Wh-words as Polarity Items

Lisa Lai‐Shen Cheng

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Syntax, Semantics, Linguistic Variation Logic, Reasoning, and Knowledge Categorization, perception, and language

Abstract

This paper examines different readings of Wh-words (i.e.question-words) in Mandarin Chinese.Following Heim's (1982) proposal on indefinites and Nishigauchi's (1986Nishigauchi's ( , 1990) work on wh-words in Japanese, it is proposed that whwords in Mandarin are indefinite NPs which lack inherent quantificational force.In addition, it is claimed that wh-words in Mandarin are polarity items and thus require the presence of polarity licensers.This analysis leads to an explanation to the lack of indefinite subjects in Mandarin, assuming Diesing's (1990) theory of indefinite NPs and the VP-domain of existential closure.

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References

1982The Semantics of Definite and Indefinite Noun Phrases 1972A Grammar of Spoken Chinese 1987Mandarin Chinese: A Functional Reference Grammar 1998Logical Relations in Chinese and the Theory of Grammar 1975Adverbs of quantification 1980Polarity sensitivity as inherent scope relations 1977Syntax and Semantics of Questions 1979Existential sentences in English

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2011Children's use of phonological information in ambiguity resolution: a view from Mandarin Chinese 2015Acquiring Negative Polarity Items 2022Negation and Negative Dependencies 1998Parametrization of features in syntax 2014Mandarin SHENME as a superweak NPI 2007Wh-in-Situ Does Not Correlate with Wh-Indefinites or Question Particles 2017Distributionally constrained items in child language: the acquisition of superweak NPI shenme ‘a/some’ in Mandarin Chinese

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