Chapter Ⅳ Analysis and discussion
4.2. Analysis of modified elements of the six degree intensifiers
4.2.1 Canonical modified elements with the six degree intensifiers
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4.2. Analysis of modified elements of the six degree intensifiers
In Section 4.1, the quantitative analysis has unfolded some findings among the six degree intensifiers. First, dialectal differences are correlated with the six degree intensifiers. The speakers of the 四縣 xi3ien3 dialect and of the 海陸 hoi2liug8 dialect adopt these degree intensifiers more frequently compared to the speakers of the other two subdialects. As for each degree intensifier, the uses of 恁 an2 and 當 dong1 occur most frequently in the daily conversations. Next, the type of syntactic categories and subcategories of X in [DI. + X] construction are also examined. The results reveal that the six degree intensifiers commonly cluster with APs. With regard to grammatical functions, the holistic [DI. + X] construction, it serves as predicates in a clause dominantly. Other functions are less seen in the data. The unbalanced
distribution of the figures shown in the results may indicate that some of the degree intensifiers are used in daily conversation while some are only adopted depending on the context.
Hence, the following analysis will focus on the interactions between the six degree intensifiers and their modified elements (see Section 4.2.1 to 4.2.3) from the canonical to non-canonical manifestations in order to show the differences among the six degree intensifiers and to capture the multi-faceted usage. Later, the ways in which the use of the six degree intensifiers reflects the speaker’s stance in the conversations will be analyzed in Section 4.3 as well.
4.2.1 Canonical modified elements with the six degree intensifiers
As can be observed in Table 10, the subcategories of the relative adjective and the absolute adjective in AP and the subcategory of the stative verb in VP are three canonical modified elements which co-occur with the six degree intensifiers. The major research concern will be how these modified elements in canonical usage
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interact with the six degree intensifiers when consideration is given to the syntactic structure and semantic features.
4.2.1.1 Interactions with the relative adjectives
A relative adjective is regularly gradable and can be manifested on a scale with regard to certain dimensions such as height, size, or temperature, etc. According to the proposals in the degree semantics7 (Kennedy, 1999; Kennedy and McNally 2005;
Rotstein and Winter, 2004; Kennedy, 2007), it is crucial to consider the role of degree when interpreting adjectives. In the spoken data, the relative adjectives collocating with the six degree intensifiers is further done to create a word frequency list, list so as to investigate collocability (Mutual information score, MI value) and to rank the top ten most frequent collocations (see Table 21 in the Appendix). These relative adjectives aligned with degree intensifiers usually serve as predicates in most cases, more specifically, stage-level predicates. That is, the patterns in the list show that most relative adjectives are used to describe the quality, value, measurement or performance of an entity within a time span or space. As can be observed in Table 21 in the Appendix, the three relative adjectives 多 do1 ‘many/much,’ 好 ho2 ‘good’
and 大 tai3 ‘big’ are the ones which occur most frequently in collocations with the six degree intensifiers. The MI values of the collocations indicate the strong attraction between the relative adjectives and the degree intensifiers. Moreover, judging from their frequencies, Table 12 illustrates that 479 tokens associated with these three relative adjectives take up over half of the amount of the total (860 tokens).
The [DI. + 多 do1] construction co-occurs with the degree intensifiers more
frequently (263, 54.9%) than the [DI. + 好 ho2] or the [DI. + 大 tai3] constructions (114, 23.8%; 102, 21.3%).
7 For a more detailed review of Kennedy’s theory, please refer to Section 2.2 in Chapter II.
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In considering the collocability of these three relative adjectives and the total frequencies of occurrence, the subsequent discussion will consider 多 do1
‘many/much,’ 好 ho2 ‘good’, and 大 tai3 ‘big’ in order to explore the interaction of the six degree intensifiers and the three relative adjectives more deeply. First, 263 tokens of the relative adjective 多 do1 ‘many/much’ denoting quantity or frequency are found mostly in the data. Though 多 do1 ‘many/much’ can occur as individual adjective, it strongly attracts a degree intensifier to convey the quantitative meanings together. In most situations, they may not serve alone as attributives to modify the nouns. The strong coercion may indicate that the holistic construction has become lexicalized and used as a unit. Table 13 illustrates the distribution of the [DI. + 多 do1] constructions and their grammatical functions when they occur with the six degree intensifiers. The relative adjective 多 do1 ‘many/much’ co-occurs with the degree intensifiers 恁 an2 and 當 dong1 most frequently (139, 52.9%; 81, 30.8%). In terms of grammatical relation, the three common grammatical functions the [DI. + 多 do1] construction to serve is attributive, predicative, and complement. It is worth noting that the most frequent grammatical function that the [DI. + 多 do1]
construction serves is attributive. The other functions, such as subject, object and adverbial are rarely seen. When they do occur, they are context-dependent as
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mentioned in Section 4.1.
