On Domain Widening In Mandarin Chinese

The phenomenon of domain widening was first discussed by Kadmon and Landman in 1993.Domain widening refers to a process whereby the domain of quantification becomes wider in a discourse.The studies on the phenomenon are mostly focused on any since then,and the relevant studies in Mandarin are rare.On the basis of the works of domain widening and the semantics of the adverbs dou and ye,the thesis investigates the way of domain widening in Mandarin Chinese and tries to find answers to two questions:(a)How domain widening of renhe is realized as a negative polarity item and a free choice item?(b)How exhaustive and scalar adverbs are associated with domain widening?With respect to the first question,following quantifier indexing rule and focus interpretation principle,we argue that domain widening of NPI renhe involves focus,which is used to evoke alternative values for the contextual variable.The alternative domains are ordered on a monotonic scale.Domain widening leads to more informative propositions and as a result the scalar implicature will be cancelled.The discussion on(?)-FCI renhe is an extension of the approach to NPI renhe.We view FCI renhe as a generic indefinite.We investigate domain widening of(?)-FCI renhe as the way Lahiri adopted in analyzing the generic indefinites.Scalar implicature is also used to discuss domain widening of(?)-FCI renhe.With respect to the second question,we investigate the contributions of the exhaustive adverb dou and scalar adverb ye in domain widening on the basis of the studies on the semantics of the two adverbs.We explore the contribution of dou in domain widening following Xiangs definition on the particle dou.Dou is a pre-exhaustification exhaustifier which operates on sub?alternatives.When dou co-occurs with the indefinite wh-words,the prejacent proposition of dou is a disjunction,and the sub-alternatives are the disjuncts.In this case,dou affirms the prejacent and negates the exhaustification of each disjunct.In other words,dou turns a disjunction into a conjunction and produces a universal free choice reading for the indefinite wh-words,and domain widening is realized as a result.We follow Deng's definition of ye to investigate ye in domain widening.He argues that the focused item is located on the lower scale drawing a contrast with the other higher alternatives.Ye affirms a proposition on a lower scale,so a universal quantification reading will be realized by making pragmatic inference.We apply the scalar implicature cancellation to the investigation of domain widening of "lian...ye"construction and the adverb shenzhi,and domain narrowing of "(lian)+ MIN +ye" construction.Such a study on domain widening in Mandarin Chinese may lead itself to be part of the relevant studies and to reveal the internal mechanism of the realization of domain widening.