Semantics of Quantifiers in Mandarin Chinese: Mei (每) ‘Every’ and Dou (都) ‘All’
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17507/tpls.1311.10Keywords:
semantics, quantifiers, Chinese, mei, dou, quantificationAbstract
From a syntactic-semantic perspective, based on the number feature of subjects and predicates, we propose that: 1. Dou, it is radically a maximal operator, while it is also a dependent distributor (or called “partial distributive operator”), which has to occur with plural individuality including mei; 2. Compared to dou, mei is a near-independent distributive operator, in that with a quantity predicate, it can be an independent distributive operator, whereas with a property one, it requires other linguistic elements like dou to create together the distributive effect; 3. The distributive effect can be achieved in diverse ways: by the sole entry mei, by “mei plus dou”, and by the combination of dou with its scoped nominals that possess “plural individuality”; 4. From the various ways of yielding distributive effect, a generalized rule is obtained: the plural feature and the individual feature, they contribute together to yield distributive effect.
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