The Analysis Of Scalar And Focus Operator In Mandarin Chinese

Previous studies on scalar operator and focus operator in Mandarin Chinese have focused on their classification and syntax. However, this research will provide a semantic analysis of the two sorts of operators based on alternative semantics proposed by Rooth (1985,1992,1995 & 1996) and the scalar model analysis put forth by Kay (1990). In the thesis, we are resolved to discuss the following questions.1. How does scalar operator influence focus operator in Mandarin Chinese?2. What are the semantic properties of lian, dou and lian…dou construction?3. What is the relationship between scalar operator, focus operator and lian…dou construction?In response to the above questions, this thesis will first analyze operators lian and dou respectively and then move to the lian…dou construction. Based on alternative semantics and scalar model analysis, we propose that dou is a scalar focus operator that can be associtated with other parts in the sentence and may cause ambiguity. In addition, lian serves as a scalar and additive operator in lian…dou construction. It can reduce the ambiguity caused by operator dou. Lian…dou construction is generally considered to convey the polarity meaning. We shall analyze it in the scalar model, in which the propositions align in certain order and the context proposition is more informative than that in text proposition.It is generally accepted that lian…dou construction and lian…ye construction can interchange with each other without alteration of their meaning. Though mere use of dou and ye yield totally different sentence meanings, the construals of them with lian in those structures will induce the same interpretations. In spite of their shared features of scalar and additive, lian…dou construction and lian…ye construction differ in their strength of the two features. Lian…dou construction has the stronger feature of scale and the lian…ye construction has the stronger feature of additive.According to previous studies, except for its function of scalar operator in lian…dou construction, it can also be used to denote "already" or universal quantification as a distributive operator. In this thesis, we also claim that the function of "already" dou is the same as cai,jiu and hai in hai…ne structure. All of them are scalar operators which convey scalar meanings.