臺閩語構式 (construction)〔無啥物X〕可表「微量」概念，指「某具象或抽象事物 的實際量 (X) 較預設值微小」，如〔無啥物人〕（不太多人），但是過去並未獲得注 意。X 的可能成分包含名詞、形容詞、情態／感知／行為動詞與「咧＋行為動詞」等六 種。除須具備〔＋等級化〕外，形容詞另須具備〔＋正極性〕，這部分可援引「等級模 式」(scalar model) 獲得詮釋。另者「啥物」作狀語雖限於否定語境，但修飾對象已擴及 其他動詞性成分。可見並非臨時性用法，應屬IITSC (Invited Inferencing Theory of Semantic Changes) 的第二階段「話語類型意義」(utterance-type meaning) (Traugott 1999)，本文稱做「類副詞」(semi-adverb)。文中也由「語法化」(grammaticalization) 討 論「啥物」如何由「名詞性」疑問代詞，轉為「類副詞」範疇的過程，這部分過往也未 見討論。

This paper aims to investigate the ‘paucal’ construction [無啥物X] ‘very few, barely’ in Taiwanese Southern Min (TSM). The elements that can occur in this construction include nouns, adjectives, modal verbs, psychological verbs, active verbs, and ‘咧 + active verb.’ According to the ‘scalar model,’ all of these elements should possess the feature [+scalar] to specify the idea ‘scalar.’ Adjectives, in particular, should make [+positive] prominent as well.

啥物 ‘what’ can be treated as a ‘semi-adverb’ when it modifies the following verbal elements. The grammaticalization of 啥物 ‘what’ from a interrogative pronoun to a semi-adverb, which has not heretofore been discussed, is another focus of this paper.