Chapter 4 Analysis
4.4 The comparison between hai ‘even-more’ and khah ‘more’
The other element hai ‘even-more’ in MC seems to have the same distribution that khah
‘more’ has as the following examples demonstrated.
(39) 張三 比 李四 還 高 (三 公分)
Zhangsan bi Lisi
hai
gao (san gongfen)Zhangsan than Lisi even-more tall three centimeters
‘Zhangsan is even (three centimeters) taller than Lisi.’
(40) 阿榮 比 阿狗 較 懸 (三 公分)
A-ing pi A-kao
khah
kuan (sann kongfun)A-ing than A-kao more tall three centimeter
‘A-ing is (three centimeters) taller than A-kao.’
Nevertheless, the distribution of hai ‘even-more’ is similar to the intensifier koh ‘again’
and ke ‘add’ in TSM. To begin with, hai ‘even-more’, koh ‘again’, and ke ‘add’ can co-occur with the differential measure phrase as the following instances indicate.
(41) 張三 比 李四 還 高 (三 公分)
Zhangsan bi Lisi
hai
gao (san gongfen)Zhangsan than Lisi even-more tall three centimeters
‘Zhangsan is even (three centimeters) taller than Lisi.’
(42) 阿榮 比 阿狗 擱 較 懸 (三 公分)
A-ing pi A-kao
koh khah
kuan (sann kongfun)A-ing than A-kao again more tall three centimeters
‘A-ing is even (three centimeters) taller than A-kao.’
(43) 阿榮 比 阿狗 加 較 懸 (三 公分)
A-ing pi A-kao
ke khah
kuan (sann kongfun)A-ing than A-kao add more tall three centimeters
‘A-ing is even (three centimeters) taller than A-kao.’
Furthermore, due to the following reasonings, hai ‘even-more’ is different from khah
‘more’. The word hai ‘even-more’, according to Lin (2009), can be placed before bi ‘than’.
However, geng ‘even-more’ can’t precede bi ‘than’ in the bi-comparative. Besides, it is found that khah ‘more’, like geng ‘even-more’, can’t be followed by pi ‘than’. As can be seen in (44), (45) and (46), only hai ‘even-more’ precedes bi ‘than’ in the bi-comparative. Because of the distributional difference, hai ‘even-more’ is indeed different from khah ‘more’.
(44) 他 還 比 我 重 三 公斤
ta
hai
bi wo zhong san gongjinhe even-more than I heavy three kilometer
‘He is three kilometers heavier than I am.’ Lin (2009)
(45) *他 更 比 我 重 三 公斤
*ta
geng
bi wo zhong san gongjinhe even-more than I heavy three kilometer
‘He is even three kilometers heavier than I am.’
(46) *伊 較 比 我 重 三 公斤
*I
khah
pi gua tang sann gongkinhe more than I heavy three kilometer
‘He is three kilometers heavier than I am.’
In contrast, the distribution of koh ‘again’ and ke ‘add’ is similar to that of hai
‘even-more’. Take (47) and (48) for example, koh ‘again’ and ke ‘add’ can also precede pi
‘than’ as the Chinese hai ‘even-more’ does, leaving the overt comparative morpheme khah
‘more’ in the position where no Chinese counterpart can be placed. This fact suggests that hai
‘even-more’ should pattern with koh ‘again’ and ke ‘add’ instead of khah ‘more’.
(47) 阿榮 擱 比 阿狗 較 懸 (三 公分)
A-ing
koh
pi A-kao khah kuan sann kongfunA-ing again than A-kao more tall three centimeters
‘A-ing is even three centimeters taller than A-kao.’
(48) 阿榮 加 比 阿狗 較 懸 (三 公分)
A-ing
ke
pi A-kao khah kuan (sann kongfun)A-ing add than A-kao more tall three centimeters
‘A-ing is even three centimeters taller than A-kao.’
