“有”的个体/事件量化分野及其语义生成机制

A Unified Treatment for the Quantificational You in Mandarin Chinese:An Assertive Individual and Event Quantifier

本文分析“有Φψ”结构的量化及语义生成机制,认为表存在量化的“有”在逻辑上是一个显性的存在量化算子,具有量化个体与量化事件两种用法,二者被量化约束的变元分别来自于Φ中的无定名词和ψ所对应的事件类。受自身存在义的影响,“有”对其所约束成分具有存在的本体论承诺,量化域为ψ时预设个体的存在,量化域为ψ时,预设事件的存在,表现为ψ满足非终结性事件条件。两种量化用法在语用上合而为一,均呈现“有(话题)(评论)”之三分结构,是对传统量词三分结构“量词(量化域)(限定域)”的延伸。

This paper deals with the compositional mechanism of“quantificational you+NP+predicate”,exemplified as in(1)and(2).Previous studies consider the quantificational you in this structure either an indefinite marker to introduce NP s indefiniteness or an existential quantifier to quantify the individual set denoted by the noun phrase.However,neither can explain cases allowing definite NPs as in(3),where you,still preferred to be used,cannot existentially quantify over the individual guojiu Dong Cheng,nor introduce it as an indefinite.In addition,(2)and(3)differ from(1)in that“you NP”therein cannot be extended to“you de NP”(‘some NP’)to make you a quantifier over the set denoted by post-you-NP.Enlightened by Davidson s event quantification,we argue that you in(2)and(3)is an overt event quantifier.(1)you you ren man shuo tell zhenhua truth‘someone tells the truth’(2)you you ke guest lai come le PRT‘Some guests have arrived’(3)you you guojiu the emperor s maternal uncle Dongcheng Dong Cheng zou report di the emperor‘Dong Cheng,the maternal uncle of the emperor,reports to the emperor’We believe that you has been grammaticalized into an explicit assertive existential quantifier over either individual or event variables,determined by NP s definiteness and the predicate s eventuality respectively.You is an assertive quantifier in three ways:(1)when post-you-NP is indefinite,you asserts the domain of NP is non-empty;(2)when the situation indicated by post-you-VP is interpreted unspecific,you is an existential quantifier asserting at least one occurrence of the event;(3)when the situation is interpreted specific,you is a selective operator asserting explicit boundary of the event.As an explicit existential quantifier,you in Mandarin Chinese makes an existential commitment semantically to what it binds,which requires the predicate to denote atelic events.Despite their specificity,event you and individual you converge pragmatically:both involve a tripartite“You(Topic)(Comment)”structure,thus,expanding the traditional tripartite quantifier configuration.