Abstract
It has been widely discussed that Taiwan Southern Min ū “HAVE” (hereafter TSM ū “HAVE”) allows adjectival predicates as its complements, such as Kaka ū suí “Kaka is beautiful”. Besides, TSM ū “HAVE” in this kind of construction is analysed as an emphatic-assertive marker; however, there are quite few studies concerning whether it can select any adjectival predicates as its complements or has any restrictions. I hence investigate whether TSM ū “HAVE” has any restrictions by five tests: (a) mono/disyllabic adjectives, (b) reduplicated adjectives, (c) degree adverbs, (d) comparative morpheme khah “COMP/more” and (e) measure phrases with adjective phrases. Finally, I claim that TSM ū “HAVE” cannot select closed-scale adjectives, non-predicative adjectives and the reduplicated adjectives as its complements. Also, TSM ū “HAVE” is incompatible with degree words, which express the intensified readings, whereas the comparative morpheme khah “COMP/more” can repair those ungrammatical sentences by means of denoting a comparative reading. Finally, the adjectival predicates can be modified by measure phrases like Mandarin Chinese. In conclusion, TSM ū “HAVE” actually cannot select any types of adjectives and it does have the restriction incompatible with the intensified degree adverbs.
Highlights
The kind of existential constructions in Taiwan Southern Min (TSM) is generally divided into four types, andHow to cite this paper: Zheng, Z
Tsao and Cheng argue that TSM ū “HAVE” in AP construction should be analysed as a model verb instead of an auxiliary verb (Cheng, 1979) whereas Tsao and Cheng agree with that TSM ū “HAVE” is an emphatic-assertive marker in order to confirm or emphasize the situation of APs/Stative verbs
Based on (24), it shows that TSM ū “have” cannot any AP as its complement, so this study plans to further explore why the phenomenon exists in AP construction; there are five tests to be examined: (1) mono/disyllable APs, (2) reduplicate APs, (3) degree adverbs tsin/tsiok/tsiân “really/extremely/very”, (4) comparative morpheme khah and (5) measure phrases (MPs) with APs
Summary
The kind of existential constructions in Taiwan Southern Min (TSM) is generally divided into four types, and. Restructuring Taiwan Southern Min Ū “HAVE” in Adjectival Predicate Constructions. TSM ū “HAVE” can take APs as its internal argument, a complement, whereas Mandarin Chinese you “HAVE” cannot. TSM ū “HAVE” can take measure phrases with APs as it complement
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