On Semantic Interpretation Distinction Of Strong And Weak Quantifiers In Mandarin Chinese

Quantification has always been an important topic of formal semantics. Ever since Montague (1974) proposed the theory of generalized quantifiers, pointing out that quantifiers correspond to noun-phrases, not to determiners, quantification came to be studied from a totally different perspective. However, most researches of quantification in Mandarin are on dou'all'as well as its relation with determiners mei'evey', suoyou'all', renhe'any'ect, and little concern is made on strong-weak quantifiers'distinction. In this paper, we attempt to study the semantic interpretation distinction of strong and weak quantifiers in Mandarin Chinese as well as their interaction with predicates. According to Carlson (1977), there are two kinds of predicates in English, one is the individual-level predicate, and the other is the stage-level predicate. We assume that there are individual-stage level predicates distinction in Mandarin Chinese as well. When predication in a sentence involves an individual-level predicate, NP in a strong quantifier will get a universal opaque reading (opaque reading means, the denotation of NP is indefinite); when predication in a sentence involves a stage-level predicate, NP in a strong quantifier will usually get an existential transparent reading (transparent reading here means the denotation of NP is definite). Interpretation of weak quantifiers, on the other hand, is free from the influence of stage-individual level predicates distinction. No matter to which sorts the predicates belong, weak quantifiers will invariably gain existential opaque readings.Under the framework of formal semantics, this thesis is resolved to investigate the semantic interpretation distinction of strong and weak quantifiers in Mandarin Chinese and their interaction with individual-stage predicates. In particular, we shall mainly draw insights from theory on individual-level predicates and stage-level predicates advocated in Carlson (1977, 1989) & Kratzer (1995), and the proposal made in von Fintel (1994) about the restriction domain of quantifiers.To account for such distinction, we raised the following research questions:a) Is there a strong-weak quantifiers'distinction in Mandarin Chinese?b) What is their distinction?c) Why do they differ from each other with respect to different predicates?In response to these questions, three proposals shall be provided in this thesis. The first proposal concerns the existence of strong-weak quantifiers'distinction in Mandarin Chinese; the second one concerns the presence of a context variable in strong quantifiers that distinguishes them from weak quantifiers; the third one explains the different combinations of strong-weak quantifiers with stage-individual level predicates.With the combination of the three proposals, this thesis made an attempt to account for the semantic interpretation distinction of strong and weak quantifiers in Mandarin Chinese and their relation with individual-stage level predicates, moreover, it may shed light on some relevant issues, like the connection between bare plurals and stage-individual level predicates, life time effect and so on so forth.