Chapter 5 Constructionalization of the Novel Use of YONG in TM
5.1 PR-V and pro-V YONG in Taiwan Southern Min
The emergence of the novel use of YONG in Taiwan Mandarin (TM) is another important issue in the current study. This emerging use of YONG may be the result of language contact between Taiwan Mandarin and Taiwan Southern Min. In Taiwan Southern Min (TSM), a variety of Chinese widely spoken in Taiwan, a function of YONG similar to the novel use of YONG in TM can be found. YONG in TSM can be used as a pro-V or a PR-V. The two functions of YONG in TSM share similar syntactic constraints and semantic properties with their counterparts in TM, as illustrated in the following examples1:
※ syntactic constraints and semantic properties of PR-V YONG in TSM
1 Most of the TSM instances here are made-up examples based on the author’s competence of TSM. Five informants, aged from 53 to 68, which are native speakers of southern Taiwan dialectal variations of TSM are consulted for these made-up examples. Two instances are cited from Taiwan Southern Min Dictionary of Common Words, which is created by Ministry of Education, Taiwan. Besides, due to regional variation, some speakers of northern Taiwan TSM prefer to use another word 創 tshong instead of 用 iong for PR-V and
A. PR-V YONG does not depict events of STATE situation type.
(1) *[有點/真誠/非常用2] *[tsittiama/tsintsiann/huisiong iong] ‘a little/very YONG’
B. PR-V YONG must code events of both transitive and physical type.
(2) transitive physical activity 伊得幫我用頭鬃。
i teh pang gua iong tautsang he PRG help I YONG hair
‘He is cutting/dyeing/crimping hair for me’
(3) intransitive physical actions I YONG/hear-EPF this-CL story
‘I had ever done/heard about this story.’
b. verbs of cognition 我不*用/相信他个話。
gua m *iong/siongsin i e ue I not YONG/believe he RP word
‘I do not do/believe his words.’
c. verbs of utterance transcription systems are the Taiwanese Romanization, a commonly used spelling system of Taiwan Southern Min, and Taiwanese Han-character system, a widely used writing system of Taiwan Southern Min in Chinese characters.
verbs of emotion
d. 我*用/愛臺灣。
gua *iong/ai taiuan I YONG/love Taiwan
‘I do/love Taiwan.’
copula verbs
e. 我卜*用/變做大明星。
gua beh *iong/piantso tuabingtshenn I want YONG/become super-star
‘I want to do/become a super star.’
verbs of possession
f. 我*用/有一枝筆。
gua *iong/u tsitki pit I YONG/have one-CL pen
‘I do/have a pen.’
C. PR-V YONG does not denote actions of possessional transfer
(5) 你哪會使*用/搶人的物件？ [TSM Dictionary of Common Words]
li na esai *iong/tshiunn lang e mihkiann you how can YONG/snatch people RP thing
‘How can you snatch other people’s thing?’
D. The action coded by pro-V YONG must be Agent-control.
(6) 這禮拜天氣轉寒，有真濟人*用/著病。 [TSM Dictionary of Common Words]
tsit lepai thinnkhi tng kuann, u tsin tse lang *iong/tioh penn
this week weather change cold there-be very many people YONG/get disease
‘Many people are sick because of the cold weather this week. ’
E. The object of PR-V YONG could be a Patient NP, a Theme NP, or an Incremental Theme NP.
(7) Patient object NP
冰箱害去矣，我卜叫人來用冰箱。
pingsiunn hai khi a, gua beh kio lang lai iong pingsiunn
refrigerator out-of-work PF, I want call people Purp. YONG refrigerator
‘The refrigerator is not working. I will call someone to fix it.’
(8) Theme object NP 我得用公司个代誌。
gua teh iong kongsi e taitsi
I PRG YONG company RP matter
‘I am doing company matters.’
(9) Incremental Theme object NP 阮母得幫我用暗頓。
guan bu teh pang gua iong amtng my mother PRG help I YONG dinner
‘My mother is cooking dinner for me.’
