Measure Readings of Mandarin Classifier Phrases and the Particle de

• Published in: Language and linguistics (Taipei) 2012-07, Vol.13 (4), p.693-741
• Main Authors: 李旭平(Li, Xu-ping), 蘇珊‧羅斯坦(Susan Rothstein)
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: approximation; A＆HCI; Chinese languages; Classifiers; counting; de; Function words; Grammatical number; Mandarin; measuring; MEDLINE; Phrases; Reading; round numbers; Scopus; Semantic analysis; Semantics; SSCI; Syntactic structures; THCI; 的; 約量; 計數; 計量; 近似化; 量詞
• ISSN: 1606-822X; 2309-5067

In this paper, we show that the particle de always induces a measure reading when it follows a classifier head. We show that classifiers such as ping ‘bottle’ are ambiguous between a measure and an individuation or counting interpretation, but that de always induces the measure reading. We follow Tang (2005) and Hsieh (2008) in arguing that the particle de is possible after sortal or individuating classifiers which occur with a high round number or an approximative marker, but we argue that this is because approximation is semantically a kind of measure function, and that in these contexts the sortal classifiers are interpreted as heading a measure phrase. We claim further, following X.P. Li (2011) that when a numberclassifier sequence is interpreted as measure phrase, the string “Num-Cl(-de-)N” always has the syntactic structure [[[Num-Cl](-de-)]N], with Num-Cl forming a constituent which de takes as a complement. This allows us to suggest that de in classifier constructions has the same grammatical function as in other modificational contexts, and paves the way for a unified analysis of de. We conclude with an explicit semantics for the interpretation of [[[Num-Cl](-de-)]N] strings.