Varieties of Alternatives

Focus Particles and wh-Expressions in Mandarin

Mingming Liu (Autor)

Buch | Softcover

174 Seiten

2018 | Softcover reprint of the original 1st ed. 2018
Springer Verlag, Singapore
978-981-13-4826-6 (ISBN)

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This book concerns two focus particles (jiu, dou) and wh-expressions (shenme = ‘what’, na geren = ‘which person’) in Mandarin Chinese. An idea based on alternatives and varieties of alternatives in particular – following Chierchia’s 2013 analysis of the polarity system – is pursued to account for the systematic ambiguities.

This book concerns two focus particles (jiu, dou) and wh-expressions (shenme = ‘what’, na geren = ‘which person’) in Mandarin Chinese. These items are systematically ‘ambiguous’ and have played important roles in various aspects of Mandarin grammar. An idea based on alternatives and varieties of alternatives in particular – following Chierchia’s 2013 analysis of the polarity system – is pursued to account for the systematic ambiguities. The unambiguous semantics of jiu, dou and wh-expressions are maintained and ‘ambiguity’ explained through varieties of alternatives interacting with other independently motivated aspects of the structure they occur in. By examining these aspects in detail, the book will help readers gain a better understanding of a broad range of phenomena that involve these items – including exhaustivity, distributivity, questions and conditionals.

Dr. Mingming Liu received his Ph.D. from Rutgers University in 2016 and currently works as an assistant professor at the School of Foreign Languages, Hunan University, China. His work has addressed several aspects of Mandarin grammar: focus particles such as the famous dou “each, all, even, already” and other only-like exclusives, wh-expressions and wh-conditionals, Mandarin conditionals in general and resultative verb compounds. He has published articles in several peer-reviewed journals and conference proceedings.

Chapter 1. Introduction.- Chapter 2. Background.- Chapter 3. Varieties of Alternatives: Mandarin Focus Particles.- Chapter 4. More Exclusives.- Chapter 5. Mandarin Wh-conditionals: Challenges and Facts.- Chapter 6. Proposal-A: Wh-conditionals as Interrogative Conditionals.- Chapter 7. Proposal-B: Wh-conditionals as Interrogative Dependency.- Chapter 8. Concluding Remarks.

Erscheinungsdatum	19.12.2018
Reihe/Serie	Frontiers in Chinese Linguistics ; 3
Zusatzinfo	16 Illustrations, black and white; XIX, 174 p. 16 illus.
Verlagsort	Singapore
Sprache	englisch
Maße	155 x 235 mm
Themenwelt	Schulbuch / Wörterbuch ► Wörterbuch / Fremdsprachen
	Geisteswissenschaften ► Philosophie ► Erkenntnistheorie / Wissenschaftstheorie
	Geisteswissenschaften ► Sprach- / Literaturwissenschaft ► Sprachwissenschaft
	Sozialwissenschaften
Schlagworte	Chinese Linguistics • conditionals • Focus Particles • Formal Semantics • Natural Language Grammar • Questions in Chinese Language
ISBN-10	981-13-4826-X / 981134826X
ISBN-13	978-981-13-4826-6 / 9789811348266
Zustand	Neuware