A study note on the state-denoting 個 ge “GE” construction

This short paper investigates a colloquial construction in Mandarin Chinese in which a secondary predicate may be preceded by the enclitic ta (它 ta “it”) and the classifier個 ge “GE.” The paper argues that ge heads a dependent clause, where the enclitic is the subject of the secondary predicate. Therefore, first, the classifier is not used as a counting unit in this numeral classifier language; and second, in addition to PRO, another form of the subject for a dependent clause is attested in secondary predicate construction in this language.