| Summary: | 碩士 === 國立清華大學 === 語言學研究所 === 91 === The logical form of modification is generally analyzed in terms of the conjunction structure in semantic research. Previous studies related to Amis conjunction and modification constructions appear to be incomplete and do not seem to be tenable. Our Amis data shows that the conjunctor a ‘and’ not only conjoins two NPs in their conjunction and modification constructions but also connects two VPs in their modification construction. This thesis aims to explore conjunction, modification, and their grammatical relationships in Amis. We focus on two groups of VP-modification constructions: (a) sentences with resultative/descriptive expressions, and (b) sentences with manner expressions, taking into account the conjunction construction and the NP-modification construction. Given that Parsons’ (1990) conjunction approach of adjunct association in semantics, we hypothesize that the initial formation of these two kinds of sentences is constructed by the conjunction a ‘and’ used to connect two verbs in AV constructions. As for sentences with resultative/descriptive expressions, we argue that verbs in resultative/descriptive expressions are the main verbs of the sentences, and the following a-introduced clauses can be analyzed as control adjunct clauses headed by modified verbs. The conjunctor a ‘and’ in resultative/descriptive sentences has been grammaticalized to be a complementizer. As for sentences with manner adverbials sa-X-sa/X-sa (X stands for word roots), we argue that the conjunction a ‘and’ has been grammaticalized to be a modification marker, marking adverbials in this construction. The modification marker a introduces manner adverbials which occur at its left-hand side in the construction. Such an adverbial functions as a subordinate clause of the main clause headed by a modified verb. This suggestion can be supported by the optional occurrence of a in sentences and the parallel evidence from NP-modification constructions.
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