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oa On maximality in Mandarin possessives
- Source: Concentric, Volume 45, Issue 1, May 2019, p. 24 - 43
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- 12 Apr 2018
- 20 Dec 2018
- 31 May 2019
Abstract
Abstract
The possessive construction in Mandarin is similar to English prenominal possessives except that maximality is presupposed only for cases involving inherently relational nouns. In this paper, I adopt the hypothesized split of argument and modifier genitives proposed by Partee & Borschev (2001, 2003) and argue that modifier-genitives can occur NP-internally in Mandarin possessives, whose appearance is restricted to cases with non-relational nouns. The discrepancy of the maximality presupposition observed in Mandarin can thus be captured since non-relational nouns can have a split of interpretations between argument and modifier genitives, resulting in a non-maximality reading.
© Department of English, National Taiwan Normal University