1887
Volume 51, Issue 2
  • ISSN 1810-7478
  • E-ISSN: 2589-5230
USD
Buy:$35.00 + Taxes

Abstract

Abstract

This paper observes two disjunction markers in Mandarin Chinese: and . The aim of this study is to investigate the grammatical distinctions between them. Although both disjunction markers convey logical disjunction meaning is primarily associated with interrogative contexts, such as alternative questions, and encodes exclusivity, whereas is primarily found in declarative sentences, allowing inclusive interpretations. Consequently, I propose that functions as an exclusive disjunction marker, imposing mutual exclusivity on alternatives, while serves as an inclusive disjunction marker, allowing overlap among alternatives. This proposal thus provides a systematic analysis that accounts for their patterns of interchangeability and non-interchangeability by examining their distributions in the following linguistic environments: alternative and polar questions, embedded clauses of -predicate, cleft constructions, and downward-entailing contexts.

Loading

Article metrics loading...

/content/journals/10.1075/consl.00044.wan
2025-11-06
2025-12-04
Loading full text...

Full text loading...

References

  1. Aoun, Joseph, and Yen-hui Audrey Li
    1993Wh-elements in situ: Syntax or LF?. Linguistic Inquiry24.21:199–238.
    [Google Scholar]
  2. Bar-Lev, Moshe E., and Danny Fox
    2020 Free choice, simplification, and innocent inclusion. Natural Language Semantics28.31:175–223. 10.1007/s11050‑020‑09162‑y
    https://doi.org/10.1007/s11050-020-09162-y [Google Scholar]
  3. Bartels, Christine
    1999The Intonation of English Statements and Questions. New York: Garland Publishing.
    [Google Scholar]
  4. Beck, Sigrid
    2006 Intervention effects follow from focus interpretation. Natural Language Semantics14.11:1–56. 10.1007/s11050‑005‑4532‑y
    https://doi.org/10.1007/s11050-005-4532-y [Google Scholar]
  5. Biezma, María, and Kyle Rawlins
    2012 Responding to alternative and polar questions. Linguistics and Philosophy35.51:361–406. 10.1007/s10988‑012‑9123‑z
    https://doi.org/10.1007/s10988-012-9123-z [Google Scholar]
  6. Büring, Daniel, and Manuel Kriz
    2013 It’s that, and that’s it! Exhaustivity and homogeneity presuppositions in clefts (and definites). Semantics and Pragmatics6.61:1–29. 10.3765/sp.6.6
    https://doi.org/10.3765/sp.6.6 [Google Scholar]
  7. Chierchia, Gennaro
    2013Logic in Grammar: Polarity, Free Choice, and Intervention. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199697977.001.0001
    https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199697977.001.0001 [Google Scholar]
  8. É. Kiss, Katalin
    1998 Identificational focus versus information focus. Language74.21:245–273. 10.1353/lan.1998.0211
    https://doi.org/10.1353/lan.1998.0211 [Google Scholar]
  9. Erlewine, Michael Yoshitaka
    2025 Interrogative and standard disjunction in Mandarin Chinese. Journal of Semantics. 10.1093/jos/ffaf008
    https://doi.org/10.1093/jos/ffaf008 [Google Scholar]
  10. Fang, Mei
    2025 Ziran kouyu duihua zhong de “haishi” [“Haishi” in naturally occurring conversation]. Chinese Linguistics11:2–14.
    [Google Scholar]
  11. Fox, Danny
    2007 Free choice and the theory of scalar implicatures. Presupposition and Implicature in Compositional Semantics, ed. byUli Sauerland and Penka Stateva, 71–120. London: Palgrave Macmillan. 10.1057/9780230210752_4
    https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230210752_4 [Google Scholar]
  12. Giannakidou, Anastasia
    2002 Licensing and sensitivity in polarity items: From downward entailment to nonveridicality. Proceedings of the 38th Annual Meeting of the Chicago Linguistic Society (CLS-38), ed. byMaria Andronis, Anne Pycha and Keiko Yoshimura, 29–53. Chicago: Chicago Linguistic Society.
    [Google Scholar]
  13. Groenendijk, Jeroen, and Martin Stokhof
    1982 Semantic analysis of “wh”-complements. Linguistics and Philosophy5.21:175–233. 10.1007/BF00351052
    https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00351052 [Google Scholar]
  14. 1984 Studies on the Semantics of Questions and the Pragmatics of Answers. Doctoral dissertation, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam.
  15. Hamblin, Charles Leonard
    1973 Questions in Montague English. Foundations of Language10.11:41–53.
    [Google Scholar]
  16. Heim, Irene
    1994 Interrogative complements of know. Proceedings of the 9th Annual IATL Conference and of the 1993 IATL Workshop on Discourse, ed. byRhonna Buchalla and Anita Mittwoch, 128–144. Jerusalem, Israel: Akademon.
