KA…HOO CONSTRUCTIONS IN TAIWAN SOUTHERN MIN *

Abstract

Taiwan Southern Min ka and hoo have been broadly investigated in the literature (e.g., Cheng et al. 1999, Lien 2002, Tsao 2005). However, very little of the previous research has focused on the interaction between these two functional words. This paper thus explores structures with a ka…hoo configuration. Through the examination of corpus data, this paper finds that ka…hoo constructions are mainly separated into two constructions: ditransitive and resultative constructions. Based on the constructional approach, the ditransitive construction is found to include four construction patterns which can help differentiate verb types. In addition, the event structure account of the resultative ka…hoo construction is explored. It is posited that the event telicity may change when the causative word hoo overtly occurs. The distinction between a ditransitive and a resultative ka…hoo construction significantly reduces the confusion in data where the ka…hoo configuration is found.