Pre-classifier adjectival modification in Mandarin Chinese: a measurement-based analysis

Luo, Qiongpeng; Hsieh, Miao Ling; Shi, Dingxu Tim

doi:10.1007/s10831-016-9149-2

Cited by 6 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 30 publications

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“…In the literature, it has been long noticed that certain cross-linguistic periphrastic causative have a similar 'permissive' or 'allowing' interpretation, e.g., English let-causative, Mandarin rang-causative (Luo & Kang 2023), and German lassen-causatives (Pitteroff 2014). However, to my knowledge, there are very few explicit discussions on what a 'permissive' reading is in the context of causative.…”

Section: Bmentioning

confidence: 99%

Causality and modality: A case study on Teochew periphrastic causatives

Luo

2024

Proc Ling Soc Amer

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Many linguistics works have adopted the CAUSE operator to analyze causal relations. However, recent studies have gradually converged on the idea that a denotation like CAUSE(e, e') is not sophisticated enough to capture complex causalities encoded in linguistic structures, echoing long-time discussions on causation in the field of philosophy. This study supports this view by working on the plural instantiations of causation encoded in five periphrastic causative constructions in Teochew, an understudied Southern Min language. I demonstrated causality notions encoded in Teochew causatives differ in four dimensions: (i) direct vs. indirect (temporal, spatial, intermediary agent), (ii) deterministic vs. probabilistic (in terms of the actuality entailment of the caused event), (iii) attitude-neutral vs. attitude-bearing (benefactive/adversative) and (iv) permissive vs. non-permissive. I provide a sublexical modal analysis paired with event semantics to capture these complexities, aiming to replace the monolithic CAUSE event linker and to show most of the causal complexities result from different flavors of sublexical modality encoded in the causative verbs.

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Section: Bmentioning

confidence: 99%

Causality and modality: A case study on Teochew periphrastic causatives

Luo

2024

Proc Ling Soc Amer

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“…While our attention was focused on comparative constructions, we should note that there are other degree-related phenomena in East Asian languages that merit further discussion. These phenomena include (i) the infamous hen puzzle in Mandarin Chinese, which refers to the observation that a gradable adjective in Mandarin Chinese often needs to occur together with the overt degree morpheme hen for a "default" positive interpretation which in many languages like English and French is obtained through the morphologically unmarked form of the adjective (Liu 2010a;Grano 2012); and (ii) the many forms of superlative and equative constructions in Mandarin Chinese and other East Asian languages (see Xie 2014;Luo et al 2017;Luo & Cao 2019, among others, for further discussion).…”

Section: Looking Aheadmentioning

confidence: 99%

Degrees and grammar

Luo

Xie

2022

LALI

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In this article, we discuss some fundamental issues as well as several unresolved questions of degree-based theories in contemporary linguistics from the perspective of East Asian languages, with a view to pointing out some directions for future research. We first focus on several controversies surrounding the studies of comparative constructions in the literature, i.e., phrasal comparison vs. clausal comparison, individual comparison vs. degree comparison, big DegP vs. small DegP, the points of cross-linguistic variation, etc. We then expand the discussion to comparative constructions and other degree-related constructions in Mandarin Chinese, Japanese, and Korean, and demonstrate how an East Asian perspective offers a novel insight into those controversies and uncovers considerable in-depth commonality underlying a variety of degree-related constructions cross-linguistically. We conclude by suggesting some directions for future within- and cross-linguistic research.

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“…In the current study, I assume with Wellwood's (2014; insights that the monotonicity requirement comes from the semantics of the quantity adjective duo, where the measurement tracks the part-whole structure in the domain of individuals. See also Luo et al (2017) for discussion on the role of monotonicity on the presence of pre-classifier adjectives in Mandarin.…”

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confidence: 99%

Measurement and optional classifiers in Mandarin Chinese

Chen

2022

LALI

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This paper presents a compositional analysis of the fact that Mandarin individuating classifiers are systematically optional in various degree constructions (see also Lin & Schaeffer 2018 for experimental evidence), by taking a mixed approach incorporating the insights from Chierchia (1998; 2010) that Mandarin nouns denote kind terms and individuating classifiers offer the level of individuation and those from Krifka (1995) that (bare) numerals do not encode the cardinality function. By considering (bare) numerals as degree terms (e.g., Hackl 2001; Nouwen 2010; Rett 2014; Kennedy 2015, among many others), the mixed approach advocated here embraces the hypothesis that the locus of variation between English and Mandarin lies in neither the semantics of nouns nor that of numerals, but in the measure operators: these linguistic elements (including sortal/individuating classifiers) are necessary to mediate between numerals and nouns to avoid the semantic type-mismatch. The proposed analysis of individuating classifiers not only explains the role of Mandarin individuating classifiers in degree constructions (i.e., their syntactic optionality, along with a semantic variation in the dimension of comparison), but also closely connects with Bale & Barner’s (2009) idea about quantity judgments that comparative constructions can be used as a reliable diagnostic of the mass-count distinction in natural languages beyond English. Specifically, the fact that Mandarin unclassified nouns allow both cardinality and non-cardinality monotonic dimensions in a variety of degree constructions based on quantity judgments indicates that they are mass-count neutral; a tentative semantics of Mandarin nouns for their mass-count neutrality is thus suggested. Some factors leading to the individuation of nouns are also discussed.

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Pre-classifier adjectival modification in Mandarin Chinese: a measurement-based analysis

Cited by 6 publications

References 30 publications

Causality and modality: A case study on Teochew periphrastic causatives

Causality and modality: A case study on Teochew periphrastic causatives

Degrees and grammar

Measurement and optional classifiers in Mandarin Chinese

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