TABLE 13 The distribution of [DI. + 多 do1] construction and grammatical functions among the six degree intensifiers
TABLE 14 List of instances modified by [DI. + 多 do1] construction
Feature Instances
[+concrete] Human: 人 ngin5 ‘human’, 妹仔 moi3e2 ‘daughter’, 姊妹 ji2moi3 ‘sister’, 妹 moi3 ‘daughter’, 子 zii31 ‘son’, 姐哀 ji2oi1 ‘wife and mother-in-law’, 姊嫂 ji2so2
‘sister-in-law, 孫仔 sun1e2 ‘grandson’, 細人仔 se3ngin5e2 ‘child’, 家人 ga1ngin5
‘family’, 細猴仔 se3heu5e2 ‘child’, 客家人 hag4ga4ngin5 ‘Hakkanese’, 婦人家
fu3ngin5ga1 ‘woman’, 後生人 heu3sang1ngin3 ‘the young’, 學老人 hog8lo2ngin5
‘the Hoklo people’
Object: 錢 qien5 ‘money’, 菜 coi3 ‘vegetable’, 煙 ien1 ‘smoke’, 電話費 tien3fa3fi3 ‘telephone bill’, 水果 sui2go2 ‘fruit’, 藥仔 iog8e2 ‘medicine’, 東西
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dung1xi1 ‘thing’, 水 sui2 ‘water’, 肉 ngiug4 ‘meat’, 學校 hog8gau2 ‘school’, 櫻花 in1fa1 ‘cherry blossom’, 粄仔 ban2e2 ‘cake’, 寶物 bo2vud8 ‘treasure’, 樹 su3
‘tree’, 菜頭 coi5teu3 ‘radish’, 百貨公司 bag4fo3gung1sii1 ‘department store’, 蘿蔔
仔 lo5ped8e2 ‘radish’, 樂器 ngog8hi3 ‘musical instrument’, 材料錢 coi5liau3qien5
‘materials fee’
Animal: 牛 ngiu5 ‘cow’, 蝦公 ha5gung1 ‘shrimp’, 魚 ng5 ‘fish’
[-concrete] Situation: 事 sii3 ‘event’, 意見 i3gien3 ‘opinion’, 經驗 gin1ngiam3 ‘experience’, 動作 tung3zog4 ‘action’, 變化 bien3fa3 ‘transformation’, 話 fa3 ‘utterance’
Time: 年 ngien5 ‘year’, 日 ngid4 ‘day’, 日仔 ngid4e2 ‘day’, 時間 sii5gien1 ‘time’
Table 14 above lists the types of nouns which can be modified by the [DI. + do1]
construction. The nouns can be either concrete or non-concrete entities. The post-modified elements in this construction are diverse. Consider the examples from (52) to (54). They demonstrate the different grammatical functions that the [DI. + 多 do1]
construction can serve. In example (52), the noun 後生人 heu3sang1ngin3 ‘young people’ is modified by 當多 dong1do1 ‘many’. As an attributive, the [DI. +多 do1]
construction can modify people and concrete entities. The other common functions that a [DI. + 多 do1] construction can also serve as predicates and complements. In (53), 恁多 an2do1 ‘ so many’ is used to describe the quantity of the subject 書 su1
‘book’. In (54), 恁多 an2do1 ‘ so many’ can also combine with the nominal 年 ngien5 ‘year’ and then serve as a complement to the main verb 食 siid8 ‘eat’.
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(52) [HL12: 268]
F2: ...𠊎𠊎 斯 看著 當‧
多‧
後生人 hon
ngai5 sii5 kon3do3 dong1 do1 heu3sang1ngin3 hon I SII see-DO very many young people PART
‘F2: I saw many young people.’
