expl: expletive
In Cantonese, expletive (1) and pleonastic (2) uses of the pronoun 佢 / keoi5 (3SG) are labelled as expl dependents of the head of a clause. In expletive uses, the pronoun does not refer to an actual person or object but it is required in the sentence otherwise it would become ungrammatical. In the pleonastic case, the pronoun is used immediately after a noun and refers back to it in a redundant way.
# visual-style 1 3 expl color:blue
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1 喊 _ VERB _ _ 0 root _ cry
2 飽 _ ADJ _ _ 1 compound:vv _ full
3 佢 _ PRON _ _ 1 expl _ yesterday
4 啦 _ PART _ _ 1 discourse:sp _ SP
1 "Go _ _ _ _ 0 _ _ _
2 ahead _ _ _ _ 0 _ _ _
3 and _ _ _ _ 0 _ _ _
4 cry _ _ _ _ 0 _ _ _
5 it _ _ _ _ 0 _ _ _
6 all _ _ _ _ 0 _ _ _
7 out." _ _ _ _ 0 _ _ _
# visual-style 1 5 expl color:blue
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# visual-style 5 bgColor:blue
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1 抌 _ VERB _ _ 0 root _ discard
2 晒 _ PART _ _ 1 compound:quant _ all
3 啲 _ NOUN _ _ 4 det _ CL:plural
4 嘢 _ NOUN _ _ 1 obj _ stuff
5 佢 _ PRON _ _ 1 expl _ 3SG
6 啦 _ PART _ _ 1 discourse:sp _ SP
1 "Just _ _ _ _ 0 _ _ _
2 throw _ _ _ _ 0 _ _ _
3 all _ _ _ _ 0 _ _ _
4 the _ _ _ _ 0 _ _ _
5 stuff _ _ _ _ 0 _ _ _
6 away!" _ _ _ _ 0 _ _ _
References
- Matthews, Stephen and Virginia Yip. 2011. Cantonese: A Comprehensive Grammar, 2nd ed. Routledge.
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