Su Chian-tang

Abstract

This paper aims to investigate the ‘一VP’ construction in Mandarin Chinese. ‘一VP’ is usually found in the co-subordination structure ‘一VP₁就VP₂’ and serves as the reference time of  VP₂. Besides, ‘一VP’ also refers to an event and ‘一’ serves as an adverb of time denoting completion. The ‘一VP’ construction is incompatible with individual-level predicates such as 快樂 but compatible with stage-level predicates such as 高興 since individual-level predicates do not contain time points. The construction ‘一VP’ can occur in the sentence-final position, e.g. 值得一提; however, in this case ‘一’ is used to calculate the event argument. Lastly, the numeral ‘一’ undergoes grammaticalization from a numeral to an adverb of time. Three mechanisms are involved in the change in addition to subjectivity and intersubjectivity: (1) inference, (2) analogy and (3) reanalysis.

Keywords: ‘一VP’, ‘一VP₁就VP₂’, adverb of time, event argument, grammaticalization.