    [Google Scholar]
  17. Higginbotham, James
    1993 Interrogatives. The View from Building 20: Essays in Linguistics in Honor of Sylvain Bromberger, ed. byKen Hale and Samuel Jay Keyser, 195–227. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  18. Huang, Cheng-Teh James
    1982 Logical Relations in Chinese and the Theory of Grammar. Doctoral dissertation, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge.
  19. Huang, Cheng-Teh James, Yen-hui Audrey Li, and Yafei Li
    2009The Syntax of Chinese. Cambridge & New York: Cambridge University Press. 10.1017/CBO9781139166935
    https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139166935 [Google Scholar]
  20. Kotek, Hadas
    2019Composing Questions. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. 10.7551/mitpress/10774.001.0001
    https://doi.org/10.7551/mitpress/10774.001.0001 [Google Scholar]
  21. Kratzer, Angelika, and Junko Shimoyama
    2002 Indeterminate pronouns: The view from Japanese. Paper presented at the3rd Tokyo Conference on Psycholinguistics (TCP 2002), Hitsuji Syobo, Tokyo.
    [Google Scholar]
  22. Kuo, Chin-Man
    2003 The Fine Structure of Negative Polarity Items in Chinese. Doctoral dissertation, University of Southern California, Los Angeles.
  23. Kuroda, Shige-Yuki
    1988 Whether we agree or not: A comparative syntax of English and Japanese. Lingvisticae Investigationes12.11:1–47. 10.1075/li.12.1.02kur
    https://doi.org/10.1075/li.12.1.02kur [Google Scholar]
  24. Ladusaw, William Allen
    1979 Polarity Sensitivity as Inherent Scope Relations. Doctoral dissertation, University of Texas, Austin.
  25. 1992 Expressing negation. Proceedings of the 2nd Conference on Semantics and Linguistic Theory (SALT II), ed. byChris Barker and David Dowty, 237–260. Columbus, OH: Ohio State University. 10.3765/salt.v2i0.3030
    https://doi.org/10.3765/salt.v2i0.3030 [Google Scholar]
  26. Li, Yen-hui Audrey
    1992 Indefinite WH in Mandarin Chinese. Journal of East Asian Linguistics1.21:125–156. 10.1007/BF00130234
    https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00130234 [Google Scholar]
  27. Lin, Hsin-yin
    2008 Disjunctions in Mandarin Chinese: A Case Study of Haishi ‘Or’. MA thesis, National Kaohsiung Normal University, Kaohsiung.
    [Google Scholar]
  28. Lin, Jo-Wang
    1996 Polarity Licensing and Wh-phrase Quantification in Chinese. Doctoral dissertation, University of Massachusetts, Amherst.
  29. Rooth, Mats
    1985 Association with Focus. Doctoral dissertation, University of Massachusetts, Amherst.
  30. 1992 A theory of focus interpretation. Natural Language Semantics1.11:75–116. 10.1007/BF02342617
    https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02342617 [Google Scholar]
  31. Schiffrin, Deborah
    1987Discourse Markers. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 10.1017/CBO9780511611841
    https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511611841 [Google Scholar]
  32. Sharvit, Yael
    2002 Embedded questions and ‘de dicto’ readings. Natural Language Semantics10.21:97–123. 10.1023/A:1016573907314
    https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1016573907314 [Google Scholar]
  33. von Fintel, Kai
    1999 NPI licensing, strawson entailment, and context dependency. Journal of Semantics16.21:97–148. 10.1093/jos/16.2.97
    https://doi.org/10.1093/jos/16.2.97 [Google Scholar]
  34. Xie, Zhiguo
    2013 Focus, (non-) exhaustivity, and intervention effects in wh-in-situ argument questions. The Linguistic Review30.41:585–617. 10.1515/tlr‑2013‑0019
    https://doi.org/10.1515/tlr-2013-0019 [Google Scholar]
  35. Zimmermann, Thomas Ede
    2000 Free choice disjunction and epistemic possibility. Natural Language Semantics8.41:255–290. 10.1023/A:1011255819284
    https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1011255819284 [Google Scholar]
  36. Zwarts, Frans
    1998 Three types of polarity. Plurality and Quantification, ed. byFritz Hamm and Erhard Hinrich, 177–238. Dordrecht, Netherlands: Kluwer. 10.1007/978‑94‑017‑2706‑8_5
    https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-2706-8_5 [Google Scholar]
/content/journals/10.1075/consl.00044.wan
Loading
This is a required field
Please enter a valid email address
Approval was successful
Invalid data
An Error Occurred
Approval was partially successful, following selected items could not be processed due to error