University of Pennsylvania ScholarlyCommons IRCS Technical Reports Series Institute for Research in Cognitive Science December 1996 Quantification and Predication in Mandarin Chinese: A Case Study of Dou Shi-Zhe Huang University of Pennsylvania Follow this and additional works at: https://repository.upenn.edu/ircs_reports Huang, Shi-Zhe, "Quantification and Predication in Mandarin Chinese: A Case Study of Dou" (1996). IRCS Technical Reports Series. 114. https://repository.upenn.edu/ircs_reports/114 University of Pennsylvania Institute for Research in Cognitive Science Technical Report No. IRCS-96-36. This paper is posted at ScholarlyCommons. https://repository.upenn.edu/ircs_reports/114 For more information, please contact [email protected]. Quantification and Predication in Mandarin Chinese: A Case Study of Dou Abstract In the more recent generalized quantifier theory, 'every' is defined as a elationr between two sets such that the first set is a subset of the second set (Cooper (1987), anv Benthem (1986)). We argue in this dissertation that the formal definition of e' very' ought to reflect our intuition that this quantifier is always associated with a pairing. For instance, 'Every student left' means that for every student there is an event (Davidson (1966), Kroch (1974), Mourelatos (1978), Bach (1986)) such that the student left in that event. We propose that the formal translation of EVERY be augmented by relating its two arguments via a skolem function. A skolem function links two variables by making the choice of a value for one variable depend on the choice of a value for the other. This definition of EVERY, after which 'every' and its Chinese counterpart 'mei' can be modeled, can help us explain the co-occurrence pattern between 'mei' and the adverb 'dou'. It was observed in S.-Z. Huang (1995a) that 'mei' requires either 'dou', or an indefinite phrase, or a reflexive in its scope. Under the skolemized definition of EVERY, this is explainable: The skolem function needs a variable in the scope of EVERY. We stipulate that only morphologically/lexically licensed variables are available for quantification (of this kind). 'Dou' occurs with mei'' because 'dou' can license the event variable for skolemization. This function of 'dou' is performed by the tense operator in English, while Chinese, lacking tense, resorts to 'dou'. 'Dou', we will argue, is a sum operator on the event variable. Thus, 'dou VPs' always assert plural events, which predicts that the distribution of 'dou' may or may not involve universal quantification. Among other things, our account explains scope ambiguity in Chinese, the optionality of 'dou', and the interchangeability, in a number of contexts, between 'dou' and conjunction/additive words for VPs such as 'ye' "also, and", 'you' "also, again", and 'hai' "also, still". Comments University of Pennsylvania Institute for Research in Cognitive Science Technical Report No. IRCS-96-36. This thesis or dissertation is available at ScholarlyCommons: https://repository.upenn.edu/ircs_reports/114 QUANTIFICATION AND PREDICATION IN MANDARIN CHINESE: A CASE STUDY OF DOU Shi-Zhe Huang A DISSERTATION in Linguistics Presented to the Faculties of the University of Pennsylvania in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy 1996 _______________________________________ Supervisor of Dissertation: Anthony S. Kroch ________________________________________ Graduate Group Chairperson: Donald A. Ringe © Copyright 1996 By Shi-Zhe Huang TO MY PARENTS: LI XIANKUN & HUANG LUQUAN iii Acknowledgments I am indebted to many people whose impact on me can now be properly acknowledged. First of all, my sincerest gratitude goes to Tony Kroch, my advisor, and my stern but also endearing teacher, from whom I have learned what it means to respect language, and along the way, I have learned to respect him deeply and fondly. His high intellectual standards, his sharp sense of cross-linguistic patterns, and his generosity in offering ideas and advice, helped me immeasurably in this work. Without his guidance, this dissertation could never be the same. To Jim Huang, whom I've become accustomed to calling 'Huang Laoshi' (Teacher Huang) only, I want to say "Xiexie!" Huang Laoshi is partially responsible for leading me into doing theoretical linguistics and I thank him for seeing me through by serving as an external member on my committee. His interest in my work, his encouragement and care have been a constant source of strength for me. He holds my deep admiration. I feel very lucky to be in the same field with him not only for the opportunity of having him as a role model but also for the fun of hearing him singing his favorite songs again and again at conferences. And there is Robin Clark! Robin is my guardian angel over the past year and