A research on the co-occurrence of negative adverb “mei(you)没(有)”and“le(了)”

Abstract

In this paper, the co-occurrence phenomenon of negative adverb “没”and “了” gets a systematic study and exposition. Under normal circumstances, the negative adverb “没”and “了” could not be co-occurrence, which we have reached a consensus in Modern Chinese. However, this is not absolute, there is a small part of sentences, in which the co-occurrence phenomenon of negative adverb “没”and “了”exists, they are as follows.<BR> 1. when the deep semantic orientation of the adverb “没”and tense aspect auxiliary “了”is absolutely same, the two could not be co-occurrence. when the deep semantic orientation of them is different, the contradiction is eliminated, and therefore they can exist in the same sentence.<BR> 2. the complement“了”is in a middle status from the verb“了”to the tense aspect auxiliary“了”, having the concrete meaning that expresses the result. Therefore, the complement “了”doesn’t contradict “没”. When “没”focus on the result, the co-occurrence could come true.<BR> 3. in the structure of “(差点儿没)VP了”and the structure of “(就差没)VP了”, “没” is just a semantic redundant ingredient with the subjective emphasis. No contradiction, no problem in co-occurrence.