Degrees as nominalized properties: evidence from differential verbal comparatives in Mandarin Chinese
- Whether degrees should be modeled as simple semantic primitives or ontologically complex entities has been an issue in recent formal semantic research. This article aims to make a contribution to this scholarly enterprise by investigating the Differential Verbal Comparative (DVC) construction in Chinese. DVCs exhibit peculiar properties : (i) obligatory differentials, and (ii) DPs as differentials(e.g., liang ben xiaoshuo ‘two CL novel’). We propose that a degree is the entity correlate of a property that is formed on the basis of a measure, akin to Chierchia-style kind. This new kind of degree, coupled with a difference function-based semantics for comparatives, correctly predicts the behaviors of DVCs which would otherwise remain formally inscrutable. This article’s contributions are twofold: (i) it provides direct support for the degree-as-kind analysis by extending its empirical scope; and (ii) by combining degrees as kinds with a difference function-based semantics, it represents an improvement over the previous degree-as-kind analysis based on linear ordering.
Author: | Qiongpeng Luo, Zhiguo Xie |
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URN: | urn:nbn:de:hebis:30:3-558351 |
DOI: | https://doi.org/10.21248/zaspil.61.2018.486 |
ISSN: | 1435-9588 |
ISSN: | 0947-7055 |
Parent Title (English): | Proceedings of Sinn und Bedeutung 22, Vol. 2 / eds. Uli Sauerland and Stephanie Solt. Berlin, Leibniz-Zentrum Allgemeine Sprachwissenschaft: ZAS papers in linguistics ; Nr. 61 |
Publisher: | Leibniz-Zentrum Allgemeine Sprachwissenschaft (ZAS) |
Place of publication: | Berlin |
Document Type: | Part of a Book |
Language: | English |
Year of Completion: | 2020 |
Year of first Publication: | 2018 |
Publishing Institution: | Universitätsbibliothek Johann Christian Senckenberg |
Release Date: | 2020/09/16 |
Tag: | Mandarin Chinese; comparatives; degrees; differential verbal comparatives.; kinds |
Page Number: | 18 |
First Page: | 89 |
Last Page: | 106 |
HeBIS-PPN: | 470274107 |
Dewey Decimal Classification: | 4 Sprache / 40 Sprache / 400 Sprache |
4 Sprache / 41 Linguistik / 410 Linguistik | |
Sammlungen: | Linguistik |
Linguistik-Klassifikation: | Linguistik-Klassifikation: Semantik / Semantics |
Zeitschriften / Jahresberichte: | ZAS papers in linguistics : ZASPiL / ZASPiL 61 = Proceedings of Sinn und Bedeutung 22, Vol. 2 |
: | urn:nbn:de:hebis:30:3-559361 |
Licence (German): | Creative Commons - Namensnennung 4.0 |