Exhaustivity and bare numeral phrases in Mandarin
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 21757069 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Cheng-Yu Edwin Tsai (0000-0002-8277-3968, City University of Hong Kong, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2021 |
| Volume | 22 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 111-165 |
| Publication date | 2021-01-01 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Language and Linguistics 語言暨語言學 (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1606-822X • E-ISSN: 2309-5067 |
| Publisher | John Benjamins Publishing Company (PUBLISHER • NL) |
| DOI | 10.1075/lali.00079.tsa |
| OpenAlex | W2968646724 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 2 |
| References cited | 29 |
A well-known generalization about bare numeral phrases (BNPs) in Mandarin is that they tend to require the existential verb you ‘have’ when in subject position, but there are some notable exceptions. This paper concentrates on the data cited by Li (1998) and proposes an Exhaustivity Condition according to which a subject BNP is felicitous if and only if it is interpreted exhaustively. It is shown how this condition generalizes to all the constructions under discussion, while at the same time they each belong to a particular type of quantificational construction or another (cumulativity, scalar focus, sufficiency, or conditional). I argue that the close relation between Mandarin subject BNPs and exhaustivity not only explains the restricted distribution of the former but also enables us to account for their so-called quantity readings in terms of exhaustive interpretation. Comparisons of the proposal with previous approaches will also be discussed
Arithmetic · Linguistics · Mandarin Chinese · Natural language processing · Numeral system · Physics · Syntax · Verb · Computer Science · Linguistics and Discourse Analysis · Mathematics · Natural Language Processing Techniques · Philosophy · Syntax, Semantics, Linguistic Variation
Formal methods in the study of Language
Events and Plurality
Pluralities
Nominal Reference, Temporal Constitution and Quantification in Event Semantics
A unified analysis of the English bare plural
Pragmatics
Information Structure and Sentence Form
On Subject Specificity and Theory of Syntax-Semantics Interface
Object specificity in Chinese
It's that, and that's it! Exhaustivity and homogeneity presuppositions in clefts (and definites)
Rejected expectations
A theory of focus interpretation
A Flexible Approach to Exhaustivity in Questions
Bare and Not-So-Bare Nouns and the Structure of NP
Argument Determiner Phrases and Number Phrases
| Citations per year | 2 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2025 - 2026 (2) |
| Highly cited | No |