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Applicatives in Taiwan Southern Min: benefactives and malefactives

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Abstract

The paper explores the benefactive and malefactive applicatives in Taiwan Southern Min (TSM). The malefactive applicative discussed in the present study is introduced in the adversative passives which appear with the hoo…ka configuration. Unlike Japanese adversative passives, the additional argument in the adversative passives in TSM is the repeated patient subject, which always occurs with a pronominal form. The added argument is assumed to enhance the transitivity of the predicate. The two functional words, hoo and ka, are assumed to interact in the adversative passive hoo…ka construction. Like the malefactive applicative, the TSM benefactive applicative structure is also licensed by the word ka. The paper thus examines the syntactic and semantic properties of the ka construction. The present study further postulates a hierarchical order of ka-applicatives, modals and wh-adverbials in terms of their structural height. In line with Tsai’s (2009a) three-way applicative assumption, the paper argues that the benefactive and malefactive ka-applicatives are both situated at the lexical layer; the malefactive ka-phrase is higher than the benefactive applicative.

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  1. Department of Foreign Language and Literarure, National Cheng Kung University, 1 Daxue Rd., Tainan City, 70101, Taiwan

    Hui-chi Lee

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Lee, Hc. Applicatives in Taiwan Southern Min: benefactives and malefactives. J East Asian Linguist 21, 367–386 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10831-012-9094-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10831-012-9094-7

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