Hakka aspectual Ted4 constructions: A constructional approach

This paper, adopting the constructional perspective, deals with the interaction of aspect and construction with reference to the ted4 construction in Hakka. It is claimed that, syntactically, ted4 is a phase marker; the meaning of the ted4 construction denotes a change of state; and aspectually, the ted4 construction encodes telicity. The quantitative expression collocated with the ted4 construction is an additional argument which is licenced by the ted4 construction, not by the verb nor by ted4, and it can salvage the ungrammaticality of certain ted4 constructions. Further, the aspectual coercion of the ted4 construction manifests that constructions win in conflicts between lexical meanings and constructional meanings. Finally, the schemata of ted4 constructions are diagrammed to exhibit their semiproductive patterns in syntax, semantics, and aspect.