(53) [HL62: 13]
F1：該 你 看 个 書 恁‧
多‧ ge3 n5 kon3 ge3 su1 an2 do1 DM you read GE book so many
‘F1: You read so many books.’
(54) [HL15: 48]
F1:...狗 做得 食 恁‧
多‧
年‧
噢 gieu2 zo5ded8 siid8 an2 do1 ngien5 o1
dog can eat so many year PART
‘ F1: Dogs can live for a very long time.’
Next, turning to the second most frequent collocation in the subcategory of relative adjectives, the usage of the [DI. + 好 ho2] construction is diverse. It is found to co-occur with the three degree intensifiers 恁 an2, 當 dong1, and 盡 qin3
frequently (see Table 21 in the Appendix). Also, as can be seen in Table 15, the [DI. + 好 ho2] constructions serve mostly as the predicate in a clause (94, 82.4%).
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TABLE 15 The distribution of [DI. + 好 ho2] construction and grammatical functions among the six degree intensifiers
As the second most frequently occurring relative adjective, 好 ho2 ‘good’
generally denotes an entity’s quality, value, or a person’s performance. That is, when 好 ho2 ‘good’ is intensified, it accompanies the evaluative functions to describe the entity. Consider the following examples where 好 ho2 ‘good’ coerces with 恁 an2, 當 dong1 and 盡 qin3: he3a3 mo5kon3 teu5no2 zong2 an2 ho2 mo5kon3 siin5jid4 an2 ho2 da2teu5miang5
right no wonder brain grow very good no wonder score very good
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‘F2: Right, you did not see his intelligence and the really good scores at school.
It was no wonder that he won the first place.’
(56) [HL71: 183]
F：毋 敢...該 餔娘人 hon...緊 問 愛 蛤仔 無愛 蛤仔 無 ...𠊎𠊎 乜 知 該 蛤仔 當‧
好‧
...講麼个 肝病 清 ...清 肝
m5 gam2 ge3 bu1ngiong2ngin5 hon gin2 mun3 oi3 ha5e2 mo5oi3 ha5e2 mo5 ngai5 me3 di1 ge3 ha5e2 dong1 ho2 gong2ma2ge3 gon1piang3 qin1 qin1 gon1 NEG dare that woman hon keep ask want clam NEG clam NEG I also know that clam very good about liver disease cure cure liver
‘F2: Though that woman keeps asking me to buy some clams and I know that they are good for liver disease, I dare not.’
(57) [NXI1: 109]
In order to depict the manifestation of the [DI. + 好 ho2] construction,
Pustejovsky’s qualia structure8 (1991) is adopted to analyze which aspect of an entity is evaluated when it is intensified by the [DI. + 好 ho2] construction. In (55), 恁好
8 In terms of analysis, the qualia structure proposed by Pustejovsky (1991) will be employed to analyze NPs. As Pustejovsky (1991) proposes, a qualia structure differentiates the predicative force of a lexical item. He examines a lexical item by way of four aspects (1991: 418):
a. QC (constitutive role): the relation between it and its constituent parts
b. QF (formal role): that which distinguishes it within a larger domain (its physical characteristics) c. QT (telic role): its purpose and function
d. QA (agentive role): whatever brings it about
F1:有錢 斯 盡‧
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an2ho2 ‘very good’ is employed to measure a person’s intelligence (頭腦 teu5no2
‘brain’ ) and performance at school (成績 siin5jid4 ‘score’). The telic role for the theme 頭腦 teu5no2 ‘brain’ and the agentive role for the theme 成績 siin5jid4 ‘score’
are highlighted in this case. The speaker intensifies the features of the target person later brings about those good qualities to result in the extraordinary performance of the person. In (56), 當好 dong1ho2 ‘very good’ denotes the good quality of the object 蛤仔 ha5e2 ‘clam’. The telic role aiming at the nutrition purpose for the theme 蛤仔 ha5e2 ‘clam’ is thus elevated. However, although the combination of 蛤仔當好 ha5e2dong1ho2 ‘Clams are very good for health.’ serves to illustrate that the
goodness of clams is well-known to the speaker, she still does not want to buy some.
In (57), 盡好 qin3ho2 ‘very good’ is employed to evaluate the matter of being rich.
