Semantic Analysis Of Mei (每) In [Mei-NumP-V-NumP] Constructions

The discussion of mei has mostly been related to dou,since there’s a dependent and exclusive relation between them.Focusing on this,researches have reached to different conclusions as for its semantics,which can be largely divided into a single-function analysis and dual-function analysis.However,none of these solutions is sufficient enough to cover a wider range of data,especially when it comes to event-quantifying mei.In this paper,we take the [mei-NumP-V-NumP] constructions as our main study subjects,additionally discuss them together with the event-quantifying mei,and focus on its semantics based on a previously proposed dual-function analysis.Concerning the mei initiated double-numeral constructions,we are going to address three major questions in this thesis: 1.What are the structural and semantic properties of [mei-NumPV-NumP] constructions? 2.What’s the semantic function of mei in a [mei-NumP-V-NumP] constructions? 3.How can we adopt a unified explanation for both meii(individual-quantifying mei)and meie(event-quantifying mei)? Guided by our research questions,we provide both descriptive and explanatory analyses.The structural and semantic properties of [mei-NumP-V-NumP] constructions we will discuss mainly include the bareness and stage-level nature of the verb;comparison between [mei-NumP-V-NumP] constructions and [NumP-V-NumP] constructions;the interpretation of NumP,and the distributive manners that such kind of constructions can illustrate.Based on the concept of distributive dependency proposed by Choe(1987),we compare mei with distributive markers in other language and analyze it as a marker of sorting key which can pluralize plural units and therefore lead to different distributive manners compared with distributive sentences in other languages.To cover more data,we make unified analysis of event and individual-quantifying mei,that is,when it is associated with a measurement/quantity reading,it requires another NumP.This assumption further generates our version of the semantics of mei,based on which we have provided detailed semantics calculation for constructions containing meii and meie.