Abstract
This paper examines the locative existential construction in Taiwanese Hakka in terms of Construction Grammar. This construction pairs the form 'NP_(1LOC) V NP_2' with the meaning 'Y_2 BE IN X_1.' It is argued that the distributional characteristics of verbs in this construction can be accounted for by the interaction between construction and lexical semantics. For a given locative existential sentence to be grammatical, a change of the existential state of NP_2 as a result of the verbal subevent must be involved. The interaction between the verbal subevent and the constructional subevent can be seen in two aspects. First, the construction has a coercion effect in forcing a dynamic verb to have a stative reading. Second, the argument realization of this construction is the result of the fusion of the argument(s) of the verb and the arguments of the construction and the construction wins in conflicts between the two types of arguments . According to the relationship between the verbal subevent and the constructional subevent, this construction is divided into three verb-class-specific subconstructions. Under the constructional analysis, verbs can retain their intrinsic semantics and implausible senses of verbs can be avoided.