The telic role of 有錢 iu1qien3 ‘have money’ is highlighted as well. The combination here strongly entails the concept that being rich could somehow make one live a better life. Different uses of 好 ho2 ‘good’ are thus distinguished with the help of the qualia structure.
Last, the third most frequently occurring relative adjective 大 tai3 ‘big’ also displays an interesting pattern in spoken data. As can be seen in Table 20 in the Appendix, 大 tai3 ‘big’ is frequently found in collocations with the two degree intensifiers 恁 an2 and 當 dong1. Table 16 demonstrates the distribution of the [DI. + 大 tai3] construction and its grammatical functions among the six degree intensifiers (83, 81.37%).
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TABLE 16 The distribution of the [DI. + 大 tai3] construction and grammatical functions among the six degree intensifiers
DI.
GF. 恁 an2 當 dong1 蓋 goi3 盡 qin3 異 i3 還 han5 Total
S Num 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0%
O Num 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0%
P Num 58 23 0 0 2 0 83
% 56.86% 22.55% 0.0% 0.0% 1.96% 0.0% 81.37%
A Num 6 5 1 1 0 1 14
% 5.88% 4.90% 0.98% 0.98% 0.0% 0.98% 13.73%
Ad Num 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0%
C Num 2 3 0 0 0 0 5
% 1.96% 2.94% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 4.90%
Total Num 66 31 1 1 2 1 102
% 64.71% 30.39% 0.98% 0.98% 1.96% 0.98% 100.00%
Similar to the manifestation of the [DI. + ho2] construction, the [DI. + tai3]
construction is mostly predicative in a clause, which implies the feature of evaluation.
When it is intensified, an open scale will be projected onto the degree of bigness /hugeness. Different dimensions of bigness /hugeness will be profiled depending on the speaker. In (58), 恁大 an2tai3 ‘very big’ is used to describe the size of taro (Qf), which the speaker implicitly compares the taros grown in the previous two years with those grown in this year. In (59), 當大 dong1tai3 ‘very huge’ is used to describe the strong structure of a typhoon (Qc).
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(58) [HL18: 138]
F1：𠊎𠊎𠊎𠊎 舊年 啊 前年 ...該 芋仔籽 恁‧ 大‧
懶尸 刨...
ngai5ngai5 kiu3ngien5 a3 qien5ngien5 ge3 vu3e2zii2 an2 tai3 lan1sii1 pau5 I last year PART the year before last year that taro very big lazily shred
‘F1: The taros I planted last year or the year before last year was very big.
Hence, I did not want to shred them.’
(59) [HL11: 349]
F2:...舊年 个 風搓 乜 當‧
大‧
啊 kiu3ngien5 ge3 fung1cai1 me3 dong1 tai3 a3
last year NOM typhoon also very huge PART
‘The typhoon was also very big last year!’
In addition, in Taiwan Hakka 大 tai3 ‘big’ is usually attached by NUM-CL morphemes as the instances in Table 17 show. Though together they denote the same meaning as is conveyed by 大 tai3 ‘big’, NUM-CL morphemes have restricted what 大 tai3 ‘big’ can modify. In addition, a degree intensifier is necessary in most cases.
For instance, 大片 tai3pien2 ‘big’ is used to describe a house (屋 vug4) and it has to co-occur with a degree intensifier to convey the meaning of bigness. 當大片个屋 dong1tai3pien2 ge3 vug4 ‘a very big house’ is acceptable while *大片个屋 tai3pien2 ge3 vug4 ‘big house’ is unacceptable. Such a fact may indicate that the degree
intensifiers have undergone the process of lexicalization (cf. in Mandarin *他高 ta1 gao1 ‘He is tall’ is not acceptable).
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TABLE 17 The numbers of collocation of 大 tai3 ‘big’ and NUM-CL morphemes Instances Freq. Instances Freq. Instances Freq.
大片 pien2 22 大包 tai3bau1 8 大本 tai3bun2 6
大尾 tai3mi1 5 大把 tai3ba2 5 大垤 tai3de3 3
大隻 tai3zag4 3 大條 tai3tiau5 2 大棟 tai3dung3 2 大節 tai3jied4 1 大縫 tai3pung3 1 大歸條 tai3gui1tiau5 1 大疊 tai3tiab8 1 大面 tai3mien3 1 大潑 tai3pad8 1 大箱 tai3xiong1 1 大叢 tai3cung5 1
Given the discussion on several cases of the three most frequent relative adjectives 多 do1 ‘many/much,’ 好 ho2 ‘good’ and 大 tai3 ‘big’, one can see that they can display a high quantity, quality, and size , etc when intensified.
