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Article published In: International Journal of Chinese Linguistics
Vol. 4:2 (2017) ► pp.173–190

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The emergence of e5 khuan2 个款 as a sensory evidential marker in TSM

 | National Tsing Hua University
Published online: 30 December 2017
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/ijchl.16018.lie
Abstract
This paper takes the string e5 khuan2 个款 (EK for short) as an ambiguous case to show the emergence of a grammatical function out of a lexical category. It examines the ambiguity of EK in conjunction with the analysis of its syntactic structure. It explores the collocates of EK including a range of matrix predicates and sentence-final particles. It pins down EK as a sensory evidential marker in semantic interpretation. Finally, it teases out the unique syntactic and semantic properties of EK in terms of the layered structure of sentence-final particles.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Syntactic structure
    • 2.1[ dp XP – e5 khuan2 个款]
    • 2.2[ sfp e5 khuan2 个款] as a sentence-final particle
    • 2.3Ambiguous cases
  • 3.X – e5 khuan2 个款 and its collocates
    • 3.1 Tshin1-tshiunn7 親像 Family
    • 3.2 Kann2na2 敢若 ‘seem, as if’
    • 3.3 Kai3 tshiunn7 介像 and kai3 sing5 介成
    • 3.4 Khuann3 0khi2 0lai5 看起來
    • 3.5 Kam2kak4 感覺
    • 3.6 Phah4-sing3 拍算/扑算
  • 4.Layered structure of e5 khuan2 个款 and sentence-final particles
    • 4.1 Lah0 啦
    • 4.2 Oo5 哦
    • 4.3 Hoonn0 呼
    • 4.4 An2ni1 安呢
  • 5.Semantic interpretation
    • 5.1Direct evidence via sensory input
    • 5.2Indirect evidence via inference
  • 6.Stacking of lexical and functional categories
  • 7.Closing words
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
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