Aspects of distributivity in Mandarin Chinese

One important task of any semantic theory of plurals is to account for the collective/distributive ambiguity. The goal of this dissertation is to achieve greater understanding of plurality and the collectivity/distributivity distinction from a cross-linguistic perspective by examining the phenomenon of distributivity in Mandarin Chinese. I show that different mechanisms in Mandarin Chinese give rise to distributivity. Chapter two discusses the type of distributivity that is overtly marked by an adverbial expression, dou, a distributive operator with universal quantificational force operating on the VP, and focuses on a restriction imposed on the domain of this distributive quantification by another adverbial, quan. I propose that quan is a domain operator whose function is to restrict the domain of quantification for the distributive operator dou. Chapter three introduces a type of distributivity that arises in the absence of the distributive operator dou discussed in the previous chapter. I argue that this type of distributivity is the result of a partitive NP construction, and propose a semantic analysis of cardinal partitives that derives distributivity. Chapter four examines the distributivity that is derived by another adverbial expression, ge. I argue that ge is a proposition-summing operator and that distributivity of this type results from the predication relation between a plural NP and a plural VP. Chapter five concludes the thesis. I argue that the collective/distributive ambiguity in natural language is better understood as a complex interplay among various factors and discuss some theoretical implications for theories of distributivity and plurality based on the analyses proposed in the dissertation.