副词“才”在复句中的语义及对相关格式的允准

本文重新审视副词“才”在复句中的语义，发现将其概括为必要条件标识词、梯级小品词或反射否定存在量化的小品词都不准确。充当排他性小品词是“才”最为重要、常见的语义功能。此时，“才”具备否定存在量化能力，表示否定存在一个不等于断言值的候选项能满足相关复句。“才”作为算子会引出一个由句法规则决定的三分结构。在带有“只有／除非／必须……才……”结构的复句中，“才”的使用具有强制性，因为：“只有／除非／必须”是一元算子，其辖域是它所在的从句，不能在从句与主句间建立语义关系；而排他性小品词“才”是二元算子，其辖域是整个句子，能起到连结从句和主句的作用，因此可以允准相关句子。此外，表“不久前，刚刚”义时，“才”用作时间副词。
This paper reanalyzes the semantics of cai in complex sentences based on previous studies. It is argued that, when occurring in complex sentences, the basic semantics of cai cannot be a necessary condition marker, a scalar particle solely for reflecting negated existential qualification. It is proposed that cai serves as an exclusive particle, and that it has the inherent negated existential quantificational force, which indicates that none of the alternatives introduced by the asserted value can satisfy the relevant complex sentence. As a dyadic operator, the interpretation of cai is given by the syntactically determined tripartite structure. Moreover, it is argued that cai serves to license the occurrence of zhiyou/chufei/bixu in the construction of “zhiyou/chufei/bixu…, cai…” due to the following reasons: “zhiyou/chufei/bixu” is a unary operator, whose scope is the clause in which it occurs, and it fails to denote a relation between the subordinate clause and the main clause; the exclusive particle cai, by contrast, is adyadic operator, whose scope is the whole sentence, and it can relate the two clauses, hence licensing the occurrence of zhiyou/chufei/bixu. Finally, it is shown that cai is a dual function operator: besides serving as an exclusive particle, cai can function as a temporal adverb, indicating the temporal meaning of ‘just’.