Topicality and (Non-)Specificity in Mandarin  

Oleh:

Portner, Paul

Jenis: Article from Journal - ilmiah internasional
Dalam koleksi: Journal of Semantics (Sebagian Full Text) vol. 19 no. 3 (Aug. 2002), page 275-287.
Topik: Mandarin Chinese Language; Indefinites;
Fulltext: vol 19, no 3, p 275-287.pdf (82.15KB)

Isi artikel

This paper presents arguments based on data from Mandarin Chinese for the idea that specific interpretations of indefinites arise when the domain of quantification for the indefinite is a topic. In particular, when the sentence has a topic (overt or covert) which represents a small fixed set or function from contextual parameters to sets, and an indefinite quantifies over this set, the indefinite will seem to get a fixed reference and have wide scope. The Chinese distributive marker dou is especially helpful in developing this hypothesis because it shows various complex interactions with indefinites, topics, and specificity; these interactions allow us to uncover evidence for crucial components of the analysis of specificity.

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