This paper studies the “one+verbal classifier” sequence tsi̍t-ē that appears after an indefinite
object complement in Taiwanese Southern Min. We call it the post-complement (PC) tsi̍t-ē. While the
tsi̍t-ē sequence can be a durative phrase when it is immediately preceded by a verb, the PC
tsi̍t-ē cannot be replaced by the durative phrase tsi̍t-ē-á ‘a while’
(tsi̍t-ē plus the diminutive suffix á) or other durative phrases. We show that the PC
tsi̍t-ē is a sentence-final particle, not a durative phrase serving as a predicate or complement. Moreover,
it marks delimitativity, which means ‘termination in a short time.’ It is the same kind of delimitativity that verb reduplication
in Mandarin Chinese expresses despite the fact that the latter targets on the verb and is more selective in terms of the verb
types that it can occur with. Moreover, the PC tsi̍t-ē carries the ‘down-play’ meaning. Syntactically, we suggest
that it heads an AspP, which occurs above a vP.
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