a half during which I had many tutorials with him. Without his help I would have been lost in the beautiful but very intimidating world of formal semantics, a field that I had had little formal training in. I often found myself wondering how trying my very naive questions on formalisms must have been to him, but he always had the patience to walk me through whatever it was one more time. His arrival at the Linguistics Department at U. Penn was indeed a blessing for me. Over my stay at U. Penn, Gillian Sankoff has been a caring teacher and friend, and her generous spirit has made the less joyous days of doing linguistics far more bearable. I am very happy that I have found this moment to say 'thank you' to her. A special note of gratitude goes to my first teacher at U. Penn: Bambi Schieffelin, whose help made it possible for me to begin my iv graduate study in linguistics. Although she is no longer at Penn, she has remained interested in my well-being. I hope I have not let her down. I'd also like to thank Sabine Iatridou, whose lectures and workshops first introduced me into the wonderful world of Syntax/Semantics interface. And her enthusiasm in teaching is unforgettable. Michael Hegarty had a short stint at U. Penn, but he was a big cheer-leader for me during that period. I am very grateful for that. In the Chinese Linguistics community, Tom Ernst and Bonnie Chiu have been exceptionally generous and encouraging to me and have been friends in need many a time. Tom's comments on some of the issues in this dissertation have definitely helped me sharpen my ideas; and his stylistic suggestions are appreciated. Many thanks are also due to Raffaella Zanuttini, Ruth Herold, Caroline Heycock, Enric Vallduvi, Shengli Feng, Peter Patrick, Bob Frank, Wei-Tien Tsai, Kuo-ming Sung, and Hong-Ming Zhang, for their friendship. My former teacher, Nancy Dorian, has been very special to me since I came to America. She is the inspiration in my life. The person OF my life is my husband, Zhu Hong. He is the staunchest supporter and sternest critic I have around every day and I appreciate that. And his patience and caring is beyond what anyone could expect. I can finally say to him, we can move on now. And I know he is very happy. To my extended family back in China: My parents, siblings, and my in-laws, I thank them for being my family. v ABSTRACT QUANTIFICATION AND PREDICATION IN MANDARIN CHINESE: A CASE STUDY OF DOU Author: Shi-Zhe Huang Supervisor: Anthony S. Kroch In the more recent generalized quantifier theory, 'every' is defined as a relation between two sets such that the first set is a subset of the second set (Cooper (1987), van Benthem (1986)). We argue in this dissertation that the formal definition of 'every' ought to reflect our intuition that this quantifier is always associated with a pairing. For instance, 'Every student left' means that for every student there is an event (Davidson (1966), Kroch (1974), Mourelatos (1978), Bach (1986)) such that the student left in that event. We propose that the formal translation of EVERY be augmented by relating its two arguments via a skolem function. A skolem function links two variables by making the choice of a value for one variable depend on the choice of a value for the other. This definition of EVERY, after which 'every' and its Chinese counterpart 'mei' can be modeled, can help us explain the co-occurrence pattern between 'mei' and the adverb 'dou'. It was observed in S.-Z. Huang (1995a) that 'mei' requires either 'dou', or an indefinite phrase, or a reflexive in its scope. Under the skolemized definition of EVERY, this is explainable: The skolem function needs a variable in the scope of EVERY. We stipulate that only morphologically/lexically licensed variables are available for vi quantification (of this kind). 'Dou' occurs with 'mei' because 'dou' can license the event variable for skolemization. This function of 'dou' is performed by the tense operator in English, while Chinese, lacking tense, resorts to 'dou'. 'Dou', we will argue, is a sum operator on the event variable. Thus, 'dou VPs' always assert plural events, which predicts that the distribution of 'dou' may or may not involve universal quantification. Among other things, our account explains scope ambiguity in Chinese, the optionality of 'dou', and the interchangeability, in a number of contexts, between 'dou' and conjunction/additive words for VPs such as 'ye' "also, and", 'you' "also, again", and 'hai' "also, still". vii TABLE OF CONTENTS Dedication iii Acknowledgments iv Abstract vi Chapter 1: Introduction 1 1.1. The Issues 1 1.2. Overview of The Literature on ‘Dou’ 5 1.3. Sketch of the Proposed Analysis 9 1.4. Organization of the Dissertation 12 Chapter 2: EVERY and Skolemization 16 2.1. 'Every' and Skolemization 16 2.1.1.