeast Asia. The chapter first introduces some general information about the region, the languages, and some conceptual preliminaries for the book. A historical account then traces developments since prehistory through the emergence of early states in the first millennium of the Common Era, followed by the rise of new states associated with migrations from the north, into the modern colonial and postcolonial era. The chapter finishes with a discussion of the area’s politically dominant languages and a survey of the state of the art in linguistic research.

This concludes our survey of the historical context and structural properties of the languages of mainland Southeast Asia. For a full picture of language in this area, a companion volume to this one would cover the sociology and anthropology of the languages and their speakers, with topics including multilingualism, registers and diglossia, language variation, ideologies of language, language shift and loss, language and identity, verbal art, naming practices, and much more. For now, we close with three points intended to offer some perspective on the picture of MSEA languages and their status that we have outlined in this book. The first point concerns the languages’ status in a global typology of language. The other two highlight the need for a nuanced understanding of the social context in which this dynamic area’s languages have diversified, and continue to develop.

This chapter gives an introductory overview of the basic typological properties of the languages of mainland Southeast Asia, including the morphological profile, and the relative position of major components of phrases, including clauses, noun phrases, adpositional phrases, and comparative constructions. The chapter discusses sentence type distinctions, with a special focus on sentence-final particles, which are found across the mainland Southeast Asia area. The chapter features a section on expressive language, including expressives/ideophones and poetic idioms.

This chapter outlines a number of issues which are important in grammatical description (though they are often taken for granted) and which can affect readers’ understanding: the depth and refinement of the description, how to distinguish between different uses, and how to recognise and verbalise the concepts of formality and acceptability. Following this there is a consideration of three other important issues based on a research project (METALANG) using a corpus of grammatical description:

• personality – e.g. whether to use personal pronouns (we, you) to address the reader, or a passive, and the pros and cons of each;

• modality – the use of e.g. modal auxiliaries such as can and adverbs such as generally to indicate some form of hedging on statements, which is very common;

• sub-technical vocabulary – e.g. the use of words such as ‘state’, ‘action’, ‘event’ to describe the meaning of verbs.

This and the following three chapters deal with areas of pedagogic grammar that are greatly in need of revision. This chapter deals with the articles a and the and how they are – and should be – treated in pedagogic accounts. It rejects the traditional claim that ‘the first time you mention something use a, the second time the’ – amongst other reasons because the definite article is more common for first mention – and goes on to give a fuller and more accurate examination of these two extremely frequent words – one that is particularly useful for learners whose L1 has no equivalents. Suggestions are given for how to introduce these two very different words, and several creative exercises are offered.

This chapter takes a critical look at practical applications of the issues discussed in the previous chapters, in particular outputs from the pedagogic process (Chapter 2), such as the role of grammar in syllabuses, in rules of thumb, in classroom activities and exercises (criticising in particular the use of mechanical exercises and the value of gap-filling exercises), in techniques of error correction, and in grammatical tests of various types. It finds many problematic areas, which often originate from an imperfect knowledge of English grammar. It also argues for a more motivating, innovative attitude to classroom activities and includes some examples of this.