Mei and Dou in Chinese: a Tale of Two Quantifiers

Abstract

本文討論漢語中有關“每”和“都”的兩個難題：（1）有定/無定不對稱難題：雖然大多數情況下“每”需要“都”伴隨出現，但是，當賓語是無定的時候，“都”可以不需要出現；（2）主賓不對稱難題：“每”在主語位置出現受諸多限制，與之對立的是，“每”在賓語位置的出現相對自由許多。我們對這兩個難題提出了一個統一的分析：（1）第一個難題可以通過假設所有的分配量化具有雙層語意結構來解釋：“每”作為分配量詞，其基本語義是一個標準的全稱量詞加上一個匹配函數，匹配函數保證了分配量化中的“同步協變”語意要求；（2）“每”可以通過類型轉換，由分配量詞轉換成分配限定詞，這是“每”在賓語位置出現時的情況；（3）類型轉換總是受經濟原則支配。有關“每”和“都”的許多複雜的問題，在本文的分析中得到了更好的處理。

This study addresses two outstanding puzzles about the two well-known quantifiers mei and dou in Chinese: (i) the indefinite/definite asymmetry when mei leads the subject NP: dou is not needed when there is an indefinite or a reflexive object within the scope of mei and (ii) the subject/object asymmetry: when mei leads the subject NP, its distribution is restricted, depending on the type of the objects, and, by contrast, when it leads the object NP, its distribution is much freer. We propose a novel account for these puzzles. We argue that (i) the indefinite/definite asymmetry can be explained away if we assume that mei is a distributive quantifier with a portmanteau semantic structure, i.e., that it is a standard universal quantifier plus a matching function; (ii) mei can be domain-shifted into a distributive determiner to satisfy interpretability, and this explains the subject/object asymmetry and (iii) this domain-shifting is regulated by the Principle of Economy (cf. Reinhart (2006)), which is a last resort to satisfy interpretability.