The Degree Usage of Cai and Relevant Issues

Abstract

This paper investigates the degree usage of [cai] and some relevant issues. It is argued that in this case cai and the sentence final particle [ne] form a discontinuous constituent, which modifies the element surrounded by it.“ ” [cai…ne’] requires that the element modified by it has the gradable property. Thus only qualified VPs, AdjPs and NegPs can co-occur with ‘cai…ne’. Some characteristics of ‘cai…ne’ are shown by comparing it with other degree adverbs. Moreover, the syntactic structure and semantic interpretation of ‘cai…ne’ are given.