https://www.ling.sinica.edu.tw/main/zh-tw?/sign/talk0522
Additivity and scalarity at the syntax-semantics interface
日期：2023-05-22 10:00-12:00
主讲人：廖伟闻 副研究员
会议地点：中央研究院人文社会科学馆(南栋5楼519会议室)
It is generally assumed that both additive and scalar presuppositions are
triggered by the focus-sensitive particle even, yet there are cases where one
of the presuppositions can be cancelled. In this talk we show that the two
EVENs in Mandarin Chinese (shenzhi and lian.dou/ye) may provide a clue to this
question. Specifically, we show that the clausal EVEN (shenzhi) always
triggers a strong scalar presupposition, and its additive presupposition is
cancelled when the alternatives are mutually incompatible. Meanwhile, the
phrasal EVEN (lian.dou/ye) displays a mirrored pattern where the additive
presupposition is strong and the scalar one can be seriously weakened. We also
observe that the scalar presuppositions triggered by the two EVENs in Chinese
can involve different scales. The clausal shenzhi always calls for a scale
that is based on a contextually supplied gradable property that addresses the
non-focused part (Greenberg NLS 26, 51–83, 2018). We propose that the clausal
shenzhi in Mandarin Chinese is a speaker-oriented element (Shyu JCL 32, 71–
128, 2004), and the speaker can compare different accessible worlds when they
are mapped to degrees on a contextually supplied scale. On the other hand, we
argue that the inherent additive particle lian.dou/ye, or the phrasal EVEN,
obtains its scalar meaning by being associated with the clausal shenzhi or by
activating a covert emphatic assertion operator (Krifka SALT 1, 127–158, 1991
; SALT 8, 111-128, 1998). The scalar presupposition can be weakened when the
clausal EVEN operator associates with the additive particle lian ‘include’
itself. Such an association mode has an effect in trivializing the scalar
presupposition of the lian.dou/ye sentence. We support our claims by examining
multiple-focus sentences in Chinese and the cross-linguistic patterns of
additive particles that can convey a scalar meaning.