A semantic study of the adverb jiu in Mandarin Chinese

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3 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

This paper investigates the semantics of the adverb jiu in Mandarin Chinese. In the spirit of Paris [6], we claim that the nuclear meaning ofjiu is to build up a relation between two units; more precisely, between the asserted value and its alternatives, between the actual value and the reference value, between the asserted value and the relevant open sentence, and/or between two successive events. Based on this, we argue that according to its semantics the adverb jiu can be classified into three: focus adverb jiu, sufficiency operatorjiu and jiu with the 'close to' meaning. Focus adverbjiu can be further divided into exclusive adverbjiu, scalar adverbjiu and jiu indicating emphatic assertion according to its semantic properties. When jiu takes the 'close to' meaning, it either acts as a temporal adverb or implies two events happened/will happen in quick succession.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationChinese Lexical Semantics - 14th Workshop, CLSW 2013, Revised Selected Papers
Pages318-327
Number of pages10
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2013
Externally publishedYes
Event14th Workshop on Chinese Lexical Semantics, CLSW 2013 - Zhengzhou, China
Duration: 10 May 201312 May 2013

Publication series

NameLecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics)
Volume8229 LNAI
ISSN (Print)0302-9743
ISSN (Electronic)1611-3349

Conference

Conference14th Workshop on Chinese Lexical Semantics, CLSW 2013
Country/TerritoryChina
CityZhengzhou
Period10/05/1312/05/13

Keywords

  • emphatic assertion
  • exclusive adverb
  • focus adverb
  • scalar adverb
  • sufficiency operator

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