英文摘要 |
This preliminary work examines the Vietnamese diachronic data to first attempt a glimpse into the inventory of specialized dynamic modal elements in Vietnamese, and to adumbrate a rough chronology of this modal system. It further traces back the syntacto-semantic changes resulting in two distinct instances of the dynamic modalđược. I argue that post-verbalđược is immediately derived from a resultative marker, and there once existed a pre-verbalđược with a pure opportunity reading, which was later reanalyzed asđược with a benefactive interpretation. The paper thus provides an explanation to the long-held puzzle regarding the sole post-verbal position of dynamic modalđược in Present-Day Vietnamese. |