Abstract
Portioning-out and individuation are two important semantic properties for the characterization of countability. In Mandarin, nouns are not marked with count-mass syntax, and it is controversial whether individuation is encoded in classifiers or in nouns. In the present study, we investigates the interpretation of a minimal pair of non-interrogative wh-pronominal phrases, including duo-shao-N and duo-shao-ge-N. Due to the presence/absence of the individual classifier ge, these two wh-pronominal phrases differ in how they encode portioning-out and individuation. In two experiments, we used a Truth Value Judgment Task to examine the interpretation of these two wh-pronominal phrases by Mandarin-speaking adults and 4-to-6-year-old children. We found that both adults and children are sensitive to their interpretative differences with respect to the portioning-out and individuation properties. They assign either count or mass readings to the bare wh-pronominal phrase duo-shao-N depending on specific contexts, but only count readings to the classifier-bearing wh-pronominal phrase duo-shao-ge-N. Moreover, the portioning-out and individuation properties associated with the individual classifier ge emerge independently in the course of language development, with the portioning-out property taking precedence over the individuation property. Taken together, the present study provides new evidence for the view that the portioning-out and individuation properties in Mandarin are encoded in classifiers rather than in nouns, and these two semantic properties are two distinct components in our grammar.
Highlights
Since Jespersen (1924, p. 198), countability of nominal expressions is usually defined as the property of “portioning out” (Borer, 2005) and individuating referents
We focus on a minimal pair of wh-pronominal phrases when they are used in conditionals (e.g., Cheng and Huang, 1996; Lin, 1996), namely, the bare wh-pronominal phrase ‘duo-shao N’ (‘bare’ in the sense that there is no co-occurring classifier) and the classifier-bearing wh-pronoun phrase ‘duo-shao-ge N’
We conclude that Mandarin-speaking children are well aware of the portioningout function of Mandarin classifiers, and they are sensitive to the interpretive differences caused by the presence/absence of a classifier in their interpretation of these Mandarin whpronominal phrases
Summary
Since Jespersen (1924, p. 198), countability of nominal expressions is usually defined as the property of “portioning out” (Borer, 2005) and individuating referents. 198), countability of nominal expressions is usually defined as the property of “portioning out” (Borer, 2005) and individuating referents. Two related semantic dimensions are involved in the concept of portioning-out: cardinality (singularity/plurality) and discrete units of counting. The classifier kuai in sentence (1) specifies one chunk of entity, in which the cardinality is one and the discrete unit of counting is ‘chunk.’ So, the classifier phrase kuai-pinggo ‘CLkuai-apple’ refers to an apple chunk. The bare noun pingguo in (2) can denote one or more individual apple(s)/apple chunk(s), and even apple substance in form of pureé
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