F. The object NP of PR-V YONG must be a concrete entity. It cannot be an abstract entity, a deverbal noun (activity noun), an associative object (co-Agent), or a cognate object.
(10) abstract entity
*i teh iong tshing se/tse tso
he PRG YONG washing/produciton
i teh *iong/tshiunn kua/thiau bu/siong kho he PRG YONG/sing song/dance(V) dance(N) /give lecture
‘He is doing/singing/dancing/giving a lecture.’
※ syntactic constraints and semantic properties of pro-V YONG in TSM
A. Pro-V YONG does not depict events of STATE situation type.
(14) *[有點/真誠/非常用] *[tsittiama/tsintsiann/huisiong iong] ‘a little/very YONG’
B. The event coded in the VP substituted by YONG must be both transitive and physical.
(15) prototypical transitive physical activity A:誰會當幫我搬桌仔？
A: siann etang pang gua puann toh-a A: who can help I move the table
A: siann ti tsaulongting teh tsau A: who on passageway-top PRG run ‘Who is running on the passageway?’
B: *伊用个。
B: *i iong e B: he YONG RP
‘He did it/He ran on the passageway.’
(17) transitive non-physical actions
perception-cognition-utterance verbs
a. verbs of perception A:你敢聽過這塊故事？
A: li kam thiannkue tsite koosu A: you QM hear-EPF this-CL story
‘Have you ever heard about this story?’
B: *我用過。
B: *gua iongkue B: I YONG-EPF
‘I had done it/heard about it.’
b. verbs of cognition
‘I don’t want to do it/explain it.’
verbs of emotion
A: gua kam etang piantso tuabingtshenn A: I QM can become super-star
‘Can I become a super star?’
B: *不，你袂當用。
B: *m, li betang iong B: no, you not-can YONG ‘No, you cannot do it/
No, you cannot become a super star.’
verbs of possession
C. Pro-V can substitute verbs of possessional transfer
(18) A:誰偷提我的冊？
A: siann thautheh gua e tseh A: who steal I RP book
D. The action coded in the substituted VP must be Agent-control.
(19) A:伊敢有致著癌症？
E. The object in the substituted VP could be a Patient NP, a Theme NP, or an Incremental
A: this-evening who want cook dinner ‘Who will cook dinner this evening?’
A: li kam etang pang gua tshue tsit pun tsheh A: you QM can help I look-for one-CL book ‘Can you look for a book for me?’
A: siann teh tshiunn kua/thiau bu/siong kho
A: who PRG sing song/dance(V) dance(N)/give lecture ‘Who is singing/dancing/giving a lecture?’
B: *伊用个。
B: *i iong e B: he YONG RP
‘He is doing it = singing a song/dancing a dance/giving a lecture’
In sum, the syntactic constraints and semantic properties of the pro-V and PR-V YONG in TM and TSM can be represented in the table below:
pro-V PR-V
syntactic constraints/semantic properties TM TSM TM TSM
STATE situation type － － － －
physical actions ＋ ＋ ＋ ＋
transitive actions ＋ ＋ ＋ ＋
actions of PCU-V － － － －
actions of copula V － － － －
actions of possession V － － － －
actions of possessional transfer V ＋ ＋ － －
Agent-control ＋ ＋ ＋ ＋
Patient object NP ＋ ＋ ＋ ＋
Theme object NP ＋ ＋ ＋ ＋
Incremental Theme object NP ＋ ＋ ＋ ＋
associative object NP － － － －
cognate object NP － － － －
abstract entity as object NP － －
deverbal noun as object NP － －
Tab. 3 syntactic constraints and semantic properties of the pro-V and PR-V YONG in TM and TSM
As demonstrated above, the pro-V and PR-V YONG in TSM parallel their counterparts in TM in terms of their syntactic constraints and semantic properties. It is clear that these two usages in TSM got transferred into TM by language contact. As a contact-induced language change, one crucial question would be raised: by what mechanism did this novel use of YONG come into being in TM? In the coming sections, tentative hypotheses to account for this issue will be proposed and discussed.