從早期和現代語料看粵語進行體標記“緊”在複句中的功能

粵語進行體標記“V 緊”在現代粵語中一般用在單句中，比如在 1996 年的《小男人周記》中，在單句中使用的例子佔百分之八十六。但是我們檢查 1866 年出版的《述史淺譯》中的“緊”後發現，當時在單句中使用的例子只佔百分之二十六，但時間小句的例子卻佔百分之七十一之多。當時“緊”後面偶爾還接著有處所詞“嗻”（“處”的簡化形式）。我們相信“V 緊（嗻）”的主要功能是在複句中表示“當上句的事件正進行時，下句的事件突然發生或同時存在”。
The Cantonese progressive aspect marker V-gan is typically used in the main clause referring to the ongoing action at the reference time. For example, in the 1996 novel Siunaamjan Zaugei (Diary of a Yuppie), 86% of the tokens were used in the main clause, whereas only 8% was used in the subordinate temporal clause. However, in the 1866 narrative story Seotsi Cinjik (the Cantonese translation of Bible History for the Least and Lowest), while 26% of the tokens of -gan were used in the main clause, as much as 71% belonged to the usage in the subordinate temporal clause, in occasional combination with a localizer syu (simplified form of cyu). It is believed that the use of V-gan (syu) in the subordinate clause was very common in the 19th century and its similar use in modern Cantonese may have come from this locative phrase construction in the 19th century that described a background situation of a new event, or a co-existing state. Copyright © 2018 吳多泰中國語文研究中心.