Taiwanese Southern Min V2 negation

Abstract

This study provides a historical account for several issues not yet fully addressed in the Taiwanese Southern Min (TSM) V bo XP construction, one of which is an ambiguity over two interpretations, and another of which involves an absence or a presence of negation in the post-verbal order. Many of these analyses might be attributable to the historical development of Chinese negation. The term V2 negation is used in this current paper to describe the topic under investigation. Assuming that the diachrony of bo is parallel to that of Mandarin mei, I analyze Southern Min negative bo as originated in the V and reanalyzed as an aspect marker in V bo XP. Other than the diachrony of Chinese negation, previous treatments of one particular V2 negation are also reviewed. Contra Huang (2009), who analyzes the semantics of bo in V bo DP as lexically determined in the abstractness of the nominal phrase following bo, I argue that this bo occupies two positions: while the aspectual head bo yields an episodic interpretation in the nominal argument, bo in a higher head gives rise to genericity. Verb inner aspect is adopted as the major theoretical framework.