PDF《The function of DE in Chinese RCs》

s semantics has been fully discussed in recent literature. According to Huang [1], Dou takes event variable as its argument and sums them into a plural event and Dou is at the same time the lexical licensor of the event variable for universal quantification. In Pan [3], Zong is patterned with '

always'

and is treated as an adverb quantifier which quantifies over an event variable. Hai and Zhi are focus operators whose scope is the VP they modify. As a focus operator, they will bind a variable that can substitutes for the focused element. Usually we take the stressed element in their scope as their semantic focus (cf. Xu [8] for '

semantic focus'

) and the variable they bind is a '

x'

that can substitute for this stressed part. We can also, on the other hand, take the whole VP as their semantic focus for the VP is the maximal projection of any stressed part inside the VP. Given that we hold the latter, what Zhi and Hai bind is thus an event variable and such a variable x can be described as '

x ∈ ALT (VP) '

(VP is what follows Hai and Zhi

1 I'

d like to give my thank to Prof. Haihua Pan for in writing this part, I made much reference to Pan [3]. and '

ALT(VP)'

means all the alternates of this VP.).

4 The competition of De and the adverbs for the same event variable When preceded by Dou, Zong, Hai or Zhi, the event variable in RCs first goes into the semantic interpretation of these adverbs and becomes bounded after the operation of these adverbs. Thus De fails to get an e variable to bind and assign it the value of '

realis state'

. In (4a), '

我们都吃的'

just has the reading of '

the food all of us can eat or may eat'

. Suppose that some of us dislike mantou or do not eat mantou because their stomachs are sensitive to it, then we can not say '

我们都吃的是馒头'

. In such a case, the bare VP '

吃t'

('

t'

represents the trace of 馒头) gets a modal interpretation as shown by the '

can/may'

in the English counterpart. Such a modal interpretation is achieved after Dou'

s operation on the VP. The same occurs with Zong, Hai and Zhi. For Zhi, the reading should be a '

general'

or '

universal'

situation. So (7a) means whenever Lisi has a chance to watch film, he watches English film and nothing else. Hai is an addition operator and thus what is added by Hai will get the same interpretation as the first VP. The competition of De with Zong for the same event variable is the clearest of the four adverbs, for Zong is also an operator that is related to the time feature of the event. According to Pan [3], Zong binds the event variable supplied by the VP and assigns it a universal reading, and thus there is no free event variable for De to bind. Hence, we failed to get the realis reading for the event. References 1. Huang, Shizhe: Universal Quantification with Skolemization as Evidenced in Chinese and English. The Edvin Mellen Press, Lewiston, Queenston, L........