06.04.2013 Views

Johnson 2004 - CDLI - UCLA

Johnson 2004 - CDLI - UCLA

Johnson 2004 - CDLI - UCLA

SHOW MORE
SHOW LESS

Create successful ePaper yourself

Turn your PDF publications into a flip-book with our unique Google optimized e-Paper software.

(16) wo3 wen4 (yi) wen4 zai4 jue2-ding<br />

I ask one ask then decide<br />

I’ll decide after I inquire a little.<br />

Although Li and Thompson do not make the connection, the form in English that seems<br />

to correspond to the delimitative aspect construction in Mandarin is a light verb<br />

construction in which a higher ditransitive predicate is introduced into the construction<br />

and the original main verb is changed into an indefinite noun—examples (15) and (16)<br />

are repeated below with English light verb constructions in the glosses.<br />

(17) ni3 shi4 (yi) shi4 kan4<br />

you try one try see<br />

Give it a try and see!<br />

(18) wo3 wen4 (yi) wen4 zai4 jue2-ding<br />

I ask one ask then decide<br />

I’ll decide after I make some inquires, lit., an inquiry.<br />

While the light verb construction in (18) involves a verb of creation, “make,” typically<br />

associated with verbs of speaking, the light verb construction in the gloss to (17) makes<br />

use of a low goal applicative construction. Light verbs that resemble a low source<br />

applicative such as “take a look at” also occur in English and bear a number of important<br />

114

Hooray! Your file is uploaded and ready to be published.

Saved successfully!

Ooh no, something went wrong!