Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Lien, Chinfa

Titel

Semantic and Syntactic Properties of thang1 in Taiwanese Southern Min: Interaction between Existence, Negation, Modality and Mood

Ist Teil von

• Language and linguistics (Taipei), 2014-01, Vol.15 (5), p.601-612

Erscheinungsjahr

2014

Quelle

EZB Electronic Journals Library

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• This paper aims at teasing out the semantic and syntactic properties of thang1 in six kinds of constructions. Thang1 can occur as a circumstantial modal immediately after [u7/bo5]v + NP in non-root clauses. When the NP is made implicit due to the constraint of information structure, u7/bo5 may be changed into adverbs as adjuncts to root clauses featuring the modal thang1. Thang1 as a modal can head a purpose clause as a complement of the root clause and form a modal stacking with other modals. Thang1 is an important pivot to mediate the merger of the volitional negator m7 and bare verbs in the formation of negative imperatives. The hierarchically lower position of thang1 than why WH-words na2 and thai2 may be related to the induced interpretation of rhetorical questions. Thang1 can also occur in conditionals. We can see the interaction between existence, negation, modality and mood in the occurrence of thang1 in these six constructions and its positions in the hierarchical structure of functional categories.