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Article published In: Language and Linguistics
Vol. 23:4 (2022) ► pp.680–709

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On the “one+verbal classifier” sequence as a delimitative aspect marker in Taiwanese Southern Min

 | National Taiwan Normal University
 | Academia Sinica
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Available under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) 4.0 license.

For any use beyond this license, please contact the publisher at rights@benjamins.nl.

Published online: 12 October 2022
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https://doi.org/10.1075/lali.00119.hsi
Abstract
This paper studies the “one+verbal classifier” sequence tsi̍t-ē that appears after an indefinite object complement in Taiwanese Southern Min. We call it the post-complement (PC) tsi̍t-ē. While the tsi̍t-ē sequence can be a durative phrase when it is immediately preceded by a verb, the PC tsi̍t-ē cannot be replaced by the durative phrase tsi̍t-ē-á ‘a while’ (tsi̍t-ē plus the diminutive suffix á) or other durative phrases. We show that the PC tsi̍t-ē is a sentence-final particle, not a durative phrase serving as a predicate or complement. Moreover, it marks delimitativity, which means ‘termination in a short time.’ It is the same kind of delimitativity that verb reduplication in Mandarin Chinese expresses despite the fact that the latter targets on the verb and is more selective in terms of the verb types that it can occur with. Moreover, the PC tsi̍t-ē carries the ‘down-play’ meaning. Syntactically, we suggest that it heads an AspP, which occurs above a vP.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.The PC tsi̍t-ē is a sentence-final particle
    • 2.1The hypothesis A or The hypothesis B?
    • 2.2The PC tsi̍t-ē as a low sentence-final particle
      • 2.2.1Research on CP layers in Mandarin Chinese
      • 2.2.2Five arguments for the low sentence-final particle analysis
  • 3.The PC tsi̍t-ē marks delimitativity
    • 3.1Delimitativity in Mandarin Chinese
    • 3.2Delimitativity in Taiwanese Southern Min
      • 3.2.1The PC tsi̍t-ē is sensitive to verb/situation types
      • 3.2.2The interaction between the PC tsi̍t-ē and negation
      • 3.2.3Delimitativity as ‘termination in a short time’
    • 3.3Delimitativity and telicity
    • 3.4Summary
  • 4.The ‘down-play’ meaning
  • 5.Concluding remarks
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • Abbreviations
  • References
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