V光 — bare, none left. · Tsumugu Grammar

grammar → V光

TSUMUGU · TBCL 4 (est.) · 語法

V光 grammar point · tier 1 · exhaustive complement V光 (used up to nothing, bare)

· guāng

A verb clipped to 光 says the supply was used right down to nothing — bare, none left.

Hook inherited from 結果補語.

A verb clipped to 光 says the supply was used right down to nothing — bare, none left.

框 · Frame

[subj] [verb] 光 ([obj]) (了)

觸 · Trigger

You want to say the stock of something was consumed all the way down to nothing.

序 · The move

1pick a verb that consumes or clears a supply (eat, drink, sell, spend, use)is there a stock that can run dry, not just an act that ends?

2clip 光 directly onto the back of the verb: 吃光, 賣光, 用光is 光 fused to the verb, not floating at the clause end?

3put any object after the verb, and 了 at the end to mark the now-empty statedoes the picture end at zero — none of it remaining?

例 · Examples

1你回來的路上可以買條measure for the loaf吐司toast, sandwich bread嗎？家裡的吐司都吃光eat up — 吃 (eat) plus 光: down to nothing left了marks the new state: now there is none。

Can you buy a loaf of toast on your way back? The toast at home is all eaten up.

界 · Boundary

V完

完 reports the act was carried through to its finish; the stock may still remain (吃完一個 = finished eating one, more on the plate). 光 reports the stock ran dry: 吃光 = eaten down to none left. Completion of the act vs exhaustion of the supply.

V掉

掉 names one thing fallen away — removed, disposed of (賣掉那雙鞋 = sold off that pair). 光 names a quantity drained to zero — none of it left (賣光 = sold out, shelf bare). A thing gone vs a supply emptied.

結果補語

結果補語 fuses any outcome to the verb (看懂 read-and-understood). 光 is the one outcome that is total exhaustion: scraped bare, nothing remaining.

putting the object before 光: ✗ 我用錢光 → 我用光了錢 / 把錢用光了 (光 fuses to the verb; the object follows)

using 光 when stock remains: ✗ 我吃光了一塊 (one piece, more left) → 我吃完了一塊 (finished that piece)

using 光 on an act with no supply to drain: ✗ 我看光了書 (for finished reading) → 我看完了書 (reading leaves the book; nothing was used up)

English marks this with a particle after the verb — eat up, sell out, run out of, use up. Chinese fixes 光 in that same slot; the sense is the supply hit zero, not merely that the action ended.