英文摘要 |
Based on the Southern Min playscripts of the Ming and Qing Dynasties and the Modern Southern Min texts, this article examines the syntactic functions of de in three syntactic positions: [1] as the main verb of a clause, meaning 'to acquire;' [2] post-verbally, either denoting the completion of a motion as the phase complement or expressing dynamic modality as the potential complement; and [3] pre-verbally, as a modal verb that takes predicative objects, expressing dynamic modality (including circumstantial dynamic modality) and even epistemic modality, as shown in some texts. Besides these, de is compounded with another adverb to become a disyllabic word in some cases, which shows lexicalization and grammaticalization at play. Furthermore, the de in de ren xi ('someone makes others cherish someone') and de ren jing ('someone makes others fear someone') as a causative verb is the result of syntactic re-analysis. Quite a few constructions containing de found in the Ming-Qing playscripts have died out, as they are relatively convoluted expressions borrowed from Mandarin. |