Multi-dimensional Meanings of Subjective Adverbs - Case Study of Mandarin Chinese Adverb Pianpian

31st Pacific Asia Conference on Language, Information and Computation (PACLIC 31), pages 312–318 Cebu City, Philippines, November 16-18, 2017 Copyright c⃝2017 Mi Zhou, Yao Yao and Chu-Ren Huang Multi-dimensional Meanings of Subjective Adverbs - Case Study of Mandarin Chinese Adverb Pianpian Mi Zhou Yao Yao Department of Chinese and Bilingual Studies, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University Department of Chinese and Bilingual Studies, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University mimi.zhou@connect.polyu.hk ctyaoyao@polyu.edu.hk Chu-Ren Huang Department of Chinese and Bilingual Studies, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University churenhuang@polyu.edu.hk Abstract The combination of strict scalar and exclusive components of focus particles has been considered to be exceptional and rare in the literature. In this study, we identify and analyze a frequently used multi-dimensional focus particle pianpian 偏偏 in Mandarin Chinese and claim that it is a strictly scalar exclusive focus particle (which accordingly show evaluative properties). The analysis is based on data from CCL corpus. Different from English only, the scalar feature of pianpian is non-optional and does not depend on the lexical specification of the focus. Furthermore, the negation of the more expected/positive alternatives by pianpian gives rise to interesting interactions with surprisal, modality and speaker-orientedness. 1 Introduction Cross-linguistically, focus can be broadly defined as information in a sentence which introduces alternative(s) of elements associated with meaning interpretation (Rooth, 1992; Krifka, 1999; Spalek, 2014). Focus particles, like other kinds of focus-sensitive expressions, mark the focus of a sentence (König, 1991; Gast, 2006). Usually, focus particles can be categorized along two dimensions, each with two levels, i.e. whether a focus particle is exclusive (restrictive) or additive (inclusive) and whether it is scalar and/or non-scalar. Exclusive means that the alternative(s) of the focus are not possible variables for interpreting the sentence, on the other hand, the additive indicates that the truth condition of the proposition remains true when alternative(s) are substituted for focus. Within the group of exclusives, often discussed examples include English only, merely and only-like expressions. The additive category is best exemplified by English also, even, and their counterparts in other languages. The component of scalar and/or non-scalar uses measures a kind of ordering property of alternative(s) and focus elements in the perspective of the related event in the context, with scalar reading having such an order and non- scalar use lacking it respectively (König, 1991; Gast, 2006 etc.). Among additives, even and even-like operators are usually utilized in the literature to exemplify scalar interpretation (Karttunen and Karttunen, 1977; Kay 1990; König, 1991; Gast and van der Auwera, 2011; see Giannakidou and Yoon, 2016 for non-scalar use of even) (See (1) – (2) for examples of scalar and non-scalar uses of additives). (1) Even John came. a.∃x[(x=John) & came(x)] 312 b.∃x[(x≠John) & came(x)] c.(∀y)[(y ≠ John & came (y) → exceeds(unlikelihood(came(John),unlikelihood(ca me (y))] (2) John also came. a.∃x[(x=John) & came(x)] b.∃x[(x≠John) & came(x)] Note that (1c) has the scalar reading of John being less likely to come than other people; while there is no possible scalar reading for (2). For exclusives, only and its counterparts …

Content truncated to 500 words