A Logical Semantic Account Of Quantifier Scope-dependency Relations In English And Chinese

This thesis develops a comparative analysis of quantifier scope-dependency relations in English and Chinese from a logical semantic perspective. It is argued that quantifier scope ambiguity is not only associated with syntax but also can be traced back to the semantic diversity of quantifier types and predicate types, which are often neglected in the study of scope interpretation. Based on minimal pah-analysis and substitution method, a tripartite-feature opposition-+[distributive] /+[reproductive] / +[integrative] is adopted for the first time to classify predicates and quantifiers according to their different scope assigning potentials. The notions of "integrative" and "reproductive" characterize two distinctive collective readings between sentences like "all the teachers planted a tree" and those like "'all the teachers saw a movie". Then a feature-driven principle is proposed for the identification of scope ambiguity hi a canonical multi-quantificational sentence. It is also found that scopally ambiguous sentences are far more limited in Chinese than those in English and such a contrast can be partly accounted for by the typological difference (topic-prominent vs subject-prominent) and quantifier difference between the two languages. Finally, two different ways of deriving the correct logical semantic representation of a scopally ambiguous sentence hi English and Chinese are offered. It is argued that most Chinese simple sentences with two quantifiers can be translated into logical language according to the surface word order based on Entailment Thesis whereas the English counterparts must undergo Quantifier Raising with proper constraints.