(49) 張三 還 比 李四 高 (三 公分)
Zhangsan
hai
bi Lisi gao (san gongfen)Zhangsan even-more than Lisi tall three kilometer
‘Zhangsan is even three centimeters taller than Lisi.’
Moreover, comparing (47), (48) and (49), it is observed that khah ‘more’ precedes the predicate kuan ‘tall’ in (47) and (48), whereas no element precedes the adjective kuan ‘tall’ in (49). This fact provides further evidence that TSM khah ‘more’ has no Chinese counterpart.
However, the claim that hai ‘even-more’ should pattern with koh ‘again’ and ke ‘add’ is challenged by the fact that hai ‘even-more’, koh ‘again’ and ke ‘add’ are not the same category. To make it explicit, koh ‘again’ and ke ‘add’ are intensifiers while hai ‘even-more’
is not5. This is supported by the fact that koh ‘again’ and ke ‘add’ can mutually modify each other before the comparative morpheme khah ‘more’ in (50) and (51) or in front of pi ‘than’
in both (52) and (53).
(50) 阿榮 比 阿狗 擱加 較 懸 (三 公分)
A-ing pi A-kao
koh-ke
khah kuan (sann kongfun)A-ing than A-kao again-add more tall three centimeters
‘A-ing is even (three centimeters) taller than A-kao.’
5 The adverb koh ‘again’ is not always considered an intensifier. Koh ‘again’ functions as an intensifier when it is used to modify the adjective with a comparative morpheme such as khah-kuan ‘taller’ in (42) and (50).
In contrast, koh ‘again’ can only be an adverb but not an intensifier when it is placed before a verb like lai ‘come’
in (i) below. In (i), koh ‘again’ can even be replaced by the compound word iu-koh ‘again’ and koh-tsai ‘again’, which are respectively composed of iu ‘again’ and koh ‘again’ as well as koh ‘again’ and tsai ‘again’ according to Cheng & You (2010). In Cheng & You (2010), they suggest that iu ‘again’ and tsai ‘again’ are words borrowed from MC due to the language contacts and and they combine with TSM koh ‘again’ in the language evolution.
(i) 阿榮 今仔日 擱/又擱/擱再/又擱再 來 阮 兜
A-ing kin-a-lit koh/iu-koh/koh-tsai/ iu-koh-tsai lai gun tau
(51) 阿榮 比 阿狗 加擱 較 懸 (三 公分)
A-ing pi A-kao
ke-koh
khah kuan (sann kongfun).A-ing than A-kao add-again more tall three centimeters
‘A-ing is even (three centimeters) taller than A-kao.’
(52) 阿榮 擱加 比 阿狗 較 懸 (三 公分)
A-ing
koh-ke-
pi A-kao khah kuan (sann kongfun).A-ing again-add than A-kao more tall three centimeters
‘A-ing is even (three centimeters) taller than A-kao.’
(53) 阿榮 加擱 比 阿狗 較 懸 (三 公分)
A-ing
ke-koh
pi A-kao khah kuan (sann kongfun).A-ing again-add than A-kao more tall three centimeters
‘A-ing is even (three centimeters) taller than A-kao.’
As shown in the above sentences, koh-ke ‘again-add’ and ke-koh ‘add-again’ can also occupy the place before khah ‘more’ in (50) and (51) or pi ‘than’ in (52) and (53). Although
the two intensifiers koh-ke ‘again-add’ and ke-koh ‘add-again’ have similar distribution to hai
‘even-more’6, they are different from hai ‘even-more’ with respect to its category. They are
6 The distribution of hai ‘even-more’ and that of koh ‘again’ and ke ‘add’ are similar but not identical. For instance, the distribution of hai ‘even-more’ is much restricted than koh ‘again’ and ke ‘add’ in the transitive comparative, the guo-comparative and the intransitive comparative. Please refer to the appendix for further
composed of the two intensifiers, koh ‘again’ and ke ‘add’, whereas hai ‘even-more’ is not an intensifier.
