A discussion of syntax and semantics on ma- verbs in Yami

• Main Authors: Chang, Yu Jing, 張育菁
• Other Authors: 曹逢甫
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2011
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/59218949017634852418

碩士 === 國立清華大學 === 語言學研究所 === 100 === Abstract This thesis aims to discuss the syntactic and semantic derivation of ma- verbs in Yami. Ma-, a multi-functional prefix, is commonly seen across Austronesian languages. According to Rau & Dong (2006), Yami ma- is a homopheme which can be divided into two categories: one belongs to agent voice and the other one belongs to non-agent voice. This thesis, in addition to supporting Rau & Dong (2006)’s analyses of ma-, reveals four types of ma- verbs in Yami, which receive little attention in the literature. The first type of ma- verbs, referred to as MA1-, is used as the agent voice which tends to co-occur with reduplicated progressive affixes. The event type of MA1- is always active. As for the non-agent voice ma- verbs, they are not allowed to co-occur progressive affixes. The non-agent voice ma- verbs could be further categorized into MA2- and MA3- where the MA2- verbs are stative verbs and the MA3- verbs are modal verbs. The MA2- verbs denote only one event and are usually without agent while the MA3- verbs entail ability or potential of agent. The fourth type of ma- verbs is MA4-, which serves as PASSIVE VOICE. Based on Aldridge (2004) and Hacqard (2006, 2009), this thesis focuses mainly on the discussion of syntactic and semantic derivation of MA3- in Yami. Generally speaking, the semantics of MA3- contains a circumstantial modal base and assumes existential force. That is, as long as MA3- is defined, an event denoted by MA3- must entail actuality entailment (Hacqard, 2006). In addition, following Aldridge (2004), I assume that the basic word order of MA3- Yami is VSO. In this case, Voice P will assign genitive cases to external arguments like agents. As for internal arguments, patients will receive nominative cases from vP. Nevertheless, since the TAM system of Yami requires further discussion, this thesis will not deal with the structure above Voice P.