<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p>This study deals with a syntactic analysis of the V-one-V construction that has implications on the structure of verbal modification in Cantonese. The V-one-V construction is unique in several ways, making it distinct from the cognate object construction in English or the verb-doubling construction in Cantonese. Several syntactic and semantic properties are discussed that support a syntactic analysis of V-one-V as an instance of syntactic verb copying (Corver and Nunes 2007) rather than a morphological treatment often prescribed to reduplication. The V-one-V construction consists of two copies of a verb with a number or quantifier <italic>jat1</italic> ‘one’, <italic>loeng5</italic> ‘two’, or <italic>gei2</italic> ‘few’ between the copies. The construction denotes the delimitation of events, displaying interpretations of tentative, brief occurrences of events. This pattern indicates that V-one-V denotes delimitation in the senses of both counting and measuring and the choice depends on the nature of the VP, according to the data. This study also contributes to the discussion on postverbal modification as an alternative to V-one-V, which is more productive in its meaning and lexical choice.</p></abstract>

This study deals with a syntactic analysis of the V-one-V construction that has implications on the structure of verbal modification in Cantonese. The V-one-V construction is unique in several ways, making it distinct from the cognate object construction in English or the verb-doubling construction in Cantonese. Several syntactic and semantic properties are discussed that support a syntactic analysis of V-one-V as an instance of syntactic verb copying (Corver and Nunes 2007) rather than a morphological treatment often prescribed to reduplication. The V-one-V construction consists of two copies of a verb with a number or quantifier jat1 ‘one’, loeng5 ‘two’, or gei2 ‘few’ between the copies. The construction denotes the delimitation of events, displaying interpretations of tentative, brief occurrences of events. This pattern indicates that V-one-V denotes delimitation in the senses of both counting and measuring and the choice depends on the nature of the VP, according to the data. This study also contributes to the discussion on postverbal modification as an alternative to V-one-V, which is more productive in its meaning and lexical choice.

The V-one-V Construction and Modification of the Verbal Domain in Cantonese

Studies in Chinese Linguistics

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

{"article-title":"The V-one-V Construction and Modification of the Verbal Domain in Cantonese"}

This study deals with a syntactic analysis of the V-one-V construction that has implications on the structure of verbal modification in Cantonese. The V-one-V...

The V-one-V Construction and Modification of the Verbal Domain in Cantonese

Published Online: Dec 31, 2020

Page range: 161 - 184

Received: Jan 20, 2020

Accepted: Jun 08, 2020

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/scl-2020-0006

Keywords
V-one-V construction, verbal reduplication

© 2020 Charles Lam, published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

The V-one-V Construction and Modification of the Verbal Domain in Cantonese

Published Online: Dec 31, 2020

Page range: 161 - 184

Received: Jan 20, 2020

Accepted: Jun 08, 2020

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/scl-2020-0006

KeywordsV-one-V construction, verbal reduplication

© 2020 Charles Lam, published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Keywords
V-one-V construction, verbal reduplication