Leiden University Student Repository

Vermaas, Emmelot (2014)

The ba-construction in Taiwan Mandarin: The influence of the Southern Min ka7-construction

Master thesis | Asian Studies (60 EC) (MA)

This research is about the use of the ba construction in Taiwan Mandarin. This construction marks the object by inserting the morpheme ba, and preposes it to the front of the sentence structure. It has also been called a disposal construction, since it denotes how the object is affected by the subject. Taiwan Mandarin is heavily influenced by Southern Min, a language which is spoken by a large proportion of the Taiwanese population. The Southern Min ka7 construction is very similar to the ba construction: it marks the object as patient and preposes it in the sentence structure. However, its use is also quite different from the use of the ba construction. In order to find out if this ka7 construction has influenced the ba construction, I took spoken example sentences from Taiwanese television shows and written example sentences from Taiwanese Facebook pages. The data from these sources suggests that in some cases the ba construction in Taiwanese Mandarin does behave differently, and...Show moreThis research is about the use of the ba construction in Taiwan Mandarin. This construction marks the object by inserting the morpheme ba, and preposes it to the front of the sentence structure. It has also been called a disposal construction, since it denotes how the object is affected by the subject. Taiwan Mandarin is heavily influenced by Southern Min, a language which is spoken by a large proportion of the Taiwanese population. The Southern Min ka7 construction is very similar to the ba construction: it marks the object as patient and preposes it in the sentence structure. However, its use is also quite different from the use of the ba construction. In order to find out if this ka7 construction has influenced the ba construction, I took spoken example sentences from Taiwanese television shows and written example sentences from Taiwanese Facebook pages. The data from these sources suggests that in some cases the ba construction in Taiwanese Mandarin does behave differently, and some of the differences can indeed be explained by the ka7 construction.Show less

Taiwan Mandarin

Southern Min

ba construction

ka construction

disposal construction

language contact

Author

Vermaas, Emmelot

Faculty

Faculty of Humanities

Specialisation

East Asian Studies

Supervisors

Sybesma, R.P.E.

ECTS Credits

15

Language

en