Do accomplishments in Cantonese allow incompletive readings? A crowdsourced experimental study

Abstract

Accomplishment predicates in Mandarin are known to permit incompletive readings under a perfective viewpoint, and previous studies have shown that the acceptability of such readings is affected by various predicate properties. This study examines whether accomplishments in Hong Kong Cantonese show similar behavior and whether predicate type influences the acceptability of incompletive readings in Cantonese. As part of a larger crowdsourced project on language variation and change in Hong Kong, acceptability judgment data were collected from native Cantonese speakers with diverse sociolinguistic and demographic backgrounds. The results show a clear cross-linguistic difference between Cantonese and Mandarin: unlike Mandarin speakers, Cantonese speakers generally disprefer incompletive readings for perfective accomplishments. Moreover, predicate type, which significantly affects Mandarin judgments, does not significantly influence Cantonese judgments: the Cantonese pattern is largely uniform across all predicate types tested. At the same time, the acceptability of incompletive readings in Cantonese varies with speaker background. Cantonese speakers with greater Mandarin exposure, weaker local identity orientation, and less locally rooted community backgrounds are more likely to accept incompletive readings, showing more Mandarin-like judgment patterns, though not necessarily Mandarin-like sensitivity to predicate-type differences.