Title

On ‘Paucal’ Construction [無啥物X] in Taiwanese Southeern Min: The Scalar Modal and Grammaticalization

Author

Su, Chian-tang

Genre

Article

Pages

359-404

Download

PDF

Language

Chinese

Key words

啥物 ‘what,’ [無啥物X] ‘very few, barely,’ paucal, scalar modal, grammaticalization

Abstract

This paper aims to investigate the ‘paucal’ construction [無啥物X] ‘very few, barely’ in Taiwanese Southern Min (TSM). The elements that can occur in this construction include nouns, adjectives, modal verbs, psychological verbs, active verbs, and ‘咧 + active verb.’ According to the ‘scalar model,’ all of these elements should possess the feature [+scalar] to specify the idea ‘scalar.’ Adjectives, in particular, should make [+positive] prominent as well. 啥物 ‘what’ can be treated as a ‘semi-adverb’ when it modifies the following verbal elements. The grammaticalization of 啥物 ‘what’ from a interrogative pronoun to a semi-adverb, which has not heretofore been discussed, is another focus of this paper.