Chinese NPs: Quantification & Distributivity

Abstract

In this paper, I discuss some characteristics of Chinese quantified NPs that are distinct from those of standard quantifiers (Section 1), and argue for an analysis of these NPs as generalized quantifiers built up over plural individuals (Section 2). In effect, I am suggesting a compositional approach with quantifiers contributing quantificational force and distributive operators introducing distributivity. This proposal is, in many ways, similar to Lin' s (1998) account, but the crucial difference has to do with the status of the classifier. While Lin does not make any reference to the classifier, its semantic contribution is essential for me. This will become obvious when I discuss two major consequences of the proposed approach, one having to do with distributivity in Chinese universal quantifiers (Section 3) and the other with the semantics of definite NPs (Section 4).