Verbal agreement in Tangut: a conflicting opinion

Abstract

In a series of three articles published in this journal, the Russian scholar K.B.Keping advanced a theory of verbal agreement in Tangut (Hsi Hsia).1 In her theory, she states that both transitive and intransitive verbs agree with the subject and the object of the verbal action when they are expressed by a personal pronoun. In essence, the verbal agreement takes place through the use of the personal pronoun as a verbal suffix, the suffix being named by Mrs. Keping the agreement indicator. This theory stands in sharp contrast to the theory advanced by M.V. Sofronov and in part too by Nishida Tatsuo3, according to whom verbal agreement does not occur in Tangut (Hsi Hsia).