Lexical and phonological sources of Hmong elaborate expressions

Abstract

In this paper, we would like to detail the ways in which 1hite Hmong elaborate expressions are built. These expres¬sions are sometimes in the form of a four-morpheme array with particular semantic and phonological constraints for aesthe¬tic heightening of language (that is, they are found to be prominent in poetry, but may certainly occur as a rhetorical device in ordinary conversation, as well).