On The Semantics Of Focus-Sensitive Operators "only" And "zhi"

Focus-sensitive operator can affect the choice of the semantic focus of a sentence.Through association with different constituents of a sentence, it can influence the truthcondition of the sentence. As typical focus-sensitive operators,“only” and “zhi” have been ahot topic for many Chinese and western linguists in the last decades. This thesis aims to revealthe similarities and differences on the aspects of semantic focus, focal scope, and the scalarand non-scalar uses of “only” and “zhi” by describing and analyzing their semantic propertiesand functions. The conclusion can be drawn as follows:Firstly, it comes to the aspect of semantic focus. When “only” and “zhi” are in thesyntactical structure [s[only/zhi(you) NP VP]], the semantic focus association with “only” and“zhi” can be any constituent within the NP depending on the context, but not constituentswithin the VP. When “only” and “zhi” are in the syntactical structure [s[NP only/zhi VP]], thesemantic focus association with “only” can be any constituent within both the NP and VP,while the semantic focus association with “zhi” can only be the constituent within the VPdepending on the context. Only “only” can appear in the syntactical structure [s[NP VP only]],the semantic focus association with “only” here can be any constituent within the VP.Secondly, it lies on the aspect of semantic focal scope. When “only” and “zhi” are in thesyntactical structure [s[only/zhi(you) NP VP]], the semantic focal scope of them can merelycover the NP, not the VP. When “only” and “zhi” are in the syntactical structure [s[NPonly/zhi VP]], there are some differences between the semantic focal scope of “only” and“zhi”. The semantic focal scope of “only” can not only cover the NP, but also the VP, whilethe semantic focal scope of “zhi” can merely cover the VP. And when “only” is in thesyntactical structure [s[NP VP only/zhi]], the semantic focal scope of “only” here can merelycover the VP.Finally, it is the scalar and non-scalar uses of them. Both “only” and “zhi” have scalarand non-scalar uses. When they are used to have scalar uses, what they exclude is a range ofalternatives which cannot be entailed by the semantic focus, but not the ones that can beentailed by it. When they are used to have non-scalar uses, they exclude all other alternativesexcept the semantic focus. From the comparisons of the two focus-sensitive operators, we find out that “only” and“zhi” are very similar on the aspect of focus sensitivity. However, there are also somedifferences between the semantic focus and focal scope. The disparity of them justexemplifies different parameters between these two languages.