In addition, hai ‘even-more’ is different from khah ‘more’, koh ‘again’, and ke ‘add’
because hai ‘even-more’ is generally considered a constituent which can express the counter-expectation concept, whereas khah ‘more’, koh ‘again’, and ke ‘add’ are not the counter-expectation marker. According to Tsai (2013), both Wu (2004) and Wu (2009)
mentioned that hai ‘even-more’ is a counter-expectation marker. The meaning of the structure
‘X bi Y hai W’ is a counter-expectation comparison. Tsai also mentioned that both Wu (2009)
and Tang (2009) suggest that hai ‘even-more’ can express the notion of subjectivity. From the discussion above, I suggest that the functions of hai ‘even-more’ are so complicated that neither the comparative morpheme khah ‘more’ nor the intensifiers koh ‘again’ and ke ‘add’
in TSM can contain such complex functions.7
7 The intensifier koh ‘again’ may be regarded as a counter-expectation marker in the following paradigms. As can be seen in (i) and (ii), both koh ‘again’ and hai ‘even-more’ express the counter-expectation concept. Both sentences are used to indicate that this person’s characteristic is better than the speaker had expected.
(i) 這 个 人 擱 袂 䆀
tsit e lang koh bue bai
this cl person again not bad
‘To my surprised, this person’s characteristic is not bad.’
(ii) 這 個 人 還 不 錯
zhe ge ren hai bu cuo
this cl person even-more not bad
‘To my surprised, this person’s characteristic is not bad.’
However, koh ‘again’ in (iii) may have no counter-expectation meaning. In (iii), koh ‘again’ should modify khah
‘more’, thus khah ‘more’ is required or the sentence will be ungrammatical. The term koh-khah ‘even-more’
patterns with geng ‘even-more’ in (iv) rather than the couner-expectation marker, hai ‘even-more’ in (v).
(iii) 阿榮 比 阿狗 擱 *(較) 懸
A-ing pi A-kao koh khah kuan
To summarize, in this section, I try to find a MC counterpart that is parallel to the TSM
khah ‘more’ with no success. For instance, the functions and meanings of geng ‘even-more’
and hai ‘even-more’ in MC are more complicated than those of khah ‘more’ in TSM. Also,
jiao ‘more’ in MC is incompatible with the bi-comparative, transitive comparative and
guo-comparative, whereas khah ‘more’ in TSM is compatible with those types of
comparatives. This fact indicates that khah ‘more’ in TSM is indeed different from geng
‘even-more’, hai ‘even-more’, and jiao ‘more’.
In MC, the comparative morpheme tends to be covert instead of overt. The MC overt comparative morpheme is used only when the speaker needs to express some specific reading.
In order to convey various specific readings, speakers in MC may choose different overt comparative morphemes such as geng ‘even-more’ and hai ‘even-more’. In contrast, the comparative morpheme in TSM is often used in an overt form khah ‘more’ rather than the covert form. Some specific function can be expressed by adding the other constituent such as
the intensifier koh ‘again’ in the sentence instead of using different overt comparative
(iv) 張三 比 李四 更 高
Zhangsan bi Lisi geng gao
Zhangsan than Lisi even-more tall
‘Zhangsan is even taller than Lisi.’
(v) 張三 比 李四 還 高
Zhangsan bi Lisi geng gao
Zhangsan than Lisi even-more tall
‘Zhangsan is even taller than Lisi.’
Therefore, I suggest that the adverb koh ‘again’ in (i) is different from the intensifier koh ‘again’ in (iii). The former is a counter-expectation marker just like hai ‘even-more’, the latter is merely an intensifier with no counter-expectation meaning.
On the other hand, hai ‘even-more’ in both (ii) and (v) are counter-expectation markers. Hence, the fact shows
morphemes. The specific reason for the contrast between the comparative morphemes in MC and those in TSM requires further research.