The interpretation of relative adjectives usually correlates with the scale type and with a standard comparison and a scale type. The scale type of a relative adjective is
mostly that of an open-scale without minimal or maximal values. Hence, their relations with the boundedness, a parameter of scalar variation are meant to be unbounded. An open scale of an unbounded feature licenses the modification of a degree intensifier. Due to this characteristic, the way to interpret the meaning of the holistic construction is context-dependent, which may lead to vagueness (Burnett, 2012). To provide a reasonable explanation of the interpretation of vagueness in the holistic construction, Toledo and Sassoon (2011) point out that the scale on which a relative adjective is manifested is based on an extensional category which undergoes between-individual interpretation. For instance, the clams in 蛤仔當好
ha5e2dong1ho2 ‘Clams are very good for the health.’ in (56) might be compared with other nutritionally beneficial objects and 蛤仔 ha5e2 ‘clams’ wins out. Other cases
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can be similarly accounted for as well. In addition, the context-dependent interpretation of the relative adjectives may also result from the dimensional differences (e.g., height, cost, or temperature, etc.).
Figure 6 demonstrates how a scale-based interpretation can be done when a degree intensifier is attached to a relative adjective. Whenever a relative adjective X is intensified and the holistic degree construction aims to describe an entity A, the open scale X will be triggered. The representation of the open scale is marked by two hollow circles at each end. A set of degrees can be found on the scale of X. For convenience in demonstration, two red triangles that represent the contextual value can be marked as degree 1 and degree two on the scale of X. The degrees appointed by different speakers can vary each time. A black arrow is drawn between the two triangles to indicate the increase of the intensification on the scale of X. When the intensification operates, the comparison of individual examples in the class of entities which possess the feature of X (e.g., A, B, C, etc.) will be judged by the speaker and eventually the target entity stands out.
FIGURE 6 Scale-based interpretation on the relative adjectives
○: open end;
: intensification; ▼: set of degrees; {}: comparing classScale of X
d1 d2
A, B, C…
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Before concluding this section, attention should be paid to the small number of reduplicative adjectives in Taiwan Hakka. Generally speaking, the reduplicative forms found in the present study are mostly composed of relative adjectives. Hence, the author has categorized the special linguistic forms of these reduplicative adjectives into the relative ones. The co-occurrence of the degree intensifiers with reduplicative adjectives has manifested an interesting language phenomenon. Consider the
following two examples:
(60) [HL13:149]
F1:唉喲… 該 仰會 恁‧
白白仔‧‧‧
...
ai2io2 ge3 ngiong2voi3 an2 pag5pag5e2 PART there how come very white
‘Aww why there were so many white (Tung blossoms).’
(61) [NXI1: 226]
F2:係..兩隻妹仔..兩隻妹仔都異靚..毋知該隻細倈仔..
也毋會媸啦..就恁高高大大仔‧‧‧‧‧‧
呢
he3 liong1 zag4 moi3e2 liong1 zag4 moi3e2 du3 i3 jiang1 m5 di1 ge3 zag4 se3lai3e2 ia3 m5voi5 ze2 la1 qiu3 an2 go1go1tai3tai3e1no2
COP two-CL daughter two-CL daughter both very pretty NEG know that-CL son also will not ugly PART like very very tall PART
‘F2: Right, the two daughters are very pretty. I wonder if that son …’
Although reduplicative adjectives denote a fixed high degree and so cannot be intensified (Huang, Jin, & Shi 2016), the ten tokens as reduplicative forms can be found in the present study. All of them merely collocate with the degree intensifier 恁 an2. As can be seen in example (60), the reduplicative adjective 白白仔 pag5pag5e2
‘very white’ is modified by the degree intensifier 恁 an2 ‘very’. The speaker adopts
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such collocation to describe that what she saw was beyond her expectation. In (61),
such collocation to describe that what she saw was beyond her expectation. In (61),