Abstract
This paper studies prenominal reduplicative classifier in Cantonese, which has been argued to be a distributive quantifier on a par with English every/each and Mandarin mei 'every', and a plural classifier giving the 'many' reading. The analysis I propose draws heavily on ideas introduced in the cover theory proposed by Schwarzschild (1996) and Brisson (1998, 2003), and ideas introduced by Partee (2004) and others on quantifying determiner many. I argue that prenominal reduplicative classifier is a quantifying determiner which is ambiguous between a quantifier type and a modifier type. When it occurs with the distributive quantifier dou1 'all', it serves as a modifier, regulating the domain of dou1-quantification by imposing a maximizing effect on the nominal it modifies (see e.g. Link 1983; Gillon 1987; Schwarzschild 1996; Brisson 1998, 2003). Without the presence of a distributive quantifier, prenominal reduplicative classifier serves either as a modifier or as a quantifier, giving its NP a weak cardinal reading or a strong proportional reading, respectively. The proposed analysis implies that domain restriction in Chinese is overtly realized in grammatical form by means of the reduplicative classifier (when combined with a distributive quantifier) and that Chinese may have determiners, which is at least true in Cantonese.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 701-743 |
Number of pages | 43 |
Journal | Journal of Linguistics |
Volume | 56 |
Issue number | 4 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - Nov 2020 |
Externally published | Yes |
Keywords
- 'many' readings
- Cantonese
- classifier reduplication
- distributive quantifiers
- domain restriction
- plurality covers
- quantifying determiner